Strix Halo you can get at least 120 GB to the GPU (out of 128 GB total), I'm using this configuration.
Setting the kernel params is a one-time initial setup thing. You have 128 GB of RAM, set it to 120 or whatever as the max VRAM. The LLM will use as much as it needs and the rest of the system will use as much it needs. Fully dynamic with real-time allocation of resources. Honestly I literally haven't even thought of it after setting those kernel args a while ago.
So: "options ttm.pages_limit=31457280 ttm.page_pool_size=31457280", reboot, and that's literally all you have to do.
Oh and even that is only needed because the AMD driver defaults it to something like 35-48 GB max VRAM allocation. It is fully dynamic out of the box, you're only configuring the max VRAM quota with those params. I'm not sure why they choice that number for the default.
Well akshually.... the bootloader is initially not unlockable. You must connect the phone to the internet. Within a few minutes a background process will reach out to Google servers to check whether it was purchased outright or with a payment plan. It will only enable the bootloader unlocking toggle after this step. Phones bought with a carrier contract won't be unlockable until paid off.
In those initial few minutes (/ before you connect it to the interwebs), the bootloader unlock option in the developer settings & fastboot will be disabled.
Yep, I have a 13" gaming tablet with the 128 GB AMD Strix Halo chip (Ryzen AI Max+ 395, what a name). Asus ROG Flow Z13. It's a beast; the performance is totally disproportionate to its size & form factor.
I'm not sure what exactly you're referring to with "Only Apple has the unique dynamic allocation though." On Strix Halo you set the fixed VRAM size to 512 MB in the BIOS, and you set a few Linux kernel params that enable dynamic allocation to whatever limit you want (I'm using 110 GB max at the moment). LLMs can use up to that much when loaded, but it's shared fully dynamically with regular RAM and is instantly available for regular system use when you unload the LLM.
I configured/disabled RGB lighting in Windows before wiping and the settings carried over to Linux. On Arch, install & enable power-profiles-daemon and you can switch between quiet/balanced/performance fan & TDP profiles. It uses the same profiles & fan curves as the options in Asus's Windows software. KDE has native integration for this in the GUI in the battery menu. You don't need to install asus-linux or rog-control-center.
For local AI: set VRAM size to 512 MB in the BIOS, add these kernel params:
Pages are 4 KiB each, so 120 GiB = 120 x 1024^3 / 4096 = 31457280
To check that it worked: sudo dmesg | grep "amdgpu.*memory" will report two values. VRAM is what's set in BIOS (minimum static allocation). GTT is the maximum dynamic quota. The default is 48 GB of GTT. So if you're running small models you actually don't even need to do anything, it'll just work out of the box.
LM Studio worked out of the box with no setup, just download the appimage and run it. For Ollama you just `pacman -S ollama-rocm` and `systemctl enable --now ollama`, then it works. I recently got ComfyUI set up to run image gen & 3d gen models and that was also very easy, took <10 minutes.
I can't believe this machine is still going for $2,800 with 128 GB. It's an incredible value.
You may wanna see if openrgb isn't able to configure the RGB. Could even do some fun stuff like changing the color once done with a training run or something
I use openrgb to turn off all the RGB crap on my desktop machine. Unfortunately you have to leave openrgb running and it takes a constant 0.5% of CPU. I wish there was a "norgb" program that would simply turn off RGB everywhere and not use any CPU while doing it.
Really appreciate this response! Glad to hear you are running Arch and liking it.
I've been a long-time Apple user (and long-time user of Linux for work + part-time for personal), but have been trying out Arch and hyprland on my decade+ old ThinkPad and have been surprised at how enjoyable the experience is. I'm thinking it might just be the tipping point for leaving Apple.
I just did!
Warmly encouraging you to try it out!
Managed to put Omarchy on an external ssd on my old macbookpro 2019; rarely booting in macos now. Long time i haven’t enjoyed using a computer SO MUCH!
For those of us who don't have a Polar strap, can you explain at a high level how your app works? Based on what the page says, seems like something about using R-R interval to estimate where you area on the Meyer wave cycle?
I have a different heart rate monitor (Amazfit smartwatch, mine has their latest sensor that matches the higher end Garmin watches for accuracy, it can be used as a Bluetooth device or you can develop software to run on it directly). What topics/keywords should I look into if I want to develop the equivalent application for my hardware?
Mobile Safari only does this for sites that implement dark themes (and when you have dark mode enabled in iOS). But many sites don’t have these themes. The Noir extension seems to fix the problem for now. There is a reader mode that can go dark but it’s manual, per article
I see. Not a Safari user myself. On Firefox & Chrome Dark Reader can force its own dark theme even if the site doesn't provide one. Like Noir does on mobile Safari.
