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The 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
by vessenes 4mo ago
The 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 4mo agoProblem is affording the ram…
- sambull 4mo agoAs some like to call it, 'the last moat'.
- _carbyau_ 4mo 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 4mo 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
- jimbokun 4mo agoApple is finally going to realize Jobs vision where sand comes into the factory, is turned into RAM and CPU chips, then installed in a Mac or iPhone then shipped to a customer.
- faeyanpiraat 4mo agoIsnt the proper kind of sand in short supply aswell?
- aurareturn 4mo agoA hypothetical M7 Ultra with LPDDR6 14.4Gbps memory would be 1.85 Tb/s. You're look at about 100 tokens/s for a 1T MoE 37B active 4bit model. It'd probably cost $30k or more I'm guessing if memory prices do not come down. Even at $30k, it could still be a relative bargain since an RTX Pro 6000 Blackwell 96GB card costs $12k today. The M3 Ultra with 512GB was around $8k before Apple discontinued it. I expect an M7 Ultra to have 768GB or 1024GB. Apple Silicon Macs were on their way to becoming cheap local LLM machines relative to professional GPUs before this memory crisis. It may still emerge as such in a few years. Here's some interesting math: At 512GB, an Ultra chip could make 42 pro iPhones. Assume a 55% profit margins, and $1200 ASP, you're looking at $28,160 in profit from making iPhones instead. No wonder Apple discontinued the M3 Ultra 512GB. If they only have a limited supply of RAM for all their products, it makes no sense to produce an $8000 M3 Ultra 512GB when you can produce 42 pro iPhones. You can only configure an M3 Ultra up to 96GB today as of June 2026. Apple would have to raise the price of a 512GB Ultra Mac to around $50k to match iPhone profits.
- NuclearPM 4mo agoAn ‘ypothetical!
- zombot 4mo agoIn what neck of the woods? English pronunciation never gets boring.
- swiftcoder 4mo agoIn British English the "an" is correct, even though most English dialects don't actually render the H as silent. It's a French-derived word that had a silent H originally, ergo we use "an".
- NuclearPM 4mo agoThat’s ridiculous. British people have been butchering English for far too long.
- UltraSane 4mo agoThat would cost as much as a new car.
- bookernath 4mo agoDon't worry, they'll just make cars more expensive
- linguae 4mo agoCome to think of it, modern cars have a lot of electronics such as touchscreens, cameras, and sensors. It wouldn’t surprise me if new car prices are not immune to what’s happening with RAM and storage prices.
- uneoneuno 4mo agoWhy don't people run their AI on their car? Two birds, one fragglerock.
- speedgoose 4mo agoMost cars with AI run their AI locally. Not LLMs though.
- pylotlight 4mo agoI'm pretty sure the vision/hwa reqs for cars is much less than an LLM/genai in general so that doesn't quite work out. But it would be nice to have an AI server with wheels :p
- Brendinooo 4mo agoHow many tokens to the gallon can my car get?
- helloplanets 4mo agoMaxed out 2019 Mac Pro was $50k+. The wheels on that thing were $400. This is a bargain compared to that.
- segmondy 4mo agolate 2027 is a very long time.
- stingraycharles 4mo agoWell yeah but NVidia just released a contender to their silicon and the M6 is probably already set in stone. Best to reshift resources to a great M7 than having a mediocre M6 and M7. (This is assuming Apple will deliver, but this area is one of the biggest ones they have in AI, and they need the developer ecosystem to exist and survive)
- ttoinou 4mo ago192gb or 256gb of RAM would be enough ! We could run real time large MoE models, REAPed for our usage (e.g. english agentic coding), dynamic quant 2-4bits
- Tepix 4mo agoM5 is 153GB/s, M5 Pro 307GB/s, M5 Max 614GB/s. The article didn't state the M5 Ultra won't be released. It will probably provide 1228GB/s of memory bandwidth this year.
- harrouet 4mo agoAt this point and given the cost of memory, it will probably make sense to invest in faster SSD to allow for good performance with less memory