Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra for a big leap in performance and AI compute

Re:Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra for a big leap in perfor... by jonplackett on Tuesday August 25, 2026 @05:53PM (#49441213)

I think it’s weird to say Apple is faster than Xiaomi when both are just using arm chips and using TSMC to build them, and this chip is only any faster because TSMC made a smaller node.

I know Apple do some special hardware software integration magic too.

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Re:Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra for a big leap in perfor... by alain94040 on Tuesday August 25, 2026 @06:21PM (#49441492)

Apple is not "just using arm chips". They have been designing their own 100% custom cores for more than a decade.

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Re:Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra for a big leap in perfor... by jonplackett on Wednesday August 26, 2026 @10:25AM (#49449821)

Yes as I said in the comment, I know they do design them - based on arm.

But come on - if they had to use intel’s fab - their chips would be terrible. The reason the m6 is faster is largely because TSMC invented a smaller process node.

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Re:Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra for a big leap in perfor... by NetMageSCW on Wednesday August 26, 2026 @03:29PM (#49454530)

So, so incredibly incorrect.

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Re:Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra for a big leap in perfor... by jonplackett on Thursday August 27, 2026 @04:42AM (#49461710)

Ok so why is m6 only a tiny increment faster.

If they made it on the same node as last time it Would basically be the same speed.

Apple are not wizards. They did the bulk of the work making m1 and the subsequent chips have just been on faster nodes

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Re:Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra for a big leap in perfor... by saagarjha on Thursday August 27, 2026 @04:46AM (#49461736)

Apple is in talks to fab their new chips with Intel. You are very wrong in how their microarchitecture is developed.

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Re:Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra for a big leap in perfor... by jonplackett on Thursday August 27, 2026 @08:12AM (#49463475)

Only because Intel finally has a decent node.

If they made the new m6 but with the fab tech from m1 how much faster do you think it would actually be? My guess is not much.

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Re:Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra for a big leap in perfor... by saagarjha on Thursday September 03, 2026 @04:15AM (#49547285)

You can't actually do this; processors are designed for the node they are fabbed on.

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