> Being able to configure multiple VPNs at once, e.g. for Tailscale, ad filtering, blocking HackerNews during times when I should be doing something more productive
AdAway (in F-Droid) can block with /etc/hosts (no VPN involved) if you have root. The hosts blocking still works even when connected to a VPN. Aside from loading ad domain lists into /etc/hosts, it also allows you to specify custom domains to block - I personally have Reddit and HN in there :)
> AdAway (in F-Droid) can block with /etc/hosts (no VPN involved)
lifts head
> if you have root
Sigh. :)
Sure, on LineageOS back in the day I used to edit /etc/hosts by hand. On GrapheneOS I no longer have root, though (unless I compile it myself), which generally I think is a good idea, weren't it for Linux's absolutely abysmal access control system that requires you to be root for almost everything.
You don't have to statically allocate the VRAM in the BIOS. It can be dynamically allocated. Jeff Geerling found you can reliably use up to 108 GB [1].
Care to go into a bit more on machine specs? I am interested in picking up a rig to do some LLM stuff and not sure where to get started. I also just need a new machine, mine is 8y-o (with some gaming gpu upgrades) at this point and It's That Time Again. No biggie tho, just curious what a good modern machine might look like.
Those Ryzen AI Max+ 395 systems are all more or less the same. For inference you want the one with 128GB soldered RAM. There are ones from Framework, Gmktec, Minisforum etc. Gmktec used to be the cheapest but with the rising RAM prices its Framework noe i think. You cant really upgrade/configure them. For benchmarks look into r/localllama - there are plenty.
Minisforum, Gmktec also have Ryzen AI HX 370 mini PCs with 128Gb (2x64Gb) max LPDDR5. It's dirt cheap, you can get one barebone with ~€750 on Amazon (the 395 similarly retails for ~€1k)... It should be fully supported in Ubuntu 25.04 or 25.10 with ROCm for iGPU inference (NPU isn't available ATM AFAIK), which is what I'd use it for. But I just don't know how the HX 370 compares to eg. the 395, iGPU-wise. I was thinking of getting one to run Lemonade, Qwen3-coder-next FP8, BTW... but I don't know how much RAM should I equip it with - shouldn't 96Gb be enough? Suggestions welcome!
I benchmarked unsloth/Qwen3-Coder-Next-GGUF using the MXFP4_MOE (43.7 GB) quantization on my Ryzen AI Max+ 395 and I got ~30 tps. According to [1] and [2], the AI Max+ 395 is 2.4x faster than the AI 9 HX 370 (laptop edition). Taking all that into account, the AI 9 HX 370 should get ~13 tps on this model. Make of that what you will.
Most Ryzen 395 machines don't have a PCI-e slot for that so you're looking at an extension from an m.2 slot or Thunderbolt (not sure how well that will work, possibly ok at 10Gb). Minisforum has a couple newly announced products, and I think the Framework desktop's motherboard can do it if you put it in a different case, that's about it. Hopefully the next generation has Gen5 PCIe and a few more lanes.
> things are getting much more expensive while the quality is declining
This is totally untrue, material things have gotten way cheaper over time. TVs, cars, phones, technology, appliances, the list goes on and on.
And quality has improved on many of these, a $500 TV today is way bigger and better than a $5k TV from a few decades ago. Same for cars & phones when you adjust for inflation. Home gadgets / IOT are much more accessible & affordable. Appliances have gotten cheaper and even the higher end products are quite affordable. Ikea furniture is cheap and many of their products are quite durable and solid quality.
And old things weren't always better or more reliable than the modern cheaper products.
Clothing is horrible. Shirts don't last a season. T-shirts (all brands) are kleenex. Like tshirts are basically how old scifi portrayed how UBI issued clothes would be. Outdoor gear companies no longer backup their products the failure rate is insanely high while being more expensive. Sony/Apple hugely expensive earbuds are basically disposable junk after a year or two whereas my old Sony headphones lasted decades. No earbuds are going to last decades. Olive oil mayonnaise number 2 and 3 ingredients are other oils (split to two types so that olive oil is TECHNICALLY the highest percentage oil still). Google broke my phones voice command so I can't use it to set timers and I have less functionality than I did 10 years ago (home automations all broke, etc). Music services broke the algos so they no longer give me the 'best results for me' but for the company. New vehicle prices are higher than they have ever been for vehicles with repair costs so high they are going to be an insurance rate nightmare later in their lifecycle.
