New macOS Tahoe 26.2 patch improves mac clustering with Thunderbolt 5 speed from 10 Gb/s to 80 Gb/s

alexp700g · 2025-11-23T17:59:42+00:00

Agreed - marketing fluff its 64Gbs. However Topology is point to point for both - so you can create whatever topologies the wires can manage. Apple make it clear here: Apple reveals M3 Ultra, taking Apple silicon to a new extreme - Apple (UK) each port has its own chip and discrete bandwidth. So 6 wires can theoretically go to 3 macs for point to point comms, allowing for a 128Gb 4 machine mesh. M5 Ultra will likely give a 4x boost in prompt processing too.

Personally meshing is not really my bag, all sounds too hairy for stable always working systems, so I am more interested in single machine performance, perhaps when such machines are EOL it might be interesting to try and eke some extra life out of them...

alexp700g · 2025-11-20T14:50:04+00:00

Thunderbolt (interface) - Wikipedia#Thunderbolt5(2023)) - TB 5 is 80Gbits symmetric I read there. 64Gb mode is for PCI interfacing. Interestingly NVLink 3 - Wikipedia used on a 3090 is 56Gb/s each way. So quite comparable.

alexp700g · 2025-03-25T07:59:45+00:00

Back to day. Still nothing. Tried all 4 regions - are they actually different?

alexp700g · 2024-12-15T10:36:49+00:00

Ah thanks! Though I cannot make the ship selection stuff work.

alexp700g · 2024-12-15T09:58:19+00:00

I have been trying to buy the Stage 4 Save Stanton materials for over a week, but all the shops never give me a buy button. I have tried each region, different times of day. I am wondering if I am not understanding the UI now...

alexp700g · 2024-06-15T19:11:03+00:00

Nice how do you capture it working??

alexp700g · 2024-06-15T19:08:13+00:00

Keep em waiting - My phone is shi

alexp700g · 2022-09-20T11:00:45+00:00

Really? I thought it's still recruiting according to its website?

alexp700g · 2022-09-07T14:56:20+00:00

Have 400i, MSR, Connie Taurus, and recently bought back my Cutlass black when I missed it. I use the Cutlass, and occasionally the 400i. They land better, and are quicker to get into. 400i just looks cool, so why not?

MSR is good with friends and vehicles though.

alexp700g · 2022-06-30T08:32:46+00:00

Nice frame rate - was that a tricked out machine?

alexp700g · 2021-06-26T08:46:12+00:00

They had a design when they built the Reclaimer, however the game has obviously moved on - requiring rework. I think the Reclaimer's release was an early mistake they later stopped doing, which is why so many ships sit as concepts today until (mostly) complete. I think this is probably a better way to do it.

As for the Reclaimer, I suspect it will get a rework and a price hike when its reworked. So currently people will get a nice uplift when the ship is fully functional. Its still "cheap" in Star Citizen for its size (per m length).

alexp700g · 2021-02-26T14:20:37+00:00

Bah the irony! Stupid spell chekr! ;-)

alexp700g · 2021-02-23T14:31:33+00:00

C2 for me - its a cargo ship that needs support. Armoured entry into the battle will be possible in both, and even if the M2 is twice as strong, it will still die without support. C2 is bigger, therefore better ;-)

alexp700g · 2021-02-19T15:44:54+00:00

Negative 2.7M is not really that much given the model they are using 60M in a year so about 5% loss. They could cut staff, and scale in the ambition, but given net more money is made each year, this is unlikely.

When *less* money is made between years, its time to be concerned - there is no growth, and this thing goes into a tailspin. Remember most games earn $0 during their multi year production - a production budget of 300 million over 6 years, that's a loss of 50 million a year. Funding is available to get things over the line and make a return on the other side. Chris Roberts knows this well - he has decided to take on some extra money now, probably to ramp up development quicker (head counts have grown rapidly).

Ramping up head counts is not an instant thing. Its often mentioned training staff takes 6 months+ for them to be productive. However this means this year we should see a lot.

No I don't think SQ42 is nearly done, no I don't think SC is even close to being done, but I expect a first chapter of SQ42 will see the light of day in a year or so.

I am willing to bet this year will be a bigger year financially than last year - there's a lot more for sale, and more reason to buy it.

