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Comment by alexjplant | Hacker News Reader

Why is the "Ultra" more powerful than the "Max"? I would expect "Max" to mean "maximum" in this context but it seems to mean "directly subordinate to that which is the maximum". This is pretty obviously a point of confusion. Just because other CPU manufacturers do goofy stuff with naming doesn't mean that Apple is exempt from criticism for doing something so obviously bereft of common sense.

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Well then, it's a good thing I didn't say anywhere that they should be exempt from criticism. Incidentally, it's not something I believe. But I do think they are still doing a much better job at naming than other CPU manufacturers, despite the obnoxious Pro/Max/Ultra stuff.

I suppose I commented here because I think people are letting their subjective distaste for those terms sway their opinion of a superior naming scheme.

I would expect the M4 being a newer generation of the chip to be faster than a M3, but apparently that's not what Apple did.

Why would you expect that? Also, the M4 is faster than the M3, but that doesn't mean Apple couldn't or didn't want to fuse two of them together for an M4 Ultra.

Is an Intel 10700K faster than a 12400F? The generations are different but the chips have vastly different capabilities and features.

M4 is the generation. The modifier modifies the generation. M4 Pro is an M4 with some extra pizzaz. M4 Max is an M4 with lots of extra pizzaz.

The M3 vs M4 thing makes sense, but pro vs ultra vs max is ???

…a modifier to the generation, denoting core count and feature set?

Those names don't make it clear.

ultra means beyond. so it can make sense if you choose to. but the choice does suck, imo.

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