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Invisible wrote:
I understand perfectly this problems.
> Another possibility is to run the main renderer on the CPU, adding rays
> to queues, and sending any "sufficiently large" queues to the GPU for
> processing. I don't know if bandwidth limitations between the two would
> make this viable...
Exactly, that is why I asked: "Are absolutely sure there isn't a case
where a GPU can help? maybe in the middle of a rendering/parsing?".
As for the bandwidth and memory concerns, from here:
http://forums.amd.com/devforum/messageview.cfm?catid=328&threadid=95060&enterthread=y
Q: What are AMD's stream computing product features?
A: AMD's FireStreamtm 9170, our latest generation stream computing GPU,
features:
* 320 stream cores (compute units or ALUs)
* 2GB on-board GDDR3 memory
* Double precision floating point support
* PCIe 2.0 x16 interface
View AMD FireStream 9170 specifications here:
http://ati.amd.com/products/streamprocessor/specs.html
Memory Concern:
--------------
Maybe would be a good idea to leave the processed data on the video
card local memory until is needed in Main Memory.
Bandwidth Concern:
-----------------
- M4A78 PLUS MoBo
(http://usa.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=149&l3=758&l4=0&model=2889&modelmenu=1):
# It features dual-channel DDR2 1066 memory support and accelerates data
(http://www.amd.com/us/products/desktop/processors/phenom-ii/Pages/phenom-ii-key-architectural-features.aspx)
# One 16-bit link at up to 4000MT/s
HyperTransport Generation 3.0 mode
# Up to 37GB/s total delivered processor-to-system bandwidth
(HyperTransport bus + memory bus)
PCIe Card Electromechanical 2.0 Specification
(http://www.pcisig.com/specifications/pciexpress/base2)
# Signaling
PCI Express Base 2.0 specification doubles the interconnect bit rate
from 2.5 GT/s to 5 GT/s in a seamless and compatible manner. The
performance boost to 5 GT/s is by far the most important feature of the
PCI Express 2.0 specifications. It effectively increases the aggregate
bandwidth of a 16-lane link to approximately 16 GB/s.
- Video Card: MD FireStream 9170 (specs above)
----------------- ************** ----------------
As you can see, maybe bandwidth it isn't much of an issue since The
transfer between the PCIe video card and the Main memory can me made at
5 GT/s. Is this still insufficient for POV-Ray peak performance?
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