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Apple to skip high-end M6 Mac chips in favor of AI-focused M7 line
Giftlink: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-06-25/apple-to-skip-high-end-m6-mac-chips-to-launch-m7-pro-m7-max-m7-ultra-instead?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIsImlhdCI6MTc4MjQwNTU2MCwiZXhwIjoxNzgzMDEwMzYwLCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJUSDM4OFJUOTZPU08wMCIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQiOiJDNEVEQ0FFMUZBMDU0MEJFQTI0QTlGMjExQzFFOTA4MCJ9.3RpcTAgL-JUz9iWRQYzyWaSzoOhLU50chTDHkeU0GTI https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-06-25/apple-to-...
also https://www.msn.com/en-ca/lifestyle/shopping/apple-to-skip-high-end-m6-mac-chips-in-favor-of-ai-focused-m7-line/ar-AA26xxES https://www.msn.com/en-ca/lifestyle/shopping/apple-to-skip-h...
- slwvx 3mo agoThe URL above is wrong. At present it is https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articlehttps://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-06-25/apple-to-skip-high-end-m6-mac-chips-to-launch-m7-pro-m7-max-m7-ultra-instead https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articlehttps://www.bloomberg.... I guess it should be https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-06-25/apple-to-skip-high-end-m6-mac-chips-to-launch-m7-pro-m7-max-m7-ultra-instead?embedded-checkout=true https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-06-25/apple-to-...
- scrlk 3mo agoThanks for catching that - unfortunately I can't edit the submission URL, but I've emailed hn@ycombinator.com to see if the mods can fix it. EDIT: gift link if paywalled (archive.is capture is truncated): https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-06-25/apple-to-skip-high-end-m6-mac-chips-to-launch-m7-pro-m7-max-m7-ultra-instead?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIsImlhdCI6MTc4MjQwNTU2MCwiZXhwIjoxNzgzMDEwMzYwLCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJUSDM4OFJUOTZPU08wMCIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQiOiJDNEVEQ0FFMUZBMDU0MEJFQTI0QTlGMjExQzFFOTA4MCJ9.3RpcTAgL-JUz9iWRQYzyWaSzoOhLU50chTDHkeU0GTI https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-06-25/apple-to-...
- dang 3mo agoFixed now. Thanks to you both!
- evanjrowley 3mo agoSeems like a made-up distinction that shouldn't be necessary since M6 has not even released. I suspect this is a marketing ploy to meant to drive up both interest while also increasing prices for the next generation of Mac hardware.
- Kirby64 3mo ago> Seems like a made-up distinction that shouldn't be necessary since M6 has not even released. Why would it? Each generation of the M series has an architectural improvement on their chipsets. The difference between an M1 and an M1 Pro is the allocation and arrangement not the architecture. M6 to M7 presumably will have architectural changes.
- knollimar 3mo agoIs the point that M6 doesn't exist? What change are they making that justifies M5 to M7? Or did this announcement also add an M6 chip, and they're just skipping pro?
- ErneX 3mo agoThe article says the 2nd.
- deleted 3mo ago[deleted]
- Kirby64 3mo agoThis is no different than them skipping the “Ultra” chips on some generations. The only real difference is it going all the way down to skipping the “Pro” line. So, only the MacBook Air, low end MBP, and maybe the iPad Pro and Mac Mini get the M6.
- ErneX 3mo agoWhy? The specs and benchmarks will show the differences, there’s no marketing around that.
- 3mo ago
- dools 3mo agoBro just give me a new iPhone mini
- vessenes 3mo agoThe article says base M7 memory bandwidth is targeted at 240GB/s. M1 had 70 GB/s, M1 Pro: 200, M1 Max 400, M1 Ultra 800. Modern RTX 6000: ~1,600 or so. If we get a 1,200-1,500 GB/s bandwidth M7 variant in late 2027 with 512GB of RAM, that will be a very interesting chip. Tracking LLM size and performance improvements, I can imagine that being a sort of inflection point for local inference. I wonder what the power budget would be in desktop format.
- ErneX 3mo agoProblem is affording the ram…
- sambull 3mo agoAs some like to call it, 'the last moat'.
- _carbyau_ 3mo agoWell yes. But similar to the Apple TSMC relationship, could Apple step in with large orders to established RAM makers such that the RAM makers can invest with stability?
