Apple Releases M6 and M5 Ultra
Apple has unveiled its new M6 and M5 Ultra chips, showcasing significant performance improvements. While prices have increased, the new specifications are impressive.
Apple Releases M6 and M5 Ultra
Prices have risen significantly, but there are gains in metrics.
M6
The M6 is a base chip featuring a 12-core CPU, 12-core GPU, dual 16-core Neural Engine, up to 32 GB of unified memory, and a bandwidth of up to 170 GB/s. According to Apple, it is up to 4.8 times faster in prompt processing compared to the M4. With 32 GB, models ranging from 7B to 14B can comfortably run, and quantized 27-32B models (Gemma 3, Qwen) also fit. The Mac mini with M6 starts at $899.
M5 Pro
The M5 Pro (also in Mac mini, higher configuration) features up to an 18-core CPU, 20-core GPU, up to 64 GB of memory, and 307 GB/s bandwidth. This is suitable for quantized 70B models (Llama 3 70B in 4-bit is about 40 GB). The price starts at $1699.
M5 Ultra
The M5 Ultra (Mac Studio) is in a completely different weight category: it has up to a 36-core CPU, 80-core GPU, up to 512 GB of memory, and 1.2 TB/s bandwidth. This allows for the retention of large models in memory, including heavy MoE. Prices start at $5499, with the top configuration costing $18,000.
Thus, fully utilizing 70B locally is still not feasible unless you happen to be Scrooge McDuck.
Why it matters
AnalysisThis is important as Apple's new chips could significantly impact the performance of AI models and software that utilize these technologies.
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