|
[Sponsors] |
March 8, 2022, 14:35 |
Is Mac Studio finally OK for CFD?
|
#1 |
Member
Join Date: Jun 2016
Posts: 99
Rep Power: 10 |
This time it's configurable up to 128GB RAM so I'd say it's finally usable. For $4800($4319 for edu) you get 16 big cores, 128GB RAM, 800GB/s memory bandwidth.
I know it's still very expensive, but for how much $ can you build a comparable x86 workstation? |
|
March 9, 2022, 00:44 |
|
#2 |
Senior Member
Will Kernkamp
Join Date: Jun 2014
Posts: 365
Rep Power: 14 |
Yes, should do the benchmark in 15 seconds, I think.
|
|
March 9, 2022, 06:21 |
|
#3 | |
Super Moderator
Alex
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Germany
Posts: 3,426
Rep Power: 49 |
Quote:
If you have everything you need within the Apple ecosystem, and your CFD applications can utilize this theoretical performance somewhat effectively, there is just no competition for this in x86 land. This new Mac might be within the realm of actually not having enough cores to saturate the memory bandwidth. So that's where a regular workstation could still compete with 48-64 cores. albeit in a different form factor, at a higher price point, and with higher power consumption. Apple's M1 chips have this extreme memory bandwidth because it also serves as the GPU memory. |
||
March 9, 2022, 12:07 |
Benchmarks
|
#4 |
New Member
masofshad
Join Date: Feb 2022
Location: western USA
Posts: 4
Rep Power: 4 |
Some discussion here regarding memory bandwidth on M1 Max:
"Unfortunately, the news here isn’t the best case-scenario that we hoped for, as the M1 Max isn’t able to fully saturate the SoC bandwidth from just the CPU side" . . . . "While 243GB/s is massive, and overshadows any other design in the industry, it’s still quite far from the 409GB/s the chip is capable of. More importantly for the M1 Max, it’s only slightly higher than the 204GB/s limit of the M1 Pro, so from a CPU-only workload perspective, it doesn’t appear to make sense to get the Max if one is focused just on CPU bandwidth." Only way to know for sure is to try it. |
|
March 9, 2022, 12:26 |
|
#5 |
Senior Member
Join Date: May 2012
Posts: 551
Rep Power: 16 |
Can we guesstimate? If it finishes the benchmark, single-core in 400-500 seconds then perhaps 25-31 seconds with the 16 performance cores is a reasonable guess if bandwidth is not an issue. That would be really good, but not the best workstation you can get. A version with 64 cores though, and full compatibility with Linux. They could probably sell that north of 100k Euros |
|
March 9, 2022, 12:59 |
|
#6 | |
Super Moderator
Alex
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Germany
Posts: 3,426
Rep Power: 49 |
Of course we can guesstimate, extrapolation from incomplete data is one of my favorite pastimes
Let's take an optimistic 400s for a single-core result. That's where the M1 chips in the OF benchmark thread landed. Assuming ideal scaling on 16 cores gives us 25s. We have a result from 2x Epyc 7313: 29s on 32 cores: OpenFOAM benchmarks on various hardware And 2x Epyc 7532: 16s on 64 cores: OpenFOAM benchmarks on various hardware The first one is in the same ballpark, the second one clearly faster than even the most optimistic projections for an M1 Ultra. Looking slightly ahead into the future, the introduction of DDR5, even more memory channels, and huge last-level caches. x86 will make a big leap in the next 1-2 years. Both of these machines are a much larger form factor. I personally don't care too much about that. It is safe to assume both machines use much more energy. And when I think about the price per kWh in my part of the world, I am starting to care. And lastly, neither of these machines will be cheaper than 4800$, even if we only count the parts cost. Get it ready to run from some system integrator, and you can multiply the parts cost by a factor of 1.5x to 2x. All of this is of course comparing literal apples to oranges. I would not buy an Apple computer for too many reasons to count. But if it works for you, why not? I am genuinely surprised by Apples price policy for this machine. Only charging 800$ extra for the upgrade to 128GB of RAM is fairly reasonable. Let's ignore how much you have to pay if you want a height-adjustable monitor stand to go with it Btw: Apple hinted that the Mac Pro will get a similar treatment next. Maybe 4 of these chips in a single package? Quote:
That's the kind of stuff I had in mind when I hedged my bets in the first post |
||
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Method to set environment variables for linking ANSYS Fluent 19.1 and visual studio 1 | renrenxiong | ANSYS | 0 | November 13, 2019 07:17 |
The udf.h headers are unable to open- in VISUAL STUDIO 13 | sanjeetlimbu | Fluent UDF and Scheme Programming | 4 | May 2, 2016 05:38 |
CFX11 + Fortran compiler ? | Mohan | CFX | 20 | March 30, 2011 18:56 |
How to install CGNS under windows xp? | lzgwhy | Main CFD Forum | 1 | January 11, 2011 18:44 |
CGNS lib and Fortran compiler | manaliac | Main CFD Forum | 2 | November 29, 2010 06:25 |