Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Apple M1 Ultra

apple.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

471–480 of 855 posts

Re: Apple M1 Ultra

#471

Post by upbeat_general »

polyrand wrote: post #258

I think the GPU claims are interesting. According to the graph's footer, the M1 Ultra was compared to an RTX 3090. If the performance/wattage claims are correct, I'm wondering if the Mac Studio could become an "affordable" personal machine learning workstation (which also won't make the electricity bill skyrocket). If Pytorch becomes stable and easy to use on Apple Silicon [0][1], it could be an appealing choice. [0]…

I'm very skeptical of this because until the CUDA strangehold is gone, it will be a pain to develop on. Even if the frameworks themselves support M1's GPU, there are still lots and lots of CUDA kernels that won't run.

I really hope I'm wrong (as someone who owns an M1 Pro chip) but I find it hard to imagine things changing significantly in the next ~2 years unless someone is able (legally and technically) to release a CUDA compatibility layer.

Re: Apple M1 Ultra

#472

Post by Flankk »

MaxLeiter wrote: post #444
jedberg wrote: post #394

Given how low the power consumption is for the power you get, I wonder if we'll see a new push for Mac servers. In an age where reducing power consumption in the datacenter is an advantage, it seems like it would make a lot of sense.

I don’t think this will be the case until they’re more right to repair friendly

Most people don't want to repair, they want to replace. What people really want is a modular computer, the way things used to be. Right to repair is going to force legislation for schematics, at best. Even then I don't think it's going to happen. Like it or not, Apple builds integrated products now. You are the old man grumbling about the iMac not including a floppy drive.

Re: Apple M1 Ultra

#473

Post by gameswithgo »

atq2119 wrote: post #462
kiratp wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My workstation has a 3990x. Our "world" build is slightly faster on my M1 Max. https://twitter.com/kiratpandya/status/1457438725680480257 The 3990x runs a bit faster on the initial compile stage but the linking is single threaded and the M1 Max catches up at that point. I expect the M1 Ultra to crush the 3990x on compile time.

Are both cases compiling to the same target architecture? If not, you may well be comparing the relative performance of different compiler backends instead of comparing the performance of your CPUs. (+ now I see it's rust: how parallel is your build, really?)

that the arm backend is faster to compile for is a legit advantage for the developer though, even if its distinct from cpu perf

Re: Apple M1 Ultra

#474

Post by Domenic_S »

IndrekR wrote: post #449
FridgeSeal wrote: post #365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hahaha good luck getting your hands on a 30xx series card though. Here in Australia, 3090’s go for close to 3k on their own.

I can right now (ok, in the morning actually) walk into a computer store across the road here and buy 3090 off the shelf for 2299..2499€ (different makes and models). Those are in stock and physically on the shelf. Same for lesser cards of same series or AMD RX6000.

Those are scalper prices. Anyone can get a 3090 tomorrow for that price.

Re: Apple M1 Ultra

#475

Post by cpuguy83 »

Macha wrote: post #421
kllrnohj wrote: post #360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The GPU claims on the M1 Pro & Max were, let's say, cherry picked to put it nicely. The M1 Ultra claims already look suspicious since the GPU graph tops out at ~120W & the CPU graph tops out at ~60W yet the M1 Studio is rated for 370W continuous power draw. Since you mention ML specifically, looking at some benchmarks out there (like https://tlkh.dev/benchmarking-the-apple-m1-max#heading-gpu & https://wandb.ai/tcapel…

An M1 Ultra is $2000 incrementally over a M1 Max, so there is no price gap, even with the inflated prices 3090s actually go for today.

Wait, you can get a 3090?

Re: Apple M1 Ultra

#476

Post by altcognito »

paulmd wrote: post #383
altcognito wrote: post #330

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only reason I've ever cared about watts is that generally speaking 120 watt and 180 watt processors require more complicated cooling solutions. That's less true today than it ever was. Cases are designed for things like liquid cooling, and they tend to be pretty silent. The processors stay cool, and are pretty reliable. I personally stick to the lower wattage ones because I don't generally need high end stuff, so…

wattage doesn't really tell you how difficult it is to cool a part anymore. 11th-gen Intel is really easy to cool despite readily going to 200W+. Zen3 is hard to cool even at 60W. Thermal density plays a huge role, the size of the chips is going down faster than the wattage, so thermal density is going up every generation even if you keep the same number of transistors. And everyone is still putting more transistors…

The Zen 3 stock coolers work pretty well. I've never had a problem.

Looking it up though I do see a lot of concerns with the heat they generate. I can only conclude I don't push my chip very hard (which, honestly, I probably don't)

I've been happy with the AMDs I purchased over the past 4 years, we'll see how they hold up and how this next gen comes out. I did see that the recent Intels are quite competitive which is good for everybody.

Re: Apple M1 Ultra

#477

Post by Macha »

cpuguy83 wrote: post #475
Macha wrote: post #421

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An M1 Ultra is $2000 incrementally over a M1 Max, so there is no price gap, even with the inflated prices 3090s actually go for today.

Wait, you can get a 3090?

Yeah. They've been in stock for months here (though the retailers are charging the inflated prices too), e.g. https://www.computeruniverse.net/en/c/hardware-components/nv...

Re: Apple M1 Ultra

#479

Post by momothereal »

unicornfinder wrote: post #363
airstrike wrote: post #347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean I get to save AND have fun building my own PC?

Not to mention if you build your own PC you can upgrade the parts as and when, unlike with the new Mac where you'll eventually just be replacing the whole thing.

I believed that until I realized I couldn't individually upgrade my CPU or RAM because I have a mobo with LGA1150 socket and only supports DDR3 (and it's only 6 years old).

So eventually you still have to "replace everything" to upgrade a PC.

Re: Apple M1 Ultra

#480

Post by t3rabytes »

altairprime wrote: post #391
bobbylarrybobby wrote: post #378

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Part of Apple's historic MO has been to not invest in areas they don't see themselves having a competitive advantage in. Now that they can make gaming happen with a very low wattage budget they may well try to enter that space in earnest.

The difference between an Apple TV and a Mac Mini is essentially how powerful of Apple silicon it has, whether it runs tvOS or macOS, and whether it has HDMI out or not. The Studio is a more compact form factor than any modern 4K gaming console. If they chose to ship something in that form factor with tvOS, HDMI, and an M1 Max/Ultra, it would be a very competitive console on the market — if game developers could be p…

A recent keynote compared an Apple series chip to an Xbox One S, can’t remember which though.
Post reply on HN