I have been using windows all my life with linux on dual boot and VMs. I mostly had no issues but lots of GPU issues with Nvidia. I’ll now be involved in research (ML, DL, LLMs) and I will require my system for activities for these research and other tasks (will be doing an MS and then a PhD related to the above fields). So with all these considered, is a Macbook worth it? If yes, which one should I go for?

I was considering MBA M2 16gb ram, 512ssd

Budget: ~$1800

  • NightFury1717@alien.topB
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    11 months ago

    Hi there, I just switched to Macbook last week. I hope to start my PhD soon and i was concern about apple silicon performance in training models.

    tbh, for training LLM no one uses laptop. But for ML and NN i can tell. MB smokes my hp zbook 17 by running the code 30x faster. Let me give you a benchmark: https://developer.apple.com/metal/tensorflow-plugin/

    Section 4: I can run this on MBP M2 base in 4min:30sec (50sec/epoch) In my zbook it will take 150mins (30min/epoch)!!! Good to mention MB fans turn on after 5 min and i couldn’t hear them and only noticed using software showing me rpm. No noise.

    Other than this fans are off. Goodluck

    • shit-ihavethingstodo@alien.topOPB
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      11 months ago

      Oh wow, that’s great! Have you tried using Pytorch in your laptop? I heard it was very buggy and considering most are switching frameworks to pytorch from tensorflow, I was worried about taht.

      Also, which model do you use and what are the configs?

      • NightFury1717@alien.topB
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        11 months ago

        I installed and tested pytorch. However, no luck playing with it so far. There is a version on ARM for both tensorflow and pytorch.

        If you have any benchmark in mind please let me know.

        I use Macbook pro M2 512gb storage and 16gb. I will get a samsung external ssd soon.

        • shit-ihavethingstodo@alien.topOPB
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          11 months ago

          Nothing particular in my mind, just something I vaguely remember seeing on reddit lol.

          Saw the Apple news, will probably wait for it before I choose!

          How was GPU and switching from windows to mac? I have been using windows all my life, Lenovo, then HP

          • NightFury1717@alien.topB
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            11 months ago

            I will give you an update about it. Yeah, this blackfriday will be crazy. Just check the stock after the event.

            GPU is a thing that you will hear about it more at coming event. I used linux for a while and also installed BigSur on my hp laptop.

            I’m not using large data/models to take advantage of gpu but even gpu on this laptop exceed my expectations. I can tell you can work with adobe illustrator+photoshop+zoom call with screensharing+safari without any lags and fans off ~45degC. Battery life around 14-22hrs based on usage.

            Everything is almost same in Mac. Some shortcut keys are essential to learn. You can find them on youtube. Software support are good and in my case enough. Like windows you can ride a ship… But window management is painful even with theur new feature called stage manger.