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12-04-2013, 10:14 PM #16Registered User Promoted
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If more cores are better, what about a phi co-processor? adds a TON of cores for relatively (per core) low cost.
Matt Kennedy
Win7, v2 beta thru x6
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12-05-2013, 05:07 AM #17Registered User Promoted
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Matt, Xeon Phi has looked interesting for some time. However,... From an article on Xcelerit, "Note that currently the Xeon Phi Co-processor is only supported with the Linux operating system. Given that most financial institutions use Windows for software development and production grids, we believe that this is a major limitation to its adoption."
Perhaps as the platform matures? Otherwise the new Tesla K40 sort of rocks the off-the-shelf graphics world. But then Chief Architect would need to be CUDA aware, and it's not. (Actually, only Phoebe would need to take advantage of CUDA to see an improvement within the NVidia tech stack)
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12-05-2013, 08:53 AM #18Humble Chief User/Abuser
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Never heard of Xeon Phi and best I know less than more as it looks like more money down the computer rabbit hole.
Quick follow up on my new system. Motherboard can be finicky which is something i don't like but something that has to be sacrificed in this case in order to OC these Xeon processors.
And I'm learning that Fast is such a relative term. The GTX 780 is fast but doesn't seem that much faster than my old clunker 560. The prices have come down and that makes it a bit more compelling but I'm not sure a lesser 770 or 760 wouldn't be just fine.
The Dual Xeons do indeed RayTrace more than 3 times faster than my old machine but it still seems slow. Not sure what it will take to ever feel like computers are keeping up other than a complete change in CA's architecture engine and the Cuda Hybrid type graphics cards. Haven't really noticed any drastic speed ups in any other operations but those speed ups can be subtle and can lend themselves to a better 'feeling' system which I think is how I'd describe this new system.
Bottom line for me is still the same. Get as much processor and Graphics card as you can afford but be prepared to be undewhelmed at the performance increases.The purpose of Government is to control the common resources, not the common man.
Larry Hawes
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12-05-2013, 08:58 AM #19Registered User Promoted
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Yeah, if phi is only supported in linux, the only use would be to run a virtual render farm, boot multiple instances of CA and run renders in parallel instead of qued. The overhead of dealing with booting CA in Linux seems pretty steep and the price of the phi, while reasonable per core, is still pretty high. Anyway, it all sounds WAY too complicated for me.
Larry, how many cores was the old machine? Is the speed\cores relationship fairly linear? i7\4 cores 1/3 the speed of xeon\12 cores?Matt Kennedy
Win7, v2 beta thru x6
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12-05-2013, 09:10 AM #20Humble Chief User/Abuser
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The purpose of Government is to control the common resources, not the common man.
Larry Hawes
Hawes Home Design
Vista, CA
Hawes Home Design
X5 and X6 Public Beta 3
Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit
Motherboard EVGA Classified SR-2
Processors (2) 6 core Xeon L5640
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Monitor 26" LG 1920 x 1200
21" Viewsonic
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12-06-2013, 08:06 AM #21Administrator
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Xeon Phi and GPU support is something that needs to be specifically programmed into the application. The Tesla HPC card is really no different (other than having many more cores) than what is already available in your GPU. Moving forward we are likely to support using OpenCL to access the GPU which would make it possible to leverage the Tesla cards. As I understand it the Xeon Phi can be accessed from a Windows machine, but also requires special programming to use.
Doug Park
Principal Software Architect
Chief Architect, Inc.
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12-06-2013, 09:24 AM #22Registered User Promoted
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Doug, thnx, LArry, likewise.
It sounds like cores are as, or more, important than clock speed.
I'll try pricing clock speed against cores, see which is cheaper, but it sure seems that parallel processing should be faster\cheaper than serial?Matt Kennedy
Win7, v2 beta thru x6