Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra

#211

Post by stavros » Tue, Aug 25, 2026, 2:16 PM UTC

Someone1234 wrote: post #87

jgalt212 wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

when was the turing test beaten?

The EU just had to pass a law to force companies to disclose if a customer service agent is AI or Human. It is beaten. https://commission.europa.eu/news-and-media/news/safer-and-m...

Nowadays, I prefer AI CS agents to humans. I just had a chat with an AI yesterday, it understood me perfectly even when I made mistakes, I was impressed.

In contrast, humans tend to paste me the same barely-relevant macro over and over, no matter how much time I spend explaining my issue.

Re: Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra

#212

Post by PUSH_AX » Tue, Aug 25, 2026, 2:17 PM UTC

bayindirh wrote: post #117

I know, this is a bit of a meaningless comment, but it's funny in a way. Feels like late 90s again: - Xiaomi: We have matched Apple in CPU performance. - Apple: *Meep Meep...*

Apple is like the Billy Mitchell of computing. Just waited for them to beat it before announcing the gains they were sitting on.

Re: Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra

#213

Post by flaunf221 » Tue, Aug 25, 2026, 2:17 PM UTC

nemomarx wrote: post #10

anshumankmr wrote: post #6

>fluid frame rates in demanding games like Mixtape. not getting on that bandwagon but wasn't that not the most demanding game as its a just a nonstop cutscene.

it's not super well optimized I think. unreal engine 5 is taxing even without a lot of gameplay or stuff on screen

I'm not sure who that line is supposed to impress. Gamers focusing on graphically demanding AAA games would laugh at this. People who don't game much probably won't know whether this is good or not.

Re: Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra

#214

Post by mhast » Tue, Aug 25, 2026, 2:18 PM UTC

Lunar5227 wrote: post #23

teekert wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there anything comparable that runs Linux, doesn't necessarily look as good, but is perhaps (a lot) cheaper/fixable? Or is this really pretty optimal? I mean this is not nvidia based right? It's all custom? So we can use it under Asahi perhaps? I want to get something for my company to run local models, wondering what would be a good option.

Strix platform maybe?

The PC platforms have anemic memory bandwidth in comparison. Eg, Strix Halo is 256GB/s max. If money is a bigger limiter than performance it can be an option though. As can Nvidia DGX Spark machines. (Also limited to 128GB memory and comparatively low bandwidth, but higher compute than Strix Halo.)

Re: Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra

#215

Post by Zylokloto » Tue, Aug 25, 2026, 2:18 PM UTC

bayindirh wrote: post #117

I know, this is a bit of a meaningless comment, but it's funny in a way. Feels like late 90s again: - Xiaomi: We have matched Apple in CPU performance. - Apple: *Meep Meep...*

I do not find it funny tbh.

I'm very very surprised that Xiaomi matches Apples speed even with the newest release, its not diminishing Xiaomis success.

Re: Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra

#216

Post by vldmrs » Tue, Aug 25, 2026, 2:19 PM UTC

I would love to see real LLM performance benchmarks for these machines. Apple statement regarding LLM performance seem little vague.

Re: Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra

#217

Post by brookst » Tue, Aug 25, 2026, 2:19 PM UTC

hasteg wrote: post #116

paxys wrote: post #38

More validated by the day that my $450 M4 Mac Mini (16GB) was the best deal in computing for a long, long time.

I live right next to a micro center and remember when they started offering that deal... still so pissed at myself for not buying one. I ended up just buying a raspberry Pi for what I was doing, but seeing as where the prices are now, I messed that up a bit. Also my worst sin was not buying 64GB of DDR5 when I was doing my computer upgrades back in August last year.

I returned an M4 Mac mini, 64GB, unopened... because I thought it was excessive for my needs then. I swear it'll be one of the things flashing before my eyes when this all ends.

Re: Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra

#218

Post by ericboehs » Tue, Aug 25, 2026, 2:20 PM UTC

LeoPanthera wrote: post #185

I bought a 128GB M4 Max Mac Studio a while back, and for a while I thought like I had done really well to buy it when I did. The problem I'm having now is that no models are targeting RAM of that size. Everything is either much smaller, targeting laptops, or much larger, targeting hardware well out of reach of enthusiasts. Please, AI people, start making models targeting 128GB machines again. The last interesting one…

Great news. Qwen 3.8 Flash Next (125B A6B) is coming out tomorrow. 4 or 6-bit should run nicely on 128GB.

Should bench better than Opus 4.7.

Re: Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra

#219

Post by logotype » Tue, Aug 25, 2026, 2:21 PM UTC

Damn. I just bought a maxed out MacBook Pro M5 Max 128GB 8TB, still waiting for it to be delivered. I could get 256GB RAM M5 Ultra 1TB for roughly the same price, and it's double the memory bandwidth. Which one would you recommend? I do plan to run local LLMs.

Re: Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra

#220

Post by derwiki » Tue, Aug 25, 2026, 2:21 PM UTC

mikestew wrote: post #201

derwiki wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reading Infinite Games, they tell an anecdote about a Microsoft exec on a flight telling an Apple exec that the Zune was a way better portable music player than the iPod. The Apple exec was just “yup, you’re probably right” and then soon after the iPhone dropped

Might want to edit, as this would make sense/be amusing if the exec in the last sentence was Apple. That, or I can’t read.

You got it, thank you!