PC for CUDA

[ahmetyilmaz.1975]

Hello,

Nowadays i am planning to buy a desktop for Cuda development. Can you give me advices for better performance in Cuda? My hardware configuration may be:

INTEL Core i7 930, 2.80GHz, LGA1366,
ASUS P6T SE, X58, LGA1366, DDR3-2000 Mainboard
ZOTAC GTX480 AMP! GDDR5 1536MB 384BIT NVIDIA DX11
A-DATA, 6 GB Triple Kit (3x2GB) DDR3-1600MHz, CL8
2 * SAMSUNG Spinpoint (HD502HJ), 3.5inch, 500GB, SATA RAID
HIGH POWER Absolute (HP-1000-G14C), 1000 Watt
SUNBEAM Core-Contact Freezer (SB-CR-CCTF92), LGA775 , AM2,
THERMALTAKE Element Fulltower (VL20001W2Z), No PSU , e-Sata, USB
ASUS DRW-24B1ST, 24x DVD Writer, SATA, Siyah (Kutulu)

My plans is to buy a new ZOTAC GTX480 AMP! GPU in future and make SLI with it, but i am not sure i can because it is thicker than usual graphic cards.

Thanks

[SPWorley]

You’ll have no problems. I have a similar system with the P6T SE and 930.

But swap the PSU… that’s not a well-respected brand, and for (eventual) SLI GTX480s you want a solid, reliable, performer.
A Thermaltake Toughpower is perhaps the ideal choice, but it will cost you $330, not the $120 of the High Power. Corsair’s HX series is a decent compromise (high end for most PCs, but not for our monster power eating rigs.)

[SPWorley]

You’ll have no problems. I have a similar system with the P6T SE and 930.

But swap the PSU… that’s not a well-respected brand, and for (eventual) SLI GTX480s you want a solid, reliable, performer.
A Thermaltake Toughpower is perhaps the ideal choice, but it will cost you $330, not the $120 of the High Power. Corsair’s HX series is a decent compromise (high end for most PCs, but not for our monster power eating rigs.)

[ahmetyilmaz.1975]

You’ll have no problems. I have a similar system with the P6T SE and 930.

But swap the PSU… that’s not a well-respected brand, and for (eventual) SLI GTX480s you want a solid, reliable, performer.

A Thermaltake Toughpower is perhaps the ideal choice, but it will cost you $330, not the $120 of the High Power. Corsair’s HX series is a decent compromise (high end for most PCs, but not for our monster power eating rigs.)

Thanks, it is better to swap with THERMALTAKE Toughpower (W0132R), 1000W, PFC, 14 cm. What about Zotac graphics card? Is there anyone that uses Zotac GTX 480 AMP?

[ahmetyilmaz.1975]

You’ll have no problems. I have a similar system with the P6T SE and 930.

But swap the PSU… that’s not a well-respected brand, and for (eventual) SLI GTX480s you want a solid, reliable, performer.

A Thermaltake Toughpower is perhaps the ideal choice, but it will cost you $330, not the $120 of the High Power. Corsair’s HX series is a decent compromise (high end for most PCs, but not for our monster power eating rigs.)

Thanks, it is better to swap with THERMALTAKE Toughpower (W0132R), 1000W, PFC, 14 cm. What about Zotac graphics card? Is there anyone that uses Zotac GTX 480 AMP?

[SPWorley]

What about Zotac graphics card? Is there anyone that uses Zotac GTX 480 AMP?

The only distinguishing factor about the card is the nice cooler, but taking 3 slots.

If you’re only going to use one card, I’d say go for it.

But if you may later decide to go with 2 cards… those coolers will really get in the way. Especially if you want SLI for gaming.

If you don’t need gaming, then you likely don’t need the huge cooler… CUDA apps run very roughly 3/4 the wattage of games and even three adjacent stock GTX480s are bearable in terms of noise.

Last point… your case is likely fine. I prefer the FT02myself, since the rotated motherboard and giant fans helps cooling GPUs. However your case choice looks well ventilated too.

[SPWorley]

What about Zotac graphics card? Is there anyone that uses Zotac GTX 480 AMP?

The only distinguishing factor about the card is the nice cooler, but taking 3 slots.

If you’re only going to use one card, I’d say go for it.

