iB::Topic::Sound and graphix cards to assist cpu?

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Topic: Sound and graphix cards to assist cpu?

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curaga

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Posted: April 24 2007,14:59

We all know they have way overkill powers for what they mostly do nowadays. I thought "hey why not lend some of that power to help the cpu?"
And then I remembered Creative X-Fi in player mode does exactly that (but on WinXP), it uses it's awesome powers to help the cpu, reducing cpu's load and so speeding everything up..

X-Fi does that transparently, xp doesn't see 2 processors. But it would be great to get their unused power even in SMP-like style..

It would gain just immortal speed. Just think about: integrated graphix and sound, graph card in Agp and Pci-e, and graph cards in those 7 pci-slots (Yes my comp does have 7 pci-slots).. Even if they were cheap cards, they would give an awesome boost when there is 11 of them...

Does anyone know how to do this?

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^thehatsrule^ Offline

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Posted: April 24 2007,15:46

Afaik, dedicated sound devices only help offload the cpu usage for sound.

Also, using integrated chipsets would be defeating your purpose, since it takes cpu usage (and usually memory) out from the system.

However, the use of cpu (ie x86) instructions on a gpu has already been marketed... such as AMD Stream Processor.
The current, general term for this technology is GPGPU.

curaga

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Posted: April 24 2007,15:57

The purpose would be to use already existing cards, not buy some new ones for it (like that Stream Processor)..

Even using some kind of software SLI to gain great graphics performance using many gfx cards but having output on only one of them would be good...

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Windows is not a virus. A virus does something!

^thehatsrule^ Offline

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Posted: April 24 2007,23:02

Well yes, the video cards that share the same capable family of gpus can also use it (think that card uses a r580+).

But with older devices, I'd seriously doubt if any of them will be capable...
With today's video cards its R5xx or G8 (or newer) which are pretty new hardware.

I've heard some things about mixing different brands of gpu's on one system for greater graphics processing, but I haven't seen one yet...? (maybe false rumours?)
(though the reference to SLI would mean only nvidia boards I suppose, which can be already done)

curaga

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Joined: Feb. 2007

Posted: April 25 2007,09:46

SLI was also the marketing brand for two Voodoo 2-cards working together, output on only one card.
Nvidia's SLI and Ati's Crossfire aren't so good, they need two similar cards, otherwise the stronger is weakened to the weaker card's level...

If someone could do a software co-op mode for different gfx cards, like one that is only 2d will use it's full potential for 2d, and the rest is to other cards, dependig on their capabilities, that would Seriously bring people to Linux....

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There's no such thing as life. Those mean little jocks invented it ;)
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Windows is not a virus. A virus does something!

10 replies since April 24 2007,14:59

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Damn Small Linux Board » Non-DSL Topics » Hardware Talk » Sound and graphix cards to assist cpu?