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Using GPUs For General-Purpose Computing

Posted by timothy on from the transfer-of-duties dept.

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."

16 of 396 comments (clear)

  1. The day is saved by drsmack1 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Now I finally have a use for the 20 Voodoo 2 cards I have in a box in the basement. Now I can have my very own supercomputer. I just need some six pci slot motherboards.... Instant cluster!

    --

    Humor from a Genetically Molested Mind

    1. Re:The day is saved by PygmySurfer · · Score: 5, Funny

      Unless those Voodoo 2s have magically grown T&L units, they're not going to do you much good.

      Maybe they have. They've been trapped in that box together in the basement for a long time.

  2. What?!?!?! by DarkHelmet · · Score: 5, Funny
    What? Matrix operations run faster on a massively parallel form of vector processor over a general purpose processor? How can that be?

    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!

    --
    /^[A-Z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Z0-9.-]+\.[A-Z]{2,4}$/i
    1. Re:What?!?!?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Don't worry, the Intel processor is *much* faster at the internet thingy. Graphics cards only do the upload to screen thing, and everyone knows the internet is all about downloading.

      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.

    2. Re:What?!?!?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Uh oh, your computer has performed an Illegal Operation. Quick, take it outside an bury it before the cops come!

  3. While not playing games? by pyrrhonist · · Score: 4, Funny
    What could my video card be doing for me while I am not playing the latest 3d games?

    Two words: virtual pr0n

    --
    Show me on the doll where his noodly appendage touched you.
    1. Re:While not playing games? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      real porn uses less polygons

  4. What comes next. by CherniyVolk · · 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.

    1. Re:What comes next. by Barbarian · · Score: 4, Funny

      Then they throw away the results because the gpu's are not able to calculate at double precision floating point, but only at 24 or 32 bits.

  5. Re:178 Million in the P4EE by alphakappa · · Score: 2, Funny

    Please ANYTHING BUT FORTRAN!!!!!!! Seriously, FORTRAN needs serious reworking to be user friendly in today's age. It was fine a decade or two ago when people were not used to user friendly languages. COBOL anyone? FORTRAN has its uses, but it's horribly, horribly tough to use if you want to combine number crunching with other stuff such as string manipulation.

    --
    "When the only tool you own is a hammer, every problem begins to resemble a nail." - Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)
  6. Finally by Pan+T.+Hose · · 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?

    --
    Sincerely,
    Pan Tarhei Hosé, PhD.
    "Homo sum et cogito ergo odi profanum vulgus et libido."
  7. Re:Not the Point by kfg · · Score: 5, Funny

    Dude, you obviously have never tried to sleep in a motorcycle.

    KFG

  8. GPU = by greppling · · Score: 4, Funny

    Now I finally understand that acronym: General purpose unit!

  9. Re:Audio DSP by attaka · · Score: 2, Funny

    Easy!
    You just have to figure out how to connect that toslink cable to the digital monitor connector.

  10. Re:Link to previous discussion on same/similar sub by Tablizer · · Score: 2, Funny

    Quote from that topic: "Reminds me of the good old days when you used the processors in the C64 tapedrive to compute stuff. Wouldn't want to waste those precious cycles."

    I wonder if that is where they kept their porn back then also.

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
  11. Re:Link to previous discussion on same/similar sub by mrchaotica · · Score: 2, Funny

    Files aren't supposed to go all together; they're supposed to be divided by type: /bin, /etc, /lib, etc.!

    - UNIX fanboy

    (yes, that was a joke; actually, I'm looking forward to database-based file systems - but not proprietary ones)

    --

    "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz