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Apple M3 Ultra

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Re: Apple M3 Ultra

#401

Post by NorwegianDude »

bilbo0s wrote: post #232
BonoboIO wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A factor of 100 faster in compute … wow. It will be interesting when somebody will upgrade the ram ram of the 5090 like they did with 4090s

They’re a bit confused and not comparing the same compute. Pretty sure they’re comparing Nvidia’s gpu to Apple’s npu.

I'm not confused at all. It's the real numbers. Feel free to provide anything that suggests that the TOPS of the GPU in M chips are faster than the dedicated hardware for it. But you can't, cause it's not true. If you think Apple added the neural engine just for fun then I don't know what to tell you.

You have a fundamental flaw in your understanding of how both chips work. Not using the tensor cores would be slower, and the same goes for apples neural engine. The numbers are both for the hardware both have implemented for maximum performance for this task.

Re: Apple M3 Ultra

#402

Post by diggan »

aurareturn wrote: post #365
hedora wrote: post #349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s a laptop part, so it makes different tradeoffs. Somewhere on the internet there is a tdp wattage vs performance x-y plot. There’s a pareto optimal region where all the apple and amd parts live. Apple owns low tdp, AMD owns high tdp. They duke it out in the middle. Intel is nowhere close to the line. I’d guess someone has made one that includes datacenter ARM, but I’ve never seen it.

High TDP? You mean server-grade CPUs? Apple doesn't make those.

Isn't the rack-mounted Mac Pro supposedly "server-grade" (https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-mac/mac-pro/rack)?

At least judging by the mounts, they want them to be used that way, even though the CPU might not fit with the de facto industry label for "server-grade".

Re: Apple M3 Ultra

#403

Post by dwedge »

officeplant wrote: post #340
dwedge wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been buying and using MBP for 6 or 7 years now, and just assumed I could run Linux on one if I wanted to. I just spent a couple of days trying to get a 2018 MBP working with Linux and found out [edit to clarify] that my other ARM MBP basically won't work. I just want a break from MacOS, I'll be buying a Thinkpad and will probably never come back. This isn't my moaning, I understand it's their market, but if thei…

Loved my M1 mini, loved my M2 air. I've moved on to 2024 HP Elitebook with an AMD R7 8840U, 1TB replaceable NVME, 32gb of socketed DDR5. 14in laptop with a serviceable enough 1920x1200 matte screen. $800 and a 3 hour drive to the nearest Microcenter. I gave Apple another try (refused apple from 2009-2020 because of the nvidia era issues) and I just can't stomach living off of piles of external drives anymore to make…

I'm not really moaning about the cost or lack of upgradability. I mean, I don't like it but at least you know what you're getting into. I just always assumed Linux as a backup was an option, and more and more OSX is annoying me (last 2 or 3 days it keeps dropping bluetooth for 30 seconds) and more and more I just find the interface distracting. Plus whether it works with external displays over USB C is a crapshoot.

I'll miss the battery life of the M1 chips, and I'm going to have to re-learn how to type (CTRL instead of ALT, fn rarely being on the left, I use fn+left instead of CTRL A in terminals) but otherwise, I think I'm done.

Re: Apple M3 Ultra

#404

Post by ta988 »

smith7018 wrote: post #377
dheera wrote: post #375

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It will cost 4X what it costs to get 512GB on an x86 server motherboard.

You can build an x86 machine that can fully run DeepSeek R1 with 512GB VRAM for ~$2,500?

You will have to explain to me how.

Re: Apple M3 Ultra

#405

Post by dwedge »

least wrote: post #395
dwedge wrote: post #369

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Something like the brightness buttons not working, or sleep being a little erratic is ok. No released wifi drivers, bluetooth issues, and audio and the keyboard not working are not ok. Apple going backwards in terms of supporting Linux is not something I'm ok with.

There are wifi drivers; you just have to install them separately because they use broadcom chips. It's a proprietary blob. The other things do work, but it requires special packages and you'll need an external keyboard while installing. It's a pain to install, for sure, but it's not insurmountably difficult to get it installed. Apple Silicon chips are arguably more compatible with Asahi Linux [1], but that's largely…

I know there are wifi and keyboard drivers, because the live boots and installers work with them, but then when it comes to installing they're gone. I know it's not insurmountable, and 10 years ago I'd have done it, but I spent a few hours and got sick of it. I agree with you that it's probably better to get another laptop.

Re: Apple M3 Ultra

#406

Post by PaulHoule »

burnerthrow008 wrote: post #374
PaulHoule wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That article says you can connect them through the Thunderbolt 5 somehow to form clusters.

I wonder if that’s something new, or just the same virtual network interface that’s been around since the TB1 days (a new network interface appears when you connect two Macs with a TB cable)

Well already it is faster than GigE...

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/10/os-x-10-9-brings-fas...

Thunderbolt is PCIe-based and I could imagine it being extended to do what https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compute_Express_Link and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/InfiniBand

Re: Apple M3 Ultra

#407

Post by screye »

How does the 500gb vram compare with 8xA100s ? ($15/hr rentals)

If it is equivalent, then the machine pays for itself in 300 hours. That's incredible value.

Re: Apple M3 Ultra

#408

Post by valine »

FloatArtifact wrote: post #392
valine wrote: post #378

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably helps that models like deepseek are mixture of expert. Having all weights in VRAM means you don’t have to unlod/reload. Memory bandwidth usage should be limited to the 37B active parameters.

> Probably helps that models like deepseek are mixture of expert. Having all weights in VRAM means you don’t have to unlod/reload. Memory bandwidth usage should be limited to the 37B active parameters. "Memory bandwidth usage should be limited to the 37B active parameters." Can someone do a deep dive above quote. I understand having the entire model loaded into RAM helps with response times. However, I don't quite un…

With a mixture of experts model you only need to read a subset of the weights from memory to compute the output of each layer. The hidden dimensions are usually smaller as well so that reduces the size of the tensors you write to memory.
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