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MacBook Pro with M5 Pro and M5 Max

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Re: MacBook Pro with M5 Pro and M5 Max

#241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Insane for the "Pro" to have only 16GB of memory. My 11 year old Intel i3 laptop has 16GB of memory.

Don't these integrated ARM-based SoCs make much better use of RAM as opposed to old Intel-based boards? That's my understanding, anyway.

More to do with the faster storage allowing you to swap without noticing it as much. There was this whole trend when m1 first came out of people saying it didn't matter if you got the lowest spec because the ssd was so fast it made up for the lack of ram... totally ignoring that swapping like that was destroying their drives really fast.

Re: MacBook Pro with M5 Pro and M5 Max

#242

Well that's. Just. Great. I bought a 64GB M4 Max MBP last month. I'm past the 14-day return window. I figured the M5 was near, but assumed M5 Max would come a bit later. Not sure where I came up with that.

This is always the gamble with buying a Mac. Either purchase right when the new is released, or be on the fence of your new becoming old a couple of weeks after purchase.

Re: MacBook Pro with M5 Pro and M5 Max

#243

I love the following section of their copy: > Even More Value for Upgraders > The new 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro with M5 Pro and M5 Max mark a major leap for pro users. There’s never been a better time for customers to upgrade from a previous generation of MacBook Pro with Apple silicon or an Intel-based Mac. I read as "Whoops we made the M1 Macbook Pro too good, please upgrade!" I think I will get another 2-5 years…

My 32gb m1 max was probably the best purchase I've made. Still plenty of headroom in performance left in this beast. Wonder what reason they'll use to end software support in the future. Bet it'll be some security hardware they make up for the sake of forcing upgrades.

Re: MacBook Pro with M5 Pro and M5 Max

#244
I feel like Apple pulled an Instant Pot with the M1 MacBook Pro. I still haven't had a single situation where I felt like spending more money would improve my experience. The battery is wearing out a bit, but it started out life with so much runtime that losing a few hours doesn't seem to matter.

Re: MacBook Pro with M5 Pro and M5 Max

#245

$5000 laptop you have to pay to add a power adapter… gratuitous penny pinching from Tim Cook's Apple. It's one of those things, yes if I'm spending that much on a laptop I can afford to spend $80 on the adapter too, but does it feel good as a customer to do that or are you souring the experience of buying from you just to earn a few more dollars.

I have a huge tote box full of power bricks, most of them white Apple ones. I have a stack of 60-90W Apple USB-C ones too that I don't use cause they only have one port and are larger and worse than modern GaN units that can do 140W on one port while also pushing 30 or 60 on the others.

So, if you want one of mine, you can have one. On me. Because I'm fucking drowning in the things and appreciate not having to deal with another one.

Re: MacBook Pro with M5 Pro and M5 Max

#246
post #80

$200 price bump across the board. The cheapest 16" is now $2699 and 14" Pro $2199. I think it's a fair price considering M2Pro 14" was $1999 (though it was discounted) only had 512GB and 16GB RAM.

It's not $200 across the board. M4 MacBook Pro and M5 MacBook Pro started at $1599 with 512GB SSD. Now it starts at $1699, a $100 bump but comes with a 1TB SSD. Previously it would have cost $1799 for the 1T SSD, so it's a $100 bump on base price but you are also getting 1TB SDD for $100 less than before.

To clarify, I meant, model with Pro chip, not just Macbook Pro name.

For example, up until MacBookPro M2, MacBookPro M2 came with M2 Pro chip.

However, starting with M3, Apple lowered the MacBookPro MSRP to $1599, but its base configuration was downgraded to M3 chip from M3 Pro. To get the M3 Pro, you had to pay $1999. There's substantial performance between the two.

Same with M4. To get the M4 Pro chip, you had to pay $1999.

Now to get M5 Pro chip, it's $2199. Still a good value, but just saying it's a deviation from the trend.

Re: MacBook Pro with M5 Pro and M5 Max

#247
post #192
post #5

"Scaling up performance from M5 and offering the same breakthrough GPU architecture with a Neural Accelerator in each core, M5 Pro and M5 Max deliver up to 4x faster LLM prompt processing than M4 Pro and M4 Max, and up to 8x AI image generation than M1 Pro and M1 Max." Are they doubling down on local LLMs then? I still think Apple has a huge opportunity in privacy first LLMs but so far I'm not seeing much execution.…

> I still think Apple has a huge opportunity in privacy first LLMs This correlation of Apple and privacy needs to rest. They have consistently proven to be otherwise - despite heavily marketing themselves as "privacy-first" https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/jul/26/apple-con...

Not for everything. Apple has initially focused on edge AI that runs locally per device. It didn’t work out well the first try, but I would still bet on them trying again once compute catches up. Besides, they still have a better track record than the other tech giants.

Re: MacBook Pro with M5 Pro and M5 Max

#248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same, in fact the only reason right now that I would upgrade my m1 pro is if they threaten to change the design by getting rid of the hdmi or sd card slot, or doing something stupid like when they added the touch bar. I was locked into my old intel pro for so long because of all the bad hardware choices they were making.

You may get your wish with all the rumors of a touch screen on the M6 MBPs.

Love that they didn't learn anything from the touchbar.

Re: MacBook Pro with M5 Pro and M5 Max

#249
post #5

"Scaling up performance from M5 and offering the same breakthrough GPU architecture with a Neural Accelerator in each core, M5 Pro and M5 Max deliver up to 4x faster LLM prompt processing than M4 Pro and M4 Max, and up to 8x AI image generation than M1 Pro and M1 Max." Are they doubling down on local LLMs then? I still think Apple has a huge opportunity in privacy first LLMs but so far I'm not seeing much execution.…

> Are they doubling down on local LLMs then?

Neural Accelerators (aka NAX) accelerates matmults with tile sizes >= 32. From a very high level perspective, LLM inference has two phases: (chunked) prefill and decode. The former is matmults (GEMM) and the latter is matrix vector mults (GEMV). Neural Accelerators make the former (prefill) faster and have no impact on the latter.

Re: MacBook Pro with M5 Pro and M5 Max

#250
post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Aren't the OpenClaw enjoyers buying Mac Minis because it's the cheapest thing which runs macOS That's likely only part of the reason. Mac Mini is now "cheap" because everyone exploded in price. RAM and SSD etc have all gone up massively. Not the mention Mac mini is easy out of the box experience.

It's not cheap, though. Two weeks ago I bought a computer with a similar form factor (GMKtec G10). Worse CPU and GPU but same 16GB memory and a larger SSD for 40% the price of a base mac mini ($239 vs $599). It came with Windows preinstalled, but I immediately wiped that to install linux. Even a used (M-series) mac mini is substantially more expensive. It will cost me about an extra penny per day in electricity costs…

It's cheap for what you get.

If you just need "a small box to make API calls and do minimal local processing" you an also just buy a RPI for a fraction of the price of the GMKtec G10.

All 3 serve a different purpose; just because you can buy a slower machine for less doesn't mean the price:performance of the M1 Mac Mini changes.

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