Gaming PC help

[Travis Retriever]

IIRC, that's the one they used to recreate the moon landing scene when we gave nVidia the Silver Cluon.

Oh! I was looking for that chip.

http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gtx-titan-z/specifications
http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gtx-980/specifications
Based on the specs, it looks like the only thing the 980 has over the titan z is the base and boosted clock (I think).

[dallen68]

Oh! I was looking for that chip.

http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gtx-titan-z/specifications
http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gtx-980/specifications
Based on the specs, it looks like the only thing the 980 has over the titan z is the base and boosted clock (I think).

And it evidently runs cooler, other than that... Wait the base and boosted clocks is what makes a GPU more powerful than another, so.... (
Well, that and VRAM, which is apparently identical)

[Travis Retriever]

And it evidently runs cooler, other than that... Wait the base and boosted clocks is what makes a GPU more powerful than another, so....
(Well, that and VRAM, which is apparently identical)

Would the fact that it has more cores mean anything? *shrugs*

For the fun of it:  http://extreme.outervision.com/PSUEngine
4 physical CPUs and 4 of the Titan Z CPUs, resulting power (along with the other stuff I selected):
Minimum PSU Wattage: 1990 W
Recommended:  2040 W.
2000 W Power supply it is then. :3

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-6.html Also interesting.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html
They note that, in terms of individual cards, the Titan Z was best on page 7 of that. Go figure.

[dallen68]

Would the fact that it has more cores mean anything? *shrugs*

Yes. *winks*

[Travis Retriever]

Yes. *winks*

...I don't get it.

[dallen68]

Well, basically, if your core runs at say, 2ghz and you have 3 cores, at 100% capacity you'd have 6ghz of processing power. However, there is a caveat: You need to check if all of your cores actually run at 2ghz (often they don't, the speed on the box is normally for the primary core, also known as core0)

On most quad cores, where core 0=2 ghz, core 1=2ghz, core 3= 1ghz, and core 4= 0.5-0.75 ghz. When you run a program, it utilizes core 0 to maximum, and then core 1 to maximum, and so on. So you would actually need to find out what the speeds of each core actually are, and add them together, to find the maximum C/G PU speed; and that doesn't tell you how "fast" it's going at any one particular time.  Pretty much the only way to know for sure is to download a program like Belarc Advisor, and look it up. [even with the improved win 8 task manager, the report is for core0 only.]

Plus, it depends on whether its a single C/G PU with 4 cores, 2 C/G PU's with 2 cores each, or 4 C/G PU's with a single core each. (The middle one is normally the case on commercial models).

[Travis Retriever]

Well, basically, if your core runs at say, 2ghz and you have 3 cores, at 100% capacity you'd have 6ghz of processing power. However, there is a caveat: You need to check if all of your cores actually run at 2ghz (often they don't, the speed on the box is normally for the primary core, also known as core0)

On most quad cores, where core 0=2 ghz, core 1=2ghz, core 3= 1ghz, and core 4= 0.5-0.75 ghz. When you run a program, it utilizes core 0 to maximum, and then core 1 to maximum, and so on. So you would actually need to find out what the speeds of each core actually are, and add them together, to find the maximum C/G PU speed; and that doesn't tell you how "fast" it's going at any one particular time.  Pretty much the only way to know for sure is to download a program like Belarc Advisor, and look it up. [even with the improved win 8 task manager, the report is for core0 only.]

Plus, it depends on whether its a single C/G PU with 4 cores, 2 C/G PU's with 2 cores each, or 4 C/G PU's with a single core each. (The middle one is normally the case on commercial models).

Awesome. So how do I go about checking that?

[dallen68]

Awesome. So how do I go about checking that?

If you mean what I think you do, open your case and look at you c/gpu. If you see 1 fan, you have a single with 4 cores. If you see 2 fans, you have a double, with 2 cores each. If you see 4 fans, you have 4 independents.

Don't bother if you have a laptop, because its the first one.

[Travis Retriever]

If you mean what I think you do, open your case and look at you c/gpu. If you see 1 fan, you have a single with 4 cores. If you see 2 fans, you have a double, with 2 cores each. If you see 4 fans, you have 4 independents.

Don't bother if you have a laptop, because its the first one.

"Well, basically, if your core runs at say, 2ghz and you have 3 cores, at 100% capacity you'd have 6ghz of processing power. However, there is a caveat: You need to check if all of your cores actually run at 2ghz (often they don't, the speed on the box is normally for the primary core, also known as core0) "
^That was what I meant. How do I check that?

[BogosityForumUser]

You don't have to worry about that given that is not how most x86-64 CPUs work.  Even with multiple cores, they all run at the same clock rate because they are symmetric (i.e. use SMP).  There is one clock and one clock multiplier for all chips.  To do otherwise requires a bunch of things that, frankly, would just increase complexity and get in the way of both being cheap and fast.

[dallen68]

You don't have to worry about that given that is not how most x86-64 CPUs work.  Even with multiple cores, they all run at the same clock rate because they are symmetric (i.e. use SMP).  There is one clock and one clock multiplier for all chips.  To do otherwise requires a bunch of things that, frankly, would just increase complexity and get in the way of both being cheap and fast.

You're wrong. It's Asymmetric (for the most part)

[Travis Retriever]

@Dallen...okay, so how do I check if the CPU/GPU is asymmetric or not?

[dallen68]

@Dallen...okay, so how do I check if the CPU/GPU is asymmetric or not?

Unfortunately, Travis, there is no easy way to tell. You can use belarc adviser (which I strongly recommend for unrelated reasons), if it reports all four of your cores operating at the same speed, you have a symmetric system. If it reports any thing else, you don't. and the fact almost no one has x86 anything anymore.

[BogosityForumUser]

You are worrying him for no reason.  Not counting the GPUs of heterogeneous APUs and the like, processors are symmetric.  Find me one that isn't.  And while you are at it, you better tell the *BSDs and Linux kernel hackers.  https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Kernel and https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=smp&sektion=4 among others for their kernel docs.

[dallen68]

"Well, basically, if your core runs at say, 2ghz and you have 3 cores, at 100% capacity you'd have 6ghz of processing power. However, there is a caveat: You need to check if all of your cores actually run at 2ghz (often they don't, the speed on the box is normally for the primary core, also known as core0) "
^That was what I meant. How do I check that?

There isn't an easy way of checking it. You can run a diagnostic program (such as belarc) on your system, OR you can google your C/GPU and just look it up.