Here's a breakdown of the key themes discussed in the Hacker News thread, supported by direct quotes:
Difficulty Getting Apple's Attention for Bug Reports/Feature Requests
A recurring theme is the difficulty of getting Apple to address specific issues through the standard feedback channels. Several users express skepticism about the effectiveness of Apple's Feedback Assistant.
- "Feedbacks often go into a black hole unless... Someone makes a fuss on Twitter/X and it starts to go viral" - sgerenser
- "Feedback is as effective as creating a change.org petition to some politician to stop doing crimes please. You'll be lucky to get an acknowledgement that something's a real issue after months." - viraptor
This highlights a perceived need for alternative methods, such as directly contacting Apple engineers or gaining traction on social media, to ensure that reported problems receive adequate attention.
The Desire for More Control Over GPU Performance States
The core issue raised by the original poster is the lack of control over GPU clock speeds, particularly in relation to real-time audio processing. This sparked a discussion about whether Apple should provide developers with more direct control over GPU performance states.
- "The Metal profiler has an incredibly useful feature: it allows you to choose the Metal “Performance State” while profiling the application. This is not configurable outside of the profiler." - krackers (referencing the original post)
- "There has to be a private API for this; the post says: [...] How would the Metal profiler be able to do that if not for a private API? (Could some debugging tool find out what's going on by watching the profiler?)" - bambax
Several users acknowledge the potential benefits of such an API but also express concerns about misuse.
- "The problem with exposing an API for this is that far too many developers will force the highest performance state all the time. I don't know if there's really a good way to stop that and have the API at the same time." - LiamPowell
- "Adding one more API that has the potential to waste energy if not used appropriately will not change that." - grishka But this concern is countered with the argument that developers already have numerous opportunities to misuse resources.
Potential Approaches to Workaround the Limitation
Several users offered suggestions on how the original poster might work around the lack of direct control over GPU performance.
- "Seems like there might be a private API for this. Maybe it's easier to go the reverse engineering route? Unless it'll end up requiring some special entitlement that you can't bypass without disabling SIP." - krackers
- "Go through WWDC videos and find the engineer who seems the most knowledgable about the issue you're facing... Email them directly" - threeseed
These suggestions ranged from reverse engineering to direct outreach to Apple engineers.
Appreciation for the Project and its Documentation
There's a general sentiment of appreciation for the Anukari project and the clear, detailed explanation of the problem the author encountered.
- "Well, I read it all and found it not too long, extremely clear and well-written, and informative! Congrats on the writing." - bambax
- "I have zero need for this app but it's so cool. Apps like these bring the 'fun' back into computing." - sgt
This highlights the value of well-documented technical challenges and the potential for such discussions to inspire and engage others. It also underscores how creative projects can push the boundaries of existing systems.
Questioning the Workload
Some users questioned fundamental aspects of the problem like why CPU processing and GPU processing isn't done concurrently.
- "One thing I don’t understand: if latency is important for this use case, why isn’t the CPU busy preparing the next GPU ‘job’ while a GPU ‘job’ is running?" - Someone