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New Mac Studio with M5 Max and M5 Ultra

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Re: New Mac Studio with M5 Max and M5 Ultra

#231

Post by rafaelmn »

joshstrange wrote: post #7

Due to pricing insanity (not that Apple prices weren’t insane before the ram/ssd shortages) I’m not in the market but I do wonder if my next computer should be a Mac Studio instead of a MBP that lives its life docked. Might be better to just run a Studio and Neo for the very few times I actually need remote capabilities.

I would not use Neo, Air with 24 GB ram should be your minimum because you will want to do some work locally even when you're running a VPN/SSH thin client setup.

I'm currently SSH-ing into my workstation from my M4 Air with 24 gb ram and it's ideal for this flow. Slack/editors/clients/browsers/etc. easily gobble up over 16 GB. I have no more dev tools/compilers/source on my client machines, everything is dockered up on remote workstation in isolated VMs (too much supply-chaining).

My only downside to using a pro is not having 120/4k HDMI port on air and my dock won't support it with Apple (it does with windows)

Re: New Mac Studio with M5 Max and M5 Ultra

#232

Post by frollogaston »

pebble wrote: post #100
ThouYS wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having replaced my MacBook with a Mac Mini, I would reconsider. The MacBook is just such a _complete_ package. Great speakers, great keyboard, fantastic screen, the fingerprint sensor thingy.. Takes a lot of gear to match that

Not an option if you're trying to drive 3 decent screens.

Honestly the screens become more of a liability than an asset to me past 2 (including the laptop screen). I've tried. Even if I'm knee deep in work and have like 4 servers I'm monitoring, my eyes are only going to look at one screen at a time, so it's just extra window management and eye/head/mouse movement to have more screens.

Re: New Mac Studio with M5 Max and M5 Ultra

#233

Post by bewareofscams »

root_axis wrote: post #203
blints wrote: post #12

10 grand for 256GB memory. Likely double that for 512GB, but won't be available or finalized until October. Thunderbolt 5 is highest bandwidth external IO available at 120Gb/s. 1.2TB/s claimed max internal memory bandwidth. Not exactly "future proof" for >1T parameter models but good for targeting specific lower-parameter models, or if you can rely on pipeline parallelism and run a cluster.

There is no "future proof" for >1T param models, there is no present or future where you can run a model that size on consumer hardware.

6 Mac Studios for 100k USD. Consider it a rule of thumb now - 100k to run 1T params, scales linearly.

Re: New Mac Studio with M5 Max and M5 Ultra

#234

Post by blints »

root_axis wrote: post #203
blints wrote: post #12

10 grand for 256GB memory. Likely double that for 512GB, but won't be available or finalized until October. Thunderbolt 5 is highest bandwidth external IO available at 120Gb/s. 1.2TB/s claimed max internal memory bandwidth. Not exactly "future proof" for >1T parameter models but good for targeting specific lower-parameter models, or if you can rely on pipeline parallelism and run a cluster.

There is no "future proof" for >1T param models, there is no present or future where you can run a model that size on consumer hardware.

I don't know that "consumer hardware" is a useful distinction anymore, it's just "what's your budget and what's your speed requirement".

Re: New Mac Studio with M5 Max and M5 Ultra

#235

Post by _zoltan_ »

meric_ wrote: post #182
OneWhereWhy wrote: post #174

The thing that intrigues me the most is this: "Storage performance is up to twice as fast, with a next-generation SSD architecture built on PCIe Gen 6..." This is the first personal computer I've noticed that has PCIe Gen 6 storage. I've only seen enterprise PCIe Gen 6 SSDs up until now. Gen 5 SSDs in consumer devices already have high temperatures and thermal throttling, so I'm worried about how Apple's implementati…

Im curious, how often is SSD / storage speed performance really useful? I feel like for many people it's akin to gigabyte wifi in that its nice to have, but not really particularly necessary

it's very very important, not at all something you can compare to WiFi.

data processing, LLMs, model loading, MoE loading, etc, etc relies on very fast storage to keep your GPU saturated.

Re: New Mac Studio with M5 Max and M5 Ultra

#236

Post by WASDx »

drnick1 wrote: post #204

Why doesn't Apple make a tower PC with a standard ATX motherboard, power supply, extension cards, etc, like in the old days? That's immensely more upgradable, easier to cool, and I don't believe most people expect their desktops PCs to be tiny.

The memory and GPU are integrated into the CPU so those can't be upgraded anyways. That's also how the memory can be so fast (shorter physical distance).

Re: New Mac Studio with M5 Max and M5 Ultra

#237

Post by jasode »

4fterd4rk wrote: post #225
jasode wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I do wonder if my next computer should be a Mac Studio instead of a MBP that lives its life docked. Having owned 3 MacBook Pros since 2008, the decision to make my next computer be a Mac Studio came down to (1) MacBook thermal throttling that slows down CPUs when it starts to overheat and (2) easier upgrade of Mac Studio SSD with after-market storage module whereas the MacBook requires more complicated disassembly a…

You don't want a computer that does thermal throttling but also do not like it when the fans turn on?

>but also do not like it when the fans turn on?

Sorry for not being clearer. I don't like the MacBook's noise when the fans turn on.

The Mac Studio has bigger heat sinks to delay the need for thermal management -- and if its fan does need to turn on, the bigger size means it's still silent instead of the high-pitched whooshing noise the tiny fans make in the MacBook.

Re: New Mac Studio with M5 Max and M5 Ultra

#238

Post by nullfern »

joshstrange wrote: post #7

Due to pricing insanity (not that Apple prices weren’t insane before the ram/ssd shortages) I’m not in the market but I do wonder if my next computer should be a Mac Studio instead of a MBP that lives its life docked. Might be better to just run a Studio and Neo for the very few times I actually need remote capabilities.

Cheap Linux laptop with Tailscale back into the Studio when traveling?

Re: New Mac Studio with M5 Max and M5 Ultra

#240

Post by frollogaston »

nullfern wrote: post #238
joshstrange wrote: post #7

Due to pricing insanity (not that Apple prices weren’t insane before the ram/ssd shortages) I’m not in the market but I do wonder if my next computer should be a Mac Studio instead of a MBP that lives its life docked. Might be better to just run a Studio and Neo for the very few times I actually need remote capabilities.

Cheap Linux laptop with Tailscale back into the Studio when traveling?

No iTerm2, weird shortcuts, random issues in video calls?, also not really cheap to get a laptop that reliably works with Linux and has decent battery life
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