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Just spent £2000 on a PC after 17 years of purely Apple because I wanted CUDA cores for my creative work. If Apple had something like this as an option I'd hav

Just spent £2000 on a PC after 17 years of purely Apple because I wanted CUDA cores for my creative work. If Apple had something like this as an option I'd have easily gone upwards of £4000 to foolishly stay within their ecosystem. Guess my wallet is better off in the universe where Apple doesn't want my custom.

danieldk 10y ago
Yep, when we needed to buy a beefy GPU machine we did consider Apple. But no nVidia (so no CUDA) and no update in years makes it a bad value proposition. So we dropped the money on a Dell (which besides the Tesla processor has far more modern cores and allows more memory).
- adamnemecek 10y ago
  Are the external GPUs viable over Thunderbolt 3 at all http://macdailynews.com/2016/12/01/apples-thunderbolt-3-equipped-macbook-pro-can-use-external-gpus/ http://macdailynews.com/2016/12/01/apples-thunderbolt-3-equi...
  - Lio 10y ago
    They might be. Unfortunately only the new MacBook Pros have TB3 and not the desktops (Mac Mini/iMac/Mac Pro). Performance is said to be OK with TB2 and AKiTiO Thunder2 enclosures but it's still a bit hacky and unsupported in macOS.
  - jamesfmilne 10y ago
    You are constrained by poor Nvidia driver support for new cards on macOS.
Lio 10y ago
I feel very much like doing something similar but I'm reticent to move away from macOS because of privacy concerns. If I moved to Linux I would still need some commercial software available on macOS but not on Linux. The obvious thing to do would be to supplement Linux with Windows 10 but I worry about privacy in Windows 10. This maybe obvious to long term Windows users but I can only find examples from Microsoft about what they collect/track, not a definitive list[1]. Also if anyone knows, I'd also like to find out if it's possible to stop Microsoft Support from remotely accessing files on a Windows 10 machine and if you need a particular version of Windows 10 to do that. e.g. Is Windows 10 Home more or less secure than Windows 10 Enterprise. So for the moment baring in mind I don't do CUDA I'm sticking with my slow old Mac. I should probably should build a dual booting hackintosh but I think if would be a lot of trouble to keep going (and also breaks the licensing terms). [1] https://privacy.microsoft.com/en-us/privacystatement/ https://privacy.microsoft.com/en-us/privacystatement/
- justinclift 10y ago
  There are free utils around to block the telemetry being sent. eg: * https://www.safer-networking.org/spybot-anti-beacon/ https://www.safer-networking.org/spybot-anti-beacon/ * https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10 https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10 Note - I'm not sure if anyone has deeply tested/verified them though. Ideally a good Open Source one would exist. Maybe it does, I just don't know of it yet. ;)
- xori 10y ago
  Take that privacy statement with a grain of salt. That's for microsoft.com accounts. When you install Windows 10 they allow you to create a local-only account and opt out of any data collection.
- universenz 10y ago
  Look into Windows 10 LTSB (Long Term Service Branch). It's rock solid, doesn't auto-update (only critical security patches), as part of the installation process you can switch off everything, doesn't have Edge or Cortana or any other guff. It was made for ATM's and single purpose machines. I use one for my Plex Media Server and XProtect / Sighthound Server etc.. all rock solid. The "apparent" disadvantages listed against LTSB I actually believe are advantages. Like, want new Windows 10 features? Sorry you'll have to reinstall the latest full release of Windows 10.1 LTSB. http://www.howtogeek.com/273824/windows-10-without-the-cruft-windows-10-ltsb-explained/ http://www.howtogeek.com/273824/windows-10-without-the-cruft...

danieldk 10y ago

Yep, when we needed to buy a beefy GPU machine we did consider Apple. But no nVidia (so no CUDA) and no update in years makes it a bad value proposition. So we dropped the money on a Dell (which besides the Tesla processor has far more modern cores and allows more memory).

adamnemecek 10y ago
Are the external GPUs viable over Thunderbolt 3 at all http://macdailynews.com/2016/12/01/apples-thunderbolt-3-equipped-macbook-pro-can-use-external-gpus/ http://macdailynews.com/2016/12/01/apples-thunderbolt-3-equi...
- Lio 10y ago
  They might be. Unfortunately only the new MacBook Pros have TB3 and not the desktops (Mac Mini/iMac/Mac Pro). Performance is said to be OK with TB2 and AKiTiO Thunder2 enclosures but it's still a bit hacky and unsupported in macOS.
- jamesfmilne 10y ago
  You are constrained by poor Nvidia driver support for new cards on macOS.

Lio 10y ago

I feel very much like doing something similar but I'm reticent to move away from macOS because of privacy concerns. If I moved to Linux I would still need some commercial software available on macOS but not on Linux. The obvious thing to do would be to supplement Linux with Windows 10 but I worry about privacy in Windows 10. This maybe obvious to long term Windows users but I can only find examples from Microsoft about what they collect/track, not a definitive list[1]. Also if anyone knows, I'd also like to find out if it's possible to stop Microsoft Support from remotely accessing files on a Windows 10 machine and if you need a particular version of Windows 10 to do that. e.g. Is Windows 10 Home more or less secure than Windows 10 Enterprise. So for the moment baring in mind I don't do CUDA I'm sticking with my slow old Mac. I should probably should build a dual booting hackintosh but I think if would be a lot of trouble to keep going (and also breaks the licensing terms). [1] https://privacy.microsoft.com/en-us/privacystatement/ https://privacy.microsoft.com/en-us/privacystatement/

justinclift 10y ago
There are free utils around to block the telemetry being sent. eg: * https://www.safer-networking.org/spybot-anti-beacon/ https://www.safer-networking.org/spybot-anti-beacon/ * https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10 https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10 Note - I'm not sure if anyone has deeply tested/verified them though. Ideally a good Open Source one would exist. Maybe it does, I just don't know of it yet. ;)
xori 10y ago
Take that privacy statement with a grain of salt. That's for microsoft.com accounts. When you install Windows 10 they allow you to create a local-only account and opt out of any data collection.
universenz 10y ago
Look into Windows 10 LTSB (Long Term Service Branch). It's rock solid, doesn't auto-update (only critical security patches), as part of the installation process you can switch off everything, doesn't have Edge or Cortana or any other guff. It was made for ATM's and single purpose machines. I use one for my Plex Media Server and XProtect / Sighthound Server etc.. all rock solid. The "apparent" disadvantages listed against LTSB I actually believe are advantages. Like, want new Windows 10 features? Sorry you'll have to reinstall the latest full release of Windows 10.1 LTSB. http://www.howtogeek.com/273824/windows-10-without-the-cruft-windows-10-ltsb-explained/ http://www.howtogeek.com/273824/windows-10-without-the-cruft...