But if you may later decide to go with 2 cards… those coolers will really get in the way. Especially if you want SLI for gaming.

If you don’t need gaming, then you likely don’t need the huge cooler… CUDA apps run very roughly 3/4 the wattage of games and even three adjacent stock GTX480s are bearable in terms of noise.

Last point… your case is likely fine. I prefer the FT02myself, since the rotated motherboard and giant fans helps cooling GPUs. However your case choice looks well ventilated too.

[ahmetyilmaz.1975]

The only distinguishing factor about the card is the nice cooler, but taking 3 slots.

If you’re only going to use one card, I’d say go for it.

But if you may later decide to go with 2 cards… those coolers will really get in the way. Especially if you want SLI for gaming.

If you don’t need gaming, then you likely don’t need the huge cooler… CUDA apps run very roughly 3/4 the wattage of games and even three adjacent stock GTX480s are bearable in terms of noise.

Last point… your case is likely fine. I prefer the FT02myself, since the rotated motherboard and giant fans helps cooling GPUs. However your case choice looks well ventilated too.

I prefered zotac gtx 480 amp because it is overclocked version of GTX 480 for example 756MHz core. Therefore it warm up higher temperatures than usual and need extra cooling. Also, i heard that usual GTX 480 gpus may warm up to 95C degrees, is it valid for cuda applications for example that executes continously 1 hour?

I dont think to play games in future, SLI may be needed for performance support to extra kernel runs for Cuda applications.

Thanks

[ahmetyilmaz.1975]

The only distinguishing factor about the card is the nice cooler, but taking 3 slots.

If you’re only going to use one card, I’d say go for it.

But if you may later decide to go with 2 cards… those coolers will really get in the way. Especially if you want SLI for gaming.

If you don’t need gaming, then you likely don’t need the huge cooler… CUDA apps run very roughly 3/4 the wattage of games and even three adjacent stock GTX480s are bearable in terms of noise.

Last point… your case is likely fine. I prefer the FT02myself, since the rotated motherboard and giant fans helps cooling GPUs. However your case choice looks well ventilated too.

I prefered zotac gtx 480 amp because it is overclocked version of GTX 480 for example 756MHz core. Therefore it warm up higher temperatures than usual and need extra cooling. Also, i heard that usual GTX 480 gpus may warm up to 95C degrees, is it valid for cuda applications for example that executes continously 1 hour?

I dont think to play games in future, SLI may be needed for performance support to extra kernel runs for Cuda applications.

Thanks

[SPWorley]

I prefered zotac gtx 480 amp because it is overclocked version of GTX 480 for example 756MHz core. Therefore it warm up higher temperatures than usual and need extra cooling. Also, i heard that usual GTX 480 gpus may warm up to 95C degrees, is it valid for cuda applications for example that executes continously 1 hour?

I dont think to play games in future, SLI may be needed for performance support to extra kernel runs for Cuda applications.

Yes, 95 degrees is normal, surprisingly. It’s a tradeoff between heat and noise. I have run cards for weeks at a time at those temps. My fans (default profile) seem to run the cards at 92 degrees (packed 3 side by side).

Large coolers are NOT to keep your cards cool… they’re to keep your cards quiet. It’s just that a smaller heatsink/fan needs to spin faster for the same cooling (to keep to 95 degrees or so) and therefore are noisier.

Finally, SLI is a graphics-only word… it specifically means connecting cards with a SLI bridge to sync them for higher FPS in graphics display. CUDA has “multiGPU” but it’s not necessarily SLI. SLI is more restrictive in graphics card spacing, and you can’t mix card types. CUDA doesn’t care.

[SPWorley]

I prefered zotac gtx 480 amp because it is overclocked version of GTX 480 for example 756MHz core. Therefore it warm up higher temperatures than usual and need extra cooling. Also, i heard that usual GTX 480 gpus may warm up to 95C degrees, is it valid for cuda applications for example that executes continously 1 hour?

I dont think to play games in future, SLI may be needed for performance support to extra kernel runs for Cuda applications.

Yes, 95 degrees is normal, surprisingly. It’s a tradeoff between heat and noise. I have run cards for weeks at a time at those temps. My fans (default profile) seem to run the cards at 92 degrees (packed 3 side by side).

Large coolers are NOT to keep your cards cool… they’re to keep your cards quiet. It’s just that a smaller heatsink/fan needs to spin faster for the same cooling (to keep to 95 degrees or so) and therefore are noisier.

