[Beowulf] Re: Beowulf Digest, Vol 55, Issue 2

[Maurice Hilarius]

 Li, bo wrote:
> ..
> From: "Li, Bo" <libo at buaa.edu.cn>
> Subject: Re: [Beowulf] gpgpu
>
> Hello,
> It seemed that you had got a very good example for GPGPU. As I said before, it's not the time for GPGPU to do the DP calculation at the moment. If you can bear SP computation, you will find more about it.
> NVidia just sent me some special offer about their Tesla platforms, which said that the workstation equipped with two GTX280 level professional cards costs about $5000, not bad. But my intention is still to lower the core frequency of a gaming card, and use it for computation.
> Regards,
> Li, Bo
>   
Looking at AMD/ATI Firestream and 4850 pricing, it is not too bad:

AMD FIRESTREAM 9250 STREAM PROCESSOR (P/N: 100-505563)        $880
VISIONTEK RADEON HD4870X2 2GB PCI-E (P/N: 900250)                      $575
VISIONTEK RADEON HD 4870 512MB PCI-E (P/N: 900244)                     $355

The 4870 and X2 also run the AMD code.

So, given a decent machine, with 4 cores and a pair of the 4870X2, one
can achieve some pretty amazing GPU
performance levels for a system well under $4,000.

With dualX2s ( 4 GPU engines) around $4700 ( extra PSU capacity and
cooling is needed for that level).

I hear that AMD have a new Firestream coming, with the 48x0 family chips
on it, but that will likely be a bit on the pricier side..

Anyway, the Firestream has GPUs with Double-Precision Floating Point.
Something the  nVidia offerings do not.

Worth considering.

http://ati.amd.com/technology/streamcomputing/product_firestream_9250.html

SDK:
http://ati.amd.com/technology/streamcomputing/sdkdwnld.html



-- 
With our best regards,

//Maurice W. Hilarius         Telephone: 01-780-456-9771/
/Hard Data Ltd.                FAX:          01-780-456-9772/
/11060 - 166 Avenue         email:maurice at harddata.com/
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