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New iMac with M4

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Re: New iMac with M4

#351

Post by SahAssar »

Teever wrote: post #196
mjlee wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Especially egregious when you consider older iMacs could be used as external displays - https://support.apple.com/en-gb/105126

I'd love to see a regulator mandate that computers like the iMac that have built in screens must have HDMI ports that allow them to be used as monitors. This would be great for the consumer and prevent a lot of ewaste as people can use obsolete computers as monitors well past their useful lifespan as a monitor.

HDMI might be a bit more complex, but displayport should be doable since most devices use embedded displayport (eDP) anyway for their built in displays. I'm guessing the main cost would be adding a switching chip for switching between external and internal source.

Re: New iMac with M4

#352

Post by rsynnott »

crossroadsguy wrote: post #271
bhouston wrote: post #261

I guess it is just me, but I cannot stand working on small screens on the desktop. I will accept a small screen on a laptop because it is inconvenient carrying around something larger, but on a desktop, there is no reason to compromise. I use a 48" OLED with my MacBook Air M3 and for me that is a near ultimate web development experience both on desktop and when travelling: https://bsky.app/profile/benhouston3d.bsky.s…

I tried couple of monitor sizes and anything above 27-28 inches came across as downright inconvenient for work at least for me. Also, 4K was not great at all. 2K was. It was opposite of how I want my TV.

Yeah, 27” was about the sweet spot for me. We now have 32” monitors at work, and I find them a _little_ uncomfortable to use. Depends on your field of view, I suppose.

Re: New iMac with M4

#353

Post by sleepybrett »

lisper wrote: post #223
simonw wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, that's my biggest complaint with iMacs: I want to be 100% certain I can repurpose them as monitors later in their lives. I have a ten year old iMac at the moment that would make an amazing second monitor... but it doesn't quite have the features I need to use it like that. An HDMI input would be great.

> An HDMI input would be great. There is a reason that is difficult to do: the licensing terms for HDMI require manufacturers to put DRM in place to make it impossible (or at least not straightforward) to record from an HDMI source. It's nearly impossible to meet that requirement on a computer.

They could design it in such a way that the hdmi input port bypasses the whole 'computer' and goes straight into the display board. If it's plugged in the 'computer' could either not boot or just run headless, i'd prefer the former (just to save on energy costs).

Re: New iMac with M4

#354

Post by mescalito »

djoldman wrote: post #267
015a wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We should do a "Most HackerNews HackerNews Comment Of The Year" award each year; in homage to the O.G. [1]. I'd like to nominate this comment. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224

Hrm. My OG vote goes to: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35079 > pg: That has to be the comeback of all time.

Why can't I see this comment when viewing the original article?

Re: New iMac with M4

#355

Post by seabird »

Der_Einzige wrote: post #219
simonw wrote: post #144

As someone who mucks around with running LLMs and other large models on my computer the 32GB maximum RAM is a show-stopper for me. I'm on a M2 with 64GB at the moment and I'm already regretting not going for 96 or even 128. I want to be able to run a large model AND other apps at the same time.

I really wish that "elite" LLM folks like yourself or many others in the field would just abandon apple/mac. Yes, they make better laptops from a hardware perspective. No, M series chips are not actually competitive with Nvidia hardware on anything except cheap (and relatively slow) inference of big models. The fact that windows laptops are considered DOA despite the insane amount of inertia behind Nvidia GPUs is jus…

Most of the world is x86/Windows machines, developers included. I would bet that for every MacBook issued there's at least a hundred Precision/Latitude/ThinkPad/Optiplex machines that went into someone's hands. The Apple hard-on is from a specific region and culture where the technical "elites" have made a bajillion dollars working on shitty phone apps and other such light work where it's possible for your trackpad/keyboard to be the biggest issue. It sounds a bit mean-spirited, but I think it's pretty telling that as the gravity of the work increases, you see less and less Apple products being used to do it.

Re: New iMac with M4

#356

Post by stouset »

wongarsu wrote: post #315
stouset wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And frankly, the “upgradeability” of most desktops is a myth in my experience. By the time I’ve ever wanted to upgrade a Windows or Linux PC, a new CPU probably isn’t going to fit into the same socket as the one I had so now I need a new motherboard too. I probably want a new GPU if it was a gaming PC and if it wasn’t I would be using an integrated GPU anyway. I think the only thing I’ve ever kept from an “upgrade” w…

If you want a new CPU after a decade it's absolutely as you describe: you need a new mainboard and probably new memory (DDR5 just came out), and end up keeping only the case, drive, case fans and PSU, if that. For other components it mostly works. You can smoothly upgrade from 8GB RAM all the way to 128GB, get a new GPU, whatever the current WiFi standard is, more silent cooling, more, bigger or faster drives, etc. I…

I have been building and upgrading PCs for like thirty years, from 10 to 40 and through varying degrees of expendable income. I genuinely cannot ever remember there being a time where it made sense to upgrade a single component.

I’m not going to say it doesn’t make sense to do so for anyone, but it certainly wasn’t in my experience.

Re: New iMac with M4

#357

Post by _fw »

andrewmcwatters wrote: post #221
simonw wrote: post #144

As someone who mucks around with running LLMs and other large models on my computer the 32GB maximum RAM is a show-stopper for me. I'm on a M2 with 64GB at the moment and I'm already regretting not going for 96 or even 128. I want to be able to run a large model AND other apps at the same time.

I own a MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2021) Apple M1 Max 64 GB. I'm just adding to this that at the time of purchase, this was Apple's top-of-the-line MacBook Pro model, and it's just not that great, in my opinion. Apple's new hardware pales in comparison to the relative abilities of what features existed on a 27-inch iMac with Retina 5K Display 10 years ago. All of the power of modern computers come primarily from their GPU…

Can you elaborate on this? It’s my understanding that the CPU alone on that machine even blows the iMac Pro out of the water in terms of performance.

Can you share where you’re finding inadequate performance? Genuinely curious to know

Re: New iMac with M4

#358

Post by shrubble »

xyst wrote: post #91

An arbitrary limit of 32G of memory? Laughable. Glad I exited the Apple ecosystem long ago. Only have 2-3 year old machines now. Current phone is “free” from carrier due to trade ins. I think Apple should shift away from personal computing (iMac, MBP/A, iPhone) and focus on selling their SoC. Get these into data centers. Powering a data center with their chips would likely result in significant decrease in power cons…

Apple has very little understanding of Enterprise and Datacenter markets. They proved that with the Xserve, despite having some success - they should have "owned" the market by driving down the costs of running, managing and maintaining hardware over the long term - but didn't, or got bored about it, and missed the opportunity.

Re: New iMac with M4

#360

Post by sunshowers »

Wytwwww wrote: post #257
DeathArrow wrote: post #111

Apple makes some dubious claims: > Gamers can enjoy incredibly smooth gameplay, with up to 2x higher frame rates5 than on iMac with M1. What games do run on the Mac? Certainly, most AAA titles do not. >Compared to the most popular 24-inch all-in-one PC with the latest Intel Core 7 processor, the new iMac is up to 4.5x faster. You can build PCs there are more powerful than that Mac, cheaper. And you can easily repair…

> You can build PCs there are more powerful than that Mac, cheaper. And you can easily repair them Why would anyone buy a Porsche? You can buy an F-150 with a >1 ton payload capacity, fit 6 people in it and if you get the EV version it might be even faster than the base config Porsche. The PC will take up a lot of space, use a lot more power, be loud and be look ugly. Some people might care about these things even if…

To be honest it's the Mac that feels clunky, at least compared to Linux. Why does every app have its own updater? Why are the animations so painfully slow?
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