Using GPUs For General-Purpose Computing 396
Paul Tinsley writes "After seeing the press releases from both Nvidia and ATI announcing their next generation video card offerings, it got me to thinking about what else could be done with that raw processing power. These new cards weigh in with transistor counts of 220 and 160 million (respectively) with the P4 EE core at a count of 29 million. What could my video card be doing for me while I am not playing the latest 3d games? A quick search brought me to some preliminary work done at the University of Washington with a GeForce4 TI 4600 pitted against a 1.5GHz P4. My Favorite excerpt from the paper:
'For a 1500x1500 matrix, the GPU outperforms the CPU by a factor of 3.2.' A PDF of the paper is available here."
The day is saved (Score:5, Funny)
What?!?!?! (Score:5, Funny)
Intel's been telling me for years that I need faster hardware from THEM to get the job done...
You mean........ they were lying?!?!?
CRAP!
While not playing games? (Score:4, Funny)
Two words: virtual pr0n
What comes next. (Score:5, Funny)
"Utilize the sheer computing power of your video card!"
New market blitz, hmmmm.
SETI ports their code, and within five days their average completed work units increase 1000 fold. 13 hours later, they have evidence of intelligent life at 30000 locations within one degree.
Microsoft gets the hint, and comes out with a brilliant plan to utilize GPUs to speed up their OS and add bells and whistles to their UI.
And, once again, Apple and Quartz Extreme is ignored.
Re:What comes next. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:178 Million in the P4EE (Score:3, Funny)
Finally (Score:5, Funny)
Using GPUs For General-Purpose Computing
I'm glad that finally they started to use the General-Purpose Unit. What took them so long?
Re:Not the Point (Score:5, Funny)
KFG
Re:What?!?!?! (Score:5, Funny)
And besides, nobody needs or wants Matrix operations anyway. Did you see how bad Matrix Reloaded was? That was *just* reloading, imagine how bad Matrix Multiplying is. You get the idea.
GPU = (Score:5, Funny)
Re:While not playing games? (Score:1, Funny)
Re:The day is saved (Score:5, Funny)
Maybe they have. They've been trapped in that box together in the basement for a long time.
Re:Audio DSP (Score:2, Funny)
You just have to figure out how to connect that toslink cable to the digital monitor connector.
Re:Link to previous discussion on same/similar sub (Score:2, Funny)
I wonder if that is where they kept their porn back then also.
Re:What?!?!?! (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Link to previous discussion on same/similar sub (Score:2, Funny)
- UNIX fanboy
(yes, that was a joke; actually, I'm looking forward to database-based file systems - but not proprietary ones)