Nvidia takes cautious first step into graphics-accelerated mainstream programming
Santa Clara (CA) – Back when we first saw the capabilities of Nvidia’s CUDA technology and Tesla acceleration cards, it was clear to us that the company had all the tools necessary to change the way we use computers today – the enormous computing horsepower of graphics cards open up possibilities we have talked about for some time, but didn’t think were possible in the foreseeable future. The company now challenges developers for the first time to exploit the hidden potential graphics cards in a mainstream application.
Nvidia was first to come up with a development framework that used a relatively easy-to-learn way to accelerate traditional CPU-centric applications through a graphics processor. But while CUDA, which is based on C++ and has some GPGPU extensions, is generally available, Nvidia pitched the technology mainly to universities, scientists and industries that have a need for floating-point-heavy applications – such as financial institutions and the oil and gas sector.
Both Nvidia and ATI have been showing mainstream applications based on GPGPU technologies, but neither one has targeted the mainstream application segment yet. When we asked Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang when Cuda would go into the mainstream market, he told us that such a move would depend on Microsoft and their efforts to provide a Windows interface for GPGPUs.
It appears that Nvidia is shifting its enterprise-only strategy and is turning its focus on a mainstream opportunity as well. In a contest announced today, the company looks for the “most talented CUDA programmers in the world”. Nvidia will provide a “partially GPU-optimized version of an MP3 LAME encoder” and asks developers to “optimize [the software] to run as fast as possible on a Cuda-enabled GPU.” The encoder has to be created in the CUDA programming environment and must achieve a speed up in run-time.
So, the challenge in this contest is not to port a mainstream application to CUDA, but rather optimize it to squeeze as many gigaflops out of the GPU as possible. That challenge may sound easier than it really is, as we were told before by researchers at University of Illinois’ Beckman Institute and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications that getting an application to run on a GPGPU is the simple task, while accelerating it takes up most of the time – and knowledge.
Those scientific GPGPU applications simulating fluid dynamics or biological processes are impressive to watch, but of course we are interested to see what these processors are capable of in mainstream applications. AMD previously demonstrated its stream processors in an application that rendered a user’s hand, which was captured by a webcam, in near real-time and replaced the mouse as moving around objects on a screen.
Optimizing an MP3 encoder is far from the sophistication of such an application, but it is a first step.
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Loads of new TV-out features
AMD has released the latest ATI Catalyst 8.5 drivers and although there are some performance fixes, the most interesting part of these new drivers are all the new TV-out features which should appeal to the HTPC crowd.
It seems thatAMD has fixed just about everything possibly wrong with the TV connectivity of its cards and new features includes 1080p24 support, that is 24fps video support on high-end HDTV's, HDMI audio for non-standard resolutions, 480i and 480p via component video, custom HDMI 1080p settings and improved SECAM support.
Add to this support for Windows XP SP3, a better uninstaller, Adaptive AA on OpenGL and performance improvements for five games and it looks like a pretty solid driver. However, there doesn't seem to be any mention of any 3DMark Vantage fixes, which is a bit odd.
You can find the release notes here and you can download the drivers here
Next-gen NVIDIA GeForce Specifications Unveiled
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Asus EAH 3870 X2 1GB with four DVI outs tested
Review: Overclocked, but cooler than reference
We tested a unique card coming from Asus called EAH 3870 X2. Compared to stock HD 3870 X2 card with two DVI outs and a one fan cooler, EAH3870 X2 1GB TOP packs 4 DVI outs and a dual-fan cooler. It’s nice seeing innovations, and Asus, although mostly famous for their motherboards, surprises us every once in a while with a specially designed graphics cards with interesting capabilities.
The first thing you’ll notice on ther Asus EAH3870 X2 card is non-reference cooling. Just like the reference design, the cooler hides the entire card, but although it looks bigger than reference cooling, it’s still a bit lighter. We see that the front of the card houses two fans, so each RV670 core has its own cooling system made up of one fan and a heatsink with a heatpipe.
Cooler fans alter their speed dynamically, and although they’re not too loud, they have shifted gears quite often, and it bothered us on a couple of occasions.
