2 ms·

I don't think you should hold your breath for discrete GPUs coming back any time soon: https://www.owc.com/blog/why-the-m2-ultra-mac-pro-doesnt-support-discrete

by rmorey 3y ago

I don't think you should hold your breath for discrete GPUs coming back any time soon: https://www.owc.com/blog/why-the-m2-ultra-mac-pro-doesnt-support-discrete-gpus https://www.owc.com/blog/why-the-m2-ultra-mac-pro-doesnt-sup...

toasterlovin 3y ago
I know. But on the other hand: 1) There are plenty of pro users they can’t serve without discrete GPUs, since they’ll never have the power or transistor budget in an integrated offering that would allow them to compete with AMD and Nvidia. 2) Why do a Mac Pro that doesn’t support discrete GPUs when the Mac Studio exists? 3) They’re doing hardware stuff in the M3 GPU that indicates a fairly serious GPU effort. 4) If they’re willing to put this much effort into a co-processor for a low-volume experimental product, putting similar effort into a co-processor (discrete GPU) for high volume sure-thing products (Pro laptops and desktops) seems at possible.
- aurareturn 3y ago
  Put a discrete GPU and most of the magic of unified memory goes out the window. The M3 Ultra should be able to use up to 256GB of high bandwidth RAM. That blows away any discrete GPU. Yes, it doesn't have the processing power of a dedicated professional Nvidia card but I don't think Apple is trying to compete there. Apple is trying to fill the high VRAM niche. They might have a real advantage there considering LLMs require a ton of memory. If Apple ever makes an "M3 Extreme" by gluing 4x Max dies together, they could have up to 512GB of VRAM. You'd need to 7x H100 GPUs to match total RAM size which will cost you $210k.
  - rmorey 3y ago
    I heard a really sad report (via anonymous apple employee on the podcast ATP.fm, I'll try to find the episode) that they have totally canned the "Extreme" i.e 4xMax project entirely, for at least the next several revision cycles.
- rmorey 3y ago
  You're arguing that they could and should bring back support for discrete GPU's, which I don't disagree with at all. What I'm saying is, I just don't think they are going to, in the near future.

by rmorey 3y ago

toasterlovin 3y ago

I know. But on the other hand: 1) There are plenty of pro users they can’t serve without discrete GPUs, since they’ll never have the power or transistor budget in an integrated offering that would allow them to compete with AMD and Nvidia. 2) Why do a Mac Pro that doesn’t support discrete GPUs when the Mac Studio exists? 3) They’re doing hardware stuff in the M3 GPU that indicates a fairly serious GPU effort. 4) If they’re willing to put this much effort into a co-processor for a low-volume experimental product, putting similar effort into a co-processor (discrete GPU) for high volume sure-thing products (Pro laptops and desktops) seems at possible.

aurareturn 3y ago
Put a discrete GPU and most of the magic of unified memory goes out the window. The M3 Ultra should be able to use up to 256GB of high bandwidth RAM. That blows away any discrete GPU. Yes, it doesn't have the processing power of a dedicated professional Nvidia card but I don't think Apple is trying to compete there. Apple is trying to fill the high VRAM niche. They might have a real advantage there considering LLMs require a ton of memory. If Apple ever makes an "M3 Extreme" by gluing 4x Max dies together, they could have up to 512GB of VRAM. You'd need to 7x H100 GPUs to match total RAM size which will cost you $210k.
- rmorey 3y ago
  I heard a really sad report (via anonymous apple employee on the podcast ATP.fm, I'll try to find the episode) that they have totally canned the "Extreme" i.e 4xMax project entirely, for at least the next several revision cycles.
rmorey 3y ago
You're arguing that they could and should bring back support for discrete GPU's, which I don't disagree with at all. What I'm saying is, I just don't think they are going to, in the near future.