Another Framework Desktop clone.
AMD Ryzen AI Halo – $4k AI Dev Kit
151–160 of 274 posts
Re: AMD Ryzen AI Halo – $4k AI Dev Kit
#152I have a Strix Halo device, and like it, but at this price, might as well buy the Nvidia-based ASUS GX 10, if you're buying it for AI. CUDA remains the stronger ecosystem. The AMD is a better desktop machine, as it has a better CPU, but the Nvidia will be a little faster and a little better supported for inference and training workloads. You can almost always do the same things with ROCm, but you're going to work a l…
I ... don't find the Ubuntu on my Spark to be dogshit? It's ... fine? It's just Ubuntu. Hasn't given me any grief and it's so far the only vendor I've seen that actually ships a properly supported Linux on an ARM64 device for Linux, so there's that. I use my ASUS GX10 as my daily driver, my primary workstation. Only thing that doesn't work for me on it is Spotify (probably some DRM thing). Oh, and there's no Signal A…
The unusual bootloader and custom hardware makes modifying and upgrading the OS a challenge. I work on robots that need a custom OS image loaded on the machine. The Nvidia Ubuntu version makes that a huge pain in the ass. They've got binary-only drivers that have to be there, the install/upgrade process is finicky and prone to failure (always recoverable, so far, but all the techs in production I work with have a hard time with it and have to be walked through it, as it's just so alien to folks who work with regular PCs most of the time).
Let's just say if I had my druthers, I would not choose Ubuntu, and I really wouldn't choose the Nvidia/ARM spin of Ubuntu. The Strix Halo has the benefit of being entirely a normal x86_64 PC that happens to also have a big chunk of unified memory. You can put pretty much anything on it. Any Linux, regular Windows, probably even a BSD (though good luck getting AI stuff working there).
But, as I said, if you're spending $4000 exclusively for inference and AI workloads, you might as well get the Nvidia-based unit. It is better for that.
Re: AMD Ryzen AI Halo – $4k AI Dev Kit
#153Earlier quoted context omitted.
I run DSv4 Flash at home on 2 DGX Sparks and am pretty sure there is no more cost effective way for me to do so. I'm not interested in running smaller models.
What's the tokens/sec you're getting on that setup (genuinely curious because it's a setup I haven't actually run myself)?
Using regular DeepSeek-V4-Flash, I see 2000tok/s prompt processing and from 40 to 50 tok/s generation. Performance doesn't drop much at long contexts, DSv4 is really nice for that.
With DeepSeek-V4-Flash-DSpark (Deepseek's new speculative decoding scheme), which is still barely supported anywhere, we're seeing a more steady 45-55 tok/s with bursts into the 60s.
Re: AMD Ryzen AI Halo – $4k AI Dev Kit
#154Earlier quoted context omitted.
What's the tokens/sec you're getting on that setup (genuinely curious because it's a setup I haven't actually run myself)?
Using regular DeepSeek-V4-Flash, I see 2000tok/s prompt processing and from 40 to 50 tok/s generation. Performance doesn't drop much at long contexts, DSv4 is really nice for that. With DeepSeek-V4-Flash-DSpark (Deepseek's new speculative decoding scheme), which is still barely supported anywhere, we're seeing a more steady 45-55 tok/s with bursts into the 60s.
> from 40 to 50 tok/s generation
That's actually much better than I would have thought!
Thanks for the answer and it does make this approach make more sense as a budget solution to running larger models locally.
Re: AMD Ryzen AI Halo – $4k AI Dev Kit
#155Earlier quoted context omitted.
For that matter, just getting Chinese DRAM into the market could cool pricing down a lot to oppose the cartel.
No it won't because Chinese DRAM manufacturers have relatively low capacity and it's already being used. And in an auction, prices from different suppliers converge.
Because China can't ramp up production at all... no means to do so... they aren't even working on it at all.
Re: AMD Ryzen AI Halo – $4k AI Dev Kit
#156Earlier quoted context omitted.
This. I bought Framework Desktop in November 2025 with almost these exact specs for ~$2.5k
I got the EVO-X2 for $1,599! In 44+ years of buying computers, I've seen some appreciation, but nothing like this. Going from $1,599 to ~$3,500 in a year is just insane.
128GB of the most in demand chip on the planet will do that to you.
Re: AMD Ryzen AI Halo – $4k AI Dev Kit
#157Perhaps if less spending went towards their private aviation interests LTT labs could review a piece of hardware that was released _this_ year, or maybe extend their narrow testing process to cover real-world use metrics like TTFT. Not to mention the lack of real value-perf comparison to CUDA
This hardware was just released this week? The CPU is from last year, but this dev kit is brand new.
Re: AMD Ryzen AI Halo – $4k AI Dev Kit
#158I got a Beelink GTR 9 Pro for $1980. These Strix Halo systems were a good deal at $2k when the alternative was a DGX Spark (which is similarly memory-constrained, but has about twice the iGPU processing power of the Radeon 8060S, having as many CUDA cores as an RTX 5070) for $4k. The pitch was basically "half the GPU compute (negative), x86 instead of ARM (positive), but no CUDA (negative), for half the price (positive), but you also don't get the ConnectX-7 NIC (negative)". These more or less balanced out to being worth it if you wanted a single-node system that could also double as a generic x86 homelab server once it was obsolete for LLM workloads.
These days, you can get a DGX Spark for $4.7k, so yes, the price has risen, but Strix Halo (with a few exceptions like the Bosgame and Corsair systems) $4k (or more!) is simply not a very good deal. If I were buying new right now, I'd 100% go DGX Spark without even thinking about it.
Gorgon Halo (releasing this fall/winter) is allegedly coming with 3GB memory chips, enabling a 192GB maximum unified memory SKU, alongside minor (100MHz) clock bumps in the iGPU and CPU, plus memory bumping from 8000 MT/s to 8533 MT/s (matching the MBW of the DGX Spark), and is otherwise unchanged. I fear these will be $5000+. At $3000, these would be awesome. At $5000, not so much.
Re: AMD Ryzen AI Halo – $4k AI Dev Kit
#159Ok, but can it run crysis?
Re: AMD Ryzen AI Halo – $4k AI Dev Kit
#160This site is pretty awesome