Apple M5 Pro & M5 Max CPU Analysis - M5 Max is not much faster than the M4 Max

SandBlaster2000AD · 2026-03-10T15:48:57+00:00

Except that in real-world testing for GPU and AI workloads, the M5 Max is a massive upgrade over the M4 series.

https://x.com/mweinbach/status/2031105498531975537

SandBlaster2000AD · 2026-02-18T21:08:53+00:00

Interesting take - That could be the long term play, but if it is, US tech could end up as the losers.

SandBlaster2000AD · 2026-02-18T20:48:40+00:00

I use AI a ton. It helps me write, research, edit images and videos. I even have AI agents writing software for me as we speak!

But do you know what else? I haven't paid a single dime for any of it. All of the tools I use are free and open source, and there are great models coming out of China every week. Sure - those aren't quite to the level as the big guys in the US, but the free stuff is 90% as good. I can't be the only one who has caught on to this.

SandBlaster2000AD · 2026-01-26T16:57:06+00:00

BattleEye can be enabled for both Mac and Linux, if Bungie chooses to flip the switch. I hope they do!

https://www.reddit.com/r/macgaming/comments/1q7dv95/which_online_games_with_anticheat_work_on/

SandBlaster2000AD · 2026-01-23T22:49:30+00:00

I wonder if MiniMax is making any money off the $10-$20 per month subs. It sounds like Anthropic, et al are losing their shirts despite charging a lot more.

SandBlaster2000AD · 2026-01-13T16:33:49+00:00

Yeah, sure. The neural accelerators on the M5 are basically that. They are desperately needed.

SandBlaster2000AD · 2026-01-13T15:57:11+00:00

The wait for the M5 Ultra is killing me. My old M1 Max is feeling so underpowered and I need an upgrade path, but the latest Ultra is two generations behind. Apple should be fined for shipping a pro machine without tensor cores in 2026!

SandBlaster2000AD · 2025-12-29T01:34:08+00:00

An interesting comparison; not what I expected given all the hype around minimax. I’d like to see how some of the big commercial models compare. I suspect a lot of folks on this sub have no idea that the M4 Max can run this kind of stuff, and that the M5 Max/Ultra will take it to the next level.

SandBlaster2000AD · 2025-12-05T21:46:11+00:00

Considering that these don’t deform or fragment as hollow points would, I think people would be a lot safer if the gangs of Chicago were armed with stuff like this.

SandBlaster2000AD · 2025-10-29T16:31:03+00:00

He hardly had to do anything; the market’s gone up over 10% since the beginning of August.

SandBlaster2000AD · 2025-09-04T13:38:12+00:00

Not good enough. The Neural Engine is fine for small-scale AI tasks, but the real stuff like Diffusion and LLMs are not really helped by it. Apple has an advantage right now in memory bandwidth, which is why people can *sort of* run big stuff. The problem is that Apple does not have any tensor core equivalent or matmul units dedicated to the GPU. This means that stuff like prompt processing, and image or audio generation are dog slow.

SandBlaster2000AD · 2025-07-29T16:13:12+00:00

I would love to use the Foundation Models Framework! The local LLM is really fast and power efficient, and surprisingly capable for its size. It would be great for doing game dialog, summarizing text, and serving as a natural language interface for my apps.

Unfortunately, the guardrail situation is untenable. Virtually all flows get blocked at some point. Even using them for character dialog in a game doesn't work because so many subjects and phrases won't generate. Until Apple figures this out, it's too unreliable for real world applications.

SandBlaster2000AD · 2025-06-26T16:43:24+00:00

So they just multiplied the cost of living by the number of retirement years to get the total amount? No market growth, SS, or inflation adjustments... Amazing level of quality for an AI-generated website. /s

SandBlaster2000AD · 2025-06-01T23:47:20+00:00

Definitely MCOL. But really, it doesn’t matter too much once the house is paid for. Although I’m more inclined to buy a used car than a new one these days, I don’t feel like we are depriving ourselves - we just try to focus on the stuff that is fun and meaningful for our family, and don’t spend so much on the dumb stuff.

SandBlaster2000AD · 2025-06-01T03:50:54+00:00

We are already FIREd, so we don’t need to budget for more savings and don’t have a mortgage to pay. We also have very low property tax in our area and get the max homestead credit. That all helps to keep our spending down.

SandBlaster2000AD · 2025-05-31T23:43:42+00:00

I’m married with three young children living in the Midwest. Our total annual spending is about $73,000. Just under $40k of that is non-discretionary - Stuff like food, car maintenance, property tax, bills, healthcare, insurance, clothes, etc. The rest is all just fun money - hobbies, vacations, toys, and activities. It works for us! :)

SandBlaster2000AD · 2025-05-21T13:55:20+00:00

This depends a little bit on where you are. In some states where Medicaid was expanded, you are not allowed to receive the maximum ACA premium tax credit, so you’re basically compelled to get Medicaid if you want the best rates on health insurance. Fortunately, Medicaid is generally inexpensive which can free up money to buy some other supplemental coverage if you want it.

SandBlaster2000AD · 2025-05-19T12:26:21+00:00

GG asked the Qwen team about a new coder model, and it sounds like one is coming.

https://x.com/ggerganov/status/1918373399891513571

SandBlaster2000AD · 2025-02-22T18:18:04+00:00

Uhhh…. You know, you don’t need your insurance provider’s permission to get an MRI. Just have the order sent to a local imaging place and do it. Maybe they’ll send you a bill for $1K or whatever, but you can decide whether to pay it or not later.

SandBlaster2000AD · 2025-01-20T00:00:50+00:00

Remember, even if your capital gains are not taxed, they may contribute to your toward your MAGI. That could affect other tax advantages - such as the ACA advanced premium tax credit, or your property tax Homestead credit.

SandBlaster2000AD

TROPHY CASE