http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/ Engadget Comments for NVIDIA launches Fermi next-gen GPGPU architecture, CUDA and OpenCL get even faster http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/Oct 1st 2009 2:13AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/Oct 1st 2009 10:00AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/
It may not be selling like the PS2 but it is doing fine.

I think Sony probably learned their lesson and will be on top of the console game when the next gen rolls around.]]>Oct 1st 2009 11:40AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/Oct 1st 2009 11:59AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/Oct 1st 2009 2:16AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/Oct 1st 2009 2:31AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/Oct 1st 2009 2:35AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/Oct 1st 2009 2:18AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/Oct 1st 2009 2:25AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/Oct 1st 2009 2:26AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/
...

Hopefully the new architecture brings some kind of power savings to new Geforce models, as the cards have become so ridiculously large and power hungry. Just replaced my old 7900gs with a 9400gt, and I couldn't believe how big the thing was.]]>Oct 1st 2009 2:25AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/Oct 1st 2009 5:52AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/Oct 1st 2009 2:25AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/Oct 1st 2009 2:35AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/http://www.nvidia.com/object/optix.html]]>Oct 1st 2009 3:05AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/
hurrrrrr]]>Oct 1st 2009 2:34AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/Oct 1st 2009 2:55AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/Oct 1st 2009 3:26AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/
Gosh--kind of pathetic...

If I had to pick a side, I'd pick to be a 3DFX fanboi.]]>Oct 1st 2009 11:44AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/
What do you mean, "now"?]]>Oct 1st 2009 2:26PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/Does ATI have anything similar, else the decision is easy: A mid NVidia with CUDA.

I just have the feeling that NVidia cards just offer more features than the ATI cards.]]>Oct 1st 2009 3:01AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/
Comparing raw numbers, the Fermi and the 5xxx series from AMD look to be about equal in terms of theoretical peak numbers. But when you look at what NVIDIA is saying about Fermi's memory architecture, they've left AMD in the dust on this one. Multilevel coherent caches, high performance global atomics? Tripled shared memory space?

The problem with ATI is basically they're just a bunch of smart chip designers, who got bought by AMD, who are also just a bunch of smart chip designers. They've always been good at coming up with fast, efficient chip designs in a pinch. But they've never really understood that there is more to the business than pixel fill rate. Yes, you get a device which has fantastic raw numbers, but in almost every other way the product is inferior. Frankly, I always get the sense that they'd be perfectly content if they could exist without customers, pouring over specifications and perfecting their chip designs. Admirable in a way, but not terribly useful in the real world.

An example of this: ATI's drivers traditionally stank to high heaven, so even when they had the faster chip (which happens quite a bit less often than ATI fans would like to admit), they were spanked by NVIDIA's better driver stack. It took them years to understand the importance of a software stack as devices moved from pure hardware to a mixture of hardware+software. Move on a few years into the future: When fully programmable GPUs came around, they were again caught with their pants down slavishly perfecting their implementation of the previous generation's technology. And their missing of the boat on GPGPU is nothing short of epic. Even while they were touring the circuit bragging about their CUDA killer a couple years ago, they couldn't ship sample units to save their lives, let alone produce a useful software stack to go with it.

The 5xxx vs the GT300 looks to be more of the same. The 5xxx is a technically brilliant solution to last year's problem. The current big problem with GPUs isn't that they're not fast enough, it's that they're only fast on a narrow class of problems. We don't need a GPU which is faster on that same set of problems, we need a GPU which is as fast on a broader set of problems (I'll take faster if I can get that too). From the announced feature set, it sounds like the GT300 is going to go a long way towards solving this year's problem. The 5xxx can be 10 times faster than the GT300 for all I care, if I can solve the same problem on the GT300 with an O(n) algorithm when it requires an O(n^2) algorithm on a 5xxx because of architectural limitations.]]>Oct 1st 2009 4:47AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/
"The 5xxx is a technically brilliant solution to last year's problem."

Yes, and there is nothing wrong for company to sell a card which greatly improve performance of my actual game library.

nVidia's feature set is very very good, but in the end they cost too much, updated too often and most software (even games) rarely exploit the feature set to the fullest.

Worst part of that is the by the time software gets updates to use all the features of your -now affordable- nVidia card, they craftly release new generation of cards, marking your card essentially obsolete. They did it before with Riva/TNT to GeForce transition. They did again with 7xxx -> 8xxx transition. And they are apparently set to do that again with 2xx -> 3xx transition.

I'd like to love nVidia, but as long as they keep concentrating on higher end graphic cards - with low/middle end being a mere afterthought - I'm going to stick with my decision to switch to ATI (I went gf7800 to 4850). Prices for 58xx already started falling (actually in Europe the cards started below MSRP) and I can't justify spending 400-500€ (where usually new nVidia cards start) on something what only few exotic pieces of software would fully exploit.


"We don't need a GPU which is faster on that same set of problems, we need a GPU which is as fast on a broader set of problems."

