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ARM64 Linux Workstation

jasoneckert.github.io

251–260 of 493 posts

Re: ARM64 Linux Workstation

#251

The question is, can you run server workloads on it? It feels like it is obvious choice arm server but someone should be first to try and test it

Yeah.. I really want to get a stack of mac minis and see how far they go as a self hosted k8s environment. Could be a decent approach for cloud cost averse shops with an appetite for DIY.

Re: ARM64 Linux Workstation

#252
post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm wondering if an M1 MacBook would actually have such a good battery life on linux. The processor is very power efficient, but I'd (naively) assume that MacOS's power management probably has a big influence too. In the same way that Linux laptops usually have a bad battery life compared to the same hardware on Windows. How good is Asahi when running similar workloads? And is it possible that it could reach parity w…

Battery life is significantly worse on my m1 pro macbook pro under asahi. I'd estimate about half of MacOS.

Is it worse across the board? Is idle power consumption higher, or is it mostly when under load that it gets worse?

Re: ARM64 Linux Workstation

#253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually think you're onto something with this. When I run compilation workloads on my M1 MBP, I get 3-4 hours battery life. VMs and games (crossover) also bring my battery life down to 4-6 hours. My old intel MBP would get around the same battery life when doing the same workloads (games under bootcamp Windows), it would get worse battery life sitting idle or for optimised workloads (like video playback). Mixed wo…

18 hours battery life is mostly marketing. Not even sure how to test that, maybe on 20% display brightness with no programs running, other than the OS...assuming it doesn't take screenlock/display off into account?

I remember reviews on youtube that showed the macbook air/pro M1 playing video (streaming?) for that long. Actually, it kept going for 20h.

https://youtu.be/KE-hrWTgDjk?t=645

Re: ARM64 Linux Workstation

#254
I’m torn on whether or not to build a Ryzen 7900X workstation or stick with Apple Silicon. I love my M2 Air but want something beefy for my desk. M1 mini is starting to outgrow 16GB of RAM.

Re: ARM64 Linux Workstation

#255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm wondering if an M1 MacBook would actually have such a good battery life on linux. The processor is very power efficient, but I'd (naively) assume that MacOS's power management probably has a big influence too. In the same way that Linux laptops usually have a bad battery life compared to the same hardware on Windows. How good is Asahi when running similar workloads? And is it possible that it could reach parity w…

Installing Linux has had huge wins for me for power usage. Running powertop --auto-tune helps a good bit. I used to fiddle forever but this gets like 80% of the wins. Things like "do we reduce power state of sata links" used to be extremely conservatively set, for fear of really old hardware from the beginning of sata era that behaved badly, but was an obvious &bhige win for 99.999999% of folk. Linux has finally star…

powertop is way underrated. You don't have to know much to get a lot out of it safely.

Re: ARM64 Linux Workstation

#256

I cannot wait for Linux to be fully usable on my Apple Silicon MBP. That is going to be such a killer environment to develop on. Crazy fast hardware, great high refresh screen, insane battery life, fantastic touchpad, gestures and keyboard. There is the potential that Windows games could run on it with some combination of x86 translation and Proton. Using MacOS on it feels like I have a ferrari with square wheels. Wa…

> Want to play games?

This is an interesting topic. I found a surprising amount of games available that run on my new MBA just fine.

Re: ARM64 Linux Workstation

#258

> This January, I installed Asahi Linux on Apple’s most powerful ARM64 system: the Mac Studio with a 20-core M1 Ultra processor and 128GB of RAM Sucker. For the same price, OP could have had TWO Mac Studios Max 10-core with 64GB RAM each, which together would absolutely spank the Mac Studio Ultra 20-core with 128GB RAM. Why are people falling for this!?

I want to respond but I can’t tell if this is a joke or not.

Re: ARM64 Linux Workstation

#259

I'd be curious to see properly done benchmarks against top of the line Intel or AMD machines. I'd be surprised if the Mac was faster. I do understand that people want the Mac for the build quality of the laptop, not just for speed.

It is a bit odd, Apple’s laptop chips are of course very good. But breathless articles like this make me wonder if the author is not aware that Intel and AMD have desktop chips? Especially in single core performance, Intel’s designs are, from the ground up, built on the assumption of higher power budgets. Apple’s “workstation” chips are a bunch of (very good) laptop cores, they can only go so far.

Re: ARM64 Linux Workstation

#260
> Everything works… and works perfectly.

How can this possibly be true when Asahi Linux is still in alpha?

A quick trip to the project page shows lots of hardware features that are still not supported. [1]

It’s not a knock against Asahi Linux - it’s amazing what they have accomplished with a small team. It just seems so misleading for the author to claim that everything works perfectly.

[1] https://github.com/AsahiLinux/docs/wiki/Feature-Support

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