[gmx-users] some hardware questions

[Peter C. Lai]

On 2012-05-02 06:13:04PM +0200, Mirco Wahab wrote:
> Hello Peter,
> 
> Am 02.05.2012 17:44, schrieb Peter C. Lai:
> 
> > You can wait for ivy bridge, then stick some Kepler GPUs (nvidia gtx
> > 680) in it. That should max the performance. asm is pretty much stagnant
> > for general purpose procs since core2 came out.
> 
> Is this true?
> 
> To my knowledge, the Fermi GPU (GF-110, eg. GTX-580) is
> a 16 processor (streaming multiprocessor, SM) system, each
> processor having 32 cores running at 1.5 GHz, and the
> Kepler-1 (GK-104, eg. GTX-680) an 8 processor system
> with 192 cores per processor at 1GHz.
> Because on the Fermi each SM has more L1 cache than
> each SM on the Kepler-1 and because it might be harder
> to saturate 192 cores in a compute-scenario, I'd expect
> the 580 (GF-110) to be significant(?) faster in the
> next Gromacs (4.6). Maybe somebody tested this already.
> 
> (Here in Germany, I can by GTX-580/3GB for ~325€ + Tax.)
> 
> Regards,
> 
> M.

You might be. I do have a collaborator in France who chooses to use GTX 580
with NAMD and is eschewing the Keplers. I think I saw a bench somewhere
for Kepler compute; not sure if I saw that much difference (but you will
be paying the price though). In that case stick with Fermis for now :)

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