DavidSchaub
I'm just this guy, you know.
Here's an exciting RAM Chart of Apple's cheapest consumer laptop base SKUs. Graphing the inflation-corrected price over time against the logarithmic scaled RAM capacities.
My main conclusion is: laptops are pretty darn affordable these days, and the MacBook Neo is a great value.
@Eric_Neue@indieweb.social @ianRobinson@mastodon.social @atpfm@mastodon.social
Beyond latency concerns, this doesn't solve the Thunderbolt bandwidth problem (being 1/4 of max PCIe slot bandwidth).
What I think Apple needs to do is:
-
Add "bonded multiple cable connections" to the Thunderbolt spec to allow 2-4 Thunderbolt cables between a Mac and a PCIe card slot chassis.
-
Then ship such a chassis for $1999 :)
The tradeoff is: a 16-lane PCIe card always has the potential for 4x the bandwidth as ThunderBolt (which has traditionally using only 4-lanes of PCIe).
I'm sure there are lots (a few hundred?) of niche users which Apple is kicking off the platform, who use:
- high end networking;
- high end video / audio;
- high end storage;
- who knows what other shockingly small niches out there.
I'm sure Apple's making the right business choice.
@dluz@hachyderm.io @atpfm@mastodon.social @marcoarment@mastodon.social
I would add, the M-Pro can't easily go away because it's primary value is:
- price, and
- power/thermals.
The M5 being powerful is immaterial. There are price points and power/thermal envelopes in Apple's product matrix that need filling.
The M3 was embarrassing; but otherwise, the Pro is so much cheaper than the Max, it likely deserves to keep existing.
The only threat to the M5 Pro, Max, and Ultra is: If the M6 lineup is ready as soon as the rumours suggest.
@atpfm@mastodon.social
@siracusa@mastodon.social
Here's a new fun RAM chart, including the MacBook Neo.
Apple's Macbook Neo looks great for the price.
I would have accepted a poorer display for 12 GB of RAM, and the USB-C ports need some work.
Great that the most important wishcast is done... FOUR to go:
Has anyone heard any real data on the configuration of Apple's M5 chiplets?
I'm left guessing:
Maybe I closed my eyes too quickly due to how ugly the design was and how horrible the buttons felt?
If Apple is going to extend their higher-end laptop line-up, maybe they should REALLY extend it:
Here's a table of the possible price points of the M6 lineup, including a wishcast 18" model.
Does anyone know how Apple's chiplet fusion dies are configured?
I'm tempted to guess that they are:
- the CPU cores die;
- the GPU and Additional memory controllers die.
So we have:
- 2 bins of the same main die design across the M-Pro and M-Max;
- 3 or 4 separate GPU / Memory Controller die designs across lineup.
... which is really the proper way of doing how Apple chopped the M1-Pro vs M1-Max?
Maybe possible die designs like this?
I feel the opposite of corruption is bureaucracy, but everyone keeps saying they hate bureaucracy.
So which do people want more:
With the Mac Pro being discontinued...
There are users with use cases that the Mac Studio cannot do.
Do you think:
- Apple would make an Apple branded external ThunderBolt PCIe card chassis?
- Apple would extend the Thunderbolt spec to allow bonded parallel Thunderbolt connections to mitigate how slow TB is vs PCIe (i.e. 1/4 the speed)?
