Buckets:
| Single-machine accelerator-memory frontier, 2020–2026 | |
| ========================================================= | |
| Scope | |
| ----- | |
| - Complete laptops, desktops, towers, compact workstations, and deskside AI systems. | |
| - One physical machine only; no networked clusters or rack-scale systems. | |
| - Producers: Apple, NVIDIA, AMD. | |
| - Prices are nominal US dollars at the documented date. | |
| - A configuration is assigned using the price of the complete configured machine, | |
| not the GPU card's price or the product family's base price. | |
| - Storage or unrelated accessories were not added merely to force a machine into | |
| a more expensive band. | |
| Memory definitions | |
| ------------------ | |
| U = unified/coherent memory accessible by the integrated accelerator. | |
| V = VRAM on one discrete GPU. | |
| Σ = aggregate installed VRAM across multiple GPUs in one chassis. This is not | |
| necessarily one contiguous memory pool for a single process. | |
| Bandwidth definitions | |
| --------------------- | |
| Bandwidth values are stored in data/items/*.json under memory.bandwidth_gbps. | |
| For U, the number is the reported unified/coherent memory bandwidth. For V, it | |
| is the reported single-GPU VRAM bandwidth. For Σ, it is the arithmetic aggregate | |
| of the installed GPUs and the item must carry a bandwidth_note. Tiered coherent | |
| memory systems also carry a note explaining which tier is plotted. | |
| Evidence | |
| -------- | |
| quoted = complete-system price/configuration directly documented. | |
| reconstructed = contemporaneous vendor configuration rebuilt from required options. | |
| bom_inferred = the price band is supported by a documented component BOM, but an | |
| exact complete-system checkout/quote was not available. These | |
| points are hollow and marked * in the charts. | |
| Interpretation | |
| -------------- | |
| The editable source of truth is data/items/*.json. The generator expands each | |
| item price_history entry into the CSV source catalog, then derives the annual | |
| and monotonic frontiers from that catalog. The charts show the maximum | |
| documented configuration for each producer, year, and price band. They are a | |
| reproducible documented frontier, not a claim that every worldwide boutique or | |
| private custom build was enumerated. | |
| Extracted memory pricing | |
| ------------------------ | |
| The complete-system price_per_memory_gb metric is still total machine price | |
| divided by accelerator-accessible memory. The separate data/memory_price_sources.csv | |
| file stores source-backed GPU/card prices or same-device memory upgrade deltas. | |
| The generator expands it into data/memory_price_per_gb.csv. That extracted metric | |
| is useful for component economics, but it is not a complete-machine affordability | |
| metric. | |
| Projection charts | |
| ----------------- | |
| data/consumer_memory_linear_projection_2020_2030.csv and the matching projection | |
| chart fit one least-squares linear trend per under-$10,000 consumer price band, | |
| then extend those fitted lines through 2030. | |
| data/under_3000_memory_linear_projection_2020_2030.csv keeps the focused | |
| under-$3,000 projection as a compatibility output and separate detail chart. Both | |
| projection views are explicit scenario assumptions, not source-backed future | |
| product data. | |
| Important Apple correction | |
| -------------------------- | |
| The 512GB M3 Ultra Mac Studio was a real 2025 launch configuration and belongs in | |
| the $5,000–$10,000 band at about $9,499. It is not the current 2026 Mac Studio | |
| configuration. Apple's current US specifications list the M3 Ultra at 96GB with | |
| memory not configurable; the current 128GB Apple point in the $5,000–$10,000 band | |
| comes from the M5 Max MacBook Pro. | |
| Generated files | |
| --------------- | |
| - data/items/*.json: editable complete-system item records with price history | |
| - data/memory_price_sources.csv: source-backed GPU/card or same-device memory upgrade prices | |
| - data/memory_price_per_gb.csv: generated extracted-memory USD/GB rows | |
| - data/consumer_memory_linear_projection_2020_2030.csv: linear projections | |
| for the under-$10,000 consumer best-so-far memory frontiers | |
| - data/under_3000_memory_linear_projection_2020_2030.csv: linear projection | |
| for the under-$3,000 best-so-far memory frontier | |
| - ITEM_FORMAT.md and schemas/local_hardware_item.schema.json: item format docs | |
| - verified_system_catalog.csv: every source configuration and evidence grade | |
| - annual_frontier_2020_2026.csv: selected annual maximums | |
| - dominant_frontier_2020_2026.csv: monotonic best-so-far frontier by price band | |
| - dominant_frontier_events_2020_2026.csv: releases and price updates labeled on | |
| monotonic charts | |
| - best_price_per_memory_2020_2026.csv and best_price_per_memory_events_2020_2026.csv: | |
| lowest complete-system USD/GB frontier and labeled events | |
| - best_bandwidth_2020_2026.csv and best_bandwidth_events_2020_2026.csv: | |
| highest source-backed memory-bandwidth frontier and labeled events | |
| - frontier_matrix.csv: compact chart-value matrix | |
| - six producer comparison PNG/SVG chart pairs, one per price band | |
| - space/: static Hugging Face Space bundle generated by scripts/build_static_space.py | |
| - one combined consumer-band best-so-far memory PNG/SVG chart pair | |
| - two linear projection PNG/SVG chart pairs through 2030 | |
| - six monotonic best-so-far PNG/SVG chart pairs, one per price band | |
| - six price-per-memory PNG/SVG chart pairs, one per price band | |
| - six memory-bandwidth PNG/SVG chart pairs, one per price band | |
| - six best-so-far price-per-memory PNG/SVG chart pairs, one per price band | |
| - six best-so-far memory-bandwidth PNG/SVG chart pairs, one per price band | |
Xet Storage Details
- Size:
- 5.45 kB
- Xet hash:
- 2ac43c86605db0928e5f1ba8b1b97a37c891184ce16e093952145442b0d36b4d
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