Nvidia joins GPGPU race - bit-tech.net Forums

Tim S · 21st Jun 2007, 11:49

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2007/06...s_gpgpu_race/1

Nvidia makes a serious move into the GPGPU space... it's time to meet Tesla.

DougEdey · 21st Jun 2007, 11:52

For anyone wanting a rather brief but useful insight into GPGPU stuff: http://leri.univ-reims.fr/~nocent/uo...r%20Class.html

This was a lecture performed at my Uni during the last few months (I couldn't make it back) and the lecture information is rather useful.

David_Fitzy · 21st Jun 2007, 11:53

Yay tons of near pointless Hz, and nVidia sucking even more Watts, they should start investing in the national grid

Phil Rhodes · 21st Jun 2007, 12:39

Yes, marvellous, lovely, smashing, super.

Now what does it actually do?

Phil

TomH · 21st Jun 2007, 12:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by Phil Rhodes

Yes, marvellous, lovely, smashing, super.

Now what does it actually do?

Phil

Everything! Well, almost. You couldn't replace your CPU with it, but you could offload your insane mathematical calculations onto it, and it'll run them faster than a dual Core 2 Quad system.

Did you even RTFA? How about checking some of the videos on Nvidia's Tesla page page

Now I need to try and find an excuse to get the boss to buy one... Somehow

C-Sniper · 21st Jun 2007, 13:23

so basically in the future we will have a separate motherboard for our graphics processing which will have unparalleled memory and require its own 2000W power supply.

DXR_13KE · 21st Jun 2007, 13:45

pointless, expensive and very non energy efficient.

mmorgue · 21st Jun 2007, 13:51

The numbers sound impressive, but like everyone here has said, "What's the point? What do *I* get out of it?"

At the moment I can't see how this benefits the average game enthusiast -- the costs and requirements are almost prohibitively high. Again i do say almost as some people are quite mad..

I suppose it's fantastic for labs, researchers, engineers and CAd work. But for me, as a gamer -- it has potential, but I really don't want my game machine sucking up 3000+ watts in two separate boxes!

/sigh, it was so much easier with my C64...

./^\.Ace./^\. · 21st Jun 2007, 14:01

OK I know what a GPU is but what is a GPGPU

Is it like two GPU's or is it like a dual core GPU

Also I think Nvidia should be using there time to make a GPU that doesn't use so much power

What good is a fast rig if you can't afford the energy bill

Also with the speeds that Nvidia is now getting out of there GPU's does any one think they will eventualy make a leep to Processors

chrisb2e9 · 21st Jun 2007, 16:45

For anyone who said something to the effect of "what does this do for me?" the answer is nothing. Quote from the article:
"It's more aimed at large corporations that need parallel computing power en-masse and it'll get the same level of support as Nvidia's Quadro-based workstation graphics cards. Thus, we'll see applications certified and certified systems that will run mission critical applications without failure. "

Down the road this may be applied to running our games but in the mean time im sure it will end up somewhere inside the next super chess computer.

TGImages · 21st Jun 2007, 16:55

This Tesla is even more expensive... to the tune of $100,000

http://www.teslamotors.com/

But back to the topic. A $12,000 video card? Even for the high end CAD stations I buy and setup at work we are quite happy with the $1000 FX3450 series. What application can really justify this card???

chrisb2e9 · 21st Jun 2007, 17:01

I would guess applications like Lord of the Rings where they had to render massive scenes.

Mister_Tad · 21st Jun 2007, 17:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by TGImages

This Tesla is even more expensive... to the tune of $100,000

http://www.teslamotors.com/

But back to the topic. A $12,000 video card? Even for the high end CAD stations I buy and setup at work we are quite happy with the $1000 FX3450 series. What application can really justify this card???

Its more like a CPU than a video card, well, more like many many cpus.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DXR_13KE

pointless, expensive and very non energy efficient.

did yopu not read the write-up?
2 Teraflops of general purpose processing power for 800w peak. It would require *many times* more than that to run a rendering or number crunching farm of similar capabilities, and would cost a lot more to boot.

It isnt pointless if you need it. You're not supposed to pop one of these in your home system, desktop apps arent programmed to take advantage of things like this. This is exclusively for high end number crunching.

Bluephoenix · 21st Jun 2007, 18:01

the basic onme shown may wind up in some CAD analysis workstations if the FEA (finite element analysis) programs start to take advantage of CUDA, but othewise it will simply be for extremely specialized applications (like F@H)

for those calling this a video card; it isn't at all. It may be based on GPU technology, but is used for entirely different things.