- zero_bias 3mo agoM series chips are system-on-chip with RAM on the same wafer with CPU and GPU, so it impossible to outsource only part of the chip
- behnamoh 3mo agoApple is very late to the AI party. By the time M7 is shipped, Nvidia will announce 6090 and people will be buying used (3|4|5)090 GPUs to run local models at much better performance than heat throttled M7.
- brcmthrowaway 3mo agoTheyve dropped the ball bigtime.
- maxdo 3mo agosame people who bought all mac mini for ai?
- ErneX 3mo agoI would prefer a Studio if it does a decent enough job even if throttles a bit under load, way less power usage and noise than those GPUs plus the PC you need to put those in.
- swader999 3mo agoYeah but you could heat your whole house!
- bigyabai 3mo agoIf you're fine overpaying for a throttling computer, you could buy 40-series cards and underclock them to the same TDP of a Mac Studio. You'd probably get faster prefill speeds, as well as better drivers for accelerated transcode and gaming applications.
- dofm 3mo agoThis a significant misunderstanding of which party it is Apple wants to attend.
- aurareturn 3mo agoAnd 6090 will have 48GB of RAM compared to something like an M7 Max that might have 192GB or an M7 Ultra that might have 768GB.
- monirmamoun 3mo ago[flagged]
- tomhow 3mo agoPlease don't use HN primarily for battle over geopolitical disputes. The guidelines make it clear we're trying to avoid that here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- aurareturn 3mo agoThe M7 Pro and M7 Max are scheduled for as early as the end of 2027, while the M7 Ultra is on track for 2028. This means there won't be a redesigned MBP this year since there won't be M6 Pro/Max chips. People were expecting a redesigned slimmer MBP with OLED display later this year, myself included. I was holding out for one until I decided to switch from an M1 Pro 16" MBP to an M5 Air 15" due to the expected price increase. I think many M1 Pro/Max generation people were waiting to upgrade this year.
- GeekyBear 3mo ago> This means there won't be a redesigned MBP this year since there won't be M6 Pro/Max chips. They can release a redesigned MBP with the base M6 chip.
- aurareturn 3mo agoThey can, it wouldn't make sense from a marketing and optics perspective. They don't want to tell the world how the new redesigned MBP is the best laptop in the world but it's slower than the older MBPs.
- bombcar 3mo agoThe optics and marketing is already fucked, the MBP goes to M5 Max, the Mini has the M4, the Studio has M2 or M3, the iMac apparently has two different kinds of M4s, it's all fucked.
- aurareturn 3mo agoAir and Pros are the flagship products.
- rjrjrjrj 3mo agoThey released the M5 MacBook Pro last fall, but didn't release the M5 Pro and Max models until the spring.
- 3mo ago
- alberth 3mo agoGiven that M6 will be on TSMC smaller 2nm node and the first smaller node size in 3-years, it seems like the oddest of all years for the high-end Macs to skip.
- kushie 3mo agomy 2 cents is that a new tech node is harder to produce variants on. it's easier to make new flavors of a mature tech node
- Detrytus 3mo agoEveryone seems to miss it but the article also says that M5 Ultra Mac Studio is coming out later this year. Yay! I wonder how much the rumored 768GB RAM version will cost.
- sneak 3mo ago[dead]
- aenis 3mo agoI am waiting till apple copies the "allocation" concept from high end car manufacturers. "Sure, buy the 25 iphones ans we will gladly put you on the waitlist."
- simondotau 3mo agoThis makes no sense. Apple doesn't need to generate artificial demand for their products. Apple doesn't need (or want) a perception of exclusivity.
- khurs 3mo agoIt makes no sense as Hyper Cars are luxury status symbols and a store of wealth that appreciates in value. A top of range Mac is a depreciating asset and looks exactly the same as the other models physically.
- simondotau 3mo agoAnd it's not like Apple hasn't dabbled in the luxury space, with utterly predictable results. Anyone remember the 24 carat gold plated Apple Watch Series 0, sold at ultra-high-end luxury boutiques?
- watersb 3mo agoFormer AnandTech editor Gavin Bonshor had reports that the M7 would be manufactured on Intel's 18A node. https://bontechlabs.com/news/apple-is-reportedly-using-intels-foundry-for-the-m7/ https://bontechlabs.com/news/apple-is-reportedly-using-intel... Given the risks involved in establishing Apple Silicon designs with a new fab, I would expect early M7 parts to be in test production right now. The fundamental M7 design is already set in stone. Mark Gurman's Bloomberg article does not mention fabrication partners or processes.
