The chassis [PSU, MB, case] is actually about $1500 total, but are very hard to find to purchase separately.
A decent system with 2x C2050, 2x E5620, and 12 GB DDR3 is about $9k from a reseller (e.g., Silicon Mechanics). $5k of that is for the Tesla cards... Note the Tesla are only 225 W, so the 1400 W PSU should be ok with four GPUs and two good CPUs (4x 225 W + 2x 130 W), as long as there are not many other high-power components.
HOWEVER, I've been reading on the NVIDIA CUDA developer forums that there are all kinds of issues with systems such as these as they have two chipsets (one connected to each CPU) to provide the 4x PCIe 16x slots required.
The Tesla C2050/2070s are rated at 247W, so 4 of those and 2 130W Xeons is approximately 1260W, but then add in all the RAM (up to 196GB), any extra PCI-E cards and hot swappable drives, and you're near the limit (depending whether the 1400W is the 93% value, or the actual value is 1400 * 0.93 = 1302W), but more than likely the PSU has some head room.
I currently run a dual Xeon 5520 system with a basic CUDA card without trouble, but that system was purchased from Dell, and we didn't think about CUDA development when we bought it, hence the possibility of getting one of these. However, I still have severe issues regarding heat dissipation if I'm going to run them at load essentially 24/7.
With the price tag on this thing, you could mount water cooling, drag the cables outside, and hook up a 1m² radiator with a suiting fan. Doing it your self would probably void warranty though :PReply
The Tianhe-1 system at No. 5, which is a hybrid design with Intel Xeon processors and AMD GPUs. The TH-1 uses AMD GPUs as accelerators. Each node consists of two AMD 4870 GPUs attached to two Intel Xeon processors.
These prices for the tesla cards are starting to get ridiculous. Last generations tesla cards were roughly $1300 for a 4gb model, which had the same amount of cores as the 280gtx. This years c2050, which is equivalent to the 470gtx except with 3gb of ram is $2500. The c0207, which si equivalent to the 480gtx with 6gb, is $4000. I was planning on building a 4 GPU workstation for around $10k but thats not happening. I might as well just buy 4 480gtx's and save myself a ton of money for the same performance. Sorry, but im not paying $14k for extra ram, especially when last years model was nowhere near that much. Reply
The GTX260 and above on the 200 line, and the GTX 470 and 480, also have double precision. The Teslas are just highly tested, ECC RAM, more RAM per GPU, and longer warranty, than their non-Tesla brethren. ECC errors due to cosmic radiation at most are one bit per gigabyte per hour, so depending on your algorithm and simulation (e.g. continuous function simulation vs random walk/brownian motion) depends on whether ECC or double precision is required.
While the GTX 470 and 480 have double precision support, NVIDIA has decided to artificially limit the performance to 25% of the Tesla cards. Thus, while they support them, the performance is pitiful compared to both the Radeon 5870 and the Teslas.Reply
I thought the higher prices are for the ECC RAM, more RAM than normal GTX470/480s and also the 3-yr warranty + 24/7/365 support. Otherwise the Tesla cards perform just like the GTX470/480 right? Reply
Great....isn't there ANYWHERE we can go to get away from advertising? Just because you posted your shopping site on a tech thread, I will never shop there.Reply
23 Comments
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Souka - Tuesday, May 04, 2010 - link
I just have to ask....what would the Fps be in Crysis? :) Replyjonup - Tuesday, May 04, 2010 - link
FOTCL Replyjagoop - Tuesday, May 04, 2010 - link
Never min Crysis - Minesweeper would totally rock on this box! Replytaltamir - Tuesday, May 04, 2010 - link
you would think so, but you would be wrong.I have one and I have to tell you minesweeper lags, and it doesn't even have a cup holder! Reply
jagoop - Tuesday, May 04, 2010 - link
Never mind Crysis - Minesweeper would totally rock on this box! ReplyRajinder Gill - Tuesday, May 04, 2010 - link
LOL, you folks are killing me.. ReplyTonyB - Tuesday, May 04, 2010 - link
FU!!! My brother died trying to run Crysis Replymfago - Tuesday, May 04, 2010 - link
The chassis [PSU, MB, case] is actually about $1500 total, but are very hard to find to purchase separately.A decent system with 2x C2050, 2x E5620, and 12 GB DDR3 is about $9k from a reseller (e.g., Silicon Mechanics). $5k of that is for the Tesla cards... Note the Tesla are only 225 W, so the 1400 W PSU should be ok with four GPUs and two good CPUs (4x 225 W + 2x 130 W), as long as there are not many other high-power components.
