[gentoo-user] Re: [OT] Choice of graphics card

2016-03-03 Thread Grant Edwards 
On 2016-03-02, Peter Humphrey  wrote:

> Budget seems unlikely to influence choice of graphics card maker.

If budget is not an issue, then buy a couple different models from
each brand and test them to see which one performs the best in your
application.

-- 
Grant Edwards   grant.b.edwardsYow! I'm wearing PAMPERS!!
  at   
  gmail.com

[gentoo-user] Re: [OT] Choice of graphics card

2016-03-03 Thread Nikos Chantziaras 

On 03/03/16 12:15, Peter Humphrey wrote:

On Wednesday 02 March 2016 21:44:29 Nikos Chantziaras wrote:

If you need 64-bit FP compute, AMD Radeon is your only choice. NVidia
only supports 32-bit FP and cripples 64-bit FP on consumer cards,
rendering them virtually useless; you'd have to buy a "professional"
card (thousands of dollars).

So you might want to check whether your applications need 64-bit FP or
32-bit.


So for flexibility in the future it looks like AMD Firepro or similar. (I
assume your comments on Radeon will also apply to Firepro.)


Be careful not to buy a firepro that is as expensive (or more expensive) 
than a radeon card, but with lower performance.


You need to make sure what the compute speed is compared to other card 
before you buy.

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: [OT] Choice of graphics card

2016-03-03 Thread Peter Humphrey 
On Wednesday 02 March 2016 21:44:29 Nikos Chantziaras wrote:
> On 02/03/16 13:50, Peter Humphrey wrote:
> > It's approaching time to invest in a new system, and I'd like the
> > panel's
> > views on which make of graphics card to choose: AMD, nVidia or Radeon. I
> > don't want to start a flame war, but which of those would give me the
> > best performance in GPU calculations? I have some BOINC projects in
> > mind, which apparently are greatly accelerated by using GPUs as well as
> > CPUs.
> > 
> > The nouveau driver for nVidia can't do CUDA (GPU) calculations so I'd
> > have to use the nVidia driver; I don't know about the others which is
> > why I'm asking.
> > 
> > Does anyone here have an opinion to offer?
> 
> If you need 64-bit FP compute, AMD Radeon is your only choice. NVidia
> only supports 32-bit FP and cripples 64-bit FP on consumer cards,
> rendering them virtually useless; you'd have to buy a "professional"
> card (thousands of dollars).
> 
> So you might want to check whether your applications need 64-bit FP or
> 32-bit.

So for flexibility in the future it looks like AMD Firepro or similar. (I 
assume your comments on Radeon will also apply to Firepro.) I don't know 
whether these project are 64-bit today, but even if not, they may be in a 
year or two.

Thanks Nikos, and to James and Rich too.

Time to start saving up...

-- 
Rgds
Peter

[gentoo-user] Re: [OT] Choice of graphics card

2016-03-02 Thread James 
Peter Humphrey  prh.myzen.co.uk> writes:


> which as I said is scientific computing using GPUs as well as the CPU.


Here is another great site to look for opensource science codes to run
on your gpu(s).

http://gpuopen.com/professional-compute/

hth,
James

[gentoo-user] Re: [OT] Choice of graphics card

2016-03-02 Thread James 
Peter Humphrey  prh.myzen.co.uk> writes:

>said is scientific computing using GPUs as well as the CPU.


Ah well take a look at this 'bad boy(gpu)' article::

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/amd-gpuopen-fuels-seismic-supercomputing-14049.html


hth,
James

[gentoo-user] Re: [OT] Choice of graphics card

2016-03-02 Thread Nikos Chantziaras 

On 02/03/16 13:50, Peter Humphrey wrote:

Hello list,

It's approaching time to invest in a new system, and I'd like the panel's
views on which make of graphics card to choose: AMD, nVidia or Radeon. I
don't want to start a flame war, but which of those would give me the best
performance in GPU calculations? I have some BOINC projects in mind, which
apparently are greatly accelerated by using GPUs as well as CPUs.

The nouveau driver for nVidia can't do CUDA (GPU) calculations so I'd have
to use the nVidia driver; I don't know about the others which is why I'm
asking.

Does anyone here have an opinion to offer?


