Future of GPGPU? 57xx series or 8800GT?

[jkroeder]

I was contemplating removing my 8800GT from my system and replacing it with an HD5770. The lower power usage and heat output are great. Gaming performance is slightly better as well. However, even though I don't often do much folding or video encoding, I find GPGPU quite interesting whether it just be GPU assisted web browsers or DXVA playback.

Since ATI seems to be behind in this aspect, would an 8800GT outperform a 5770 for these tasks?

I look forward to when GPUs can be used for more than just gaming on a wider scale.

Thanks in advance for your feedback

 

[happy medium]

I was contemplating removing my 8800GT from my system and replacing it with an HD5770. The lower power usage and heat output are great. Gaming performance is slightly better as well. However, even though I don't often do much folding or video encoding, I find GPGPU quite interesting whether it just be GPU assisted web browsers or DXVA playback.

Since ATI seems to be behind in this aspect, would an 8800GT outperform a 5770 for these tasks?

I look forward to when GPUs can be used for more than just gaming on a wider scale.

Thanks in advance for your feedback

No , I wouldn't think so. A gt 460 is comming out next month, you might wanna give that a try.

 

[Voo]

However, even though I don't often do much folding or video encoding, I find GPGPU quite interesting whether it just be GPU assisted web browsers or DXVA playback.

I can't imagine there's any desktop PC out there that needs help when rendering browser sites and you don't need Cuda for DXVA playback..

If do a lot of encoding than it may very well be worth it, but if not there's nothing really interesting in the consumer space right now (rendering browser stuff should be interesting for netbooks though)

 

[Scali]

I went from an 8800GTS 320 to a 5770, and in GPGPU it wasn't much of an improvement. And ofcourse I lost the ability to run Cuda/PhysX applications, which vastly outnumber the Stream/OpenCL ones available for the 5770.
But I think you'll be 2 or 3 generations further by the time GPGPU becomes mainstream, if at all.

 

[Voo]

I went from an 8800GTS 320 to a 5770, and in GPGPU it wasn't much of an improvement. And ofcourse I lost the ability to run Cuda/PhysX applications, which vastly outnumber the Stream/OpenCL ones available for the 5770.

Just out of curiosity, are there any non encoding CUDA applications out there at the moment where there's no comparable Ati solution (nice formulation to get rid of folding, since there's that Milkway stuff ). Would be interesting to see in which other directions it's going atm

 

[Unkle_Tar]

No , I wouldn't think so. A gt 460 is comming out next month, you might wanna give that a try.

I thought it was comming in september.

 

[taltamir]

DXVA playback.

AFAIK video acceleration on GPUs is done via fixed function hardware, not general computing on the GPU.

 

[GaiaHunter]

What is your main reason to upgrade?

The gaming performance is a bit better than only "slightly better" - the 5770 is around same performance of a GTX 260/4870.

If your main reason to upgrade is for GPGPU I would wait. GPGPU is at an infant state, especially for us general consumers.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

A 57770 is a little more than slightly better than the 8800GT, and most importantly its by far the most affordable of the "good upgrade" options.

But yeah, GPGPU really shouldn't be a deciding factor at this stage in the game.

 

[crisium]

The lower power usage and heat output are great. Gaming performance is slightly better as well.

A gt 460 is comming out next month, you might wanna give that a try.

Haha, oh wow. Let's not kid ourselves. If the 465 is light years beyond a 5770 in terms of power consumption and heat output, do you think a 460 has a shot of coming anywhere close?

 

[Attic]

Outside of games I mainly use my 5770 for DXVA accleration of HD content (99% of my collection is supported), acclerating producing HD videos using Cyberlink Powerdirector, and outputting sound to my HT.

It would be a solid upgrade from 8800GT.

 

[Scali]

Haha, oh wow. Let's not kid ourselves. If the 465 is light years beyond a 5770 in terms of power consumption and heat output, do you think a 460 has a shot of coming anywhere close?

Probably not, but I wouldn't be surprised if the 460 had much better power/performance ratio since the yields of a smaller die should be much better than the huge die of the 465.
Something similar to the 5770 and 5830, but possibly more extreme, as it looks like the GF100 just overstretches the TSMC process.

 

[jkroeder]

Thanks for the input guys.

Actually, I wasn't planning on upgrading my 8800GT. The 5770 was purchased to replace a dying card in my brothers system. I was just considering putting the 5770 in my system instead if it handled GPGPU any better than the 8800GT.

I decided against it though since he plays games way more than I do anything GPGPU related anyway so I'm holding on to the 8800GT for a while longer.