3 ms·
Ask HN: What is a good CUDA laptop?
If I'm looking to play around with some python code that needs a GPU and will not run on a CPU only machine, what's a good laptop I can buy? I keep running into CUDA not installed errors and I can't install CUDA.
- asineth0 3y agoProbably an ASUS Zephyrus G14
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- andrewfromx 3y agosomeone told me https://system76.com/laptops/oryx https://system76.com/laptops/oryx but looking at ASUS Zephyrus G14
- smoldesu 3y agoWhy do you want a laptop? You'll be paying for worse performance and less capable cooling. If you already have a primary laptop you use, it would be cheaper and higher-performance to build a CUDA-oriented homeserver and SSH into that.
- andrewfromx 3y agoah yes, good idea. Link to one on amazon please?
- smoldesu 3y agoA link to a homeserver? You'd probably end up building it yourself, unless you want to pay a premium for a prebuilt. A good LLM build maximizes the amount of VRAM you're getting for AI workloads. Shop around for a 3090 24gb if that's within your price range, and then build backwards from there. Cheaper options include the 3060 12gb and the various other 16-20gb CUDA-enabled cards. Then find a motherboard that maxes out your card's PCI bandwidth and select a budget CPU that fits the socket and won't bottleneck your GPU. Add your memory, storage and install an OS. Then you're done.
- andrewfromx 3y agohehe there's gotta be an already bundled "desktop" i can buy?
- smoldesu 3y agoIf you want to be on the cutting edge (eg. HEDT, ECC, 14th gen/Zen 4 CPUs, etc.) then there aren't many integrators that will be able to bundle all the newest tech. If you're looking to maximize the performance-per-dollar and efficency for your usecase, self-built is really the only option. If you still insist on paying next-gen prices for last-gen hardware, Lenovo and Dell have you covered: https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/p/workstations/thinkstation-p-series/thinkstation-p620/wmd00000429 https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/p/workstations/thinkstation-p-s... https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/scc/sr/workstations/precision-desktops/all-nvidia-graphics?appliedRefinements=39145 https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/scc/sr/workstations/precisio...
- roosgit 3y agoCUDA is specific to Nvidia GPUs. So you'll need a computer (laptop, in your case) with an Nvidia video card which supports CUDA. Does the Python code you want to run use PyTorch? Is it related to LLMs or Stable Diffusion? Because those should also run on CPU alone. Not very fast, but good enough to play around with. If you're thinking of renting a machine from AWS, I'm currently using a "g4dn.xlarge" instance which does support CUDA and can run Stable Diffusion comfortably. It's a bit pricey though and I had to wait and get approved before I could rent it.
- nikonyrh 3y agoOne option is to go for Dell's Alienware line, depending on your needs you need to choose how much RAM you need on the GPU card. RTX 4000 generation seems to have at minimum 8 GB, which is sufficient for most problems for now.