Reference cooling on these cards is built from copper and aluminum, whereas the Asus card has heatpipe technology.
Just above the core, you’ll find a copper plate with a heatpipe cooled with an aluminum heatsink. A heatpipe/heatsink combo is used for each core.
Picture: A part of the reference card’s cooler with no heatpipe
Radeon HD 3870 X2 is a card based on two RV670 cores printed on one board and running in CrossFire mode, made possible by a PCIe-Bridge Chip (“PLX”) that enables internal communication between the cores. You can see this large chip, which needs no cooling, through the heatsink of the first RV670 core.
Two heatpipes start from the copper plate that leans on the core. Heatsink is mounted on the heatpipe and it doesn’t touch the card, which is clearly visible on the following picture.
Reference HD 3870 X2 card runs at 825MHz, with memory speed of 900MHz. For those of us that always crave more, Asus overclocked their card to 851MHz, and that resulted in memory speed of 954MHz. The boost isn’t that significant, and the performance is just slightly better than reference cards, but Asus gives you an option to simultaneously use up to 4 monitors.
Thanks to its two GPUs, HD 3870 X2 offers four DVIs with HDCP outs. Three out of four DVIs are dual-link capable, whereas the fourth (painted yellow) can be used only as a single-link DVI, or as an HDMI out, with a little help from an HDMI adapter. If you’re using a single monitor, we recommend using a DVI out that’s closest to the motherboard, e.g., placed under the yellow DVI. Two DVIs, on the side of the card where the fan is, don’t give video signal during booting.
Due to different cooler design, Asus turned their power connectors upwards, so connecting the power is easier than ever. The card is powered through an 8-pin and a 6-pin power connector, just as we’ve seen on HD 2900 XT cards.
Asus’ EAH3870 X2 card features one CrossFire connector for connecting another HD 3870 X2 card and thus getting a quad-GPU system. This combination is made possible by the CrossFireX drivers, that enable 4 cores simultaneously. This driver also enables mixing different cards, for instance HD 3870 and HD 385.
A large Asus box will not go unnoticed on the shelves, and Company of Heroes – Opposing fronts, a DX10 game that you get as a gift with this card, is quite an inviting detail.
Apple's MacBook Air flows through our fingers
Wednesday, 07 May 2008 11:51
Preview: Apple's Kate Moss
As you know, we don't get much Apple stuff in our labs, but things are changing, especially after our editor-in-chief fell in love with one of those overhyped iPhone things. Honestly, I don't know what he sees in it, but the boss is always right. (It's the browsing capabilities and it sucks with battery life and with Edge speed, ed) So when I got a call from IT Computers, our shop around the corner, telling me there was a Macbook Air waiting for us, I pounced on the opportunity to check out some Apples myself.
We scored the cheaper version, with a 1.6GHz Core 2 Duo and an 80GB HDD. There's no sexy SSD, but at least it keeps the cost down, although it's still a pricey piece of machinery, selling at around €1700 in the EU. We've just received the sample, so there's not much to say about the performance yet, although the first impression is very positive. The Air is a marvelously designed product and the build quality is excellent, as you may expect from Jobs' crew. In turns heads like a supermodel in a prison courtyard and this is the principal reason for getting one.
The sleek, minimalistic design affects its ergonomics. While its backlit keyboard is spacious and its touchpad is huge, the connectors paid a high price for the space age design. It has just one USB 2.0 port, which is hidden on the right hand side, behind a cover along with a micro-DVI, and a headphone connector. On the left side you'll find a power connector and that's about it. Of course, there's no optical drive, as you may expect from a 1.36kg notebook. This is not a big deal, but the lack of a replaceable battery is. Once you run out of juice on the road, you've gotta recharge and there's nothing you can do about it.
We will try to do a full review early next week, as Fudzilla's biggest Apple fanboy, Mr. Nick Farrell, is eager to hear our verdict, so stay tuned.
Preview: Apple's Kate Moss
As you know, we don't get much Apple stuff in our labs, but things are changing, especially after our editor-in-chief fell in love with one of those overhyped iPhone things. Honestly, I don't know what he sees in it, but the boss is always right. (It's the browsing capabilities and it sucks with battery life and with Edge speed, ed) So when I got a call from IT Computers, our shop around the corner, telling me there was a Macbook Air waiting for us, I pounced on the opportunity to check out some Apples myself.