- khurs 3mo agoWouldn't this help Intel compete? If they have Apple's designs months prior to launch, rather than after launch.
- swiftcoder 3mo agoRipping off designs from your own fab customers is a pretty sure way to crater your fab business, and get sued into the ground at the same time.
- marmarama 3mo agoIt's not so much ripping off the designs - nothing of what Apple Silicon is doing is particularly surprising and both x86 and Intel's microarchitectures are sufficiently different to Apple Silicon/ARM that knowledge of specific implementation approaches wouldn't be directly useful in most cases. The real advantage is knowing exactly what Apple is launching months or years in advance, because that can inform strategic planning.
- swiftcoder 3mo ago> The real advantage is knowing exactly what Apple is launching months or years in advance, because that can inform strategic planning. While I'm sure some level of internal leakage does take place, at least on paper the fab's planning needs to be firewalled off from their own chip roadmap. I'm also not sure how much Apple actually cares, tbh. Yes, they currently have an edge in silicon, but it's heavily due to being willing to outspend everyone else, and their real superpower is vertical integration - which Intel isn't in a position to compete with.
- g42gregory 3mo agoHow about we release M5 Ultra first?
- andreasley 3mo agoI'd even buy a M4 Ultra....
- teaearlgraycold 3mo agoWell this kind of sucks. I've been waiting for the M6 MBPs because they're rumored (strong rumors, though) to finally remove the notch that has been a historic self-own. But it sounds like I might as well wait longer for the M7 lineup. Or maybe get a Framework Pro instead.
- Schiendelman 3mo agoThe notch does not matter at all, you will forget it's there.
- bahmboo 3mo agoI agree. It was very annoying to me to spend the money (and on the nano matte one too) and still have that stupid notch. But it never makes any difference at all which is good news.
- techpression 3mo agoI was surprised to even see it mentioned after all these years, literally haven’t thought about it a single time since I got my first MBP that had it.
- teaearlgraycold 3mo agoIt’s a complete embarrassment. They added it for aesthetic alignment with the iPhone 13. And then the 14 removed the notch soon after. They’ve kept it for years since then. It has no functional purpose. It’s not there for face ID or because they couldn’t figure out how to do a hole punch camera.
- Schiendelman 3mo agoIt's there to give you more screen space...
- teaearlgraycold 3mo ago
- thrill 3mo agoCome on Apple - just buy TSMC and fully kit out the RAM in all Mac Studios - you could even make (more of) a fortune selling the excess.
- Schiendelman 3mo agoThere's already reporting that M7 will be on Intel 18A - Apple's giving Nvidia and Broadcom and others more TSMC capacity back.
- GeekyBear 3mo agoApple isn't just transitioning to TSMC's 2nm node, they are also transitioning to a chiplet based design using TSMC's advanced packaging. > What sets the A20 apart isn’t just the node shrink—it’s the revolution in packaging. Apple is transitioning to Wafer-Level Multi-Chip Module (WLCM) integration, meaning that RAM will no longer be situated beside the chip, but rather on the chip wafer itself, integrated alongside the CPU, GPU, and Neural Engine. This shift eliminates the need for silicon interposers and substrates, thereby enhancing signal integrity, improving thermal dissipation, and facilitating faster memory access with lower latency. The benefits? Better multitasking, smoother AI processing (hello, Apple Intelligence), improved battery life, and potentially a smaller chip footprint—freeing up space for other components. https://hwbusters.com/news/apples-a20-chip-ushers-in-a-new-era-2nm-wmcm-and-the-future-of-the-iphone-18/ https://hwbusters.com/news/apples-a20-chip-ushers-in-a-new-e... It's entirely possible that TSMC is ramping up more slowly than expected.
- monocasa 3mo agoDo we have any explanations of what WLCM means that are more industry focused? I couldn't find anything that didn't look like blogspam. And that explanation of the DRAM being on the same wafer doesn't really make sense. For one, at that point there's no "multi chip" part if you're integrating more onto the same die rather than less. And their explanation isn't really passing the smell test for me for other reasons, for instance the fact that DRAM processes are pretty radically different than bulk logic processes, which wouldn't really let you put it all on the same wafer, much less the same die. Even back in the day when you had eDRAM blocks (like the Xbox 360's eDRAM die), that was really a DRAM process with a bit of logic cells that wouldn't be competitive if they weren't sitting right next to the DRAM blocks. I could be wrong here though, my examples are more than a bit long in the tooth.
