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The M3 Studio can have 512GB of RAM, the M4 Studio maxes out at 128GB, and the M5 laptop 32GB. I assume the eventual M5 Studio will allow more, but can anyone explain why newer generation chips are getting paired with lower max memory? There must be some marketing/sales reason I don't understand.

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The M3 version of the Studio can have either an M3 Ultra chip with up to 512GB RAM, or an M4 Max with up to 128. And these aren’t different generations of the product, they were announced at the same time: https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2025/03/apple-unveils-new-mac...

My guess is they’re doing this to solve some yield issue. M4 is a more difficult process with worse yield, so harder to make an Ultra version today. M3 has better yield so it’s tolerable to make an Ultra.

Probably either a tick/tok pattern forming, or a “previous gen gets an ultra version” pattern forming.

I see, thank you. I'd have thought the memory size was (mostly) independent of the chip "level" (Ultra, Max, whatever), but my understanding of memory controllers is really limited.

The cynic in me thinks Apple is diverting/prioritizing M4 Mac with 512GB yields for their own internal use first, building out their Apple AI Private Cloud Compute servers

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