Sci/Tech Software tool helps tap into the power of graphics processing

The Helper

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Today's computers rely on powerful graphics processing units (GPUs) to create the spectacular graphics in video games. In fact, these GPUs are now more powerful than the traditional central processing units (CPUs) - or brains of the computer. As a result, computer developers are trying to tap into the power of these GPUs. Now a research team from North Carolina State University has developed software that could make it easier for traditional software programs to take advantage of the powerful GPUs, essentially increasing complex computing brainpower

Taking advantage of a GPU's processing ability is a big deal, because of the amount of computing power a GPU contains. The CPU from an average computer has about 10 gigaflops of computing power - or 10 billion operations per second. That sounds like a lot until you consider that the GPU from an average modern computer has 1 teraflop of computing power - which is 1 trillion operations per second.

But using a GPU for general computing functions isn't easy. The actual architecture of the GPU itself is designed to process graphics, not other applications. Because GPUs focus on turning data into millions of pixels on a screen, the architecture is designed to have many operations taking place in isolation from each other. The operation telling one pixel what to do is separate from the operations telling other pixels what to do. This hardware design makes graphics processing more efficient, but presents a stumbling block for those who want to use GPUs for more complex computing processes.

A research team from NC state has developed software that could make it easier for traditional software programs to take advantage of GPUs. The research was funded by the National Science Foundation.

 
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InstilledBee

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Looks like its time to start considering the amount of TFlops on my GPU for the next upgrade. :D

I demand it to be open source.

I demand a simple compiler available for public consumption.
 

AnthraxXx

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Awesome. I wonder if we will even need a CPU in the future, everything might all be done on the GPU, but I suppose this'll require a new chipset of sorts or something.
 

Slapshot136

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only thing that it lacks to say is that 90% of the programs that this would benefit don't need any more cpu processing power anyways, and the 9/10 of the programs that would benefit already have some way of using the GPU (ex: photoshop, compilers, etc.)
 

tom_mai78101

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Is it possible to play CounterStrike Source on Ultra settings and get over 100 FPS while playing StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty, melee ladder game, full house via dual monitor settings?

I don't think current Geforce GTX 485 technology and Intel's i7 Extreme CPUs can accelerate up to such par.
 

Slapshot136

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Is it possible to play CounterStrike Source on Ultra settings and get over 100 FPS while playing StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty, melee ladder game, full house via dual monitor settings?

I don't think current Geforce GTX 485 technology and Intel's i7 Extreme CPUs can accelerate up to such par.

your missing the point: these are things that normally don't use the GPU.. so this wouldn't do anything for games that can already take advantage of the GPU and besides that, even if you had two screens, you still can't play two different games at once since you can only have 1 active window at a time, and you only have 1 mouse, etc.

next, why do you need over 100 FPS? your eyes only see 30-40 FPS

an example of something that won't benefit much but gets it anyways already: MS office 2010 - do office applications really need more processing power? I doubt it, but regardless, MS is including it for more of a marketing effect
 

SineCosine

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Microsoft Paint!
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Wait for it..
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Now uses GPU!

On a side-note,
I do believe that the human can see well over 100FPS.
 

Matemeo

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According to research I devour while not working at work, anything over 72 FPS is overkill. 72 FPS is considered the perfect FPS for how our eyes and brains interpret motion.

Then again research is mostly inconclusive, though most agree anything above the threshold of say 75ish FPS is absolute overkill and noticing differences between 60 and 72 would likely be a superhuman act.

Not stopping me from bragging about consistent >100 FPS on CS:S but hey.

Oh, right. Here's a source too. Take it as you will: http://www.daniele.ch/school/30vs60/30vs60_3.html
 

Dave312

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an example of something that won't benefit much but gets it anyways already: MS office 2010 - do office applications really need more processing power? I doubt it, but regardless, MS is including it for more of a marketing effect

I'm currently running Office 2007 and I kill excel far too often for my liking. It just takes too long to process the commands I tell it (although that probably has something to do with the fact I use a lot of spreadsheets with 100,000+ rows)
 

Slapshot136

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ok let me correct myself: the monitor will only show up to 60 frames per second, rendering any more then that is just wasting electricity, and if you really have all the settings maxed, 30-40 fps is enough to make it look good enough to where you don't notice the difference between that and 60fps - also movies are made at 24 fps, they just spend more time rendering each individual frame to make it look good

I think a large excel file that's slow would be because of the hard drive rather then the CPU if your doing searches/just opening it up, while as it might benefit from GPU power if you do intense calculations, but I think the former is the more likely case

and since I know someone will point out that there are 120 hz monitors, let me say in advance that they don't support high resolutions, so if you can get 60 fps on a high-res monitor, then you can also get 120 on a medium-res monitor

so my question still stands, what "traditional software programs" would benefit from this? games don't benefit, MS office doesn't benefit, PS doesn't benefit, what would?
 

SineCosine

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I know what would benefit.
Extremely inefficient programs.
Those that get coded like sh*t, with GPU, you wouldn't notice the lag =)

And, I didn't read that link about 100FPS.
Too long and.. dull. xD
 

SerraAvenger

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so my question still stands, what "traditional software programs" would benefit from this? games don't benefit, MS office doesn't benefit, PS doesn't benefit, what would?

Apart from the fact that GPUs aren't built to do the CPU's job, I guess stuff like compiling other compiled languages than golang would reduce compile-time from 2 days to 1 day 15 hours = )

"Extremely inefficient programs.
Those that get coded like sh*t, with GPU, you wouldn't notice the lag =)
"
Nonsense. A constant speedup factor doesn't fix shit of a bad algorithm. Inefficient programs use bad algorithms, not unoptimized code (in 99.9% of the time you notice the inefficiency, anyhow). Increasing operations per second by 100% will like decrease the interaction delay from 3 seconds to one and a half, which is still unbearable. Btw: Lag refers to the time a signal needs to go from the sender to the receiver, not the time an algorithm needs to return the results. I think what you are refering to are performance drops. Since there's no fancy word for it, and it is a common error, we shall from now on call it "pops" :D
Lemme see how far that one comes...

Btw, an interesting article that wrote about stuff like this four years ago:

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2006/11/cpu-vs-gpu.html
 
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