[Bf-committers] Using Graphics Card GPU for rendering DSM
David Bryant
aceone at bellsouth.net
Fri Mar 7 12:13:33 CET 2008
An often asked question is what's the difference between a more expensive
graphics workstation card and a regular "gamers" card that seems to work
equally as well?
The answer is that high end workstation cards are often equally as fast as
the "gamers" card and some gamers cards are even faster as far as GPU core
clock speed goes.
But, the workstation cards have extra driver abilities that 3DS Max,
AutoCAD, and Maya in specific can harness to use the GPU power in ways the
gamers cards can't.
That is often the only difference between a $250 dollar gamers card and a
$1500 dollar workstation card.
The GPU is an awesome proccessor and Blender would be a trailblazer as far
as 3D packages go to have an option to use the GPU power on a gamers card to
render DSM.
So, the idea is not far fetched but realistic and doable provided the low
level code is written and plugged in.
The whole goal is to take some of the load off of the CPU and let the GPU
which is often more efficient do the work of rendering DSM. And as far as
most grpahics cards go these days, inexpensive ATI and Nvidia cards are
fully capable of doing the job. So, no need to panic about the idea because
it's already being done.
Digikiller
Sorry! I forgot to change my email format.
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