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Nvidia Pascal GPU to Feature 17B Transistors and 32GB HBM2 VRAM

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Re: Nvidia Pascal GPU to Feature 17B Transistors and 32GB HBM2 VRAM

#61
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well right, but compared to the number of units bought by IT departments, the "enthusiast" market is nothing but decimal dust.

IT departments are not buying Titans and they are not going to be buying Pascals. IT departments aren't even buying Nvidia at all, they are buying Intel integrated.

That was my point. If all you do is read what passes for news on gamer sites, you might think that the discrete GPU overclocking market was important.

Re: Nvidia Pascal GPU to Feature 17B Transistors and 32GB HBM2 VRAM

#62
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AMD is a fabless chip designer (like nearly everyone except Intel and Samsung). They rely on foundries for manufacturing. AMD relies on GlobalFoundries (and NVidia relies on TSMC). Both manufactures have skipped on either foundries 20nm process since apparently the output didn't suit GPU performance requirements.

> AMD is a fabless chip designer (like nearly everyone except Intel and Samsung) Okay, but they didn't used to be. They sold all their fabs. And when their reliance on third-party fabs meant they couldn't keep up with Intel, they did... nothing. Now, you could argue that they don't have the resources to do anything. But that doesn't mean it's not their fault that they didn't do something, it just means they couldn't.

I think the issue was they couldn't keep their own fabs running hot enough at a large enough scale with just the volume of silicone they were selling.

If the fab sitting idle or production is bellow running cost then they are in trouble. Better to spend that money on R&D.

Re: Nvidia Pascal GPU to Feature 17B Transistors and 32GB HBM2 VRAM

#63
post #26

> With 8Gb per DRAM die and 2 Gbps speed per pin, we get approximately 256 GB/s bandwidth per HBM2 stack. With four stacks in total, we will get 1 TB/s bandwidth on NVIDIA’s GP100 flagship Pascal which is twice compared to the 512 GB/s on AMD’s Fiji cards and three times that of the 980 Ti’s 334GB/s. > The Pascal GPU would also introduce NVLINK which is the next generation Unified Virtual Memory link with Gen 2.0 Cac…

One note on Nvlink: To get that you will AFAIK have to buy a Power8 system. They would need a cooperation with Intel to get support for this on their architecture - and Intel so far likes to keep them on a slow bus.

Re: Nvidia Pascal GPU to Feature 17B Transistors and 32GB HBM2 VRAM

#64
post #50

Now, if only I could get a MackBook Pro with 32GB of system memory... Does anybody happen to know why that is such a difficult thing to achieve? It's amazing that, starting next year, there will be mainstream graphics cards with more memory than top-of-the-line laptops.

I don't think you could get 16GB SO-DIMMs until earlier this year could you? I know you can get 32GB in a W550s which is probably the thinnest/lightest laptop capable of 32GB.

Can you? I have a W550s and didn't see anyone hocking 16GB SODIMMs even earlier this year.

Re: Nvidia Pascal GPU to Feature 17B Transistors and 32GB HBM2 VRAM

#65
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> AMD is a fabless chip designer (like nearly everyone except Intel and Samsung) Okay, but they didn't used to be. They sold all their fabs. And when their reliance on third-party fabs meant they couldn't keep up with Intel, they did... nothing. Now, you could argue that they don't have the resources to do anything. But that doesn't mean it's not their fault that they didn't do something, it just means they couldn't.

I think the issue was they couldn't keep their own fabs running hot enough at a large enough scale with just the volume of silicone they were selling. If the fab sitting idle or production is bellow running cost then they are in trouble. Better to spend that money on R&D.

Let's not forget to that they had to sell the fabs due to Intel anti-competitive market squeezing. They would offer the chips for free, but vendors would still be better off with the Intel kickbacks.

They were later compensated, but the damage done was incredibly destructive.

Re: Nvidia Pascal GPU to Feature 17B Transistors and 32GB HBM2 VRAM

#66
post #26

> With 8Gb per DRAM die and 2 Gbps speed per pin, we get approximately 256 GB/s bandwidth per HBM2 stack. With four stacks in total, we will get 1 TB/s bandwidth on NVIDIA’s GP100 flagship Pascal which is twice compared to the 512 GB/s on AMD’s Fiji cards and three times that of the 980 Ti’s 334GB/s. > The Pascal GPU would also introduce NVLINK which is the next generation Unified Virtual Memory link with Gen 2.0 Cac…

Yes.. with the current deep dreaming fad, this could attract quite a few hobbyists eager to get near-real time video processing through large nn.

The current deep dreaming fad is going to last about one more week before everyone gets sick of looking at those stupid pictures. They really serve no purpose other than "look how crazy this stuff is" - deep learning is cray-cray.

Re: Nvidia Pascal GPU to Feature 17B Transistors and 32GB HBM2 VRAM

#67

AMD get it together, pretty please. Nobody wants to live in a world where only NVidia produces discrete GPUs! That 32GB seems too high for cost constrained consumer market though - may be they will have a leaner variant for desktops/gaming.

It could be argued that AMD does have it together. If you look at the benchmarks for pretty much any particular price point, AMD & nVidia cards are roughly comparable. AMD is better at some games and resolutions, and nVidia is better at others. Rarely is the difference more than 10%. nVidia used to have a sizable power/noise advantage, but Fury appears to close that gap. AMD even seems to be closing the driver stabil…

Gotta say though, in terms of driver stability and user experience in terms of related software, etc, NVIDIA has the edge.

Re: Nvidia Pascal GPU to Feature 17B Transistors and 32GB HBM2 VRAM

#68
post #51
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Versus the data scientists and HPC communities that buy hundreds of Nvidia GPUs for CUDA and associated applications.

Well right, but compared to the number of units bought by IT departments, the "enthusiast" market is nothing but decimal dust.

Probably, but remember that if you're maximizing profit then one $100 margin customer is as important as 1000 $0.10 margin customers.

Re: Nvidia Pascal GPU to Feature 17B Transistors and 32GB HBM2 VRAM

#70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes.. with the current deep dreaming fad, this could attract quite a few hobbyists eager to get near-real time video processing through large nn.

The current deep dreaming fad is going to last about one more week before everyone gets sick of looking at those stupid pictures. They really serve no purpose other than "look how crazy this stuff is" - deep learning is cray-cray.

It's not over until it shows up in a few mainstream media pieces.

Maybe some music videos, or the intro of an HBO show..

Until then, enjoy your eyes and dog faces on family pictures.

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