[cbozeman]

Unless your kids are in university working on large models, I'm pretty sure the 8 gig version will more than suffice for general computing.

I picked up the baseline model for $699 (8 GB unified RAM, 8/8/16 cores version with 256 GB of storage) and I've mostly been tinkering, as I use Windows 10 Pro / Fedora 33 on my workstation / gaming computer, but I can tell you it runs World of Warcraft: Shadowlands at 60 FPS 1440p resolution with Ultra settings, which is pretty damn astounding... I mean, I know WOW is running on a nearly 20 year old engine, but that engine has seen a hell of a lot of refinement over the years, and many advanced features have been added.

The M1 is a testament to Apple's engineering team. I really look forward to seeing what they could do if went buck wild and gave themselves a 95 - 180 watt TPU range to compete with Ryzen 5000 / Threadripper 3000 series parts.

We've seen that the M1 is competitive in low power scenarios... I want to know if it can be scaled up and be competitive when power is no concern.

[commandlinefan]

Thanks, I appreciate the feedback. I've tried to use Windows 10 on computers with 8 GB and they haven't been much more useful than a paperweight so I was a little worried, but Apple does know hardware. Sounds like this will be perfect for what I need.

[205g0]

If GP looks for a general purpose computer for their kids, M1s are a clear yes but for DL? No way, as long as PyTorch is not running on M1s and an Nvidia GPU in some cheap PC shell has the same price tag.