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Is it more powerful than Apple silicon, or why would anyone buy this? Just for Linux? Oh, it's System76, that's why. Open hardware. Makes sense. Edit: Also Nv

Is it more powerful than Apple silicon, or why would anyone buy this? Just for Linux? Oh, it's System76, that's why. Open hardware. Makes sense. Edit: Also Nvidia

wmf 1mo ago
It is more powerful than Apple.
- LoganDark 1mo ago
  I wonder why Apple has not really pushed their memory bandwidth numbers. They're starting to catch up to 2020 at this point -- cool, but still struggling to run years-old models. (FLOPS is even further behind by a year or two) Maybe they're waiting on HBM? Given that they're skipping M6 Max to go straight for M7, I'd assume they're doing a redesign for it.
  - wmf 1mo ago
    GDDR has higher latency and much lower capacity. HBM requires an interposer and also has lower capacity. It's not an easy choice. The M7 family will probably double memory bandwidth using LPDDR6.
    - LoganDark 1mo ago
      So the MacBooks might get roughly the M5 Ultra's bandwidth in a couple years. Not bad -- my M4 Max is currently stuck in 2016
kelvie 1mo ago
The prefill rates are way faster on these cards compared to apple silicon, which affects TTFT and therefore usability for a lot of coding tasks, unless you fire and forget most of the time.
numpad0 1mo ago
Mac GPUs supposedly being fastest thing on Earth obsoleting everything NVIDIA is just pure marketing. It was just faster once than some midrange laptop NVIDIA, which conveniently wasn't explicitly marked as different chip sharing the branding with the desktop variant(oof). The real benefits to going Mac is its quiet and discreet, high wife/CEO acceptance design, and their huge GPU-assignable shared RAM. If you're okay with your desk being the wing top of a flying airplane, and 3M Peltor or David-Clark is your favorite working time headphone brand anyway, then your build will be faster and cheaper than a maxed out Mac Studio.
- LoganDark 1mo ago
  For me the operating system (and ecosystem in general) is one of the biggest reasons I use a Mac, but the unified memory pool is a benefit too. I am still distraught about the gaming situation though.

Is it more powerful than Apple silicon, or why would anyone buy this? Just for Linux? Oh, it's System76, that's why. Open hardware. Makes sense. Edit: Also Nvidia

wmf 1mo ago

It is more powerful than Apple.

LoganDark 1mo ago
I wonder why Apple has not really pushed their memory bandwidth numbers. They're starting to catch up to 2020 at this point -- cool, but still struggling to run years-old models. (FLOPS is even further behind by a year or two) Maybe they're waiting on HBM? Given that they're skipping M6 Max to go straight for M7, I'd assume they're doing a redesign for it.
- wmf 1mo ago
  GDDR has higher latency and much lower capacity. HBM requires an interposer and also has lower capacity. It's not an easy choice. The M7 family will probably double memory bandwidth using LPDDR6.
  - LoganDark 1mo ago
    So the MacBooks might get roughly the M5 Ultra's bandwidth in a couple years. Not bad -- my M4 Max is currently stuck in 2016

kelvie 1mo ago

The prefill rates are way faster on these cards compared to apple silicon, which affects TTFT and therefore usability for a lot of coding tasks, unless you fire and forget most of the time.

numpad0 1mo ago

Mac GPUs supposedly being fastest thing on Earth obsoleting everything NVIDIA is just pure marketing. It was just faster once than some midrange laptop NVIDIA, which conveniently wasn't explicitly marked as different chip sharing the branding with the desktop variant(oof). The real benefits to going Mac is its quiet and discreet, high wife/CEO acceptance design, and their huge GPU-assignable shared RAM. If you're okay with your desk being the wing top of a flying airplane, and 3M Peltor or David-Clark is your favorite working time headphone brand anyway, then your build will be faster and cheaper than a maxed out Mac Studio.

LoganDark 1mo ago
For me the operating system (and ecosystem in general) is one of the biggest reasons I use a Mac, but the unified memory pool is a benefit too. I am still distraught about the gaming situation though.