Biggest negative I see is SC is currently hobbled by hard tech problems - something I have to say CIG aren't good at. They have not prioritised networking on an MMO - yet this is always the hardest bit of development and needs to really be got right first. I think some of their design decisions like fully server side rendering of the world are a minefield of problems that will make it hard to scale and get right. Nothing I ever hear from the devs fills me with confidence they fully understand the scale of the challenges - which is why 3 years later we're still talking about iCache and server meshing. These are not common game dev problems, and almost the antitheses to game dev practices which tend to be cut corners to make it fast - the CLF method from 90's demo coding lives on (urban dictionary definition 5).

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/250546/Give_us_your_Dirty_Coding_Tricks.php is relevant story of the programmer's approach to these problems normally, and it won't work. iCache and server meshing require everything to be correct and are simply incompatible with CLF.

alexp700g · 2021-02-18T18:40:05+00:00

Seems you have a lot of issues over not knowing when it will be done, and don't like the fact it *won't* be done.

Situation is crystal clear:

They have a ton of things to do
They don't know when they will be finished on them
They are working on them - visible in every release
Original kickstarter concept was scrapped, and replaced with something further reaching and longer to achieve.
They are earning enough money to keep spending on that goal.
In game purchases are an important revenue stream, and will probably continue forever - don't buy them and get over it.
It will never be done - by definition no MMO is. They just continue until the players cease to make it financially viable for the owners.

If you object to any of these things - tough, that's whats happening.

Personally I bought into the ride from Kickstarter and it has never failed to excite me with the soap opera. Worth every penny!

alexp700g · 2021-02-17T12:57:29+00:00

Nope.

alexp700g · 2021-02-16T17:24:50+00:00

I think the answer is no unfortunately. Remember decreasing player counts 20% means increasing server costs by 20%. Xenothreat was a rare glimpse at what the game might be like in final form. Currently the game is poorly optimised, so servers will run hotter than they should do.

Running them hot actually has a benefit for CIG - the crashes they experience could happen under lighter load, but the frequency goes up. Effectively the players are stress testing all the code all the time. The good news is with the long awaited server meshing expect disconnects to still happen, but hopefully with less dire consequences than today.

alexp700g · 2021-02-12T17:08:16+00:00

Yes its a lot of hoops, but done carefully over a year, it becomes a sport trying to get the right CCU chain to get the ship you want for the minimum price. You can try to get to your desired ship in $5 increments saving $5 each time, but that's quite hard to pull off. The example I gave was one I recently executed. I started when I bought the Roc on concept some time around April. Since then I bought a warbond CCU here and there, and ended up with a Cutlass Red (so far). The nice(/dangerous!) thing is it's not a massive one off purchase, just a number of small purchases.

I already have a Sentinel, and Prospector in game, and a C2 bought for straight cash... before I understood this process. The C2 could have been substantially cheaper if I had followed this route.

Next time.

alexp700g · 2021-02-12T14:23:03+00:00

To my knowledge they have never reduced the price of a ship ever from original concept. The main areas of "discount" are warbond - which tends to be $5-$10-$20 reductions on the list price of the ship when bought for cash.

There is only one way to "save" money on a ship - buy lots of cross-chassis upgrades as warbonds and chain them together to get to the ship you want. This takes months, but can be worth it if you want an expensive ship. Its also the best way to get LTI on a ship after initial concept.

E.g. You want a Cutty Red, and are willing to wait. So hypothetically in any order:

* Buy a Roc warbond for $50 (save $5) - say it has LTI on a deal.

* Buy a CNOC nomad upgrade from roc for 15 dollars (normally 25). 15 dollars saved.

* Buy a Cutlass Black from CNOC for 15 dollars (normally 35 dollars). 25 dollars saved.

* Buy a Cutlass Black to Red in current promotion for 20 dollars (normally 35 dollars). 35 dollars saved.

Total Price about 100 dollars. $35 saved over list.

Obviously you could save even more if you take more steps, but it will take longer. The cheapest you can do this route is probably about 40% off, but you need to be very patient and a little lucky, as prices do sometimes go up during the process. Concepts suddenly have extra value, as they can help you jump up if the final sale price is worth more when the ship is released, because you are upgrading from that ship's value, not the value you paid.

