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Apple's Mac mini M6, Mac Studio M5 Ultra are pitched as better for AI and graphics

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Aurelius

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Apple must want to clear the deck for its September event, as it just introduced two new Macs... and two new chips. The Mac mini with M6 (and M5 Pro), and the Mac Studio with M5 Ultra (and M5 Max).


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WpzNmY35S4

The M6 adds two more CPU cores, dual Neural Engines (AI accelerators), and updated graphics. Apple claims up to 4X better AI performance and 2X faster graphics than the M4 model. Interestingly, Apple singles out Cyberpunk 2077 ray-traced visuals as the benchmark. And hey, it's made in Houston, so if you're big on the "made-in-'Murica" angle it's your jam.

The M5 Ultra, meanwhile... it's two M5 Max chips glommed together, but sounds like it's an absoulte beast with 1.2TB/s memory bandwidth and up to 512GB of RAM. Again a claim of 4X better AI performance than the outgoing model, and 80 percent faster graphics. Apple pitches it as the machine of choice for running large LLMs entirely on-device.

The prices are considerably higher: $899 for a Mac mini, and $2,499 for a Mac Studio. The mini is no longer the cheap intro-to-the-Mac machine it once was. But I also think Apple realizes that the one-two combo of the AI frenzy and soaring costs has changed what its desktops have to be: they're performance hardware, even if they're best-suited to specific tasks like AI and audiovisual editing.

I will say they're better deals at the moment than many conventinonal desktops for AI crunching and media work. NVIDIA sells RTX Pro GPUs that by themselves frequently cost more than an entire well-configured Mac mini or Mac Studio, and will drain enough electricity to power an EV. And you're probably not going to get proportionately better performance.
 
Kinda weird there's no M5 but now M6. Also, $900 for the base Mac Mini with 16GB of memory and 256GB of storage is eye watering. A lot of mentions of AI performance.
 
Finally, been waiting for this to drop. Base price did skyrocket, but it looks like for the higher end stuff it didn't go up as much in comparison, and that is what I'm interested in for AI.


The RTX 6000 pro literally like doubled in price these past 2 months from 8k to 16k. Also for running some local inference I want to not worry about my power bill too much. Thinking this mac will be good, although I probably should have just pulled the trigger on this a year ago. Oh well, gotta convince the SO that it is worth buying for career/resume building purposes. She just doesn't get it man
 
I know I'm one of the few on here that will still give Apple products a fair take.

The hardware is quality has long been great. But I feel like they are spending so much energy focusing on hardware advancements that they are neglecting the software side. Some of their most core softwares are decaying. They dropped iTunes on MacOS, but the replacement Apple Music, Apple TV, Finder combo is a mess. It was so bad they ditched Apple Music on Windows and went back to supporting iTunes. MacOS itself has some pretty glaring bugs. Things like the family account management started out as a great idea, but they have added so many features that now things aren't working properly or consistantly. Apple desperately needs a visionary again that can be a jerk and bark orders and get everyone back on track.

As an work annivsary, my work had some choices and I chose the Macbook Pro M5 Pro with 24GB. I was like in this economy? Thats some valuable hardware.
 
the_servicer said:
To fill a gaping hole at the low end, Apple needs a Mac Neo with an iPhone chip.
Click to expand...
While I do have a nice Macbook Pro, I vastly prefer to use my M1 Macbook Air because it's very lightweight and the battery life is excellent. I use it about an hour day and only charge it once or twice a month. And I never shut it down, just close the lid. It's never felt underpowered to me. If the cellphone chip delivers a responsive experience then it's not an issue. Apple seems to be in an arms race currently, but the needs of the average consumer doesn't require it. Give me a laptop that feels good and has like 30 hours of battery life and I'm happy.
 
M6, the first 2NM family node chip in a non-mobile PC ?

Let them add 2 "super" core, 20% more cpu cores, gpu core and double NPU with that transition it seem.
 
the_servicer said:
Thanks for sharing. I had no idea this was happening. You're making me glad I stopped using a Mac (over a decade ago).
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MacOS Golden Gate is specifically meant as a clean-up release that fixes flaws and adds some much-needed polish. Not sure if it'll specifically address this concern, but Apple isn't pushing ahead blindly with new features this time.
 
IMO only another year or two and Mac’s will be faster than any PC for gaming given that discrete GPUs are basically dead. Just wish Apple would invest even a tiny amount of money to build in seamless x86 support in MacOS versus doing what they’re doing and completely dropping the support.
 