- craigjb 3mo agoThe terms to search for are fan-out wafer level packaging (FOWLP) and TSMC InFO. The chiplets come from different wafers and are reconstituted into a molded plastic wafer, allowing multiple die side-by-side. Then multiple layers of wires are built on top, terminating in a BGA.
- MisterKent 3mo agoApple is actually interesting. They are one of the few companies with a chip / PC play with real power AND basically no play I'm the hyperscalar market. That means they're actually incentivized at least short term, to benefit PCs becoming strong enough to do local LLMs. Which makes this play make even more sense. Though, I've been saying for a while that the local AI inflectiom point is the death knell for these frontier labs.
- matheusmoreira 3mo agoIndeed. If Apple makes it feasible to run models like GLM 5.2 at home, I will become their customer.
- jeron 3mo agoyou're not a customer of any of their products at all already? not a single apple device in your household?
- matheusmoreira 3mo agoCorrect. Been using Linux and Android for over ten years. My household had no Apple devices until I got married.
- AgentElement 3mo agoSome folks like to have a computing environment free of proprietary influences and extremely strong vendor lock-in. I cannot claim to posses any apple devices.
- rjrjrjrj 3mo agoHow does the Mac have extremely strong vendor lock-in? Sure, you can use the App Store and use all the stuff that integrates with iPhone, iCloud, etc But you can also just treat it as Linux for Laptops (that actually works), and roll with all the standard open source tools.
- ggm 3mo agoWhat's their backup plan if the AI world doesn't pan out? What if it turns out people want base compute capability and lots of RAM for filestore cache and programs? Maybe this strategy works, even in that world. Remember when we all thought (were told we thought) the world was heading to 3D views of our 2D lived experience like a solid Cube of GUI we could rotate around and live inside? Well Apple took the simple 2D square pane of virtual desktops and .. made it a SONY strip. One variable: sideways. So here we are being told AI is the future. Apple seems to be saying "yes but it will run local" which might be a safe bet if AI comes true but I wonder how many of us want the AI outcome, which is morally speaking the 3D immersive GUI cube here: what if we don't want that?
- atonse 3mo agoI can't imagine any world where we put this AI stuff back in the box. It is simply too useful and too powerful. And as we start seeing all his upheaval where models are getting banned, etc, I can even see the appeal of on-device AI increasing for a lot of use cases. So I think Apple has the right instinct. In fact, I've had the thought multiple times that I really want a lot of workflows just running on my device. Workflows like fast vector search (already fast on the m4, but I want it more common place), or realtime transcription and summarization to be even faster, on device, etc.
- enos_feedler 3mo agoTo me AI is on par with the internet and what made it so powerful was piracy and porn and just the wide spectrum of things that are possible when you connect machines together. We are going to need the same thing again. Freedom to use any model that does any thing we want.
- LtWorf 3mo agoIf it happens it's because of china but it will be forbidden in USA.
- simianparrot 3mo ago
- an0malous 3mo agoI was waiting for a MacBook Pro M6 Max and now I don’t know what to do, especially with the price increase I feel like I really screwed up not just getting an MBP M5 Max a month ago
- sho 3mo agoWell, I guess this is the silver lining to the price increases. I'd been thinking about an M5 128GB for local inference (eg DS4), probably off the table now given that it jumped $2k overnight. But I was on the fence about it for a long time given that even the M5 is not that good compared to even a 4090. It would have been good, but not "omg" good. If they are pulling out all the stops to make the M7 more competitive.. guess I can wait for that?
- khurs 3mo agoI imagine they weren't planning for their plans to be leaked so publicly, as yes it will now mean some buyers will delay their purchases.
- pipeline_peak 3mo agoLocal AI isn’t gonna help Apple, especially not with the rate hardware prices are increasing. They need to pull out of this half assed bandwagon approach.
- simondotau 3mo agoLocal AI is going to help Apple, especially with a return to normal RAM pricing being an inevitability, even if it takes years. They don't need to pull out of this approach.
- pipeline_peak 3mo agoHow is it going to help them? Do you really think the average Apple user will use it when there’s already better AI provided by OpenAI and Anthropic which don’t require advanced local hardware?
