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M4 Macs Are Expected to Launch in This Order Starting Later This Year
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Apple doesn’t have to stop supporting for AI. Intel Mac will just run supported AI libraries on CPU, it will be slow. Apple is aggressively pushing Apple silicon MPS GPU libraries.
Apple desktop sales are like 2-3% of overall Mac line. And I do think Desktop Ultra will have its own schedule.
Well, it is accurate that almost no customers buy a desktop, so that's OK?
The Ultra chip is still better in some workloads, and the M2 Max Mac Studio is still a great price on the refurbished store.
Make it thick, with some serious fans.
Gamers have put desktop graphics cards in laptops for years, so this absolutely could be done.
Is there any market for it? Almost certainly not... but it would be cool
Just bump the RAM to 16GB at the bare minimum please. ANY argument aside, they just aren't cheap enough to justify having 8GB. ARGUMENTS ASIDE. I don't want to hear anyone claiming that 8GB is enough or whatnot. They're expensive enough to come with, at the very least, double the storage and RAM. They've already approached the limits of their customers and they are losing on sales.
Also, I just wanted an M3 mac mini... or a cheaper M2.
Also, I just wanted an M3 mac mini... or a cheaper M2.
If you have a workflow that needs 256GB of RAM, why would you still be using a Max chip? Surely you are now up in Ultra territory.
Well guess I won't be buying a new Mac to replace my 27 inch iMac.
When the time comes to replace my 2019, 27 inch iMac I will just use my existing Macbook Pro 16.
I can connect my MBP to a bluetooth keyboard/mouse and a 3rd party monitor and have about the same mess of cables as a Mac Mini or Mac studio. By eliminating the large screen iMac Apple has killed my reason for buying a second computer.
When the time comes to replace my 2019, 27 inch iMac I will just use my existing Macbook Pro 16.
I can connect my MBP to a bluetooth keyboard/mouse and a 3rd party monitor and have about the same mess of cables as a Mac Mini or Mac studio. By eliminating the large screen iMac Apple has killed my reason for buying a second computer.
MBP travels with me, but Mac Studio can't. I like my workstations to be upgradeable, so I moved away from Mac Pro and Mac Mini a long time ago. I have an AMD/Nvidia workstation, but the Nvidia GPU is limited to 24 GB of memory. I relied heavily on the Cloud if my workstation couldn't cut it. Apple woke up in the last 12-18 months and I have been using my M1 Max with extended Swap to cut down cloud costs, and better library support for GPU in Apple Silicon. I am tempted to move away from my Nvidia workstation, with Nvidia giving cold shoulder to consumer GPU, and focusing on high-end data center chips. With a swap + 64 GB Unified memory, I can run up to 173 GB process memory. The NAND chip in Mac is first enough, and not too terrible. Nvidia options for more GPUs with more memory/cluster are a lot more expensive, I may try Mac Studio/Mac Pro with M4 ultra, don't like the lack of options to upgrade.
Does it make sense to be having the Pro and Ultra chips come out to a small audience well after the regular chips?
By the time the Ultra versions arrive, the next gen low end consumer chips are almost ready and the difference in benchmarks is reduced.
Perhaps the whole 12 month cycle is crazy pace to keep going.
Computers aren't phones with such hig expectations.
After years of selling 4 year old hardware at the same prices, it's like Apple flipped and is now trapped in a too rapid dev cycle.
We all love a new chip and better performance.
The M series has been a huge success.
But if the release cycles get too frequent there's risk of confusion and holding off purchasing.
Why not keep an old M chip in the low end line up at a better price?
A "Macbook Air SE"? One gen behind, but a great entry price point.
By the time the Ultra versions arrive, the next gen low end consumer chips are almost ready and the difference in benchmarks is reduced.
Perhaps the whole 12 month cycle is crazy pace to keep going.
Computers aren't phones with such hig expectations.
After years of selling 4 year old hardware at the same prices, it's like Apple flipped and is now trapped in a too rapid dev cycle.
We all love a new chip and better performance.
The M series has been a huge success.
But if the release cycles get too frequent there's risk of confusion and holding off purchasing.
Why not keep an old M chip in the low end line up at a better price?
A "Macbook Air SE"? One gen behind, but a great entry price point.
"M3 model was just so underwhelming"
what are you talking about? M3 Family is fantastic
you do know the masses wouldnt need those specs to do what they normally do.
hardcore video coding definitively takes powerful chips optimized for a very specific job.
or just buy two cheap machines and split the workload between them?
Really doubt they release another iMac - they didn’t do an iMac M2.
I think it will be biannual and we’d get iMac M5 in 2025.
I think it will be biannual and we’d get iMac M5 in 2025.
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I JUST purchased an M3 Air…. You’re telling me that it’s now outdated 🥲
/s. Still a lovely upgrade to my 2013 Air. RIP it’s swollen battery
/s. Still a lovely upgrade to my 2013 Air. RIP it’s swollen battery
Absolutely this. The base MBP 14" with M4 has got to have at least 12GB RAM, ideally 16GB. 8GB RAM on the current base MBP 14 M3 at £1699 RRP is utterly ridiculous.
Disagree— the Pro and Max chips are so expensive we need an in-between MacBook Pro for everyone else at lower price point. I doubt they’ll release the lower end first, though…
I have a few M1's, M1 Pro, M1 Max, and M2 Pro... can't tell much of a difference between the Pro generations, even when doing video encoding. Between the M1 and the others, yes, a lot. They're awesome machines, I'm just saying the progression has not been linear. I've also noticed Intel stepped up their game, big time. Their effeciency is garbage, but most people don't know that. They are definitely doing a great job of keeping up. I think Apple should give them another shock.. I know they are limiting these processors based on cooling and power consumption. If they used as much power as a PC and had the same monstrous cooling apparatus, the power would be sick.
Yes and no.
Yes, in raw performance the 76 core Ultra GPU is about 30% faster rendering.
No, the M3 Max has hardware raytracing, meshes and dynamic cache which the M2 Ultra doesn't.
Prior M-series chip announcements were likely delayed because of Covid supply chain issues and TSMC's 3nm struggles. The most recent aggressive cycle - M2 Ultra in June '23 and M3/Pro/Max in October '23 should be taken as the rule not the exception. Apple likely intended annual upgrade cadences all along; Intel and AMD follow roughly annual cycles so Apple needs to keep pace.