A lot of the price advantage (battery, chassis) that come with using a mobile level cpu on the laptop diseapear for a plugged in the wall computer and people going for it over a laptop would often do it for some added IO need...

There is an office-kiosk segment that could make it work, but the price saving on the smaller silicon alone is maybe too much trouble for that use case.
 
Mchart said:
IMO only another year or two and Mac’s will be faster than any PC for gaming given that discrete GPUs are basically dead. Just wish Apple would invest even a tiny amount of money to build in seamless x86 support in MacOS versus doing what they’re doing and completely dropping the support.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure why Apple would want to do that. It'd really just appeal to some gamers and to the legacy users that frequently drag Microsoft down (the "I need Windows 7 to run XP mode to run my NT database app" types).

Apple is a hardware company, and that means driving customers to Macs. It wants you to buy a Mac mini because AV editor X or game Y runs very well; it doesn't want to invest huge resources in making it easy for you to switch later.
 
I'm honestly surprised with the Mac Studio. Typically, that's every 2 years for a refresh.

I went with an M4 Max last August, and tempted to trade it in, but for the equivalent RAM and storage, I'd be paying more, even after the trade-in, than what I paid for my Studio.
 
LukeTbk said:
A lot of the price advantage (battery, chassis) that come with using a mobile level cpu on the laptop diseapear for a plugged in the wall computer and people going for it over a laptop would often do it for some added IO need...

There is an office-kiosk segment that could make it work, but the price saving on the smaller silicon alone is maybe too much trouble for that use case.
Click to expand...

If they care about the entry level, they have to do something for some cost savings. The Mini's base MSRP has jumped 50% since the last release and they now have nothing in the lower end of the segment like they do on the laptop side with the Macbook Neo. Going from a $599 M4 Mini to now a $899 M6 Mini, there certainly is some room to put A series silicon in a Mini or smaller form factor and get back closer to that $599 MSRP for an entry level offering. Or they just give up on that segment and say this is what you get.

It does seem crazy for $200 more than MIni with 512GB ssd, you can get an Air with a battery and a screen. That doesn't bode well for the Air's jump to the M6.
 
ND40oz said:
If they care about the entry level, they have to do something for some cost savings. The Mini's base MSRP has jumped 50% since the last release and they now have nothing in the lower end of the segment like they do on the laptop side with the Macbook Neo. Going from a $599 M4 Mini to now a $899 M6 Mini, there certainly is some room to put A series silicon in a Mini or smaller form factor and get back closer to that $599 MSRP for an entry level offering. Or they just give up on that segment and say this is what you get.

It does seem crazy for $200 more than MIni with 512GB ssd, you can get an Air with a battery and a screen. That doesn't bode well for the Air's jump to the M6.
Click to expand...
My current take is "this is what you get." Mac mini sales mainly took off in recent months thanks to AI; the M4 redesign certainly helped, but there wasn't pent-up demand for a cheaper Apple desktop like their was for a laptop.

That and Apple is already supply-constrained for the MacBook Neo's A18 Pro chip (and likely the A19 Pro for its successor), so I can't imagine exacerbating the situation with a desktop.

i will say that Apple might win some business in countries where desktops are still relatively popular, like China. But it's not going to be a runaway success like the MacBook Neo.
 
ivandagiant said:
Finally, been waiting for this to drop. Base price did skyrocket, but it looks like for the higher end stuff it didn't go up as much in comparison, and that is what I'm interested in for AI.


The RTX 6000 pro literally like doubled in price these past 2 months from 8k to 16k. Also for running some local inference I want to not worry about my power bill too much. Thinking this mac will be good, although I probably should have just pulled the trigger on this a year ago. Oh well, gotta convince the SO that it is worth buying for career/resume building purposes. She just doesn't get it man
Click to expand...
I was toying with the idea of an RTX 6000 earlier this year then the price went from $8200 to $12.5 and $15K + Ugh.
 
Aurelius said:
My current take is "this is what you get." Mac mini sales mainly took off in recent months thanks to AI; the M4 redesign certainly helped, but there wasn't pent-up demand for a cheaper Apple desktop like their was for a laptop.

That and Apple is already supply-constrained for the MacBook Neo's A18 Pro chip (and likely the A19 Pro for its successor), so I can't imagine exacerbating the situation with a desktop.

i will say that Apple might win some business in countries where desktops are still relatively popular, like China. But it's not going to be a runaway success like the MacBook Neo.
Click to expand...
It’s the memory and storage for the platform that’s biting them in the ass.
Apple right now is just working on feeding their biggest markets, with huge shortages on everything I doubt accounting is willing to sign off on anything that isn’t a sure thing.
 
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