HOWEVER, I've been reading on the NVIDIA CUDA developer forums that there are all kinds of issues with systems such as these as they have two chipsets (one connected to each CPU) to provide the 4x PCIe 16x slots required.
Has anyone actually used one of these?!
Thanks,
Matt Reply
Ian Cutress - Tuesday, May 04, 2010 - link
The Tesla C2050/2070s are rated at 247W, so 4 of those and 2 130W Xeons is approximately 1260W, but then add in all the RAM (up to 196GB), any extra PCI-E cards and hot swappable drives, and you're near the limit (depending whether the 1400W is the 93% value, or the actual value is 1400 * 0.93 = 1302W), but more than likely the PSU has some head room.I currently run a dual Xeon 5520 system with a basic CUDA card without trouble, but that system was purchased from Dell, and we didn't think about CUDA development when we bought it, hence the possibility of getting one of these. However, I still have severe issues regarding heat dissipation if I'm going to run them at load essentially 24/7.
All the best,
Ian Reply
mfago - Tuesday, May 04, 2010 - link
Actually, the PSU is only 1100 W on 120 v. To get 1400 W you need 240 V AC. So, quite limited.Another thing that worries me about that system is the six 5000 RPM fans. This thing is obviously meant for a server room, not an office!
- Matt Reply
GullLars - Tuesday, May 04, 2010 - link
With the price tag on this thing, you could mount water cooling, drag the cables outside, and hook up a 1m² radiator with a suiting fan. Doing it your self would probably void warranty though :P ReplyMySchizoBuddy - Tuesday, May 04, 2010 - link
Are GPU based computers listed on the Top500 Supercomputer list? ReplyMySchizoBuddy - Tuesday, May 04, 2010 - link
we need editing featureI meant GPU based SuperComputers Reply
mfago - Tuesday, May 04, 2010 - link
The NCSA Lincoln cluster:http://www.ncsa.illinois.edu/UserInfo/Resources/Ha...
was ranked in Top500 in 2006, but is not listed any longer. Reply
Ian Cutress - Tuesday, May 04, 2010 - link
The Tianhe-1 system at No. 5, which is a hybrid design with Intel Xeon processors and AMD GPUs. The TH-1 uses AMD GPUs as accelerators. Each node consists of two AMD 4870 GPUs attached to two Intel Xeon processors.Ian Reply
zyren - Tuesday, May 04, 2010 - link
These prices for the tesla cards are starting to get ridiculous. Last generations tesla cards were roughly $1300 for a 4gb model, which had the same amount of cores as the 280gtx. This years c2050, which is equivalent to the 470gtx except with 3gb of ram is $2500. The c0207, which si equivalent to the 480gtx with 6gb, is $4000. I was planning on building a 4 GPU workstation for around $10k but thats not happening. I might as well just buy 4 480gtx's and save myself a ton of money for the same performance. Sorry, but im not paying $14k for extra ram, especially when last years model was nowhere near that much. Replymfago - Tuesday, May 04, 2010 - link
Well, if you need double precision then NVIDIA forces you to buy the Tesla. For some applications the extra RAM is necessary too. ReplyIan Cutress - Tuesday, May 04, 2010 - link
The GTX260 and above on the 200 line, and the GTX 470 and 480, also have double precision. The Teslas are just highly tested, ECC RAM, more RAM per GPU, and longer warranty, than their non-Tesla brethren. ECC errors due to cosmic radiation at most are one bit per gigabyte per hour, so depending on your algorithm and simulation (e.g. continuous function simulation vs random walk/brownian motion) depends on whether ECC or double precision is required.Ian Reply
mfago - Wednesday, May 05, 2010 - link
While the GTX 470 and 480 have double precision support, NVIDIA has decided to artificially limit the performance to 25% of the Tesla cards. Thus, while they support them, the performance is pitiful compared to both the Radeon 5870 and the Teslas. ReplyEJ257 - Tuesday, June 01, 2010 - link
I thought the higher prices are for the ECC RAM, more RAM than normal GTX470/480s and also the 3-yr warranty + 24/7/365 support. Otherwise the Tesla cards perform just like the GTX470/480 right? Replystrikeback03 - Wednesday, May 05, 2010 - link
Didn't they approximately double the number of CUDA cores per GPU as well? So the pricing per "core" is similar. Replymattmc61 - Tuesday, May 04, 2010 - link
Great....isn't there ANYWHERE we can go to get away from advertising? Just because you posted your shopping site on a tech thread, I will never shop there. Replyplaydoh - Tuesday, May 04, 2010 - link
Ad bots can lick my nutz.......;) Reply