Earlier quoted context omitted.
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?
New iMac with M4
371–380 of 1001 posts
Re: New iMac with M4
#372I love the innovation Apple has brought with their investment in ARM. That said, I can't imagine buying a computer in the 21st century that can't be opened and upgraded, especially with a price premium attached. I just don't get it. I am in no way trying to be combative, but I'd love to hear a counterpoint that makes sense for these machines.
My guess is the only reason to open and upgrade a computer is if one needs (or wants) to be on the bleeding edge of what local compute is capable of on a day to day basis. With the advent of cloud compute the number of use cases that meet that criteria shrinks every day. With the iMac there is a price premium but what the users is paying for is a computer that just gets out of their way. For them the computer is simp…
Re: New iMac with M4
#373Earlier 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…
Depends where you are in your life, I suspect. A person in college on a tight budget might choose a budget-conscious PC, with an average amount of RAM and a modest hard drive. A few years later, component prices will have fallen and the PC will be showing its age thanks to its modest components. Adding a larger hard drive and more RAM will get a few more years out of it. On the other hand, a mid-career professional p…
Re: New iMac with M4
#374As 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.
Re: New iMac with M4
#375As 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…
Or screen, sound, battery life, cooling, weight...
Are MBPs the best possible configuration out there? Of course not. But they're just much better _mobile devices_ than anything else available.
Re: New iMac with M4
#376As 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…
Integrated memory is important, since CPU GPU bandwidth is often a limiting factor
Re: New iMac with M4
#377As 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.
#OneOfUs #OneOfUs
Re: New iMac with M4
#37816GB base RAM, they finally did it. They also did move the Magic Keyboard and Magic Mouse to USB-C.
Now if only they could figure out how to allow charging the Magic Mouse while it’s being used. I guess that technology is still years away.
> The Apple Mouse 2 also comes with a Quick Charge feature that provides nine hours of use with a two-minute charge.
https://www.jackery.com/blogs/knowledge/how-to-charge-apple-...
Re: New iMac with M4
#379I'm surprised they are still shipping these with 256GB of storage base. I had a Macbook with a ~500GB SSD in 2012 (I installed it), and a 500GB spinning disk in like 2008 (also user installed). A 500GB SSD can be had for <$50 these days, and a 1TB for <$100. Still plenty of profit for Apple, even if they bump up the base storage to 512GB and make 1TB a $200 upgrade...
Re: New iMac with M4
#380As 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.
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
That is a poor example of the thing you’re trying to mock. That exchange is an example of what one should do, it does not deserve derision. dang explained it well: