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Yeah but you see, we have been here before. "This time we are serious about ML/AI..." And if you went and bought an AMD card then, you'd have been wrong. My ex

by zwaps 3y ago

Yeah but you see, we have been here before. "This time we are serious about ML/AI..." And if you went and bought an AMD card then, you'd have been wrong. My example about LLMs was just to show that AMD is simply not part of the conversation. Three month before you could have made the same point about another approach. And still, if you'd actually have to risk money, you and me both know you'd never invest in AMD hardware for AI or start developing on it something high stakes. I mean, look at geohot he tried and just gave up entirely and AMD.

mindcrime 3y ago
And still, if you'd actually have to risk money, you and me both know you'd never invest in AMD hardware for AI or start developing on it something high stakes. I assume you meant "you" in the royal sense. Since I personally am, in point of fact, investing in AMD hardware for AI. Yeah, it's a gamble, but that's my style. And I have to admit, part of it is driven by ideological reasons (ROCm being open source) and a simple desire to support AMD since I want them to become a serious competitor to NVIDIA. I believe that's an outcome that would benefit everybody. I mean, look at geohot he tried and just gave up entirely and AMD. I have to admit, I don't find that particularly compelling in any regard. Nothing against geohot, he's clearly a smart dude, but... I'm not judging a company based on his interactions with them. shrug
- zwaps 3y ago
  I wish you luck then. Right now, you need CUDA to run things like bf16 or quantization, which are truly enablers in this space. So for now, I don't see AMD getting any traction. And apparently, the quality of the drivers has not been improving. Time will tell.
  - mindcrime 3y ago
    Agreed. And FWIW, I'm not saying I use AMD kit exclusively. I'm fine with using NVIDIA hardware and CUDA when needed. In addition to the AMD based box I'm building for the lab at home, I'm also building a sister box which will be nearly identical, except using an NVIDIA GPU. I am an ideologue but I'm also at least a little bit pragmatic. :-)

by zwaps 3y ago

mindcrime 3y ago

And still, if you'd actually have to risk money, you and me both know you'd never invest in AMD hardware for AI or start developing on it something high stakes. I assume you meant "you" in the royal sense. Since I personally am, in point of fact, investing in AMD hardware for AI. Yeah, it's a gamble, but that's my style. And I have to admit, part of it is driven by ideological reasons (ROCm being open source) and a simple desire to support AMD since I want them to become a serious competitor to NVIDIA. I believe that's an outcome that would benefit everybody. I mean, look at geohot he tried and just gave up entirely and AMD. I have to admit, I don't find that particularly compelling in any regard. Nothing against geohot, he's clearly a smart dude, but... I'm not judging a company based on his interactions with them. shrug

zwaps 3y ago
I wish you luck then. Right now, you need CUDA to run things like bf16 or quantization, which are truly enablers in this space. So for now, I don't see AMD getting any traction. And apparently, the quality of the drivers has not been improving. Time will tell.
- mindcrime 3y ago
  Agreed. And FWIW, I'm not saying I use AMD kit exclusively. I'm fine with using NVIDIA hardware and CUDA when needed. In addition to the AMD based box I'm building for the lab at home, I'm also building a sister box which will be nearly identical, except using an NVIDIA GPU. I am an ideologue but I'm also at least a little bit pragmatic. :-)