Apple unleashes M5, the next big leap in AI performance for Apple silicon

[Xebec]

There's a PCIe card solution for Macs? Seriously?

hah.. well there are official and unofficial ones --

Mac Pro has real PCIe slots, at least useful if you want a lot of NVMe storage, and for networking cards.

For "lesser Macs" - it's basically thunderbolt to PCIe enclosures, or USB4/TB to external NVMe.

Of course no drivers for eGPUs, or even proper GPUs in the Mac Pro.. at least the last time I looked.

 

[Xebec]

CNN?

LOL - that's exactly my reaction to "CNN" too -- it just happens to be that the logo is REALLY good at testing the burn-in resiliency of OLED monitors .

My son has an LG OLED that's several years old, and no burn in or dimming that's noticeable. Its excellent picture quality annoys me every time I see it, as compared to our circa-2015 70" LCD Vizio that just refuses to die.

Again, no lack of brightness noticed on my son's LG, and the room isn't darkened while he watches sports, which seems like every hour I'm in his home.

Very nice subjective metrics ;-)

OLEDs *look* extra bright because you have superior contrast, so you can easily see the difference between 0% bright pixels and 100% bright pixels. However, the actual brightness is a different story - and measurements show this is a weakness for OLEDs.

If it's a darker room (basement, or generally dark room), OLEDs are bright enough for 99.9% of users. I'm only pointing out that solutions are coming that are "fixing" this weak spot this year and next year - which may or may not be important to the buyer.

If you have nits (brightness) measurements from the TVs - I'd be happy to discuss that .

Do you own an OLED TV which has substantially darkened?

No, for "TV" and my main PC, I use a LG 3840x1600 38" IPS display. It's in a room that has a lot of window glass right behind the monitor, so brightness is important to me. I've looked at a number of OLED replacements (I would like a 5K2K display some day), and none of them match the peak brightness of the IPS display, especially when you have a lot of white on the screen. (The OLEDs tend to hang with 5-10% whiteness, but any higher and the brightness drops off). Also my eyes are getting older and higher brightness is more important than it used to be to me.

LG has also been making updates to subpixel arrangements to improve and resolve "text fringing" which occurs on a number of OLED monitors.

Some info on the tech addressing the subpixel layout and brightness: https://news.lgdisplay.com/en/2025/...ialization-ofblue-phosphorescent-oled-panels/

(Notice the diagram shows a traditional RGB layout instead of RGBW / RWGB and other layouts that cause the text issues and reduce color accuracy).
(+ Feel free to Google "Text Fringing OLED" for endless examples).

 

[blueone]

Very nice subjective metrics ;-)

Yeah, I know. I'm not as metric-oriented with video quality as I am with other technical stuff. Shame on me.

OLEDs *look* extra bright because you have superior contrast, so you can easily see the difference between 0% bright pixels and 100% bright pixels. However, the actual brightness is a different story - and measurements show this is a weakness for OLEDs.

I understand, but the great contrast apparently fools me every time.

If it's a darker room (basement, or generally dark room), OLEDs are bright enough for 99.9% of users. I'm only pointing out that solutions are coming that are "fixing" this weak spot this year and next year - which may or may not be important to the buyer.

If you have nits (brightness) measurements from the TVs - I'd be happy to discuss that .

You're very funny.

No, for "TV" and my main PC, I use a LG 3840x1600 38" IPS display. It's in a room that has a lot of window glass right behind the monitor, so brightness is important to me. I've looked at a number of OLED replacements (I would like a 5K2K display some day), and none of them match the peak brightness of the IPS display, especially when you have a lot of white on the screen. (The OLEDs tend to hang with 5-10% whiteness, but any higher and the brightness drops off). Also my eyes are getting older and higher brightness is more important than it used to be to me.

While I set up a dedicated home theater room for my TV-addicted wife, I watch what little I watch (and a lot of the total are instructional YouTube videos) on my desktop Mac system. The display I use on the Mac system (Wait for it!) is an original Apple Thunderbolt display I bought my wife for her home office in 2011. It still works perfectly (no dead pixels), and the size (27") and the resolution (2560x1440) are sufficient since my eyes are only about three feet from it. The reflective screen is annoying, but not enough to get me to trade up. (Oddly, there's still an active aftermarket for these monitors.) I focus more on the audio side of things, with large desktop monitors and a moderately large subwoofer, which I tuned for a few hours with EQ on the Mac, subwoofer placement, and an OmniMic measurement system to make sure I getting as even a frequency response as possible from about 25Hz and up at my desk chair. Once people are done teasing me about the ancient monitor, I usually play them the standard audio industry test track from Amazon Music, which is Tracy Chapman and her 1980s hit "Fast Car" (I'm not kidding about the industry standard part), and the sarcasm stops. Well, at least it stops for a few minutes. Then they often want to hear their favorite song.

 

[siliconbruh999]

Macs are not more expensive than PCs if you are looking at high end PCs with comparable performance. 5-10 years ago when you bough a Mac you were mostly paying for the Mac brand and aesthetic, but between Intel's stagnation and Apple silicon performance improvements, Macs have more than caught up. With Mac you get top of the line performance, battery life, better camera and display quality, and while you pay for all of those things you pay just as much for a PC with similar performance and features.

If you want a cheap laptop, then Mac doesn't really have anything for you because they have chosen not to compete in the low end segment.

Well you forget about the cost to upgrade if you need 512GB Storage you can get a better PC and AMD/Intel are not far behind now Intel/AMD has gained ground in battery life and display quality in fact Intel/AMD laptops have OLED which is superior to Apples Mini-LED Display

 

[Xebec]

Once people are done teasing me about the ancient monitor, I usually play them the standard audio industry test track from Amazon Music, which is Tracy Chapman and her 1980s hit "Fast Car" (I'm not kidding about the industry standard part), and the sarcasm stops. Well, at least it stops for a few minutes. Then they often want to hear their favorite song.

lol -- nothing wrong with enjoying an old screen . I personally struggle with reflections on overly glossy screens, but - the coatings have gotten a lot better over the years at least..

I still spend a few hours each week in my retro-hobby room... 12" CRTs for Atari 8-bit computers, a 19" CRT (+22" LCD) for the Atari Mega STe "workstation", and a 20" Dell 2001FP (ancient LCD) for the Amiga 1200.. The one Mac SE I was given.. I gave away to another friend because no Macs are allowed in that room ;-)