Not exactly your average "desk", but still neat.

  In this post, we show how to run the latest frontier-class model — Muse Spark Open, with nearly a trillion parameters — right from your desk, using the latest version of MLX, released today. On a cluster of four Mac Studios, Muse Spark Open generates over 36 tokens per second (see Figure 1), well above average human reading speed. Beginning on a single Mac Studio (up to 512GB of unified memory), then scaling out across multiple Macs with the RDMA over Thunderbolt driver, below we share an overview of the range of models you can now run on Mac Studio.

▲ bensyverson 2 hours ago | parent [-]

Yes, I'm very glad they're doing this, but as of 2026, it's a bit academic. Pricing for the 512GB Mac Studio hasn't even been announced yet, but the 256GB version starts at $9499. So when you start talking about four of those puppies, it's substantial.

Someone else will do the math on how many years it would take to spend $40k on Muse Spark Open via OpenRouter.

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mbreese an hour ago | parent | next [-]

But there are definitely people out there that will need to run these models locally (contractual or legal requirements). By validating a Mac Studio as an option for running local models, it might be the more appealing option.

For most of us though, you're right -- the OpenRouter option is far more cost effective.

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hirako2000 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

It seems Apple figured they could sell more Mac Studios on the basis of frontier local AI models, profit to be made while users haven't figured out the math yet.

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bensyverson 2 hours ago | parent [-]

Don't get me wrong; in the long term I see the price of local inference falling as their chips continue to get 15-20% faster every year, and meanwhile the "intelligence per billion parameter" chart is rising. There will be a magic point where they cross, and "good enough" reaches your phone. That's when Apple starts to drink Nvidia's milkshake.

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cyanydeez an hour ago | parent [-]

Apple and NVIDIA prices are not going to fall.

Their competitors will. Anyone locked into these two ecosystems are willingly going along with it.

	▲	bensyverson an hour ago \| parent [-]
		It’s not about the price of Apple products falling—I was commenting that the price of inference will continue to fall (chips getting faster). If “good enough” inference is in your pocket, this benefits Apple and harms Nvidia.

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bitcurious an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Puts into perspective how cheap the frontier models are via subs or even API.

	▲	mlsu an hour ago \| parent [-]
		You can't really compare API prices though. The cards that they are running frontier models on in the datacenter can service hundreds of simultaneous requests and are at nearly 100% utilization. This thing would sit on your desk and be used to service a single user for a couple hours per day.

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LoganDark 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

There was the M3 Ultra 512GB Mac Studio, though.

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mft_ 2 hours ago | parent [-]

…which is in the region of €20k on eBay, so the calculus doesn’t really shift…

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LoganDark 2 hours ago | parent [-]

It was only like $14k new. Why are you people acting like nobody has this stuff? People were already building clusters when that thing first came out. The research isn't bunk just because the refresh hasn't landed yet, my god.

	▲	unshavedyak an hour ago \| parent [-]
		Maybe you (or i?) missed the point - it wasn't that nobody has those machines, it was that at $40k for 4x the 256GB versions is a substantial price, and so the parent parent was suggesting that it would be compared against OpenRouter. Ie how long would it take someone to spend $40k worth of credits on OpenRouter? I've had the same thought on self hosting for the past 2 years. Eg i could invest $10k into hardware or spend those on credits. I chose credits, because by the time i spend 10k i suspect the market will have dramatically shifted in requirements, compute, etc.