Fr4nk · 21st Jun 2007, 18:22

£10 says you can flash a 8800gtx to a tesla bios and use it

. Otherwise some very interesting and powerful computing power.

Tim S · 21st Jun 2007, 18:23

FWIW, you can use an 8800 GTX with CUDA... this is just a bit more specialised and will be certified like the Quadros are.

completemadness · 21st Jun 2007, 20:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by ./^\.Ace./^\.

OK I know what a GPU is but what is a GPGPU

General Purpose Graphics Proccesing Unit

Basically, you can use the GPU as more of a CPU
A GPU is extremely powerful (as shown by running F@H on GPU) however, it can only perform a very select range of functions, so it will never really replace a CPU (which will do almost anything, including GPU functions, but much more slowly)

The idea of this Box is not to be another GFX card, but more like a much more specialised CPU

currently, it can take hours to render mere frames for films or something along those lines
Plug one of these in and you could eventually start working in real time, that is going to be very appealing to companies making films and such

This isn't useful for normal people, but in the business world these boxes are very valuable

ou7blaze · 23rd Jun 2007, 12:52

This could probably mean better CGI in movies in the future

outlawaol · 11th Aug 2007, 19:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by ou7blaze

This could probably mean better CGI in movies in the future

No, it would just mean faster rendered CGI in the future.

They render stuff at insane resolutions to begin with, this would just make it faster.

From what I've heard, the 8xxx series card is rendering realtime what pixar was prerendering in Toy story. Granted, thats at full frame or HD levels, not theater quality.

These could be the steps that push general computing to super computing in the future, for a normal system I mean.

chrisb2e9 · 11th Aug 2007, 21:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by outlawaol

No, it would just mean faster rendered CGI in the future.

They render stuff at insane resolutions to begin with, this would just make it faster.

so its not 640x480?

21st Jun 2007, 11:49	#1
Tim S Pewlius Caesar bit-tech Staff Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Ascot, Berks Posts: 18,021	Nvidia joins GPGPU race http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2007/06...s_gpgpu_race/1 Nvidia makes a serious move into the GPGPU space... it's time to meet Tesla. __________________ Tim on Twitter \| Tim's Blog \| Tim's Flickr The bit-tech Blog \| bit-tech on Twitter \| Join the bit-tech & Custom PC folding team (#35947)

21st Jun 2007, 11:52	#2
DougEdey I pwn all your storage Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Southampton Posts: 13,933	For anyone wanting a rather brief but useful insight into GPGPU stuff: http://leri.univ-reims.fr/~nocent/uo...r%20Class.html This was a lecture performed at my Uni during the last few months (I couldn't make it back) and the lecture information is rather useful. __________________ Burnout: Paradise Stats!XBL: DougEdey Bindi PSN ID: DougEdey Twitter

21st Jun 2007, 11:53	#3
David_Fitzy Multimodder Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Kiwiland Posts: 197	Yay tons of near pointless Hz, and nVidia sucking even more Watts, they should start investing in the national grid __________________ Duel of the Duals! Athlon XP2400+ \| Generic FX5200 \| SOYO Platinum Dragon Ultra \| 1GB Crucial Ram \| Maxtor PATA 7200 HDDs: 2x40Gb (RAID0), 2x200Gb(RAID0) \| Jeantech Phong case \| Black DVD-everything \| Black Skythe Kama-meter \| dreaded blue LED fans (didn't read the description properly) At least it's all one colour scheme now

21st Jun 2007, 13:45	#7
DXR_13KE Madeira's banana is the best!!! Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Madeira ; Portugal Posts: 6,464	pointless, expensive and very non energy efficient. __________________ *Renegade X - 0.40 Release!* <---- CLICK!

