5 ms·

Or a desktop with 64 GB of RAM and two previous generation GPUs

criddell 6y ago
64 GB? From where? I just looked at Dell and an XPS desktop with 16 GB of RAM starts at $650. You aren't going to be able to add two GPUs and a monitor for $350. At HP you can get to 32 GB for $650 but again you still need to buy GPUs and a monitor.
- romanoderoma 6y ago
  64GB of ram cost < 300 euros A lot of studios sell their old GPU (as in a generation ago) for cheap If you stay out of vertical integrated supply chains you can buy the best your budget allows If you are saying that you cannot assemble a laptop of the same quality of an Apple one, I agree If you are saying that Apple laptops are what people want because they consume 20 watt full load, I disagree The market of the good enough products is always gonna be larger than 'the best money can buy' Apple will never make 'good enough products' hence they are not competing with the bulk of what is being sold right now It could change in the future, but not in the immediate future IMO
  - egsmi 6y ago
    > 64GB of ram cost < 300 euros Not all RAM is equivalent. If one wants 64GB of the kind of RAM M1 uses, which is very high performance, it will cost more than 300 euros.
    - ianhowson 6y ago
      M1 is using standard LPDDRx. It's not "very high performance". It uses a different interconnect -- that's it. I guarantee that 64GB does not cost anything near EUR300. You might be thinking of HBM[2] which has a wider I/O path and costs more.
      - egsmi 6y ago
        https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25050625 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25050625 showed https://www.cpu-monkey.com/en/cpu-apple_m1-1804 https://www.cpu-monkey.com/en/cpu-apple_m1-1804 which determined the M1's memory is LPDDR4X-4266 or LPDDR5-5500. If those memories are not high performance, what is?
        notreallytrue 6y ago
        You can't do what you do on a desktop on a laptop, not even a good one Who cares if an M1 consumes less energy than a candle if I can buy 64GB of DDR4 3600 for 250 bucks and render the VFX for a 2 hours movie in 4k? Another 300 bucks buy me a second GPU When I deliver the job I put aside another 300 bucks and buy a third GPU Or a better CPU vertical products are an absolute waste of money when you chase the last bit of performance to save time (for you and your clients) and don't have the budget of Elon Musk The M1 changes nothing in that space Which is also a very lucrative space where every hour saved is an hour billed doing a new job instead of waiting to finish the last one to get paid You can't mount your old gear on a rack and use it as a rendering node, plus you're paying for things you don't need: design, thermal constraints, a very expensive panel (a very good one, but still attached to the laptop body, and small) So no, M1 is not comparable to a Threadripper, it's not even close, even if it consumes a lot more energy When I'll see the same performances and freedom to upgrade in 20W chips, I will be the first one to buy them! https://www.newegg.com/corsair-64gb-288-pin-ddr4-sdram/p/N82E16820236592?&quicklink=true https://www.newegg.com/corsair-64gb-288-pin-ddr4-sdram/p/N82... Then there's the 92% (actually 92.4%) of the remaining market that is not using an Apple computer that will keep buying non Apple hardware Even if Apple doubled their market share, it would still be 15% Vs 85% How is it possible that on HN people don't realise that 90 is much bigger than 10 and it's not a new laptop that will overturn the situation in a month is beyond me
        egsmi 6y ago
        > You can't do what you do on a desktop on a laptop, not even a good one Ummm... ok. But my comment was not all RAM is equivalent.
  - criddell 6y ago
    I'm not saying any of those things. I'm saying a $1000 laptop from Apple is a pretty good value for a lot of people and I'm not sure you can do a lot better at that price point. When you include things like having an Apple store across town where you can go when things break, it pulls even further ahead. The best that money can buy changes when you put the actual budget. Today, Apple may be the best that $1000 can buy.

64 GB? From where? I just looked at Dell and an XPS desktop with 16 GB of RAM starts at $650. You aren't going to be able to add two GPUs and a monitor for $350. At HP you can get to 32 GB for $650 but again you still need to buy GPUs and a monitor.

romanoderoma 6y ago
64GB of ram cost < 300 euros A lot of studios sell their old GPU (as in a generation ago) for cheap If you stay out of vertical integrated supply chains you can buy the best your budget allows If you are saying that you cannot assemble a laptop of the same quality of an Apple one, I agree If you are saying that Apple laptops are what people want because they consume 20 watt full load, I disagree The market of the good enough products is always gonna be larger than 'the best money can buy' Apple will never make 'good enough products' hence they are not competing with the bulk of what is being sold right now It could change in the future, but not in the immediate future IMO
- egsmi 6y ago
  > 64GB of ram cost < 300 euros Not all RAM is equivalent. If one wants 64GB of the kind of RAM M1 uses, which is very high performance, it will cost more than 300 euros.
  - ianhowson 6y ago
    M1 is using standard LPDDRx. It's not "very high performance". It uses a different interconnect -- that's it. I guarantee that 64GB does not cost anything near EUR300. You might be thinking of HBM[2] which has a wider I/O path and costs more.
    - egsmi 6y ago
      https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25050625 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25050625 showed https://www.cpu-monkey.com/en/cpu-apple_m1-1804 https://www.cpu-monkey.com/en/cpu-apple_m1-1804 which determined the M1's memory is LPDDR4X-4266 or LPDDR5-5500. If those memories are not high performance, what is?
      - notreallytrue 6y ago
        You can't do what you do on a desktop on a laptop, not even a good one Who cares if an M1 consumes less energy than a candle if I can buy 64GB of DDR4 3600 for 250 bucks and render the VFX for a 2 hours movie in 4k? Another 300 bucks buy me a second GPU When I deliver the job I put aside another 300 bucks and buy a third GPU Or a better CPU vertical products are an absolute waste of money when you chase the last bit of performance to save time (for you and your clients) and don't have the budget of Elon Musk The M1 changes nothing in that space Which is also a very lucrative space where every hour saved is an hour billed doing a new job instead of waiting to finish the last one to get paid You can't mount your old gear on a rack and use it as a rendering node, plus you're paying for things you don't need: design, thermal constraints, a very expensive panel (a very good one, but still attached to the laptop body, and small) So no, M1 is not comparable to a Threadripper, it's not even close, even if it consumes a lot more energy When I'll see the same performances and freedom to upgrade in 20W chips, I will be the first one to buy them! https://www.newegg.com/corsair-64gb-288-pin-ddr4-sdram/p/N82E16820236592?&quicklink=true https://www.newegg.com/corsair-64gb-288-pin-ddr4-sdram/p/N82... Then there's the 92% (actually 92.4%) of the remaining market that is not using an Apple computer that will keep buying non Apple hardware Even if Apple doubled their market share, it would still be 15% Vs 85% How is it possible that on HN people don't realise that 90 is much bigger than 10 and it's not a new laptop that will overturn the situation in a month is beyond me
        egsmi 6y ago
        > You can't do what you do on a desktop on a laptop, not even a good one Ummm... ok. But my comment was not all RAM is equivalent.
- criddell 6y ago
  I'm not saying any of those things. I'm saying a $1000 laptop from Apple is a pretty good value for a lot of people and I'm not sure you can do a lot better at that price point. When you include things like having an Apple store across town where you can go when things break, it pulls even further ahead. The best that money can buy changes when you put the actual budget. Today, Apple may be the best that $1000 can buy.