And that seem to be solution to no problem. Or - an expensive solution to a niche problem. Video encoding - only widely used example I can come up with - is going to be faster, yet it is a niche task.

nVidia simply tries to compete with Intel. They they are going to loose (unless of course they come up with GPU which can also replace CPU). Kudos to AMD/ATI which instead try to make better cards for games with have.]]>Oct 1st 2009 7:38AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/
I have (soon to be replaced) 3870s, and they've support OpenGL since January - acceleration for rendering images is already
available with CS4.]]>Oct 1st 2009 8:24AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/I mean it took them what, a full year to get Ion to market from "launch"?
Anyways for now it's nice that they have something but until actual hardware is in stores I'm not going to hold my breath.]]>Oct 1st 2009 4:10PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/
I am curious to see openCL run on ATI cards to see just how they compare to cuda]]>Oct 1st 2009 3:49AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/
]]>Oct 1st 2009 3:26AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/Oct 6th 2009 8:31AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/Oct 1st 2009 3:27AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/ ... seeing as how Fermi is cache coherent ...

... I welcome CUDA programmers to the hell of multi-threaded programming - which surely would ensue.]]>Oct 1st 2009 7:42AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/cuda gone --;]]>Oct 1st 2009 3:30AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/
It's nice to see technology breakthrough, but sustainability is very important as well...]]>Oct 1st 2009 3:35AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/Oct 1st 2009 3:51AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/Oct 1st 2009 4:12AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/Oct 1st 2009 1:02PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/
The only thing that Nvidia has going for it is CUDA and maybe Physx, but as an Nvidia SLi user myself I think Physx is really only utilized in a handful of games properly and for the consumer side CUDA support is only used properly in a handful of titles as well. I've tried several CUDA accelerated video encoding programs and have always gone back to my old programs due to lower quality output and glitches in the videos that I don't experience with other programs. On the other hand Nvidia has never supported the Direct X fully and their video card drivers quality is all over the map and it's a dice roll as to whether updated drivers will help or harm your system.

I think that OpenCL and Direct Compute will be bigger items going forward than CUDA and to a lesser extent DirectX 11 support so I really don't see anything here thats going to adversely effect ATI at this point.

I've been doing a tick-tock pattern with my motherboard/cpu and SLi cards for the the last few years and I am on my 5th SLi setup at this point so I'll probably stay with Nvidia this next generation also but I do think ATI will be just as effective going forward with the emerging API's as Nvidia in the GPGPU arena. ]]>Oct 1st 2009 4:13AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/
On the business side the idea of being able to target multiple hardware platforms with one API is very appealing, since it avoids NVIDIA lockin. But today NVIDIA is the only viable platform, but AMD's offerings in the field have always been a bit academic; maybe that'll change over the next couple of years, but it's an unknown today. Worse, CUDA is already worming its way into some very conservative fields - it's not uncommon to see brand new CUDA code working alongside 20+ year old fortran code, to give you an idea how receptive some of these fields are to rewriting code - and it has the more mature skillset and toolkit.

I think ultimately though, the deciding factor will be the OpenCL standards process and OpenCL 2.0. It's enlightening to consider the analogue with OpenGL & Direct3D. OpenGL was the popular choice, supported by popular vendors, Direct3D a lockin platform by one fairly unpopular company that was arguably technically inferior (certainly in its earliest revisions). Yet Direct3D dominates over OpenGL in most areas, because Microsoft was able to develop the API fast enough to keep pace with rapidly improving hardware capabilities. OpenGL stagnated in committee. Today, OpenCL is a more limited platform than CUDA. Given the popularity and interest I've seen it could certainly deplace CUDA, but if the Khronos group treats it the same way it treated OpenGL it will die on the vine.]]>Oct 1st 2009 5:14AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/Oct 1st 2009 4:16AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/www.raytracing.ch
www.openrt.de
www.realstorm.com
and so on...

I think in 2-3 years we see the first cool ray tracing game...
]]>Oct 1st 2009 4:26AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/Oct 1st 2009 4:25AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/Oct 1st 2009 4:31AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/
"NVidia's next generation of GPUs will be faster than the previous one, so it's good for OpenCL"

What the hell happend to you ? Did a TUAW virus eat your brain or something ?

Please take care and heal quickly, and come back with lots of useful and informative articles as we know you can write.]]>Oct 1st 2009 5:43AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/Oct 1st 2009 10:34AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/
Cool. ]]>Oct 1st 2009 6:00AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/
When this eventually reaches the retail market and we get to see what it's price / performance ratio is, only then will it be worth comparing. Until then it's just another engineering sample . . . . ]]>Oct 1st 2009 6:51AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/
And I mean that so you can make a decision based on all the options out there. The 300 might not be as expensive since ATI set the price bar first, so Nvidia has no choice but to match that depending on the performance of the card.

Personally, I'm waiting for the 300 reviews because I'm not a fanboy and I'm not an idiot. Then ill make my purchase for the best card out there I can afford.]]>Oct 1st 2009 8:00AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/
Right now, my new P55 i7 is limping along on a $40 (post-rebate) 9600 GSO. I did this knowing I wanted to wait for the DX11 cards. ATI's are here, nVidia's aren't; combine that with nVidia's chips that destroy themselves and the recent PhysX disabling debacle, it's not hard to make the ATI choice.]]>Oct 1st 2009 8:48AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/Oct 1st 2009 7:06AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/
I'm not going to support CUDA or PhysX with my money, i'll only support open technologies like OpenCL, Open Physics etc.

*buys a 5850*]]>Oct 1st 2009 8:07AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/01/nvidia-launches-fermi-next-gen-gpgpu-architecture-cuda-and-open/
*returns your 5850 for you*]]>Oct 2nd 2009 5:43AM