Apple Cuts More Mac Studio and Mac Mini RAM Options as Memory Shortage Worsens

[Scipster]

Time to strap in for the long haul. General electronic and PC news forecasts this AI-driven shortage to last until 2030 or so. Best get those M5 orders in before memory becomes scarce!

 

[HiVolt]

no police are coming when people are breaking into your house to steal whatever supplies you’ve managed to scrape together.

That's already happening in many places, and has nothing to do with AI. Our police here were telling people to give up your car keys to the home invasion criminals, or better yet just put them by the front door.

 

[pdaholic]

Guess I'll be sticking with my ole' Mac Mini to doomscroll an endless stream of AI shorts.

Pretty sure humanity has peaked.

 

[JPack]

From everything I've read the memory and SOC constraints started showing up in November/December 2025. It's now five or six months later, and Apple has no solution other than to kill desktop variations (plus kill the entire Mac Pro line). So much for Tim Cook being a supply chain genius!

What exactly do you expect Tim Cook to do?

Spend $2T to buy TSMC from a government who never approve the sale in the first place? Spend $1T to buy Micron when new fabs around the world will be up in 2-3 years?

 

[HiVolt]

Also, the memory in Apple machines are non upgradeable. So you can't just buy a lower spec one, and upgrade it later when the prices subside and availability improved, or you can't buy used memory, etc...

The argument for non upgradeable memory of "buy what you can afford" is no longer valid.

 

[Shirasaki]

Can’t wait for the bubble to burst.

Oh bubble burst can’t happen soon enough. I hate life being heavily influenced and dominated by AI. What’s the point of human if AI is so good?

 

[Capeto]

Ensh*ttification is now a problem with hardware too. Thanks, AI bubble! You can't burst soon enough!

 

[Shirasaki]

i dont think the big money realizes how much regular people are gonna hate AI for the entire electonics pricing thing.

Not like they care anyway? When was the last time big money ever cared about the thoughts of plebs? They only care about money, so the only way to hurt them is through money.

 

[KES3059A3]

**** AI

 

[saberfi]

Just ordered M5 Pro MBP with 64gb of RAM to get started dabbling with LLMs.

If I get more serious, I hope there are options available in the future. 🤨

 

[mrhick01]

So much for the supply chain genius, he didn't see this coming....

No, it's the fact that he's a supply chain genius that the problems were delayed for over a year.

The RAM-pocalypse started last year.

 

[Sital]

It really is kind of amazing they came out and publicly said this.

This gives a glimpse into just how constrained the situation really is.

It actually isn't amazing that Cook said this. He was on an earnings call and it would potentially be illegal to hide this information.

 

[Shirasaki]

What's unfortunate is that Apple is already so deep in the M5 mini and Studio development it is unlikely they can change direction, without completely shelving what they have. And what is needed is for M5 Pro units to support LPCAMM2 memory modules. Because if this RAM shortage lasts another cycle (and it is likely to do so), the M5 Pro mini/Studio units will be a bust from a marketshare expansion perspective… won't see any sales bump from them because they'll be perpetually constrained, limited by factory-birth-ordained soldered-RAM decisions. That will be a shame, because it will mean that Apple ONCE AGAIN likely misses out on an opportunity to dramatically grow marketshare because of mind-numbingly stupid/greedy design decisions (as they also did during the Win7-to-Win10 changeover, lagging in upgrading their Intel CPUs and base RAM size, as well as choosing to debut and glue themselves to a terrible laptop keyboard).

If that’s the case then so be it. Spirit just went busted because of current situations. Apple might not go bust because of current situations but they will get hurt, plus the AI bubble yet to be burst.

Apple think soldering RAM was amazing. Well it is, but it also carries downsides, something that is painfully apparent today. Still, the only way a company would learn from mistakes is by losing money.

 

[turbineseaplane]

It actually isn't amazing that Cook said this. He was on an earnings call and it would potentially be illegal to hide this information.

I'm sorry for saying anything.
Thank you for correcting me.

 

[Amazing Iceman]

The good news is that at least for now a lot of people will be able to keep their jobs.

 

[MiamiFL]

As usual, what the article doesn't say is these use the older memory modules that are no longer being manufactured because M5 uses new memory modules.

 

[Spec360]

It really is kind of amazing they came out and publicly said this.

This gives a glimpse into just how constrained the situation really is.

Mean while pc builders are laughing because they just built there own pc half price.

 

[MiamiFL]

RAM supply issues are real. Apple would rather sell you an $1,899 MBP rather than a $999 Mac mini. Both M5/24GB.

Not really, at least not in the way you mean it. Older RAM supply issues are real. Apple has plenty of newer RAM which is what the M5 uses.

 

[Kriss_De_Valnor]

Just a matter of time it will hit MBP/MBA. Very hard.

 

[JPack]

Not really, at least not in the way you mean it. Older RAM supply issues are real. Apple has plenty of newer RAM which is what the M5 uses.

You do realize everything from iPad to Mac Studio uses LPDDR5, right?

What the heck is "newer" RAM?

Based on that logic, wouldn't Apple just switch to M5 to "resolve" the RAM issue?

 

[1d1otic]

Oh bubble burst can’t happen soon enough. I hate life being heavily influenced and dominated by AI. What’s the point of human if AI is so good?

ROI, all AI companies aren't making profits instead of costing a lot of money to maintain their AI services. OpenAI is a great example as they removed Sora 2.

 

[Kar98]

You do realize everything from iPad to Mac Studio uses LPDDR5, right?

What the heck is "newer" RAM?

LPDDR6, obv.​

 

[bapegg]

I will be happy when the AI bubble bursts and it can't happen soon enough.

And for those running X86 machines with Linux or Windows, don't try to upgrade the RAM or storage on those machines anytime soon, especially if they use DDR5 RAM.

An example is the Crucial DDR5 SODIMM 64 GB memory kit I bought on Amazon in early 2025 for $162 now costs $712. Prices have dropped a small amount as that 64 GB kit was up to $802 just a month ago.

A Team Group MP33 512 GB M2 NVME drive I bought in early 2025 was $30 and currently costs $106. A Team Group MP44Q 2 TB I purchased in Aug 2025 for $109 currently costs $320.

Those cheap mini pc's with the Intel N150 chip and 16 GB of DDR4 SODIMM was $168 last summer and now costs $380.

Rasperry Pi boards have been hit too. A RPi5 with 8 GB of RAM was around $95 last summer and now costs $200

The RAM and NAND chip shortage is effecting the entire PC, tablet, and phone industry.

I don't know if its better that Apple is not selling Mac's with higher RAM or if they were to jack the prices up like other manufacturers are doing.

 

[rezwits]

Really would be nice to have upgradable RAM on these models, imagine needing to buy one now and then having to purchase one again later on once the prices go back down. As opposed to just being able to replace some RAM sticks.

Heck, imagine being okay with paying for more RAM, if Apple didn't sell you as much RAM you wanted back then you could just buy more. Now you're stuck with whatever Apple sells you.

The only thing is where would you get the RAM? To just plop in?

 

[MiamiFL]

You do realize everything from iPad to Mac Studio uses LPDDR5, right?

What the heck is "newer" RAM?

Based on that logic, wouldn't Apple just switch to M5 to "resolve" the RAM issue?

Not all RAM is created equal. See my previous comments on this topic, specifically about the M5U variant vs the M3U variant, in the other Mac Mini/Studio threads.

So to answer your question, "older" is anything that isn't the "newer" LPDDR5X-9600 (eg LPDDR5-6400, LPDDR5X-7500, and LPDDR5X-8533).