Other than TVs (which are literally the 1984 screens, where you buy something to spy on you) everything is trash/misleading now.
> New vehicle prices are higher than they have ever been for vehicles with repair costs so high they are going to be an insurance rate nightmare later in their lifecycle.
Just a shout out for this one. Possibly the most "irrational" purchases made right now by US consumers are new cars. 5 year old cars are 60% cheaper than new!
I have had a set of like 15 t-shirts that I wash and tumble dry after one day of wear. After a decade of service some of them are showing signs of wear, but the majority are still in good condition.
My over ear 3.5mm headphones are still going doing well after 7 years.
After watching some up and coming band live, I can find their music on spotify available for listening without ads included in my existing subscription.
My Bose headphones are at 8 years and in perfect condition with 90% of original battery life. Adjusted for inflation, they were way cheaper than those older headphones.
Excellent quality olive oil is incredibly easy to find, if you're buying bottom barrel junk then that's on you.
New vehicle prices when adjusted for inflation have not risen at all; when adjusted for features/comfort/reliability/luxury they've fallen a ridiculous amount.
Same for clothing. My $14.88 Walmart jeans lasted for years before I sized out of them. My $15 t-shirts from Target are going strong. I recently got $15 gym shirts from Target which seem to be excellent quality, thick material and good stitching. The cheap gym shorts I bought literally 10 years ago are still in perfect condition. And again you need to adjust for inflation when comparing to the older clothing you're talking about.
The OLED TV I got for $2700 a few years ago is now closer to $2k and has superior specs. And again, way superior to more expensive TVs from a decade or two ago.
For car repair... what repair do you even need on a modern Japanese car? They just work forever if you do even the bare minimum maintenance. And honestly even if you neglect that maintenance. Yes labor costs have gone up but that's not relevant to this discussion.
All your other complaints are about software which isn't really relevant to this discussion.
Honestly all of this sounds like a "you problem." No offense.
My Sony died very quickly. My Apple's are on their way out. Everyone I know is past their first earbuds purchase. Inflation adjustment doesn't apply when the product life is so incredibly different. The fact you even know your pairs life shows the previous effortless use of headphones versus modern use has been enshitified.
I said Olive oil mayonnaise is an enshitified product abusing loopholes. That you can't read is on you (no offense).
$15 gym shirts aren't tshirts (you know like 3 pack Hannes, Jockey). Again why are you trying so hard to reply t something I didn't write?
If new vehicles are just as affordable why are average loan lengths going up? The average car loan in the 1970s was 30 months. Long-maturity auto loans carry substantially higher interest so it isn't gaming the system reasons.
That decade ago TV didn't spy on you, and I conceded TVs are an outlier if you ignore the whole 1984 aspect.
What car repairs does insurance cover? Where did I talk about maintenance? I talked about the cost to insure modern vehicles being higher especially later on. Context is important for comprehension.
You can leave off the passive aggressive 'no offense' snark.
> My Sony died very quickly. My Apple's are on their way out.
same
i'll never buy those apple earbuds ever again; hundreds of dollars down the drain and more e-waste cause those batteries cant be replaced... and sony: charging 70 bucks for wired earbuds and the cover falls off after a couple months usage what the f...
(ok rant finished)
We've gotten more pixels and bytes and flops, that's it. We haven't got more battery life, or faster computers, which is strange because they have orders of magnitude more flops in them.
Casey Muratori showing off the speed of visual studio 6 on a Pentium something after ranting about it: Jump to 36:08 in https://youtu.be/GC-0tCy4P1U
15 years ago even the high end smartphones could barely make it half the day before dying. Now all-day battery life is the norm, and the Chinese phones with the latest battery tech can easily last 2 days (Samsung, Google, Apple are very behind here).
Laptop battery life isn't even comparable to what it was 20 years ago.
And software getting slower doesn't change the fact that our material goods (pixels, bytes, flops) have improved orders of magnitude while getting cheaper.
Back in the Nokia brick days you could easily go a full week between charges.
Of course it's an apples to oranges comparison since a modern smartphone has infinitely more functionality, but in this one thing modern phones remain objectively worse.
You have to compare the old Nokia phone with the new Nokia dump phone. I doubt that the old phone's battery lasts longer than that of a new Nokia 2720 Flip:
Does it, though? Unless you go back so far you're talking about fixed–layout b&w LCD screens, the next era after that had games and the internet — what's actually new since that time? Multitasking yes, what else?
I got a new phone but didn't set it up immediately. The battery lasted about two weeks. Once I installed my apps and SIM card it dropped to about one day. Once my old phone had no SIM card and was sitting permanently in flight mode with no apps running, its battery life rose from about one day to about two weeks.