Finally, SLI is a graphics-only word… it specifically means connecting cards with a SLI bridge to sync them for higher FPS in graphics display. CUDA has “multiGPU” but it’s not necessarily SLI. SLI is more restrictive in graphics card spacing, and you can’t mix card types. CUDA doesn’t care.

[ahmetyilmaz.1975]

Yes, 95 degrees is normal, surprisingly. It’s a tradeoff between heat and noise. I have run cards for weeks at a time at those temps. My fans (default profile) seem to run the cards at 92 degrees (packed 3 side by side).

Large coolers are NOT to keep your cards cool… they’re to keep your cards quiet. It’s just that a smaller heatsink/fan needs to spin faster for the same cooling (to keep to 95 degrees or so) and therefore are noisier.

Finally, SLI is a graphics-only word… it specifically means connecting cards with a SLI bridge to sync them for higher FPS in graphics display. CUDA has “multiGPU” but it’s not necessarily SLI. SLI is more restrictive in graphics card spacing, and you can’t mix card types. CUDA doesn’t care.

Dear SPWorley, thank you very much for advices

[ahmetyilmaz.1975]

Yes, 95 degrees is normal, surprisingly. It’s a tradeoff between heat and noise. I have run cards for weeks at a time at those temps. My fans (default profile) seem to run the cards at 92 degrees (packed 3 side by side).

Large coolers are NOT to keep your cards cool… they’re to keep your cards quiet. It’s just that a smaller heatsink/fan needs to spin faster for the same cooling (to keep to 95 degrees or so) and therefore are noisier.

Finally, SLI is a graphics-only word… it specifically means connecting cards with a SLI bridge to sync them for higher FPS in graphics display. CUDA has “multiGPU” but it’s not necessarily SLI. SLI is more restrictive in graphics card spacing, and you can’t mix card types. CUDA doesn’t care.

Dear SPWorley, thank you very much for advices

[Cuda_Libre]

Hello,

P6T SE motherboard does not support SLI (it’s the reason P6T SE is cheaper than P6T)
(and yes, CUDA doesn’t care about SLI!)

[Cuda_Libre]

Hello,

P6T SE motherboard does not support SLI (it’s the reason P6T SE is cheaper than P6T)
(and yes, CUDA doesn’t care about SLI!)

[SPWorley]

Yes, 95 degrees is normal, surprisingly. It’s a tradeoff between heat and noise. I have run cards for weeks at a time at those temps. My fans (default profile) seem to run the cards at 92 degrees (packed 3 side by side).

Large coolers are NOT to keep your cards cool… they’re to keep your cards quiet. It’s just that a smaller heatsink/fan needs to spin faster for the same cooling (to keep to 95 degrees or so) and therefore are noisier.

I looked at the Zotac performance reviews, and was quite surprised what a monster cooler that thing is! Unlike my previous assumption, it really does impact temps… 83 C versus 93C, using less noise. That’s excellent.

If I were buying a single GTX480, I’d like that Zotec a lot! But I’m still a multi-GPU guy so I’ll stick to the double-wide stock cards.

[SPWorley]

Yes, 95 degrees is normal, surprisingly. It’s a tradeoff between heat and noise. I have run cards for weeks at a time at those temps. My fans (default profile) seem to run the cards at 92 degrees (packed 3 side by side).

Large coolers are NOT to keep your cards cool… they’re to keep your cards quiet. It’s just that a smaller heatsink/fan needs to spin faster for the same cooling (to keep to 95 degrees or so) and therefore are noisier.

I looked at the Zotac performance reviews, and was quite surprised what a monster cooler that thing is! Unlike my previous assumption, it really does impact temps… 83 C versus 93C, using less noise. That’s excellent.

If I were buying a single GTX480, I’d like that Zotec a lot! But I’m still a multi-GPU guy so I’ll stick to the double-wide stock cards.

[ahmetyilmaz.1975]

I looked at the Zotac performance reviews, and was quite surprised what a monster cooler that thing is! Unlike my previous assumption, it really does impact temps… 83 C versus 93C, using less noise. That’s excellent.

If I were buying a single GTX480, I’d like that Zotec a lot! But I’m still a multi-GPU guy so I’ll stick to the double-wide stock cards.

