Mac: M2 Ultra - *VR (Part 2)

The best 3D app for Mac according to Apple:

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Did I get that right … MBP with the “binned” Max chip is
Apple-artificially limited to 36 GB of Memory !?

While if you choose only the M4 Pro chip you will get 48 GB.

I thought it would be an issue in the german Apple Store.
But it is the same in US.

And why for the M4 Pro only 48 GB, when the M4 Pro Mini gets 64 GB !?

And why does Apple always advertise these x86 gaming rigs with
nitrogen coolers in their SoC presentation videos ?


SCREENSHOT_2024-10-29_19.01.10

And BTW,

why does the furniture in background looks so terribly neutral
in their videos. It looks a bit like Apple Augmented Reality,
not high end rendering.

So I ask myself, are they able to produce such a neutral set
lighting or do they really use rendered backgrounds and
actors filmed in a green box instead of filming in the building.
As it may be easier and cheaper for their drone-like camera
effects ?

Maybe it is filmed in front of a LED volume running on … Unreal Engine on Windows server :speak_no_evil:

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If such Interior “Visualizations” would be presented on a real time
rendering App Forum like Enscape or Twinmotion,
someone would maybe comment, your lighting looks a bit flat and
your textures a bit undefined or such.

I can imagine that is exactly what Apple wants/tried to achieve.
But so far I was always thinking the filmed in the (gorgeous)
HQ buildings.
I mean they have all the time with virtual presentations and that but
maybe it is really more effective with rendered backgrounds and
background garden videos.
To be independent from weather, park/garden/plant problems
and such …

Tell me more about this. I’ve long thought that there could be a unique optimization for mac, because there’s no need to have scene data on both Ram and Vram. Ideally there would be only one scene in the unified memory. Is this what they have done, or are doing? And is the memory bug you’re referring to related to this idea or not?

Really excited for the M4 updates. At long last we can really say that mac offers best value, in addition to the superior design, OS and well integrated ecosystem.

Asked gpt what would be the price of equivalent mac mini base model:

•	CPU: $300–$350 (Intel Core i5-13600K or AMD Ryzen 7 7700)
•	GPU: $100–$150 (Radeon RX 6400 or GTX 1650)
•	Motherboard: $100–$150
•	RAM: $50–$60 for 16GB
•	Storage: $30–$40 for 256GB NVMe SSD
•	Power Supply and Case: $80–$100

This build would likely cost around $660–$850, compared to $599 mac mini

Of course, gpu memory would be inferior, as well as AI capability

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In no world is a GTX 1650 equivalent to a M4; my M1 Mac Mini is way stronger than a 1650

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At first gpt suggested 3050 rtx, but that has 2x score in geekbench openCL compared to M4, so I pointed that out. Maybe that’s not the best benchmark to compare though.

Apple sent software engineers to Blender foundation to help with the Metal backend.

Maybe now that they learned how Blender works they’re back home building nice backgrounds for Apple promotion videos?

Or they just secretly trained Apple Intelligence there and now it can be done on a 16GB M4 Mac mini after prompting Siri :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

(It would look better if they opted for Octane though)

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Well when it comes to rendering, looking into blender database M4 is quite comprable to rtx 3050, at least the laptop version. (Interpolating between M3 and M3 pro)

So the first gpt answer was better:

CPU: $300–$350 (i5-13600K or Ryzen 7 7700)
• GPU: $250–$300 (RTX 3060 or RX 6600)
• Motherboard: $100–$150
• RAM: $50–$60 for 16GB
• Storage: $30–$40 for 256GB NVMe SSD
• Power Supply and Case: $80–$100

Total Cost Estimate

This setup would likely cost around $810–$1,000 in total, making it slightly more expensive than the M4 Mac Mini’s base model.

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Well, as far as I remember, there are many videos with more detail, Apple reserves memory for CPU and GPU on its unified memory. So, it’s not really that GPU can use 100%, even if it could. I don’t remember the amount and I think it’s always difficult to trust people, as Apple keeps a lot secret and you never know if an update change things.
Anyway, as GPU becomes more important, I think Apple is working on optimisation, especially with Blender. MacOS becomes more and more equal to iOS, like with encryption of the whole harddrive and so it’s also becoming more efficient. For example, energy usage is super low, if you do not need GPU. But once you start Unity you really see energy drop. I can work 3 hours in Blender on my Laptop, even with Eevee on and it only takes like 50%, but once I render with GPU in Cycles or start a Unity session, thing go super fast down.

These LED backgrounds need minimum 50fps realtime with camera tracking and other technical nerd stuff.

There are bunch of realtime engines capable of that, but Blender is not one of them

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But you specifically said there was a memory bug that’s been fixed, so, what’s that? I watch this thread pretty often but have missed news like that. (it’s a long thread, sorry if it’s right here somewhere)

What I’ve read that they’re working on improving memory.

Aside from the sarcasm I wasn’t talking about LEDs but rendered backgrounds.
Motion and FCPX are capable of composing I think.
No realtime stuff needed when the speaker is recorded first and the camera data are used for the render.

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That is what I meant.
Just rendered backgrounds or camera sync.

Of course, why not real time if applicable or any LED caves
if it helps actors. I think Apple can afford it.

But with last years Halloween shots, e.g. somone standing in
front of an entrance, dry ice fog flowing on the floor, … I would not
see any need for anything else than standard filming.
Nor with Apples buildings in general as a coulisse.

Just with this year’s furniture’s artificial appearance …

They say filmed on iPhone, edited on Mac.
Maybe they lied and it was just an iPhone filming another’s
iPhone screen showing Augmented reality and did not
edit it later on Mac !?

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Benchmarks

at the bottom are comparison options between M4s.
M4 Max binned/un-binned is negligible.
Maybe the reason for Apple’s limited Memory offers.

this was truly one of the nicest videos Apple did since a long time:

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At first I din’t really get was
(tripple A game advertisment ?) this was but finally, for me,
this was one of the coolest and weirdest Apple Videos.

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