There are definitely engineering uses for machines with lots of memory but really the main reason so many people are buying them is personal LLM work.
Apple just broke open a huge new market.
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Mac Studio With Massive 512GB RAM Facing Two-Week Delivery Delay
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Apple just broke open a huge new market.
Either making money or getting a research grant. You don't need 512 GB RAM for video. Maybe for AI research.
I have not worked out the costs but the studio loaded with RAM might be cost-effective compared to the PC with comparable VRAM.
This is what people forget. When you compare the cost of RAM in a Mac to the cost of RAM in a PC, you have to remember that all of the Mac's RAM can be used as Video-RAM. What would you have to pay for a Nviidia GPU card that had 512GB VRAM?
Does anyone need 512GB of VRAM? Yes, try running 200 billion parameter LLM on your 16GB GPU card. It is going to be slow.
I'm curious how many of these end up in landfills after the warranty expired and there is an issue that requires a logic board replacement...
That's the sad part of soldered on components.
That's the sad part of soldered on components.
Yes. Apple create someting unique. To be in a similar ballpark with VRAM with Nvidia/AMD you would need to speed 5-10x more.
No video editing professional needs 0.5TB of RAM.
Safari definitely doesn't need this kind of RAM, jeez.
Now Chrome... that's a different story! lol
You mean Apple don’t have a warehouse full of pre-built $14,000 Studios just waiting to be shipped out? I am surprised … 🤣
In my case, none.
I've had Macs (desktops + laptops) since the 512ke, and none of them have died due to a logic board problem.
I've had a few iPhones die, though.
Hating on soldered on components is fashionable, but pointless.
It's literally only for LLM's- thats what its marketed for.
Other industries like engineering or VFX work doesnt need more than 192 or 256GB max for a single user desktop
Most electronics (except audio) end up there after a few years, no matter how they are built. Technological advancements push them there. Tons of Nokia phones are there too, even though they had replaceable batteries, memory cards, replaceable casings and simple construction.
Yeah in my personal cases none either, but at work over 25 years we've had many G3/G4, iMacs, Mac Pro's (cheesegraters) that needed logic board replacements, ram replacements, cpu board replacements in mac pro's etc...
Sometimes they were worth fixing, other times not post warranty. I'm just saying that nobody is going to fix one of these maxed out M3 Ultra's after warranty is expired let's say in 5 years, because even if the logic board is available in that configuration, it will probably cost $10k+.
I suspect they end up in the secondary market and with people that know how repair soldered logicboards. There are people and companies, currently, that will upgrade the SSD and ram on the current M-series Macbook Airs and Pros.
Despite everything being soldered, there are people who know how to fix such things and have the equipment to do it.
SSD upgrades are one thing, but are people doing ram upgrades on high value Max/Ultra chips? Are these high density ram chips available to buy?
I don't know, I just suspect that with such a high-value system, that is what will happen.
I was looking into having my M1 Air upgraded to 2tb (from 512gb), but decided against it after seeing the cost.
Data crunching and AI would require something way more powerful than this, and at cheaper cost.
That’s what data centers and related services or servers at companies and universities are for. This is a desktop
He was being light-hearted, jeez. Anyway, only 1 of these 3 groups you've cited actually requires this level of spec. And as for AI being "useful" currently, well that is highly debatable.
Me? I'm not paying 14 grand for anything unless it's got "Pro" in the name [/s] 🤪
The first bold resonates with me, the ASD is already expensive and I wish LG didn't discontinue the 4K 21" UltraFine since that would be enough for me. The second bold, what are the current Apple display offerings missing for you as far as release timing? These new Mac Studios have TB5, are you wanting ProMotion or something to go with?
Then buy a Mac mini.
Honestly, the Studio Display (especially in nano-texture form) is gorgeous if annoyingly pricey. These days, you're more likely to upgrade your Mac more frequently than your display. Disagree? Ask owners of i7 Intel 27" iMacs with their 5k displays now rendered pretty much obsolete.
And just think how easy and cheap it would have been if Apple simply used a removable module, a standard size NVMe.
They are as small as postage stamps now (2230's). They've shown the can do this in the latest Mac Mini, while still proprietary, it can be done.