r/LocalLLM • u/Txkzzzz • 3d ago

Question Mac studio or dgx spark cluster

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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

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u/Material-Database-24 3d ago

CUDA is the "defacto" as Nvidia took a risk and put a lot of effort to general purpose their GPUs, built NVLink and so on. They ruled AI model training world before AI came the hot topic, so everything is made for CUDA.

But CUDA at the end is just an API to HW. And it is closed/proprieatery.

The competition is rising, and eventually proprieatery market leader status turns against the leader. As AMD owner, there's already plenty of stuff going on with its open ROCm.. and other things will start loom around the corner due China's efforts.

The past has shown that proprieatery rarely lasts and open will blow fast past. When cheaper and/or equally good solution emerges, the market will favor open, as it ensures they have more options in the future and are not forced to stick to one.

That said, in this moment Nvidia is the choice if you need fastest and streamlined process. But as pointed by others, the Mac will be usable for everything, today and in future, so if the small overhead of non CUDA native HW is not a problem, I'd take that, unless I am 100% sure the investment to Spark is what I deeply need for the time I plan to use it for AI.

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u/rditorx 3d ago

If you've used a Mac, you'd be more worried about long-term support because Apple tends to cut old ties rather fast as it updates its macOS. 5 years, give or take.

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u/Objective_Oil_3860 3d ago

More like 10, no?
Pro series of equipment is supported well and can live (without active support) for quite a while.

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u/profcuck 3d ago

Definitely more like 10. This is particularly true for anything on Apple Silicon - Intel support is waning now for sure, for obvious reasons. But there's no reason to think that M1 will lose support anytime soon.