Apple Unveils M1 Ultra, Processor
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Kaarme
That "huge" 128GB of memory is for both the CPU and the GPU, shared? I don't think any professional Threadripper user would call 128GB huge, though, especially with the GPU eating a portion of it, always. The bandwidth is significant, of course, although lower than discrete graphics would sport.
Undying
So it rivals the tr 3990x in mt which is impressive. Intel is so left behind...
rl66
I have the 16 GB version of the mini M1, with 16 GB you do the same that you do with 64 GB on the Intel version...
In fact with time using it i feel that we can't compare the 2 on most thing.
This CPU is already very impressive, so i imagine what you can do with this one and 128 GB...
And also TR users and Mac users don't buy their machine for the same reason... Mac is for "what can you do with it", TR is for "i need the best hardware to do things" and "i love to click "start" to close my computer" (trolling a bit, some awaken use linux too)
0blivious
Hopefully nvidia is taking notes.
Horus-Anhur
[youtube=1QVqjMVJL8I]
anticupidon
Hey, what about Linux? 😛;)
Yeah, we also like ARM CPUs...
Impressive, as tech and performance.
Intel, AMD, RISC-V, take notes please.
dragonlord
Nvidia doesn't write fiction.
Unlike Apple PR...
Shame on you for believing a word of this Apple tart nonsense.
JamesSneed
Oh don't be naïve they all write fiction.
schmidtbag
If there is one thing Apple does very well, it's optimizing things. iPhones have always had inferior specs, yet for many years would often compete or outperform flagship Androids. The M1 on paper is a pretty mediocre CPU, yet it can sometimes outperform an i7 with over 6x the performance draw.
Rosetta 2 is also very well designed for an architecture translator, often having a very minimal loss in performance for such a very different system.
While 128GB is a little on the low end for shared memory on such a high-end system, I don't suspect these are going to be used the same way as a Threadripper. These are desktop workstations that are pretty much just meant to run Mac software. A lot of Threadrippers are used for virtualization or to do some serious number crunching. I'm not aware of many desktop applications that demand so much RAM or VRAM. Typically once you get beyond 64GB, you're most likely doing something that is best suited for a server.
I could see someone owning one of these Macs and a TR. The Mac would likely be used for production/development while the TR would likely be headless and just used for compiling, rendering, plotting, AI learning, or whatever else.
FlyBy
They need more AAA-titles for their Silicon. Looking at the GPU prices...this thing could rival a high end gaming rig.
rl66
I have tried some that are nearly good but for now mac OS is still the best OS for M1.
Apple don't like non-apple OS on it's hardware lol
But one day we will have a good distro for it without a doubt 🙂
The most impresive is the graphic part and i have the smallest of the M1 lines.
tunejunky
likewise.
tunejunky
what's left unsaid is that the dance partner for this is the Radeon W6600X.
designed specifically for this processor
together, there won't be a studio or production company in Hollywood without it.
rl66
And the price... compared to a TR / Epyc config the price that i just get on a mail isn't pricy for an Apple product.
They become very agressive to gain back what they let go 2 decade past.
tunejunky
most folks in Hollywood (actual film & tv folks) already use Apple's M1 laptops.
where this comes in is in stylishly replacing TR systems already in use, especially space constrained (there are close to zero spacious editing rooms).
yeah the price seems "cheap", but remember this is an attempt to recapture the old Apple workstation market and expand it.
and wow what they did in the design makes this a SFF workstation.
and yeah, Epyc/TR will still be in use for different tasks (especially by the major studios) but the M1Ultra/W6600X combo is really, really appealing to production companies (that acquires stories and produce the products that the studios distribute).
Kaarme
I recall one RT ad (or infomercial, whatever you'd call it) showcasing TR systems for movie visual effects work, in that particular case the latest Terminator movie, I believe it was. I reckon the final, film-worthy results are rendered in server farms, but the workstation already benefits from power and large memory capacity, I imagine. From what I know, Apple has always been good for video editing, so I'm sure the software will sufficiently deal with any memory limits.
tunejunky
Hollywood has many, many different players and businesses within the industry.
you also have to remember they're in the streaming business and i don't mean Netflix. the studios direct stream to theaters/theater chain servers.
every blockbuster film in the last several years has been digitally distributed as it's far more cost effective than film stock (which has to be developed, copied, and sent by messenger service and still deteriorates) where you needed one print per theater showing - across the world. and 70mm "ain't cheap". one major exception is IMAX, but then IMAX has only a handful of theaters worldwide - less than 1%.
for foreign markets where there is no infrastructure they still make prints, but again that's a small handful.
so there's a Hollywood application for every cutting edge IT product, hardware or software.
BlindBison
It's interesting that they basically just stuck two chips together as historically that seems to be a pretty rare approach for whatever reason. Is the reason we usually don't see this because of latency communicating between the CPUs that have been stuck together or some such?
Or perhaps it shares some of the same technical hurdles associated with SLI/Crossfire? I really have no idea because it "seems" like a very intuitive approach, but one ever really does it.
Horus-Anhur
Apple seems confident that they can make it work.
And considering that now they control, the hardware, the bios, the drivers, the APIs and the OS, they have a better change of doing it than anyone else.
vestibule
Pretty cool result for Apple. Chiplets are the future.