One of my friends suggests me to buy another extra graphic card and use this card for standard like watching films. Then ZOTAC GTX480 AMP! would be only used for Cuda and its performance will be higher. I didnt decided yet, but considering performance/price ratio, GTS 250 or GTX 460 (256 bit) may be suitable for this extra card. In this condition GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD3R, X58, LGA1366, DDR3-2200 or GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD5, X58, LGA1366, DDR3-2200 (far more expensive) mainboards would be better as for including 4 PCI slots.

My final configuration will be nearly:

INTEL Core i7 930, 2.80GHz, LGA1366,

GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD3R, X58, LGA1366, DDR3-2200 Mainboard

ZOTAC GeForce GTS 250, 512 MB, GDDR3, 256 Bit or ZOTAC GeForce GTX460, 1 GB, GDDR5, HDMI, PCIex16, 256 Bit (for standard usage)

ZOTAC GTX480 AMP! GDDR5 1536MB 384BIT NVIDIA DX11 (For Cuda, I will buy another in future)

A-DATA, 6 GB Triple Kit (3x2GB) DDR3-1600MHz, CL8

2 * SAMSUNG Spinpoint (HD502HJ), 3.5inch, 500GB, SATA RAID

THERMALTAKE Toughpower (W0132R), 1000W, PFC, 14 cm

SUNBEAM Core-Contact Freezer (SB-CR-CCTF92), LGA775 , AM2,

THERMALTAKE Element Fulltower (VL20001W2Z), No PSU , e-Sata, USB

ASUS DRW-24B1ST, 24x DVD Writer, SATA, Black

[ahmetyilmaz.1975]

I looked at the Zotac performance reviews, and was quite surprised what a monster cooler that thing is! Unlike my previous assumption, it really does impact temps… 83 C versus 93C, using less noise. That’s excellent.

If I were buying a single GTX480, I’d like that Zotec a lot! But I’m still a multi-GPU guy so I’ll stick to the double-wide stock cards.

One of my friends suggests me to buy another extra graphic card and use this card for standard like watching films. Then ZOTAC GTX480 AMP! would be only used for Cuda and its performance will be higher. I didnt decided yet, but considering performance/price ratio, GTS 250 or GTX 460 (256 bit) may be suitable for this extra card. In this condition GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD3R, X58, LGA1366, DDR3-2200 or GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD5, X58, LGA1366, DDR3-2200 (far more expensive) mainboards would be better as for including 4 PCI slots.

My final configuration will be nearly:

INTEL Core i7 930, 2.80GHz, LGA1366,

GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD3R, X58, LGA1366, DDR3-2200 Mainboard

ZOTAC GeForce GTS 250, 512 MB, GDDR3, 256 Bit or ZOTAC GeForce GTX460, 1 GB, GDDR5, HDMI, PCIex16, 256 Bit (for standard usage)

ZOTAC GTX480 AMP! GDDR5 1536MB 384BIT NVIDIA DX11 (For Cuda, I will buy another in future)

A-DATA, 6 GB Triple Kit (3x2GB) DDR3-1600MHz, CL8

2 * SAMSUNG Spinpoint (HD502HJ), 3.5inch, 500GB, SATA RAID

THERMALTAKE Toughpower (W0132R), 1000W, PFC, 14 cm

SUNBEAM Core-Contact Freezer (SB-CR-CCTF92), LGA775 , AM2,

THERMALTAKE Element Fulltower (VL20001W2Z), No PSU , e-Sata, USB

ASUS DRW-24B1ST, 24x DVD Writer, SATA, Black

[anthonyfmorse]

One of my friends suggests me to buy another extra graphic card and use this card for standard like watching films. Then ZOTAC GTX480 AMP! would be only used for Cuda and its performance will be higher.

This gets complicated and would depend on what you want to do with your machine. If you want to be using CUDA for number crunching while you watch films then this might be a good idea, but otherwise using CUDA and say surfing the web don’t significantly effect each other. There is an issue if your kernel takes longer than the screen refresh delay then things can get hairy but if you write good CUDA code this won’t happen anyway. At the end of the day a cheep NVIDIA card would do the job and a 285 would be wasted. That said if you go for a 285GTX or similar in addition to the 480 then you will always have the multiGPU CUDA programming option… again depends on what you want to do with it.