The speed is certainly not comparable to dedicated GPUs, but the power efficiency is ridiculous for a very usable speed and no hardware setup.
I have one, where I selected an M1 Ultra and 128G RAM to facilitate just this sort of thing. But in practice, I'm spending much more time using it to edit 4K video, and as a recording studio/to develop audio plugins on, and to livestream while doing these things.
Turns out it's good at these things, and since I have the LLAMA 70b language model at home and can run it directly unquantized (not at blinding speed, of course, but it'll run just fine), I'm naturally interested in learning how to fine tune it :)
I still wouldn't recommend it to someone just looking for a powerful desktop, just because $3K is way overpriced for what you get (non-replaceable 1Tb SSD is so Apple!). But it's certainly great if you already have it...
> The issue here isn't specifically about the classification of memory, be it "unified memory," RAM, or VRAM. The primary concern is ensuring there's enough memory capacity for the models required for inference.
The comment chain is about training, not inference.
> The real question at hand is the Mac's value proposition in terms of inference speed, particularly for models as large as 70 billion parameters.
Again, wrong topic.
> Utilizing a 4090 GPU can facilitate real-time inference, which is the desired outcome for most users.
Generic statement. Semantically empty. Typical LLM style.
> In contrast, a Mac Studio offers close to real-time inference speeds, which might be disappointing for users expecting a real-time experience.
Tautological generic statement. Semantically empty. Typical LLM style.
> Then, there's the option of CPU + RAM-based inference, which suits scenarios where immediate responses aren't crucial, allowing for batch processing of prompts and subsequent retrieval of responses.
Contradicts first sentence that "classification of memory" isn't important. Fails to recognize this the same category as previous statement. Subtle shift from first sentence that declared "primary concern is ... membory capacity", to focusing purely on performance. This kind of incoherent shift is common in LLM output.
> Considering the price points of both the Mac Studio and high-end GPUs are relatively comparable, it begs the question of the practicality and value of near real-time inference in specific use cases.
Completes shift from memory capacity to performance. Compares not really comparable things. "Specific use cases" is a tell-tale LLM marker. Semantically empty.
(This is a semantically empty tautological generic statement.)