- simondotau 3mo agoI was just countering your argument with an equally compelling counter-argument. As for how it helps: we're not talking about this year's AI ecosystem, or even next year's. This rumor, assuming it's true, is talking about two chip generations into the future — and probably at least three or four chip generations before it's a mature AI platform. What will AI be doing for us in five years from now? How does Apple plan for that future? Will concerns of privacy increase or decrease in that time?
- pipeline_peak 3mo ago>What will AI be doing for us in five years from now? I don’t know, but the majority of it will be running in data centers, not high end consumer grade workstations. >Will concerns of privacy increase or decrease in that time? People have been more concerned about privacy than ever, it hasn’t seemed to stop people from using cloud AI services. The fact that Apple missed the starting gun on AI to the point that they’re using Googles also inferior Gemini, I’m not compelled these Apple AI chips have a consumer. Anyone savvy enough to do their own AI hosting is more likely to use Nvdia boxes, etc. Apple workstations always been more successful in Art/Graphic design. That’s why they cut off their server hardware long ago. >How does Apple plan for that future? Ideally by making attractive simple products regular users can buy. The iPhone and MacBook Neo seem a step in that direction. AI vision and Apple Vision scream 90s pre-iMac Apple.
- moomoo11 3mo agoreally stupid question, but why doesn't the US gov work with someone like apple to build a american fab with like 1 trillion dollars budget? some kind of private-public partnership sorry if thats already happening in some capacity, like i said - "stupid question"
- fhn 3mo agobecause America can't compete. Build a fab in the US, labor unions, labor costs, regulations, land, energy, taxes, government, water, etc all make this not economical. Everything would cost twice as much and you'd rather buy the cheaper product and it'll be bankrupt. There were reasons why all the manufacturing went overseas to Asia. You're right, the demand right now is HUGE but it won't always be huge. At this point, we don't have the talent or the knowledge to do it well anyway which is why we needed TSMC and Samsung to bring employees over to train people. https://www.cppionline.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/The-Decline-of-Semiconductor-Manufacturing.pdf https://www.cppionline.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/The-De...
- moomoo11 3mo agoi wonder, what about the manhattan project? they were able to do that very secretly, i understand it was a different time. but can the gov not just fast track this as a "national security" or something? i think the usa should be the one who make 1nm or smaller chips on demand, even if it takes 5-10. years to do. and yes i realize i might sound dumb here but i'm the one suffering from high hardware prices!!
- khalic 3mo agoÀ fab takes a good decade to build, then another one to become profitable
- nxtfari 3mo agothey’re doing m7 on the intel 18a fab, which is exactly that
- monkamonme 3mo ago[flagged]
- gigatexal 3mo agoThere’s not a lot of detail in the article but that doesn’t mean we have to link to a pay walled thing. https://www.macrumors.com/2026/06/25/2027-macs-m7-chips/ https://www.macrumors.com/2026/06/25/2027-macs-m7-chips/
- gigatexal 3mo agoI’m hoping they put a lot more silicon in the GPU so when I’m not running a local LLM the game I play runs smoother
- chazeon 3mo agoMac mini Pro line is doomed, they never made enough of it; skipped M5 Pro, now skipping M6 Pro, it is like 2014-2018 again. Now ordering a custom M4 Pro build take 3 months+ to ship with an increased price.
- yieldcrv 3mo ago2028 local and onprem agentic revolution. enterprises will pay for expensive mac line then hyperscalers better all IPO in the next 8 quarters
- habosa 3mo agoIn the long run I truly believe local AI will win and Apple will be the world's most important AI company because of these chips. Imagine something like today's Opus running for free and in complete privacy on your local machine with a beautiful Apple UX on top. For most tasks for most people, that's a much better proposition than a frontier model in the cloud you have to pay for and send all your data to and that only works when you're online.
- MASNeo 3mo agoI would say local AI is very real. I use it but so many here am on other forums do so nowadays as well. This is the reason I just cannot fathom the valuations of the AI firms out there.
- khurs 3mo ago>In the long run I truly believe local AI will win What do you mean by 'win'? For a normal coder/person's use cases, yes. But AI companies are becoming more specialised in different fields and these tailored models will be leagues ahead in those niches.
