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RTX 5090 and M4 MacBook Air: Can It Game?

scottjg.com

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Re: RTX 5090 and M4 MacBook Air: Can It Game?

#91

Post by Tsiklon »

mywittyname wrote: post #16

> As much as I hate to admit it, step one in most of my projects now is to ask AI about it. Maybe it’ll tell me something I don’t know. Or, more likely, it will tell you something it doesn't know. Reminds me of yesterday, when I was arguing with ChatGPT that the 5070TI was an actual video card. It kept trying to correct me by saying I must have meant a 4070ti, since no such 5070ti card exists.

I argued with GPT-OSS 120B about cascade lake Xeon workstation CPU parts not having a GPU when it vehemently said otherwise

Re: RTX 5090 and M4 MacBook Air: Can It Game?

#93

Post by pjmlp »

hedora wrote: post #90
pjmlp wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Never, a couple of years ago Apple gave up on the server market, that is why having Swift on Linux is so relevant for app developers. Now they gave up on the workstation market that really enjoys their slots for all myriad of cards. Having a thunderbolt cable salad is only for those that miss external extensions from 8 and 16 bit home computer days. Which is clearly what Apple is nowadays focused, if you look back at…

If you want a workstation, you are probably better off building it yourself, or having your local computer store do it. The primary exceptions are AMD strix halos or the nvidia dgx spark. I haven’t seen a non-laughable workstation config from the big vendors since the dot com bubble. Presumably they exist, I guess?

Yes they exist, and business aren't building PCs from parts themselves.

Re: RTX 5090 and M4 MacBook Air: Can It Game?

#94

Post by Moosdijk »

scottjg wrote: post #88
Moosdijk wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It feels pedantic to point it out, but it’s actually 113x faster. Seeing the author present their results like this give off the impression that they’re biased, which I am sure they aren’t.

the exact numbers in the graph are 17019ms vs 142ms. so you're right, it's not 120x, it's 119.85x.

That explains it. Thanks!

Re: RTX 5090 and M4 MacBook Air: Can It Game?

#95

Post by esseph »

hedora wrote: post #90
pjmlp wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Never, a couple of years ago Apple gave up on the server market, that is why having Swift on Linux is so relevant for app developers. Now they gave up on the workstation market that really enjoys their slots for all myriad of cards. Having a thunderbolt cable salad is only for those that miss external extensions from 8 and 16 bit home computer days. Which is clearly what Apple is nowadays focused, if you look back at…

If you want a workstation, you are probably better off building it yourself, or having your local computer store do it. The primary exceptions are AMD strix halos or the nvidia dgx spark. I haven’t seen a non-laughable workstation config from the big vendors since the dot com bubble. Presumably they exist, I guess?

They get features that us plebs buying retail don't get, at prices the vast majority of us wouldn't pay if it were our own cash.

Re: RTX 5090 and M4 MacBook Air: Can It Game?

#96

Post by binarycrusader »

hedora wrote: post #90
pjmlp wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Never, a couple of years ago Apple gave up on the server market, that is why having Swift on Linux is so relevant for app developers. Now they gave up on the workstation market that really enjoys their slots for all myriad of cards. Having a thunderbolt cable salad is only for those that miss external extensions from 8 and 16 bit home computer days. Which is clearly what Apple is nowadays focused, if you look back at…

If you want a workstation, you are probably better off building it yourself, or having your local computer store do it. The primary exceptions are AMD strix halos or the nvidia dgx spark. I haven’t seen a non-laughable workstation config from the big vendors since the dot com bubble. Presumably they exist, I guess?

DISCLAIMER: Only speaking for myself, not employers or affiliates.

I've been pretty darn happy with the Puget Systems custom workstation I ordered last year before the memory craze started (especially since it has 192GiB of DDR5).

I also ordered another family member a custom "Tiki" system from Falcon Northwest and that has also been quite excellent from what I've seen and they've told me.

Now is obviously not the most economical time to order a new system, but when it is appropriate (and for what it's worth) I think those are two great system builders.

Re: RTX 5090 and M4 MacBook Air: Can It Game?

#97

Post by geerlingguy »

I came into the post thinking it would be running a VM through the slow tinygrad driver... but this is much, much better.

It'd be amazing if Apple would provide better support, and allow more than that 1.5 GB window to make this easier. Arm overall has some quirks with PCIe devices, but at least in Linux, it's gotten so much easier since most modern drivers treat arm64 as a first class citizen.

Re: RTX 5090 and M4 MacBook Air: Can It Game?

#98

Post by fragmede »

hedora wrote: post #90
pjmlp wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Never, a couple of years ago Apple gave up on the server market, that is why having Swift on Linux is so relevant for app developers. Now they gave up on the workstation market that really enjoys their slots for all myriad of cards. Having a thunderbolt cable salad is only for those that miss external extensions from 8 and 16 bit home computer days. Which is clearly what Apple is nowadays focused, if you look back at…

If you want a workstation, you are probably better off building it yourself, or having your local computer store do it. The primary exceptions are AMD strix halos or the nvidia dgx spark. I haven’t seen a non-laughable workstation config from the big vendors since the dot com bubble. Presumably they exist, I guess?

Just because you're cheap and don't value your time, doesn't mean they don't exist.

Re: RTX 5090 and M4 MacBook Air: Can It Game?

#99

Post by bigyabai »

lowbloodsugar wrote: post #85
zer0zzz wrote: post #51

Once egpus work on Apple Silicon there will be little reason to own a pc

Just built a workstation with an older Threadripper Pro. It has 128 PCIE lanes, for 7 16-lane PCIE slots. An egpu has 4. I have one GPU, at x16, and I can add more. Most people don't need that, but most people don't need an eGPU either. The number of gamers who would switch to Macbook+eGPU is negligible. It's just not compelling. For LLMs, hanging a 5090 off the thunderbolt port makes prompt processing fast, but I wi…

> The number of gamers who would switch to Macbook+eGPU is negligible. It's just not compelling.

This. eGPUs fade in and out of relevance every few years, and even back in the Intel Macbook days there were people advocating for eGPU gaming with Bootcamp. It was a terrible solution, there is every reason to avoid macOS with a dGPU when you have something like Linux or even Windows as an alternative.

Re: RTX 5090 and M4 MacBook Air: Can It Game?

#100

Post by pat_space »

arjie wrote: post #74

Wait, this is incredible. I have a spare 5090 lying around and run a claw-like on my M4 Mini. Just plugging it into some sort of 3D print frame for stability and plugging it into the TB port might get me a pretty viable tool for local inference. Would need something neat to ensure the power etc. is well fed. The problem is `max-num-seqs` and `max-model-len` fight each other, and unless you're in the pure single-clien…

If you get too busy to take advantage, I'll take that spare 5090 off your hands, free of charge :)
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