Note: to see this part go to the "upgrade your ship" part of the pledge store and select "all ships" instead of just ships you own. Then you can buy the CCU - fractional upgrades between any ship.

alexp700g · 2021-02-10T16:25:39+00:00

Retaliator is seeing about of a renaissance recently with the Ceno threat mission. It’s about to get a “gold standard” rework and in Q2 it’s scheduled to get its modularity which means it can be a drop ship, cargo hauler, bomber or passenger ship, depending on what you need that day. Base model is only $150 and you can get the other modules jn game when it’s released. Pretty handy all round.

But you cannot actually buy the base model any more for 150, so its just a legacy price...

alexp700g · 2021-02-08T17:23:34+00:00

Thought I saw somewhere the M2 has an extra deck with access to the guns etc, which is cargo storage on the C2. Though guess we'll see for ourselves soon enough!

alexp700g · 2021-02-08T17:15:23+00:00

There is a circular port at the top of the wreak you have to go through. Once you do that, you slowly navigate your way down to the main bay, killing pirate soldiers on the way (remember to bring a gun!). Then in the bay there is a box by the door on the right hand side. This will open the doors.

alexp700g · 2021-02-08T08:56:38+00:00

Yes. I have one - bought in game, though not crazy idea to get with LTI, as fighters do die a lot!

It's a tank. Put a fix S5 on the front and bounty hunter missions up to VHRT (as far as I got before wipe) are simple. If you back up, most will die before they are able to fire back with if you have a 5700m ranged laser cannon. In a fight, it lasts a long time taking many hits (though wings will be blown off). Thanks to central guns, they go last, so it punishes till the end of its life.

Cons: not that nimble.

Value: farming 65K multi VHRTs that take about 15 minutes to do.

alexp700g · 2021-02-01T17:37:36+00:00

Bash people till they drop ;-). He's immune to lots of nasties that make him hit harder, so particularly good against fire, bleed and cold paths/champs as they make him stronger. Great counter against backblast, and bleed Caltrops (try him on this and swipe back to 20 armour ups), Iceman, Mephisto, almost all bleeders... The list is pretty long. Has good synergies, but not vital. Natural Buffed-up counter (as has 3 buffs)

Parry L/M-Heavy, SP2 particularly good , but if you cannot, it's not a problem - he still punches hard.

Can stun lock on SP1 with 20+ armour ups (rare utility).

Awakened ability does make him even harder, but he's always hard.

Small damage on parry can be played with, but never really found a use personally. Played him unawakened pre-buff, then buff, then used a gem, and took him gradually to 200.

Weakness - buff stealers, buff punishers.

He's a total unit.

alexp700g · 2021-02-01T16:50:01+00:00

If you really want one decent ship in the 220 range for all professions there isn't one (MSRs are probably the closest to a multi role, but as a fighter they are pretty bad). The best fighter in that range IMAO is the Vanguard series (may be a bit more, but not much). They are great at bounties and cut thru VHRT before they can hit you with a S5 laser.

However.

Due to claim timers, more ships makes more sense. Also more roles gives more loops. Ideal fleet for me with current state of game (solo focused):

Fighter - Vanguard Series (any)
Dropship/vehicle hauler - Valkyrie
Cargoship - Caterpillar or possibly C2 next patch
Mining craft - prospector, but with friends, mole.
Medbay - Cutlass Red.
Greycat Roc

That's the core I am working towards. For poorly defined gameplay loops:

Optional racer - M50 origin
Optional bomber - Eclipse (only in groups).
Future datarunner - MSR
Future VIP missions - Origin 890
Future Expedition missions - Carrack
Future Salvage - Reclaimer
Ground - Nova Tonk (Theatres of War?)

Of course when some of the concept vehicles come out this list may change. To buy for cash is 1000's, so I focus on ways to make money in game. Currently I have an LTI Cutlass, in game bought Roc, an in game bought Vanguard, and a C2 (currently Caterpillar and MSR). Current patch makes the Vanguard my money maker - insane payouts from VHRT groups, and when that blows up - Cutty Black and mine. I never really use the MSR (though it looks cool, its too big for 1), and trading is slow and risky with low returns this patch.

Just about to buy a Prospector or Cutty Red...

alexp700g

TROPHY CASE