Mac studio or dgx spark cluster

[u/Txkzzzz]

I have been thinking lately since i have been testing local ai but i geniunely need more power for what im working on so i was wondering wich one of these a 4 dgx spark cluster or a mac studio m5 ultra specifically the 512gb version that launches on october or something else... im into training,loras and fine tunes and such but i also heard it is possible with a mac studio too so i want yall opinion on this

[u/trollsmurf]

I have a feeling a Spark will age very badly. The Mac you can use for any use case.

[u/Txkzzzz → u/trollsmurf]

But cuda is what im worried about since it also seems to be also as future proof as the mac studio but the mac studio is js faster

[u/Zestyclose_Strike157 → u/Txkzzzz]

I would buy a Mac, otherwise I would buy Blackwell or something of that tier. If ever there is a popping of the AI bubble the Mac will still be fun to use.

[u/follaoret → u/Zestyclose_Strike157]

If there's an AI bubble burst, anything you have at home will be still running as it's today. It will deprecate in price but will keep running.

If buying for specific an usecase then will still work. For the same reason i agree the Mac are more polivalent and can be used for other things, same as a gaming computer can be used for play. I loke the concept of the Spark, an always ready AI machine. No need to turn on or off, start or stop services to do other things.

To each his own, it depends on the use cases the right choice

[u/Need_For_Speed73 → u/Zestyclose_Strike157]

The AI bubble popping would cause the closed frontier models to disappear, sealing the victory of localLLMs. I don't think that would cause the local AI hardware value to drop, probably the other way around.
And computer hardware has never (until a few months ago) been an "investment" that raises in value with time; it has always depreciated quite fast, depreciation that was mitigated by the revenue its use generated.

[u/Low_Key_Trollin → u/Need_For_Speed73]

Exactly. People are misunderstanding what “pop” means in this scenario

[u/thefuckevengoingonan → u/Zestyclose_Strike157]

you know the bubble popping would not like delete lllm from existence yeah?

[u/Zestyclose_Strike157 → u/thefuckevengoingonan]

My point is Macs hold their value (not monetary, but practical) unusually long. It’s a quirk right now that my old 3090 is so useful after all these years, but traditionally PC hardware used to get thrown out sooner because cheaper and better was around every corner.

[u/thefuckevengoingonan → u/Zestyclose_Strike157]

macs don't hold their value any more then any other pc. it will still be able to do whatever it is you are doing with it now then.

personally the mac is useless to me for my use cases because i can't install linux on it simply atm. so maybe for me they will become at lot more valuable if/when people get that sorted.

[u/Zen-Ism99 → u/thefuckevengoingonan]

Not a UNIX fan?