21st Jun 2007, 14:01	#9
./^\.Ace./^\. Multimodder $./^\.Ace./^\.'s Avatar$ Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Toronto, ON Posts: 150 $./^\.Ace./^\. is on a distinguished road$	OK I know what a GPU is but what is a GPGPU Is it like two GPU's or is it like a dual core GPU Also I think Nvidia should be using there time to make a GPU that doesn't use so much power What good is a fast rig if you can't afford the energy bill Also with the speeds that Nvidia is now getting out of there GPU's does any one think they will eventualy make a leep to Processors __________________ CPU: Intel i7 920 \| RAM: 6GB OCZ Reaper DDR3 1866MHz \| Mother Board: Asus P6T \| Graphics: Dual BFG GeForce GTX295 rev.B Quad SLI \| PSU: Antec TPQ-1000 \| CPU Cooler: Cooler Master V8 \| Hard Drives: 500GB Seagate Barracuda, 500GB WD Caviar Black, 1TB WD Carviar Green \| Optical Drive: Pioneer DVR-216D \| Case: Cooler Master HAF 932 \| Monitor: LG W2343T 23" \| OS: Windows 7 Pro 64bit \|
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21st Jun 2007, 12:39	#4
Phil Rhodes Supermodder Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 574	Yes, marvellous, lovely, smashing, super. Now what does it actually do? Phil

21st Jun 2007, 13:51	#8
mmorgue Supermodder Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Mos Eisley, in the bar... Posts: 378	The numbers sound impressive, but like everyone here has said, "What's the point? What do I get out of it?" At the moment I can't see how this benefits the average game enthusiast -- the costs and requirements are almost prohibitively high. Again i do say almost as some people are quite mad.. I suppose it's fantastic for labs, researchers, engineers and CAd work. But for me, as a gamer -- it has potential, but I really don't want my game machine sucking up 3000+ watts in two separate boxes! /sigh, it was so much easier with my C64...

21st Jun 2007, 16:45	#10
chrisb2e9 Dont do that... Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Alberta, Canada Posts: 3,068	For anyone who said something to the effect of "what does this do for me?" the answer is nothing. Quote from the article: "It's more aimed at large corporations that need parallel computing power en-masse and it'll get the same level of support as Nvidia's Quadro-based workstation graphics cards. Thus, we'll see applications certified and certified systems that will run mission critical applications without failure. " Down the road this may be applied to running our games but in the mean time im sure it will end up somewhere inside the next super chess computer.

21st Jun 2007, 16:55	#11
TGImages Grandpa Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Illinois, US Posts: 160	This Tesla is even more expensive... to the tune of $100,000 http://www.teslamotors.com/ But back to the topic. A $12,000 video card? Even for the high end CAD stations I buy and setup at work we are quite happy with the $1000 FX3450 series. What application can really justify this card???

21st Jun 2007, 17:01	#12
chrisb2e9 Dont do that... Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Alberta, Canada Posts: 3,068	I would guess applications like Lord of the Rings where they had to render massive scenes.

21st Jun 2007, 18:01	#14
Bluephoenix Spoon? What spoon? Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Daytona Beach, FL Posts: 936	the basic onme shown may wind up in some CAD analysis workstations if the FEA (finite element analysis) programs start to take advantage of CUDA, but othewise it will simply be for extremely specialized applications (like F@H) for those calling this a video card; it isn't at all. It may be based on GPU technology, but is used for entirely different things.

21st Jun 2007, 18:22	#15
Fr4nk Tyrannosaurus Alan ! Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Uk, Essex Posts: 2,367	£10 says you can flash a 8800gtx to a tesla bios and use it . Otherwise some very interesting and powerful computing power. __________________ {Macbook Pro + Dell 2407 WFP - Canon 3000V + Canon 350D + BG-E3 + Sigma 10-20mm + 50mm f1.8 + kit 28-90mm EF - Rolleiflex 2.8 TLR} *Flickr ~Flickriver ^ My Behance Art Folio

21st Jun 2007, 18:23	#16
Tim S Pewlius Caesar bit-tech Staff Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Ascot, Berks Posts: 18,021	FWIW, you can use an 8800 GTX with CUDA... this is just a bit more specialised and will be certified like the Quadros are. __________________ Tim on Twitter \| Tim's Blog \| Tim's Flickr The bit-tech Blog \| bit-tech on Twitter \| Join the bit-tech & Custom PC folding team (#35947)

23rd Jun 2007, 12:52	#18
ou7blaze sensational. Join Date: May 2003 Location: Kowloon, Hong Kong. Posts: 2,624	This could probably mean better CGI in movies in the future __________________ █▓▒▒▓█▓▒▒▓█▓▒▒▓█▓▒▒▓ Originally Posted by Greeneyedguy advice to all u masturbators... its a good idea to keep a pringles can with the bottom cut out next to u so u can put it over ur wang when ur parents come and tell em u were enjoyong some delicious low-fat potato chips...