Hate to say it here, but the new Gorgon Halo at it's price today is NOT the value the Strix Halo offered.
I configured a M5 Ultra and a Framework AI Max 400 both w/ 2TB storage.
Hate to say it, but on raw $/GB the two are a wash; on
bandwidth-adjusted $/GB the Mac is ~3x cheaper.
System $/GB │Mac $39.06 | FW $38.07
Memory bandwidth | Mac 1.2 TB/s | FW 273 GB/s
Bandwidth-adjusted $/GB ($ ÷ GB × TB/s)
Mac $32.60 │ FW $140.00
the Mac has 1.33x the memory and 4.4x the bandwidth for only 1.37x the price
while the framework looks $2,690 cheaper, you are not actually getting the same level of value for your investment returned to you.
And since thunderbolt & usb4.0 are pretty dang fast, you can shave another $500 off the Studio by dropping down to a 1TB storage drive and using external storage if you got it.
For local AI.... Apple is starting to look like they want to take NVIDIA and the DGX Spark head on.
It's a HELL of a value.
Oct 1, 2026 · 3:09 PM UTC
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Also, one more reason the Mac might be a better value and I mentioned it here when talking about the Spark, broader resale potential:
Spark rec needs a warning label: this is a hobbyist appliance for people already married to local AI. Not a computer. A religion.
@TheAhmadOsman is right. Buy the GPU.
A Spark is a cute little Linux brick that does one thing and sells to one kind of person. A Mac is a Mac. You can flip it to a designer, a student, a dad who just wants Final Cut. It has a market that exists whether LLMs do or not.
Same with a GPU. Gamers, 3D people, miners-in-denial, AI bros - somebody always wants the card. Liquidity is the feature.
The Spark? Soldered memory, CUDA-or-bust, Linux-or-bust, buyer pool the size of a Discord server.
Short-term you might pawn it to the next wave of local-AI tourists. Long-term it’s a depreciating novelty with no civilian demand.
If you fall out of love with it, you’re not selling a machine. You’re trying to find another convert.
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