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The framework desktop is quite cool, but those Ryzen Max CPUs are still a pretty poor competitor to Apple's chips if what you care about it running an LLM. Ryze
by eigenspace 7mo ago
The framework desktop is quite cool, but those Ryzen Max CPUs are still a pretty poor competitor to Apple's chips if what you care about it running an LLM. Ryzen Max tops out at 256 GB/s of memory bandwidth, whereas an M4 Max can hit 560 GB/s of bandwidth.
So even if the model fits in the memory buffer on the Ryzen Max, you're still going to hit something like half the tokens/second just because the GPU will be sitting around waiting for data.
Personally, I'd rather have the Framework machine, but if running local LLMs is your main goal, the offerings from Apple are very compelling, even when you adjust for the higher price on the Apple machine.
- rl3 7mo agoThere's also the DGX Spark. Granted, its price has been going up recently alongside everything else that has memory in it.
- eigenspace 7mo agoI haven't heard a single good think about DGX Spark from anyone using it, so I'd be pretty wary about that.
- xienze 7mo agoThat also has pretty poor memory bandwidth. 283GB/s I think.
- rl3 7mo agoYeah. The main selling point I'd say is the onboard ConnectX-7 hardware.