- romanovcode 3mo agoThe way I see it - Opus 4.8 xhigh can do any programming task with a programmer instructing it. If Apple releases local model together with a device that can run said model it would render OpenAI/Anthropic useless for vast majority of usecases. And if a local mcahine can run something like Opus 4.8, who is to say that those "specialized" models would just not come at a later date, or even loading open models wouldn't be an option with something like M7-verified flag from huggingface that would make it extremely easy for any consumer to just play around.
- khurs 3mo agoBut most private buyer and most business buyers don't get anything more than base models. As of yet no indication that small models that can fit in 8gb/16gb can be fully relied upon?
- interludead 3mo ago[dead]
- 6thbit 3mo agoAt this point can Apple profit from selling any contracts they have with TSMC? If they make a deal with say google to delay their own chips, could they profit more than by selling their production? Demand is so crazy idk if this would begin to make sense
- SXX 3mo ago768GB RAM pipe dreams make no sense to Apple. By discontinuing 256GB / 512GB M3 Ultra and raising prices $5000 -> $7000 on Macbook pro with 128GB they basically confirmed how badly RAM shortage affecting them. 768GB is 64-times of 12GB which is rumored to be amount of RAM in new iPhones. Imagine what profit margin 768GB Mac Studio gonna need in order to justify making one instead of 64 iPhones. Apple is the company that is okay about selling microfiber cloth for $100 and wheels for $700. Imagine how bad price hike for M3 Ultra 256GB / 512GB had to be in order for them to just discontinue them instead of getting free money out of desperate local AI folks.
- petercooper 3mo agoThey could treat the extreme spec machines separately from the prosumer ones, like they did with the Xserve. Let business customers spec up to 768GB (say) who are prepared for a $20-25k price tag, while keeping them away from the stores and usual consumer supply chains (Amazon et al). It may not be a big enough market segment for them to care about anymore, though.
- SXX 3mo agoThey can do it, but that gonna need to be different SKU not Mac Studio. Otherwise news will be full of discussions about Apple price hike from $8000 to $24,000 or who the hell knows $48,000. So yeah the only way I see them selling it is usual "call us" enterprise price tag. But since its not what Apple usually do its easier to sell 4x Mac Studio 256GB RAM boxes with interconnect for lets say $12,000 - $15,000 each.
- Gingersnap123 3mo ago[dead]
- jmyeet 3mo agoMy predictions: 1. NVidia aggressively segments the market on VRAM and will continue to do so. A 5090 with 32GB of RAM, ~21k CUDA cores and 1800GB/s of memory bandwidth is $3-4k. An RTX 6000 Pro with 96GB of RAM, ~24k CUDA cores and 1800GB/s memory bandwidth is ~$11k; 2. The 5090 won't be replaced until late 2028 or even 2029. There has been no mid-cycle refresh (eg 4080 Super vs 4080) and likely won't be either at all or for at least a year. If there is in a year, it basically confirms that the 6000 series won't be until 2028/2029. Also, the x090 never got a mid-cycle refresh so the current consumer high-end is staying that way for years; 3. The 6090 whenever it comes will still have 32GB of VRAM unless the memory market drastically changes; 4. Many have anticipated an M5 Max/Ultra refresh of the Mac Studio line in Q3. Given that Apple chose to hike the prices on Studios rather than discontinue them, I now think this isn't going to happen. We may not see a Studio refresh for up to 2 years. Apple has done this before with the Mac Pro; 5. M7 Max/Ultra will probably go to a memory bandwidth of 1.2-1.8TB/s vs the current tops of M3 Ultra, M4 Max and M5 Max of 600-900GB/s. This simply needs to go up to boost inference speed; 6. You'll also see the number of GPU cores go up. All of this will add up to an M7 Max being 50-80%+ of the performance of a 5090. That's huge given the shared memory architecture; 7. We may see the return of Apple using its massive cash pile for vendor-financing of an exclusive memory supply. This was one of Tim Apple's [sic] big innovations.
- ch0wn 3mo agoQ
- harrouet 3mo agoCounter theory: the M6 is so good that they want to keep some oomph for the M7 line up.
- spwa4 3mo agoSo the big question: Is this an excuse to save on memory costs and delaying stuff like the M5 Ultra, M6 Max, etc until 2027 when memory prices come back down?
- gcanyon 3mo agoApple to skip high-end versions of M6 Mac chips... I read it as the M6 being "high-end" in general, and Apple skipping the whole generation, which made no sense to me. But they are going to use the M6 at all, just not bother to create Max and Ultra versions of it.
- jessinra98 3mo ago[dead]