We scored the cheaper version, with a 1.6GHz Core 2 Duo and an 80GB HDD. There's no sexy SSD, but at least it keeps the cost down, although it's still a pricey piece of machinery, selling at around €1700 in the EU. We've just received the sample, so there's not much to say about the performance yet, although the first impression is very positive. The Air is a marvelously designed product and the build quality is excellent, as you may expect from Jobs' crew. In turns heads like a supermodel in a prison courtyard and this is the principal reason for getting one.
The sleek, minimalistic design affects its ergonomics. While its backlit keyboard is spacious and its touchpad is huge, the connectors paid a high price for the space age design. It has just one USB 2.0 port, which is hidden on the right hand side, behind a cover along with a micro-DVI, and a headphone connector. On the left side you'll find a power connector and that's about it. Of course, there's no optical drive, as you may expect from a 1.36kg notebook. This is not a big deal, but the lack of a replaceable battery is. Once you run out of juice on the road, you've gotta recharge and there's nothing you can do about it.
We will try to do a full review early next week, as Fudzilla's biggest Apple fanboy, Mr. Nick Farrell, is eager to hear our verdict, so stay tuned.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 3 Final
Downloadhttp://download.windowsupdate.com/msdownload/update/software/svpk/2008/04/windowsxp-kb936929-sp3-x86-enu_c81472f7eeea2eca421e116cd4c03e2300ebfde4.exe
Windows Vista Service Pack 1 for 64 bit
EN8800GTS/HTDP/512M
EN8800GTS/HTDP/512M
Ultimate DirectX 10 Gaming Enjoyment with Cutting Edge EN8800GTS - ASUS Smart Doctor: Shader Clock overclocking and intelligent hardware protection tool
- ASUS Gamer OSD
- ASUS Splendid
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
MSI's new 9600GT to be available in May
The one with a Hybrid fan
MSI is going to announce a new 9600GT card that will be cooled by a Hybrid fan that looks just like one that was showcased during the Cebit show. Back then, this one was mounted on the popular Geforce 8800GT card, and it only cooled the card when the temperature hit or went over 87 degrees. This is a great thing, as the card tends to remain completely silent during idle mode.
The new 9600GT equipped with the Hybrid fan is now branded as Hybrid Freezer, will feature 512MB of GDDR3 memory paired up with a 256-bit memory interface. The mentioned Hybrid Freezer cooler is a dual-slot design and comes with four heatpipes. The card will probably have reference clocks. In the 9600GT case, the fan will start when the temperature hits or goes over 40 degrees. Even when spinning, the fan produces only 28dBA of noise.
According to our sources, the new N9600GT equipped with Hybrid Freezer will be available in mid-May with a price tag of €150-€160 without the VAT.
AMD 790GX board pictured
Betta codename
Despite the unpromising codename, AMD’s 790GX prototype reference board is already out of the labs. It is codenamed Betta and we can imagine that in some language this is someone’s girlfriend's name.
The new board will be a holy matrimony of RS780D Northbridge and SB750 Southbridge.
The RS780D is a codename for AMD 790GX chipset and this chipset promises to be the fastest IGP kid on the block. At the same time it brings better 3Dmark performance in Hybrid graphics mode.
The board bets on performance cache memory, 2 PCIe gen 2 graphics ports with HT3, 6 SATA 2.0 devices, 12 USBs together with RAID 5 support. Raid 5 is the biggest difference between SB700 and SB750 and 750 is fist ATI chipset to have Raid 5.
The board itself is full ATX form factor with 2PCIe 2.0 graphic slots, and one PCIe 1.0 and PCIe 2.0 in between its two graphics slots. The board also come with two rather obsolete PCI slots. We tend to notice that Southbridge has passive heatsink while Nortbrige comes with a small fan. The board has 4 memory slots, DDR2 of course.
The board will support Phenoms with 140W TDP and it promises extreme overclocking. We shall see how good it is as early as June.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)