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Apple M3 Ultra

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Re: Apple M3 Ultra

#61
Let's say you want to have the absolute max memory(512GB) to run AI models and let's say that you are O.K. with plugging a drive to archive your model weights then you can get this for a little bit shy of $10K. What a dream machine.

Compared to Nvidia's Project DIGITS which is supposed to cost $3K and be available "soon", you can get a specs matching 128GB & 4TB version of this Mac for about $4700 and the difference would be that you can actually get it in a week and will run macOS(no idea how much performance difference to expect).

I can't wait to see someone testing the full DeepSeek model on this, maybe this would be the first little companion AI device that you can fully own and can do whatever you like with it, hassle-free.

Re: Apple M3 Ultra

#62
post #2

> support for more than half a terabyte of unified memory Soldered?

You know that memory can be "easily" de-soldered and soldered at home? The issue is availability of chips and most likely you have to know which components to change so the new memory is recognised. For instance that could be changing a resistor to different value or bridging certain pads.

This viewpoint is interesting. It is not exactly inaccurate, but it does appear to be missing a point. Soldering in itself is a valuable and useful skill, but I can't say you can just get in and start de-soldering willy-nilly as opposed to opening a box and upgrading ram by plopping stuff in a designated spot.

What if both are an issue?

Re: Apple M3 Ultra

#63
post #33
post #2

> support for more than half a terabyte of unified memory Soldered?

It's not soldered, it's _on the package_ with the SoC.

It is _not_ on die. It's soldered onto the package.

There's a good reason it's soldered, i.e. the wide memory interface and huge bandwidth mean that the extra trace lengths needed for an upgradable RAM slot would screw up the memory timings too much, but there's no need to make false claims like saying it's on-die.

Re: Apple M3 Ultra

#64
At 9 grand I would certainly hope that they support the device software wise longer than they supported my 2017 Macbook Air. I see no reason to be forced to cough up 10 grand essentially every 7 years to Apple, that's ridiculous.

Re: Apple M3 Ultra

#65
> support for more than half a terabyte of unified memory — the most ever in a personal computer

AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3995WX released over four years ago and supports 2TB (64c/128t)

> Take your workstation's performance to the next level with the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3995WX 2.7 GHz 64-Core sWRX8 Processor. Built using the 7nm Zen Core architecture with the sWRX8 socket, this processor is designed to deliver exceptional performance for professionals such as artists, architects, engineers, and data scientists. Featuring 64 cores and 128 threads with a 2.7 GHz base clock frequency, a 4.2 GHz boost frequency, and 256MB of L3 cache, this processor significantly reduces rendering times for 8K videos, high-resolution photos, and 3D models. The Ryzen Threadripper PRO supports up to 128 PCI Express 4.0 lanes for high-speed throughput to compatible devices. It also supports up to 2TB of eight-channel ECC DDR4 memory at 3200 MHz to help efficiently run and multitask demanding applications.

Re: Apple M3 Ultra

#66
post #61

Let's say you want to have the absolute max memory(512GB) to run AI models and let's say that you are O.K. with plugging a drive to archive your model weights then you can get this for a little bit shy of $10K. What a dream machine. Compared to Nvidia's Project DIGITS which is supposed to cost $3K and be available "soon", you can get a specs matching 128GB & 4TB version of this Mac for about $4700 and the difference…

There’s an argument that replaceable pc parts is what you want at that price point, but Apple usually provides multi year durability on their pcs. An Apple ai brick should last awhile.

Re: Apple M3 Ultra

#67
post #65

> support for more than half a terabyte of unified memory — the most ever in a personal computer AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3995WX released over four years ago and supports 2TB (64c/128t) > Take your workstation's performance to the next level with the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3995WX 2.7 GHz 64-Core sWRX8 Processor. Built using the 7nm Zen Core architecture with the sWRX8 socket, this processor is designed to deliv…

I suspect that they do not consider workstations to be personal computers.

Re: Apple M3 Ultra

#69
post #65

> support for more than half a terabyte of unified memory — the most ever in a personal computer AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3995WX released over four years ago and supports 2TB (64c/128t) > Take your workstation's performance to the next level with the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3995WX 2.7 GHz 64-Core sWRX8 Processor. Built using the 7nm Zen Core architecture with the sWRX8 socket, this processor is designed to deliv…

> unified memory

So unified memory means that the memory is accessible to the GPU and the CPU in a shared pool. AMD does not have that.

Re: Apple M3 Ultra

#70
post #65

> support for more than half a terabyte of unified memory — the most ever in a personal computer AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3995WX released over four years ago and supports 2TB (64c/128t) > Take your workstation's performance to the next level with the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3995WX 2.7 GHz 64-Core sWRX8 Processor. Built using the 7nm Zen Core architecture with the sWRX8 socket, this processor is designed to deliv…

I don't think that's "unified memory" though.
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