I built an AI Supercomputer... again (2TB RAM)
Enabling High-Speed Local AI Clustering on Mac with Apple's RDMA Update
Discover how Apple's software update—enabling low-latency RDMA over Thunderbolt 5—revolutionized local AI clustering, turning slow performance from 5 tokens/sec to over 16 tokens/sec using massive models.
Short Summary
- Apple introduced RDMA (Remote Direct Memory Access) via a software update (Tahoe 26.2).
- This feature slashed inter-device latency from 300 microseconds down to 3 microseconds.
- The improved connectivity unlocked Tensor Parallelism, making massive model clustering fast and viable.
- Testing showed clustering now speeds up inference (e.g., Llama 3 370B went from 5 to 16 tokens/sec).
This breakdown covers the construction of a powerful, $50,000 local AI cluster using four highly-specced Mac Studios. The core focus is evaluating whether clustering these machines makes sense for AI workloads, especially after previous failures due to networking bottlenecks. The key takeaway is that Apple solved connectivity latency using RDMA, fundamentally changing the equation for decentralized local AI processing.
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Top Comments (10)
So many YouTubers got sent 4 Mac’s this week
This guy is the reason why we're in a RAM shortage lol
I used to believe rich people were lucky or corrupt. After reading Smart Broke Dumb Rich by Zor Veyl I see it is mostly financial literacy. The kind they deliberately keep out of schools so regular people stay stuck.
He has RAM get him!!!
Chuck's Wife: "Stop hugging your computers, and come to dinner!"
That's at least 5 cents extra on my future RAM purchase.
Dude is going on a RAMpage
Hey…just try Twingate….you'll never look at VPN the same: https://ntck.co/twingate-networkchuck I built another AI supercomputer with 4 Mac Studios... but this time it actually works. Earlier this year, I clustered 5 Mac Studios and it was 91% SLOWER. Everyone said clustering was stupid. But Apple just dropped a software update that changes everything - RDMA over Thunderbolt 5. Latency dropped from 300 microseconds to 3 microseconds. Now we're running trillion-parameter models locally at speeds that actually make sense. 🔥🔥Join the NetworkChuck Academy!: https://ntck.co/NCAcademy RESOURCES / LINKS: Docs/walkthrough: https://github.com/theNetworkChuck/mac-studio-cluster Exo Labs: https://github.com/exo-explore/exo MLX (Apple's ML Framework): https://github.com/ml-explore/mlx My First Cluster Video (the failure): https://youtu.be/Ju0ndy2kwlw RDMA Networking Explained: https://youtu.be/fb69FyW2KLk
Thank you Apple MLX team and EXO team. And Chuck!
This is exciting. There is a road being paved. Thanks for this collaboration and insight into what we will have access to sooner than later.
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Top Comments (10)
So many YouTubers got sent 4 Mac’s this week
This guy is the reason why we're in a RAM shortage lol
I used to believe rich people were lucky or corrupt. After reading Smart Broke Dumb Rich by Zor Veyl I see it is mostly financial literacy. The kind they deliberately keep out of schools so regular people stay stuck.
He has RAM get him!!!
Chuck's Wife: "Stop hugging your computers, and come to dinner!"
That's at least 5 cents extra on my future RAM purchase.
Dude is going on a RAMpage
Hey…just try Twingate….you'll never look at VPN the same: https://ntck.co/twingate-networkchuck I built another AI supercomputer with 4 Mac Studios... but this time it actually works. Earlier this year, I clustered 5 Mac Studios and it was 91% SLOWER. Everyone said clustering was stupid. But Apple just dropped a software update that changes everything - RDMA over Thunderbolt 5. Latency dropped from 300 microseconds to 3 microseconds. Now we're running trillion-parameter models locally at speeds that actually make sense. 🔥🔥Join the NetworkChuck Academy!: https://ntck.co/NCAcademy RESOURCES / LINKS: Docs/walkthrough: https://github.com/theNetworkChuck/mac-studio-cluster Exo Labs: https://github.com/exo-explore/exo MLX (Apple's ML Framework): https://github.com/ml-explore/mlx My First Cluster Video (the failure): https://youtu.be/Ju0ndy2kwlw RDMA Networking Explained: https://youtu.be/fb69FyW2KLk
Thank you Apple MLX team and EXO team. And Chuck!
This is exciting. There is a road being paved. Thanks for this collaboration and insight into what we will have access to sooner than later.