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Microsoft builds MacBook Pro rival with NVIDIA-powered Surface Laptop Ultra

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Re: Microsoft builds MacBook Pro rival with NVIDIA-powered Surface Laptop Ultra

#201

Post by szundi »

RankingMember wrote: post #189
dboreham wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've used surfaces of various kinds for more than 10 years. Overall they've been significantly less troublesome than the laptops from other major brands I've had over the same period. I put this down to the dogfood eating nature of the Surface. Whoever is responsible for the sound interface driver in a Dell laptop is unlikely to be a user of that laptop and even less likely to have the capability to get Dell to ship…

> Whoever is responsible for the sound interface driver in a Dell laptop is unlikely to be a user of that laptop and even less likely to have the capability to get Dell to ship a fixed version Oh boy, don't get me started on Dell haha. Sure, they've got a better service model (people come to you), but at least in my experience they contract with service people who service multiple brands who can't help but shit-talk…

[dead]

Re: Microsoft builds MacBook Pro rival with NVIDIA-powered Surface Laptop Ultra

#202

Post by nozzlegear »

satvikpendem wrote: post #33
sandworm101 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ya, i dont know of anyone wanting to run very large AI models in a windows environment. Or, frankly, on a laptop. Why not just VPN into a dedicated server?

I do. I can take my laptop anywhere I want, for example to a coffee shop and run a coding model while eating a croissant without worrying about an internet connection, as the term local model implies.

The coffee shop doesn't have wifi?

Re: Microsoft builds MacBook Pro rival with NVIDIA-powered Surface Laptop Ultra

#203

Post by joelshep »

RankingMember wrote: post #170

My experience with Surfaces and, particularly, the Surface Book and its accompanying dock were such that I'd have to be paid to use one again. For example, the dock would get its own updates silently and brick itself randomly and the proprietary magnetic connector between the dock and the computer was prone to a poor connection. I remember many occasions trying to work and my screens just randomly blinking in and out…

Interesting. I've had exactly the opposite experience. The Surfaces I've owned (3 so far, over the last 8 years) have been much more reliable than the other Windows laptops I've used over the same time period (mostly at work). To the point I bought myself one for work and didn't bother trying to expense it because I was so happy to have a laptop I could rely on (and I could use it for personal use once it was "retired"). Not invalidating your experiences, but they've been really solid for me.

Re: Microsoft builds MacBook Pro rival with NVIDIA-powered Surface Laptop Ultra

#204

Post by runjake »

trollbridge wrote: post #185
runjake wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

... yet they still struggle to try and port their code to a newer .net version that does run on ARM. And do a bunch of other work tasks that can utilize this hardware. (But, you bring up a great point, regardless!)

Here is a particularly irritating example. Cabinet Vision, some CAD type of software. Requires ancient .NET. That actually is available for Arm though. Required Jet DB driver 2010, which doesn’t exist on Arm, although it’s only needed for the installer. Requires SQL Server embedded 2012 and 2016, which don’t exist on Arm at all. Yep, both versions. Also required PowerShell version 2, which was deprecated in 2017, alt…

I try to avoid Microsoft products these days (modern dotnet is pretty nice though), but from my past experience, I believe every bit of this and have run into all of these with other software, including the requiring of multiple versions of MSSQL Embedded, which is just unholy.

Re: Microsoft builds MacBook Pro rival with NVIDIA-powered Surface Laptop Ultra

#205

Post by dogma1138 »

my123 wrote: post #128
dogma1138 wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It might be more of a Linux problem than a chip problem…

For the DGX Spark and OEM variants a big issue is that the ConnectX-7 is just not designed to have low power idle but instead to be efficient when loaded. NVIDIA already lowered power draw at idle by 18W with a currently out of tree driver leveraging PCIe hotplug for the NIC earlier this year. I think that quite a bit more people bought those to use them without the ConnectX than what NVIDIA expected.

I’m pretty sure 400 gig nics aren’t in the cards for these thin and lights…

Re: Microsoft builds MacBook Pro rival with NVIDIA-powered Surface Laptop Ultra

#206

Post by jbj »

pancsta wrote: post #60
shlewis wrote: post #37

I will never buy a Surface device ever again. I've been using an SL4 for the last four years with Linux on it, thanks to the surface-linux kernel. It's awful. It feels like it's actively refusing to work properly with Linux. Fair - it's not for Linux, and clearly that is expected with a Microsoft device. I've recently had to call their support for missing rubber feet. I figured I could get the replacement mailed(that…

Linux surface is awful, but also not actually Surface Surface. I did it, it sucked. I went back to windows and everything works primo, exempt its windows. So while I agree, I dont. PSA: wayvnc

What made it awful? I have been using a Surface Pro with fedora as my main portable device for the last 2 years and enjoyed it.

Re: Microsoft builds MacBook Pro rival with NVIDIA-powered Surface Laptop Ultra

#207

Post by chis »

iaaan wrote: post #196

I get that they're pushing AI really hard, but the article bearing so many of the hallmarks of being AI-generated almost feels crass, like there are no humans at the company who feel strongly enough about this device to author 5-6 enthusiastic paragraphs about its features, they had to outsource to something that can somewhat convincingly mimic enthusiasm. Yet I'm supposed to care...

It's also shockingly twitter-nerd-coded. "The cure for token anxiety", it advertises. To be honest it's hard to see why anyone would buy this product so maybe they decided to take a wild swing with the marketing. The only use is people who really, really, want to run models locally vs getting a much cheaper and higher performance result from a cloud host.

Re: Microsoft builds MacBook Pro rival with NVIDIA-powered Surface Laptop Ultra

#208

Post by tacticalturtle »

tanjtanjtanj wrote: post #198
flir wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple does positive scripting ("I understand that must feel frustrating, I had a similar issue once, I'm going to solve your problem"), but at least I can reach a human, even if that human talks like they've been brainwashed by a cult. My ISP has actual techies answering the phone, and their approach is more "well that's a bit crap, I can have an engineer there by Thursday". I've only needed them a couple of times in…

The last time I called Apple the phone service employee hit me with “I understand your issue as I am also a student” when I replied that I wasn’t a student he then followed it up with “Oh, neither am I”

My phone slipped out of my pocket as I was getting into my car, and I unknowingly ran over it.

When I submitted an AppleCare replacement request for it, the employee said “Oh man, I hate it when that happens!” and approved it.

I figure that’s the script, or maybe he had a chronic issue of running over his own phone.

Re: Microsoft builds MacBook Pro rival with NVIDIA-powered Surface Laptop Ultra

#210

Post by trynumber9 »

mizzao wrote: post #130

What is the CPU/GPU architecture of this and how could a collaboration between whoever made it and Nvidia possibly outperform Apple Silicon?

MediaTek designed X925 + A725 CPU. It's already been benchmarked in the GB10 products. It is not even close. Like 0.75x SPECint 2017 of the M5.
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