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

Some will undoubtedly get a clue about needing maybe 50% of what they've envisioned during times of plenty and lower cost.

My M1 Max base still does a stellar job with typical user tasks and running qwen-2.5-14b AI/LLM model for local / personal LAN user web access.
 
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V.K. said:
I am absolutely not willing to go down in screen size from 27''. My eyes have gotten quite a bit worse with age and aren't going to get any better. 27'' is the minimum I am considering and I might go with 32''.
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27” is def my minimum both my uses cases and age 😉

I’m on 32” now but I might go back to 27” for the new lg 5k 27” miniLED

Just waiting to see some reviews as they start being delivered
 
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edubfromktown said:
Some will undoubtedly get a clue about needing maybe 50% of what they've envisioned during times of plenty and lower cost.

My M1 Max base still does a stellar job with typical user tasks and running qwen-2.5-14b AI/LLM model for local / personal LAN user web access.
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Def true

I went higher than I really need right now because I like to play games sometimes, I have no idea what I might want next year, and I probably won’t buy a new box for at least ten years, so high spec gives a bit of longevity cusion

Now if I hadn’t bought when I did and was looking at a massive price increase in the fall I might make a different decision
 
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Charlie Bonesx said:
Or you could write a script to do it

These things have been around a lot longer than “ai agents”

Ever here of rss?

I mean sure, an ai agent could do it less efficiently for something like 1000x the $, water and electricity
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See, this is why I put 😉 or /s on most of my posts. I'm generally posting tongue-in-cheek or mildly sarcastically. I only mentioned AI agents due to the general wailing and gnashing of teeth about how AI is destroying humanity and driving up the cost of memory and storage (to which I do not disagree) thus relegating us mere mortals to hunt for refurbished bargains as needed. So it was just my way of throwing out an "ironic"/ridiculous AI reference to keep things light and jovial (your last sentence is more or less exactly what I was implying, so we're on the same page lol).
 
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Charlie Bonesx said:
Def true

I went higher than I really need right now because I like to play games sometimes, I have no idea what I might want next year, and I probably won’t buy a new box for at least ten years, so high spec gives a bit of longevity cusion

Now if I hadn’t bought when I did and was looking at a massive price increase in the fall I might make a different decision
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I did the same, but the longest I've gone with a machine as my daily driver was 6 1/2yrs (2019 Intel MBP) and that was only because I needed x86 virtual machines until recently. In general, I try to purchase for a 5-year stint, and getting any daily use beyond that being gravy.
 
aidler said:
I believe that the ultimate goal—and not just Apple's—is to prevent consumers from buying any PCs or Macs. In the end, you only have a smartphone or tablet and pay for an AI subscription. A continuation of the “you pay but never own anything” strategy.
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If that was true, the Neo would have never been released.

It might be true that the wannabe AI Masters of the Universe might want that world, and companies are engaging in the circular CapEx spend on that gamble.

Hardware manufacturers, and Apple absolutely is a hardware and services company, doesn't want that. They're interested in AI being a tool for their user base, but that is not their business model.
 
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marte91 said:
I agree with you 💯, but i don't think they care about the end-user.
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You're right. No matter how wealthy one might be (if not ultra-rich and owning corporations), you, we, are no longer their direct targets.

Enterprise and government spending is where the real money happens to be.
 
mrhick01 said:
If that was true, the Neo would have never been released.

It might be true that the wannabe AI Masters of the Universe might want that world, and companies are engaging in the circular CapEx spend on that gamble.

Hardware manufacturers, and Apple absolutely is a hardware and services company, doesn't want that. They're interested in AI being a tool for their user base, but that is not their business model.
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Or... (let me adjust my tin foil hat)... The Neo is already an iPhone that runs macOS in a smaller form-factor than all other Macs/MBPs. Maybe this is the slippery slope, get to the point where everyone is on a "phone" at least as far as the motherboard is concerned, then before you know it, all MBPs are just A-series with a watered down touch-enabled macOS, and then they introduce Samsung DeX-like capabilities, then... oops, sorry, just pick from one of these wonderful iPhones and buy our $1,600 Studio Display if you want desktop capabilities.

Tin foil hat aside, doesn't seem like a likely outcome. But in this timeline, who the knows?
 
rezwits said:
The only thing is where would you get the RAM? To just plop in?
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In the future, the prices would (hopefully) drop.

Otherwise, like I said, if you were willing to pay more money to get a Mac with more RAM, you could just buy it at a premium.
 
Howard2k said:
That's bizarre, I read here that there was no memory shortage and Apple was just reacting to rumours.

Maybe the memory shortage turns out to be real after all. Who knew?
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I remember years ago when the DoD was buying game systems and ripping out the graphics chips for use in their own systems.
 
Will this be the end of the $599 Mac mini forever?

I believe the price change was more due to the MacBook Neo, but we will see when they announce the new model with M5. Although by how things are going, they see, to rather wait until M6 to announce a new one.
 
A little bit of schadenfreude here and I take no pleasure in it, but glad I bought a 64 GB, 2TB Mini M4 Pro when I could. Overpriced and before the new Studios came out, so regretted it, but now I can accept it because I cannot buy it anymore. Anyway, I need the memory and so it will suffice, but I worry when I need to replace it. What choice will I have. Just resent the problem caused by tech deploying a technology that is suppose to help us but is crippling us where it matters. Such is life.
 
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My guess is this is just them dwindling down supply for these two systems ahead of M5 models, versus anything to do with the memory shortage, BUT....that suuuuure has me worried.

I'm not sure the "wait until the fall/next year!" idea is ideal for something you kinda need now.

I've got to replace Windows 10 systems SOON, and would rather not pay even MORE.
 
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conmee said:
I did the same, but the longest I've gone with a machine as my daily driver was 6 1/2yrs (2019 Intel MBP) and that was only because I needed x86 virtual machines until recently. In general, I try to purchase for a 5-year stint, and getting any daily use beyond that being gravy
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I usually buy or build a new machine every 4 or 5 years

but I went pretty beefy on a new studio and as my “needs” change and as silicon gets better and better at doing basically the same things I’ve always done, I’m pretty confident this one will last me a lot longer
 
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segfaultdotorg said:
I hope they remember selling these crippled Macs when they are deciding which models to obsolete in a couple of years.
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How are they crippled? They're the exact same specs for the exact same price as before, you just can't buy models with more RAM (which, it must be pointed out for some folks, is NOT Apple's fault by any means).
 
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