Analyzing the M3 Max on the microscope they concluded that it did not have fusion connectors, then they come out with the M3 Ultra... now it's the same story with the M4. Of course I hope in the M5 Ultra but the M4 Ultra possibility should not be excluded.
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Apple Still Has More New Macs Planned for 2026
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Analyzing the M3 Max on the microscope they concluded that it did not have fusion connectors, then they come out with the M3 Ultra... now it's the same story with the M4. Of course I hope in the M5 Ultra but the M4 Ultra possibility should not be excluded.
I think it’s guaranteed there are minis and iMacs at the mothership running on A-series chips right now. My guess is they want to see how the Neo goes first. If something using binned chips from the phone sells well, of course they will sell a mini and/or iMac with A-series chips. That might not be as bad as you think (especially if an A-series mini decreases in price, which I think is a pipe dream, but who knows?), but I agree that M-series machines will see price increases.
So was the M3 Ultra when they released that. And, Apple told us that not every variant (meaning the M4) would have an Ultra version. If they do release an M4 Ultra instead of an M5 Ultra, no one should believe any thing Apple says in the future.
I don't see them moving the next regular Mini to an A-class chip, because they'd have to lose the thunderbolt ports. A Neo Mini would have to be substantially cheaper. Since the M4 Mini has been as low as $399 recently (for a few lucky people) the street price for the Neo would probably need to be under $350. Under $300 they would be almost irresistable as utility boxes for home labs and so on, taking market share from RPi. And the form factor is fine for mounting to brackets on the backs of existing LCD panels for POS, etc.
R2FX
macrumors 6502
your opinion - tech shop in Phom Penh where I frequently went used to have one I found it rather pretty with its white body and translucent stand & layer around it
Besides it was meant classrooms which really don’t need colors
Yes, cause no other companies use marketing jargon to hype up small changes as bigger than they are.
freedomlinux
macrumors 6502
I wouldn't get your hopes up. My opinion is that the 2023 Mac Pro - since it supports non-GPU PCIe devices - is the last warning to both customers & hardware manufacturers to abandon their custom PCIe devices.
The message has been that Thunderbolt is the future, and eventually those pro use cases that won't/can't go to TB will be dropped. The writing has been on the wall since Apple ignored pros in the 2013-2019 era.
Can’t say I trust any of the “probables” and “most likelies” being guessed at - especially after the Apple Studio Display debacle.
Apple might release an 'iMac Neo.' There is a clear demand in schools and offices for a reasonably priced model that doesn't compromise on performance.
Happy_John
macrumors 68020
I'm not sure how likely this is, but it's far more likely than any kind of "Mac mini Neo", as, like the MacBook Neo, it would come as a single package with all basic peripherals. A Mac mini "no" is a non-starter, imho, because the users / schools would need to also factor in keyboard, mice, monitors and, when all added up, the cost-saving looks far less significant than with the Macbook Neo ( basically half the price of the now cheapest air, when applying the educational discount).
It does not make sense to do Mac Studio with exactly the same cpu as a mac mini (m5 pro/max).
Jump from pro to max is only extra gpu cores and it will not need the cooling etc. There need
to be more. Speculateing that the Studio will all have Ultra, but there will be some more variants within the Ultra.
Jump from pro to max is only extra gpu cores and it will not need the cooling etc. There need
to be more. Speculateing that the Studio will all have Ultra, but there will be some more variants within the Ultra.
CWallace
macrumors G5
I do not expect the M5 Mac mini to get the M5 Max. I expect it will be the base SoC and the Pro SoC like the current M4 model.
Mac Studio will get the M5 Max and may get an M5 Ultra, as well.
M4 pro is what we get today so M5 pro is a direct replacement. However M5Pro and M5Max is the same CPU, only GPU difference. And with the new chip design things changes it will be a lot easier to produce M5Ultra variants. Two 10 cores chiplets maybe a cheaper than one 16 core. Then you get 20-core to 36-core in the family.
it still is thin the but its no longer the wedge shape in fact its actually thinner than the thickest point of m1 by 0.48cm difference.
The mini is not an afterthought product. It gets upgraded to the latest chips fairly quickly. Apple sees value in it.
A Mac nano (if you don’t like the name Mac mini Neo) offers the same value on the desktop that the MacBook Neo offers to the laptop user.
They’ll being out Phil Schiller one more time to ass-innovate yet another dead end Mac Pro product in a few years.
CWallace
macrumors G5
Apple does not need to significantly reduce the performance of the Mac mini to get people to upgrade to a Mac Studio, instead. Up until the M4 generation, even with the Pro SoC option for the mini, the Mac Studio was generally a better buy because for $100-200 more, it offered more CPU and GPU cores as well as much faster speeds for that 32GB of RAM.
And with the storage controller on the A19 Pro being significantly slower than that found in the M family, it makes even less sense to put an A series SoC in the Mac mini.
ThisIsMike
macrumors 6502
The Studio starts at like 2,000 doesn’t it?!? I think most people feel that a mini is a better value at a fraction of the cost. So yes, I think that it would take a nerfing of the mini to push the average consumer towards the studio.
CWallace
macrumors G5
When I bought my M2 Max Mac Studio, if I configured an M2 Pro Mac mini with the same 32GB of RAM and 512GB of SSD, it was actually $100 more expensive. 😵
Pricing has improved for the mini in the M4 generation, as you can get a binned M4 Pro with 24GB of RAM and 512GB of SSD for $1400 compared to the $2000 for the M4 Max Studio (though the base Studio has 36GB of RAM and more CPU and GPU cores). Even if you go with the non-binned Pro and add 10Gb Ethernet, you are at $1700 vs. $2000.
And with an un-binned M5 Pro having the same CPU core count as an M5 Max, only if you need a large number of GPU cores or large memory capacities would the Studio really make sense (the extra I/O is nice, but a mini with a TB5 dock would offer similar or more connectivity at a similar price to a base Studio).
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I am in the market for a Mac Studio, I know the M5 one is coming soon, likely at WWDC. I am just a little worried the base price is going to be hiked like the Pro and Air were. It starts at 512 GB storage now and I imagine it'll be increased to 1 TB with a base price increase.
Makes me a little tempted to grab the M4 Max version before that happens.
Makes me a little tempted to grab the M4 Max version before that happens.