Friday, November 10
Daily News Stuff 10 November 2023
60% Solution Edition
60% Solution Edition
Top Story
- Apple's new M3 Pro - specifically, the 11 core version - has the fastest single-threaded performance of any CPU. (Tom's Hardware)
By 1%, but a win is a win.
Downside is that on multi-threaded tests it ranks 312th, right behind AMD's ultra-low-power Ryzen Z1 Extreme, used in portable gaming devices like the Asus ROG Ally.
So Apple has some work to do there.
Tech News
- Speaking of portable gaming devices there's now an OLED version of the Steam Deck. (Tom's Hardware)
Unless you live in Australia, in which case there is no Steam Deck at all.
- Micron has introduced 128GB DDR5-8000 server memory using its new 32Gb DRAM. (AnandTech)
Which is really fast for server memory, which normally runs at more pedestrian speeds like 4800MHz, which is merely absurdly fast rather than insanely fast.
To get 128GB on on module you previously had to stack two memory chips two deep (and before that, four deep), which slowed things down. Server CPUs have been adding more memory channels to get the bandwidth they needed with those slow modules, so an overnight 66% increase is going to shake things up a bit.
Well, when I say overnight, these modules will be available next year.
Expect 64GB desktop and laptop modules as well.
And in 2026, says Micron, 96GB desktop and laptop modules, and 192GB server modules.
- The first planned small nuclear reactor in the US has been cancelled due to spiraling costs. (Ars Technica)
How unusual.
- The Illinois state senate has voted 44-7 to approve the construction of small nuclear reactors. (AP News)
How unusual. But seriously this time.
- Tumblr is reportedly on life support, and is not getting much of that. (Ars Technica)
Tumblr these days is owned by Automattic, which also runs Wordpress.com.
The site is best known for the 2018 Verizon Containment Breach, in which its parent company banned porn and millions of lunatics fled to infect ever other website in the world.
Disclaimer: Maybe we could find a cure. And then a vaccine.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
06:23 PM
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1
"So Apple has some work to do there."
It doesn't matter. I'm reading a discussion in a forum and all the Apple fans care--and it's not nothing--is that a Mac laptop will last longer on battery than even a 7940HS. They started out claiming it would outperform any x86 device until the benchmarks came in, and then seamless switched to battery life without even an acknowledgement they were wrong about performance. See, everyone who matters does video editing or using generative AI to make pictures of people with two right arms, while camping or at the airport, all the time.
It doesn't matter. I'm reading a discussion in a forum and all the Apple fans care--and it's not nothing--is that a Mac laptop will last longer on battery than even a 7940HS. They started out claiming it would outperform any x86 device until the benchmarks came in, and then seamless switched to battery life without even an acknowledgement they were wrong about performance. See, everyone who matters does video editing or using generative AI to make pictures of people with two right arms, while camping or at the airport, all the time.
Posted by: Rick C at Friday, November 10 2023 11:46 PM (BMUHC)
2
The issue of power is where Meteor Lake and whichever lake is the next mobile chipset (and of course AMD's offerings) will be interesting, as they're supposed to use less power on battery while not having perf fall off a cliff. We'll see how it goes. One of the pro-x86 people in the discussion I just mentioned says the 7040 series still has good perf on battery while having better battery life than is historically the case, but to be fair, there's probably still a ways to go.
Posted by: Rick C at Friday, November 10 2023 11:48 PM (BMUHC)
3
To give intel credit: their low power stuff is amazingly low powered.
Posted by: normal at Saturday, November 11 2023 01:21 AM (LADmw)
4
Low power used is a little important for me, because my current desktop puts off about as much heat as I want to have around me during the summer without more aggressive air conditioning.
In a lot of ways, I am pretty sure I am not a typical mac use case.
Posted by: PatBuckman at Saturday, November 11 2023 01:31 AM (r9O5h)
5
The nuclear thing bugs me so much. I see all the commenters (reading comments is always a mistake, but ...) going on about some fantasy world where solar and wind power are going to charge electric semi-trucks with stored power from all the batteries we can't build.
It's a fantasy. It's sheer fantasy. Renewable energy "exists", but on the scale of power required to run civilization (tractors, trucks, earthmoving equipment, steel mills), it basically doesn't exist. It isn't fucking real in the way it has to be to run civilization.
Sydney might be the only city on Earth that actually tried to build enough battery capacity to make renewable energy usable. (One of the buildings caught on fire spectacularly, as lithium banks are wont to do, but that is neither here nor there.) They did this on the prompting of Elon Musk, one of the few oligarchs out there that seems to actually think about what it would take to make any of this work.
Everyone else is playing pretend. And these barbarians are cheering the destruction of potential energy sources that could actually run civilization.
It's a fantasy. It's sheer fantasy. Renewable energy "exists", but on the scale of power required to run civilization (tractors, trucks, earthmoving equipment, steel mills), it basically doesn't exist. It isn't fucking real in the way it has to be to run civilization.
Sydney might be the only city on Earth that actually tried to build enough battery capacity to make renewable energy usable. (One of the buildings caught on fire spectacularly, as lithium banks are wont to do, but that is neither here nor there.) They did this on the prompting of Elon Musk, one of the few oligarchs out there that seems to actually think about what it would take to make any of this work.
Everyone else is playing pretend. And these barbarians are cheering the destruction of potential energy sources that could actually run civilization.
Posted by: madrocketsci at Saturday, November 11 2023 03:10 AM (hRoyQ)
6
"some fantasy world"
These are the same morons who seriously use phrases like "the moral arc of history" as if the universe itself is pushing towards a particular social outcome.
These are the same morons who seriously use phrases like "the moral arc of history" as if the universe itself is pushing towards a particular social outcome.
Posted by: Rick C at Saturday, November 11 2023 03:56 AM (BMUHC)
7
Sydney might be the only city on Earth that actually tried to build enough battery capacity to make renewable energy usable. (One of the buildings caught on fire spectacularly, as lithium banks are wont to do, but that is neither here nor there.) They did this on the prompting of Elon Musk, one of the few oligarchs out there that seems to actually think about what it would take to make any of this work.Adelaide, but yes. They have a massive Tesla battery array now. They're also very well placed for wind and solar power.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Saturday, November 11 2023 10:25 AM (PiXy!)
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