Can OpenGL And OpenCL Overhaul Your Photo Editing Experience?
In our continuing look at the heterogeneous computing ecosystem, it's time to turn our attention to the photo editing apps currently able to exploit OpenCL- and OpenGL-capable hardware. We interview experts, run benchmarks, and draw some conclusions.
Test Platforms
As in our prior stories, we used the following test configurations:
Test Hardware | |
---|---|
Test System 1 | |
Processor | AMD FX-8150 (Zambezi): 3.6 GHz, Socket AM3+, 8 MB Shared L3 Cache, Turbo Core enabled, 125 W |
Motherboard | Asus Crosshair V Formula (Socket AM3+), AMD 990FX/SB950 |
Memory | 8 GB (2 x 4 GB) AMD Performance Memory AE34G1609U2 (1600 MT/s, 8-9-8-24) |
SSD | 240 GB Patriot Wildfire SATA 6Gb/s |
Graphics | AMD Radeon HD 7970 3 GB |
Row 6 - Cell 0 | AMD Radeon HD 5870 1 GB |
Power Supply | PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 860 W |
Operating System | Windows 7 Professional, 64-bit |
Test System 2 | |
Processor | AMD A8-3850 (Llano) 2.9 GHz, Socket FM1, 4 MB L2 Cache, 100 W, Radeon HD 6550D Graphics |
Motherboard | Gigabyte A75-UD4H (Socket FM1), AMD A75 FCH |
Memory | 8 GB (2 x 4 GB) AMD Performance Memory AE34G1609U2 (1600 MT/s, 8-9-8-24) |
SSD | 240 GB Patriot Wildfire SATA 6Gb/s |
Graphics | AMD Radeon HD 7970 3 GB |
Row 15 - Cell 0 | AMD Radeon HD 5870 1 GB |
Power Supply | PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 860 W |
Operating System | Windows 7 Professional, 64-bit |
Test System 3: Gateway NV55S05u | |
Processor | AMD A8-3500M (Llano), 1.5 GHz, Socket FS1, 4 MB L2 Cache, 35 W, Radeon HD 6620G Graphics |
Motherboard | Gateway SJV50-SB |
Memory | 1 x 2 GB Hyundai HMT325S6BFR8C-H9 PC3-10700 (667 MHz), 1 x 4 GB Elpida EBJ41UF8BCS0-DJ-F PC3-10700 (667 MHz) |
SSD | Western Digital Scorpio Blue 640 GB, 5400 RPM, 8 MB Cache, SATA 3Gb/s |
Graphics | AMD Radeon 6220G Integrated |
Operating System | Windows 7 Home Premium, 64-bit |
Test System 4: HP Pavillion dv6 | |
Processor | Intel Core i5-2410M (Sandy Bridge), 2.3 GHz, Socket G2, 3 MB Shared L3 Cache, 35 W, HD Graphics 3000 |
Motherboard | Hewlett-Packard 1658 |
Memory | 4 GB (2 x 2 GB) Samsung M471B5773CHS-CH9 PC PC3-10700 (667 MHz) |
SSD | Seagate Momentus 7200.4 500 GB, 7200 RPM, 16 MB Cache, SATA 3Gb/s |
Graphics | Intel HD Graphics 3000 |
Operating System | Windows 7 Professional, 64-bit |
With luck, we will be adding a new Trinity (next-gen AMD APU)-based notebook to the above heterogeneous compute platforms. Unfortunately, review units weren’t available in time for our testing here.
Stay on the Cutting Edge
Join the experts who read Tom's Hardware for the inside track on enthusiast PC tech news — and have for over 25 years. We'll send breaking news and in-depth reviews of CPUs, GPUs, AI, maker hardware and more straight to your inbox.
Current page: Test Platforms
Prev Page Q&A: Under The Hood With AMD, Cont. Next Page Applications: GIMP, AfterShot Pro, And Musemage-
alphaalphaalpha1 Tahiti is pretty darned fast for compute, especially for the price of the 7900 cards, and if too many applications get proper OpenCL support, then Nvidia might be left behind for a lot of professional GPGPU work if they don't offer similar performance at a similar price point or some other incentive.Reply
With the 7970 meeting or beating much of the far more expensive Quadro line, Nvidia will have to step up. Maybe a GK114 or a cut-down GK110 will be put into use to counter 7900. I've already seen several forum threads talking about the 7970 being incredible in Maya and some other programs, but since I'm not a GPGPU compute expert, I guess I'm not in the best position to consider this topic on a very advanced level. Would anyone care to comment (or correct me if I made a mistake) about this? -
blazorthon A Bad DayHow many CPUs would it take to match the tested GPUs?Reply
That would depend on the CPU. -
de5_Roy can you test like these combos:Reply
core i5 + 7970
core i5 hd4000
trinity + 7970
trinity apu
core i7 + 7970
and core i7 hd 4000, and compare against fx8150 (or piledriver) + 7970.
it seemed to me as if the apu bottlenecks the 7970 and the 7970 could work better with an intel i5/i7 cpu on the graphical processing workloads. -
vitornob Nvidia cards test please. People needs to know if it's better/faster to go OpenCL or CUDA.Reply -
bgaimur vitornobNvidia cards test please. People needs to know if it's better/faster to go OpenCL or CUDA.Reply
http://www.streamcomputing.eu/blog/2011-06-22/opencl-vs-cuda-misconceptions/
CUDA is a dying breed.