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The interesting point here is that developers targeting the Mac can safely assume that the users will have a processor capable of significant AI/ML workloads. O
by mrweasel 2y ago
The interesting point here is that developers targeting the Mac can safely assume that the users will have a processor capable of significant AI/ML workloads. On the Windows (and Linux) side of things, there's no common platform, no assumption that the users will have an NPU or GPU capable of doing what you want. I think that's also why Microsoft was initially going for the ARM laptops, where they'd be sure that the required processing power is available.
- qwytw 2y ago> The interesting point here is that developers targeting the Mac can safely assume that the users will have a processor capable of significant AI/ML workloads Also that a significant proportion (majority?) of them will have just 8 GB of memory which is not exactly sufficient to run any complex AI/ML workloads.
- talldayo 2y agoEasy solution; just swap multiple gigabytes of your model to SSD-based ZRAM when you run out of memory. What could possibly go wrong?
- sofixa 2y agoThat's probably where Microsoft's "Copilot+ PCs" come in.
- pjmlp 2y agoPlus DirectML, wich as the name implies, builds on top of DirectX, allowing multiple backends, CPU, GPU, NPU.
- skohan 2y agoI believe MS is trying to standardize this, in the same way as they do with DirectX support levels, but I agree it's probably going to be inherently a bit less consistent than Apple offerings
- pjmlp 2y agoDirectML can use multiple backends.
- treprinum 2y agoHow does it help me (with maxed out M3 Max) that Apple might have some chip in the future right now? I do DL on A6000 and 4090, not waiting until Apple produces a chip someday that is faster than 1650 in ML...
- InsomniacL 2y agoThat sounds like a big issue, but surely assuming for either case is bad. I expect OS's will expose an API which, when queried, will indicate the level of AI inference available. Similar to video decoding/encoding where clients can check if hardware acceleration is available.