Why does this lab test only have marketing materials? They are not even installing linux on a supposedly LLM dev machine
AMD Ryzen AI Halo – $4k AI Dev Kit
161–170 of 274 posts
Re: AMD Ryzen AI Halo – $4k AI Dev Kit
#162Perhaps 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.
Can you explain which benchmarking differences you'd expect to see from this hardware, considering?
Re: AMD Ryzen AI Halo – $4k AI Dev Kit
#163Earlier quoted context omitted.
This hardware was just released this week? The CPU is from last year, but this dev kit is brand new.
Can you explain which benchmarking differences you'd expect to see from this hardware, considering?
None evidently. Why does that matter? I was just pointing out that this hardware was released _this_ year.
Re: AMD Ryzen AI Halo – $4k AI Dev Kit
#16415 square cm box? Wow. Are there similar size, but less powered (and cheaper) workstations? I need a box that can build chromium reasonably fast and I would rather have something portable like this than a PC tower, but this is an overkill at $4k.
>> Are there similar size, but less powered (and cheaper) workstations?
I designed this:
https://github.com/phkahler/mellori_ITX
It's 195 x 190 x 60mm and takes a standard ITX board. You'll need to relocate the hole for the fan depending on your motherboard, but CAD files are available and you only need to change 2 parameters (X,Y of the hole center).
BTW mine was upgraded to 64GB RAM and a 5700G (zen 3 APU) but it died and I'm still trying to bring up a newer board - still socket AM4.
BTW to get the center coordinates of the hole, measure from the edges of the board to the top and bottom of the metal plate under the CPU socket and take their average distance. That plate is symmetric and centered under the hole.
Re: AMD Ryzen AI Halo – $4k AI Dev Kit
#165Eww, LTT.
Re: AMD Ryzen AI Halo – $4k AI Dev Kit
#166Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, equities naturally trend up with economic growth. RAM is up because of a supply shock, as new capacity comes on prices will drop, it’s a commodity.
Yes, in the very long term, but in the medium term where the listed capacities even matter we are not close to that. Really, the cost per gb of vram on flagships hasnt went down since 1080ti and thats not accouting for the recent increases which will likely last for years.
There are some minor exceptions but agreed otherwise. Manufacturers have been excessively using VRAM limitations as a price point distinguisher.
Re: AMD Ryzen AI Halo – $4k AI Dev Kit
#167In case it saves anyone some time (from the article): "The AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395(Strix Halo) processor has been available since Spring 2025 and the Halo doesn’t offer anything new on that front." It has the same 256 GB/s memory bandwidth limit as every board previously, not sure why this is even being released right now as if it's some new fangled thing - you can go get a Framework Desktop for roughly the same price…
This. I bought Framework Desktop in November 2025 with almost these exact specs for ~$2.5k
I had a pre-order in for the 128GB DIY motherboard only model last Oct 2025, but cancelled it and just upgraded my current 5900x rig to 64GB instead and replaced the x370 board with a used x470. Really with I had pulled the trigger, but I honestly am just fine with the performance as is on my current system for now. The Framework should have lasted me just as long, but who knows. Hoping my current rig lasts at last another 4 years..
Re: AMD Ryzen AI Halo – $4k AI Dev Kit
#168Earlier 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.
I was looking at buying hardware for me and as testing ground to learn. With those prices I just nipped out and will just rent in demand at runpod or so.
Absolute insanity
Re: AMD Ryzen AI Halo – $4k AI Dev Kit
#169I really want a 128gb+ machine but it's brutal to be at only 256 GB/s for $4k (especially with the drawbacks of both ARM and AMD). I fear that by the time the RTX Spark comes out it'd have to be $6k, and by the time a 128gb or more machine with 700+ GB/s comes out it'd be at $10k, way out of most consumers' hands. Edit: capitalized gb/s to GB/s.
A Mac Studio is a much better buy in terms of memory bandwidth, but impossible to buy in a 128 GB configuration. Honestly there aren’t great options right now and it’s probably better to wait for the market to be less insane.
Apple already announced that will increase prices.. doubt that Mac studio will stay cheap
Re: AMD Ryzen AI Halo – $4k AI Dev Kit
#170Earlier quoted context omitted.
frontier to laptop runnable open weight so far seems to be ~2 years latency, so maybe there's some hope
For that matter, just getting Chinese DRAM into the market could cool pricing down a lot to oppose the cartel.
Not really. I imagine demand for AI just from China would eat up their entire production let alone demand from the west.
And after all, that demand from consumers.