GPUDirect Storage - requirement questions

Accelerated Computing GPU-Accelerated Libraries
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Hi all!

Not really sure if this the right category to put this post. Nevertheless, maybe someone can help me.
I read about GPUDirect Storage and thought that this could really boost my application. However, after reading the system requirements (NVIDIA GPUDirect Storage Design Guide :: NVIDIA GPUDirect Storage Documentation), I realized that probably my computer is not ready to test it. So I have some questions:

  • My machine has a GeForce GTX 1080. Is there any plan to support GeForce GPUs in future or would you recommend to anyway purchase a newer model?
  • In the software requirements it says that Ubuntu 20.04 is required but then down in the file system requirements Ubuntu 18.04 is listed as well. I run Ubuntu 18.04, what does that mean for me? Is it good enough or do I need to upgrade?
  • Further, it says that ‘A GDS-enabled distributed file system or block system must be used.’ I am not exactly sure what that means. What is a GDS-enabled file system? Does a ext4 do the job and do I somehow have to manually enable GDS functionality?

I appreciate any advice or thoughts on the above mentioned topics. If I missed some information in the user guide, please just point me to that.

Best,
Pascal

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The GeForce line doesn’t currently support GPUDirect RDMA, on which GPUDirect Storage depends. I know of no particular plans to add that support to the GeForce line.

18.04 should be fine.

Distributed file systems vendors who are currently making versions of their products with GDS support available include DDN EXAScaler, VAST, and Weka.io. More are coming.

ext4 support is in place, via GDS-enabled drivers from MOFED.

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Thanks a lot for your help!
Quoting from the guide: ‘NVIDIA Volta™ V100 GPUs and NVIDIA Ampere Architecture are supported and offer the best possible performance available today.’ Is there a list of supported GPU models? I am asking because a guy from your customer service told me that I could use a RTX 20xx or 30xx. But it seems that they are GeForce GPUs as well but Ampere architecture. So I am a bit unsure about which model would be working.

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It would really help, if you could provide a list of supported GPU models. What model would you recommend to buy? Thank you for a quick answer!

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