If you need 64-bit FP compute, AMD Radeon is your only choice. NVidia 
only supports 32-bit FP and cripples 64-bit FP on consumer cards, 
rendering them virtually useless; you'd have to buy a "professional" 
card (thousands of dollars).


So you might want to check whether your applications need 64-bit FP or 
32-bit.

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: [OT] Choice of graphics card

2016-03-02 Thread Rich Freeman 
On Wed, Mar 2, 2016 at 12:44 PM, Peter Humphrey  wrote:
>
> Not just the computing power, though: Gentoo support will be important over
> the life of the system. If the life of this current box is any guide, that
> could stretch to 10 years. Well, maybe.
>

So, I can't speak to computation in particular, so take all of this
with a grain of salt.

In general the sentiment I've seen expressed is that at least
presently the quality of drivers goes (best to worst):
NVidia proprietary
AMD open source
NVidia open source

So, right now if you want the best overall performance/etc and don't
care about tainted kernels nvidia is your best choice, and I believe
it isn't even close.

However, if you want the best overall performance WITH AN OPEN SOURCE
kernel/etc, then AMD is the better solution.

Now, as I understand it AMD has been talking about moving more towards
open source drivers so that they're much closer in quality to
NVidia's.  At that point there will be less need to compromise between
driver quality and open source.  Of course, either vendor's hardware
might be superior.  (From what I've heard at the high end NVidia tends
to be better, and of course stuff like games tends to support it more,
but at the lower end AMD is VERY competitive and doesn't tend to
cripple stuff as much to segment the markets - something that is true
of their CPUs as well.)

So, while NVidia is often the route people go, I'd say that you need
to understand your needs.

With AMD it is all open source and I think most of it is even
upstreamed into the kernel, so support is as good as it gets.  With
Nvidia you may find yourself limited to particular kernels, especially
once your card is no longer supported.  AMD overall has more
commitment to open source itself, though it doesn't port its
proprietary windows drivers over like NVidia does.

Again, all of this is more general and pertains to graphics, and the
situation for computation could be very different.  I also am hardly a
graphics card super-enthusiast, so if others have more knowledge I'm
all ears.

-- 
Rich

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: [OT] Choice of graphics card

2016-03-02 Thread Peter Humphrey 
On Wednesday 02 March 2016 15:33:27 James wrote:
> Peter Humphrey  prh.myzen.co.uk> writes:
> > It's approaching time to invest in a new system, and I'd like the
> > panel's views on which make of graphics card to choose: AMD, nVidia or
> > Radeon. Does anyone here have an opinion to offer?
> 
> Perhaps you can define some more parameters as to your budget constraints,
> power limitations on the main power supply and exactly
> what is your target use of the video (gpu+memory) resources?

Budget seems unlikely to influence choice of graphics card maker. The three I 
mentioned are all offered by my preferred system builder, Armari. I don't 
know what you mean about limits to power. You snipped the application area, 
which as I said is scientific computing using GPUs as well as the CPU.

> Noise (dB) restrictions? Air or water cooled? hardware (slot)
> availability?

I'm just interested in the comparative performance of the three makes of GPU 
at this stage. I can fill in the rest of the spec once I know which to go for 
- unless one make is ruled out by excessively noisy coolers or something.

Not just the computing power, though: Gentoo support will be important over 
the life of the system. If the life of this current box is any guide, that 
could stretch to 10 years. Well, maybe.

> New mobo or an upgrade to an existing mobo?

It'll be a new system, as I said.

> Dual windows booting for windows gaming? etc etc.

I'm not interested in Windows or gaming. Certainly not the kind of rapid-fire 
games that spotty youths seem to go for.

-- 
Rgds
Peter

[gentoo-user] Re: [OT] Choice of graphics card

2016-03-02 Thread James 
Peter Humphrey  prh.myzen.co.uk> writes:

> 
> Hello list,
> 
> It's approaching time to invest in a new system, and I'd like the panel's 
> views on which make of graphics card to choose: AMD, nVidia or Radeon. 
> Does anyone here have an opinion to offer?




Perhaps you can define some more parameters as to your budget constraints,
power limitations on the main power supply and exactly
what is your target use of the video (gpu+memory) resources?

Noise (dB) restrictions? Air or water cooled? hardware (slot) availability?
New mobo or an upgrade to an existing mobo?
Dual windows booting for windows gaming? etc etc.


hth,
James