Dual-core GPUs

[Parkre]

would it be easier/cheaper just to make dual-core GPUs? We already are in SLi, so why not?

(not sure if this should go here or highly technical)

 

[Munky]

Originally posted by: Parkre
would it be easier/cheaper just to make dual-core GPUs? We already are in SLi, so why not?

(not sure if this should go here or highly technical)

Well, you're the engineer, so you tell us...

Anyway, we might see it eventually, but I dont think the technology is ready for that yet, look how much heat a single core gpu generates these days.

 

[Soccerman06]

Arent the 6600s (GT?) 3dI dual cores? I am probably wrong but thats what I thought.

 

[reever]

would it be easier/cheaper just to make dual-core GPUs?

The short answer is no.

Originally posted by: Soccerman06
Arent the 6600s (GT?) 3dI dual cores? I am probably wrong but thats what I thought.

No you're right

 

[Lonyo]

Yeah, we have dual GPU cards already.
One problem is twice the heat in less than twice the card, and still only 1 heatsink.
Power consumption also increases on that one card.
The card also gets bigger (and cards atm are fairly big), etc etc.
Yes it's possible, yes it's been done, but yes, there are also issues.

ATi did mention when asked about multi GPU solutions about the possibility of more than 2 cards in Crossfire, and they said 2x2GPU cards would be possible and that 2xGPU on one card was something we were likely to see as it made sense in many ways.

 

[monster64]

Originally posted by: Soccerman06
Arent the 6600s (GT?) 3dI dual cores? I am probably wrong but thats what I thought.

Not quite. The 3d1 is like two opterons on 1 pcb, not like an X2 with two cores per chip. Its dual cpu but not dual core.

 

[otispunkmeyer]

we have dual GPU's but i doubt we'll ever see dual core GPU's.

graphics processing is parallel by nature, its easier to just add more pipes than another core. infact if you think about it, its kinda already multicored as it is. to make it simple

a pentium or an athlon has a one core with a single pipe, dual cores make that 2 pipes so the cpu can process two things at once.

a 7800GTX has 24 pipes to process info, almost like having a multi core processor made up of 24 single pipe processors, except in a gpu theyre all doing the same job, providing you with a nice image

not to forget the 8 vertex shaders in there to.

 

[lein]

I think what otis is saying is correct. Dual core gfx just wont provide that much of a performance benefit. Also, I don't know about cheapness, especially since cards like r520 have poor yields in the first place.

 

[SGtheArtist]

I believe we will in fact see dual & eventually multi-core GPUs/VPUs. I say this since Intel & AMD have realized their limitation with the CPU frequencies (3-4GHz on 90u).

Isn't the current GPU's running about 700MHz? Sure they are processing 24 pipelines, however when they begin to hit the frequency limit they could simply add another core & have 48 pipelines.

It may not seem like it will happen anytime soon, but I believe that one day thats what will happen.

Just my 2.

 

[Parkre]

I understand that more pipes are gravy but if I am not mistaken, we are not utilizing the full bandwidth of the 16x pci-e, let alone 2x 16x pci-e. But still... dual-cores...mmmmm

 

[vss1980]

Practically speaking, we have already seen the effective implementation of dual/parallel processing type work in graphics cards. The multiple graphics pipelines tackle the load in a way that some dual-cpu applications could only dream of.

Why do dual-core when they could just ramp up the number of pipelines?? Of course, making a chip which contains multiple cores will be easier/cheaper than designing/manufacturing a chip which contains one big fat graphics processor but in the long run that will always be necessary.

Anyone remember the Trident XP3 or XP4 I think it was?? They tried to tackle the ridiculously increasing transistor and heat output by optimising the pipeline design so it ran more efficiently. A shame that other manufacturers don't do that, especially when it comes to mobile parts.

 

[SGtheArtist]

Im not an engineer nor have knowledge in Video Card architecture (sp? ), however I fail to see why bandwidth on the bus would be more important than video performance.

If the CPU is managing where entities are located & orientated then just sends this little data to the video card the video performance will take care of the rest?

Isn't this why new cards have the new DDRII or GRR3 (I think) memory so all the data processing on the card to generate the image is as fast as possible.

If they havent utilized the AGP 8x & PCIe 2x bandwidth but have continued to increase video performance then does bandwidth really translate to video performance or even matter anymore??

 

[BlacKJesuS]

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2005/05/31/gigabyte_dual_6800gt/ ...6800GT 2x1

 

[gac009]

Originally posted by: Parkre
we are not utilizing the full bandwidth of the 16x pci-e, let alone 2x 16x pci-e. But still... dual-cores...mmmmm

actually in sli both cards share one 16x pcie bus

 

[ZobarStyl]

Like a lot of people have already mentioned, we already have 'dual core' in the sense that we have cards with 24 processing pipelines. The CPU industry is just now starting to get towards the amount of parallelism that GPU's have. Technically, ATi or nV could put out a chip that has 2 of their standard processors within one single piece, but it would be too expensive and too hot to be particularly useful. That is why SLI/Crossfire have come into play: it's quite easy (relatively speaking) to split the load of a GPU across two processors that way, and it's easier to market because there's not one special piece of uber hardware, and they can be cooled seperately.

Look at the dual core trend and you'll see what GPU's have long since done: you add more of the seperate processing units, but lower overall clockspeed to compensate heat.

 

[volrathy]

Originally posted by: Soccerman06
Arent the 6600s (GT?) 3dI dual cores? I am probably wrong but thats what I thought.

A Dual-core chip is not 2 cores in 2 chips. Dual core is 2 cores on the 1 chip

 

[volrathy]

GPU's are already more then Dual core each pipeline is considered 1 processor and will function even if you switch all the other ones off.
Dual-core CPU's are based on GPU pipeline technology.

 

[sparkyclarky]

Not anytime soon given the already massive transistor counts of modern performance GPUs and their subsequent heat output (which is much harder to deal with given the nature of a slotted card, than say a CPU where you can bolt on a massive chunk of copper). Dual core for GPUs is a long ways off (if the market ever heads that way).

 

[Parkre]

Originally posted by: gac009

Originally posted by: Parkre
we are not utilizing the full bandwidth of the 16x pci-e, let alone 2x 16x pci-e. But still... dual-cores...mmmmm

actually in sli both cards share one 16x pcie bus

Actually, Dell currently has exclusive rights on its XPS system in which it doesnt' share its 16x bandwidth.

 

[Sentry2]

Originally posted by: monster64

Originally posted by: Soccerman06
Arent the 6600s (GT?) 3dI dual cores? I am probably wrong but thats what I thought.

Not quite. The 3d1 is like two opterons on 1 pcb, not like an X2 with two cores per chip. Its dual cpu but not dual core.

Exactly...not to confuse a dual gpu card with a dual-core gpu

A dual-core gpu would be nice though...