Your Thoughts On Graphics Computing.

murda_rolla

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Jan 6, 2010
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I am interested in Nvidia's Cuda technology. That is to say I think that It definitely has some interesting possibilities. I am curious about what you guys have to say about this technology. Does ATI have anything like this? I have not really looked, but I though I'd ask. I'll have to look into that further. From what I can tell, ATI's 58XX series Is pretty much on top for now. Whilst Nvidia's 4XX is just plain disappointing. Just from what I have read they, run too hot, require much power and don't really preform all that well for how much you pay for them. I am not really looking for a new card. I am happy with my Silly little GTS 250 :/ As a software developer I am just curious as to what you guys have to say about this GPU processing technology. Flash 10.1 has GPU acceleration as does the current VLC release (1.1.0) I think that is safe to say that most people either don't know that this technology exists or just don't care (because It has little to no affect on them). Do you guys think Cuda is a joke or a fad and will go away? I think that the concept has some definite possibilities. Did this go into your though process when you bough your current GPU? I would thing that gamers really wouldn't care, but I though I would try and get the communities input. I mean really, what do you guys think about this? Can the GPU be used for more than just playing games?


P.s. On a side note, I have heard that people with ATI cards are having driver issues. Is this true? A couple of my friends have ATI cards and they claim get BSODs every now and then. I have never had a BSOD caused by my GPU. Are ATI's drivers just that poor or is this just some garbage that fan boys spread. I am not really a fan boy of Nvidia, but then again I have never owned an ATI GPU, but I am not apposed to buying one. I just got a really good deal on my GTS 250. I don't think that necessarily makes me a fan boy. Since I don't tout Nvidia's dominance over ATI.... Mehh; I digress.

Just a curious nerd,
~ Jake
 
Solution
ATI does have something called ATI Stream as opposed to Cuda technology. Cuda isn't a joke it does help in some scientific calculation such as SETi etc. ATI Stream helps in accelerating video conversion etc. I think though, as you have said, gamers wouldn't care, Cuda/Stream are basically performing some CPU-like operation and for the moment, GPU is the greatest bottleneck (unless you have 4 cards in SLI/Crossfire). As long as CPU does its job well, who cares? It also follows that little games in the market supports Cuda/Stream acceleration, it's hard to code for parallel computing.

Can the GPU be used for more than just playing games? I'd say maybe, but if that's true then what's CPU for? Hey but let's not forget about AMD Fusion...

xoahzarodx

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May 1, 2010
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ATI does have something called ATI Stream as opposed to Cuda technology. Cuda isn't a joke it does help in some scientific calculation such as SETi etc. ATI Stream helps in accelerating video conversion etc. I think though, as you have said, gamers wouldn't care, Cuda/Stream are basically performing some CPU-like operation and for the moment, GPU is the greatest bottleneck (unless you have 4 cards in SLI/Crossfire). As long as CPU does its job well, who cares? It also follows that little games in the market supports Cuda/Stream acceleration, it's hard to code for parallel computing.

Can the GPU be used for more than just playing games? I'd say maybe, but if that's true then what's CPU for? Hey but let's not forget about AMD Fusion which is coming out very soon and may combine CPU and GPU on same chip.

From what I heard, Windows 7 is having problem with ATi and NVidia drivers, and they run perfectly well on Vista, so I guess it's not a particular issue for ATi.
 
Solution