Most of the things you call "way cheaper" have massive costs that aren't reflected in the price tag. The TVs, phones, and IoT appliances are spying on you 24/7 and pushing ads in your face. In terms of quality, much of that is highly debatable.
If you compare a call over the newest iphone to a call over a rotary phone from 60 years ago guess which one gave users better call quality? I don't remember who made the joke about advertisers going from "You can hear a pin drop!" to "Can you hear me now?" but that sums up the problem very well. TVs are bigger but still can't do everything CRTs could (color accuracy, contrast, variable resolutions). We have faster hard drives with SSDs but with limited numbers of writes and they lose data when not powered. Everything is just trade offs. Some things have been improved, some things have gotten worse, but however good things are right now you can bet they will be made worse going forward. Enshittification is real and increasing all the time.
For calculating price changes over time, there will always be the question: "is this the same product as earlier?"
Without a reasonableness factor, prices can't be compared for anything. An egg from a chicken in 1940 is different from one in 2026. If we want to be pedantic, every egg is different.
But I think it's pretty uncontroversial that the prices of TVs, cell phones, and most appliances, with similar features, have fallen considerably over the last few decades.
Well, you can't call your loved ones from anywhere with rotary phone, when you need them, so which one is better? I know which one I'd choose.
SSD is not only faster but also quieter and more efficient. See how much power a modern laptop consumes vs 20 years ago?
> Some things have been improved, some things have gotten worse, but however good things are right now you can bet they will be made worse going forward. Enshittification is real and increasing all the time.
You said everything is trade off but choose to believe the future will get worse. Seems contradictory? I believe life will go on, and in 2046 people will complain about modern life and talk about how good things were 20 years earlier.
Yes, and you can get fresh tomatoes any time of year for cheap and they're so firm they won't get damaged in transit and with a blast of ethylene they're a perfect shade of red when you buy them.
All things unquestionably better than the past. What's there to complain about?
> Yes, and you can get fresh tomatoes any time of year for cheap and they're so firm they won't get damaged in transit and with a blast of ethylene they're a perfect shade of red when you buy them
The O3:O6 ratio matters more. And with the right diet it's very easy to get tons of O3 with an excellent O6 ratio (1:4 vs. the 1:10+ of the standard western diet). Vegan with some seeds (hemp, flax, chia, etc.) and a fish oil or algal EPA/DHA supplement will do it quite easily. As long as you use olive/avocado oil over the O6-heavy cooking oils. Other diets are probably also capable of this.
I’m not aware of any compelling evidence that the n3:n6 ratio actually matters as long as you’re meeting the absolute required levels of each.
There was a big push for this hypothesis in the 2010s, but on closer inspection the only research that seemed to support it was where the “low n3:n6 ratio” cohort were there by virtue of low n3, not high n6.
Where studies compare groups of people where ratios were manipulated but both were at adequate levels, I don’t believe we see any evidence of a deleterious effect.
You can do the same in the US, zennioptical.com. You need to measure your PD which is very easy (Most optometry shops are hesitant to tell you your PD. And it's normally measured when you go to order the glasses, not as part of the initial eye exam.)
As for needing a prescription <1 year old, if your vision hasn't changed, just edit the date in the PDF. Same for contact lens prescriptions.
As part of the regular eye exam, they generally use an autorefractor machine on your current glasses and/or eyes to get a baseline before they manually fine tune with the 1/2 on the eye chart test. But yeah, you can't just get the quick prescription from the autorefractor like you talked about in Japan.
While we are in the minority, Zenni and many online optical shops recently decided they will not make you glasses if your prescription is over a certain power. In 2025 I broke $800 on frames+lenses and contacts.
You can't do the same in the US. They won't do an eye exam for you. That's the whole problem - glasses in the US are a medical device gated by a doctor, which is absurd.
Setting the kernel params is a one-time initial setup thing. You have 128 GB of RAM, set it to 120 or whatever as the max VRAM. The LLM will use as much as it needs and the rest of the system will use as much it needs. Fully dynamic with real-time allocation of resources. Honestly I literally haven't even thought of it after setting those kernel args a while ago.
So: "options ttm.pages_limit=31457280 ttm.page_pool_size=31457280", reboot, and that's literally all you have to do.
Oh and even that is only needed because the AMD driver defaults it to something like 35-48 GB max VRAM allocation. It is fully dynamic out of the box, you're only configuring the max VRAM quota with those params. I'm not sure why they choice that number for the default.
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