computer builds and overclocking: lecture 6 cases and gpus
Post on 09-May-2017
214 Views
Preview:
TRANSCRIPT
Carnegie Mellon University
NFS: Computer Builds and Overclocking
Instructors:John Levidy and Alex Soto
Carnegie Mellon
Carnegie Mellon University
Power Supplies – key points, what did we learn?
Disk Drives - what is important to look for?
RAID – finish conversation about practical types of RAID.
Last Lecture
Carnegie Mellon University
Cases◦ What to look for in a case? ◦ Who are the big manufacturers?
Graphics Cards◦ A brief historic context.◦ Graphics Cards, how do they work?◦ Benchmarks.
Review for Midterm!
Today
Carnegie Mellon University
Form Factors, as discussed in Lecture 1: “Form Factor is simply a physical specification of the size of the motherboard. You will want to make sure the case you buy is large enough for your Motherboard.”
Cases
Carnegie Mellon University
Cases for different Form Factors
EATX ATX MicroATX MiniITX
Carnegie Mellon University
Brand – this is another situation where the brand matters. It is worth buying something that will last forever.
Material – Aluminum, Steel, Plastic
With or Without Power Supply
Number of Drivebays
What to look for?
Carnegie Mellon University
Will your heatsink of choice fit?
Front panel ports for USB and Audio devices.
Would it support watercooling – what do you need to support watercooling?
Style!
What to look for?
Carnegie Mellon University
My Baby
Carnegie Mellon University
Cont’d
Carnegie Mellon University
Case Modding Community!
Carnegie Mellon University
Cont’d
Carnegie Mellon University
Historic Context – first graphic card was the IBM MDA (Monochrome Display Adapter). Following this release, there were periodic releases through the 80s and early to mid 90s.
By 1995 Matrox, Creative, S3, and ATI were releasing video cards that incorporated 3D functionality.
Graphics Cards
Carnegie Mellon University
In 1997 3dfx released their first Voodoo graphics chip, which included 3D effects including Anti-Aliasing.
Following this, 3dfx released the Voodoo2, and the newcomer, Nvidia, responded with the TNT and TNT2.
The Accelerated Graphics Port is released, and there is no longer a graphics card -> CPU communication bottleneck.
Cont’d
Carnegie Mellon University
Nvidia bought 3dfx and took over the video card market with the introduction of the GeForce family.
Beginning in 2003, ATI and Radeon had become the primary (and effectively the only) graphics card manufacturers.
How does the graphics card business work? Does Nvidia sell directly to Best Buy / Newegg?
Cont’d
Carnegie Mellon University
The current situation is that about two years ago, ATI just released its R700 family of GPUs (the HD 4000 series).
Nvidia now had very serious competition, because they hadn’t made groundbreaking changes since the 8000 series architectures.
Nvidia responds with the GT 200 series, which were often higher priced for equal performance to their ATI Radeon counterpart.
Current
Carnegie Mellon University
ATI Releases the Evergreen series (HD 5000 chips), which while not being as innovative as the HD 4000 series, was still an improvement and held the crown for quite some time.
Nvidia responds with the GT 400 series, which were considered quite a disappointment to the PC Building community due to massive power consumption, thermal output, and relative pricetags.
These were the first DX11 chips, and for now it seems as though ATI is on top in terms of price / performance (unless running folding @ home or similar applications).
Current Cont’d
Carnegie Mellon University
The kings.
Carnegie Mellon University
Graphics Card generates a video output for your monitor to display.
Also can provides additional functionality of 3D rendering, video capture, TV-Tuner adapter, MPEG decoding, multi-monitor support, and PC Gaming.
An “Integrated” graphics card is hardware that include a graphics chipset on the motherboard (typically developed by whoever develops Northbridge).
Usually has some embedded memory, but often draws from RAM to meet memory requirements.
How do they work?
Carnegie Mellon University
Integrated graphics are for use in low-performance systems or for those not wishing to run any3D applications.
Dedicated Graphics (a separate card attached through the PCI slot) has its own RAM and Processor, all designed specifically for processing video images.
Cont’d
Carnegie Mellon University
GPU◦ Dedicated processor optimized for 3D graphics
processing.
◦ Designed to perform “floating-point” calculations.
◦ Clock Frequency and fragment shaders.
◦ Massively Parallel, huge numbers of simultaneous cores, challenge CPU for power.
Components of a Graphics Card
Carnegie Mellon University
Distributed Computing project designed to simulate protein folding.
Designed to run both on GPU and CPU.
Folding @ Home
Carnegie Mellon University
VBIOS – contains information that allows the motherboard’s northbridge and the graphics card to communicate. ◦ Clock speed◦ Memory Timing◦ Operation Speeds / Voltages◦ Flashing VBIOS
Components, Cont’d
Carnegie Mellon University
Video Memory◦ The amount of onboard memory available to the video
card.
◦ Currently ranges from 128MB to 4GB (for single card)
◦ GDDR vs. DDR – bandwidth and clock rate
◦ Used to store screen image, Z-buffer, textures. For high-resolution and high-AA / AF applications.
Components Cont’d
Carnegie Mellon University
Video Card Heirarchy
Carnegie Mellon University
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121389
Reading specifications
Carnegie Mellon University
Gaming performance – resolution and AA / AF levels matter!
Power Draw levels
Video Playback
Link: http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2010-gaming-graphics-charts-high-quality/benchmarks,114.html
Graphics Benchmarks
Carnegie Mellon University
Optimized for Specific Applications
Multiple Video Outputs, Model Rendering
Open GL
Workstation GPUs
Carnegie Mellon University
Motherboards◦ Old Northbridge
Memory Controller + CPU -> PCI communication◦ New Northbridge
CPU -> PCI Communication◦ Form Factors◦ Gigabyte, Intel, Foxconn, MSI, ASUS, etc.
Review
Carnegie Mellon University
RAM◦ Buy from a good brand◦ Speed vs. Timing◦ DDR2, DDR3
CPU◦ Clock speed◦ Architecture◦ AMD vs. Intel
Review cont’d
Carnegie Mellon University
Power Supply◦ Brand names◦ High Ampage on the 12 V Rails◦ Connectors for your video card(s)
Hard Drives ◦ RPM◦ Capacity◦ Cache Size◦ Latency
Review Cont’d
Carnegie Mellon University
Solid State Drives◦ Random IOKps◦ Throughput◦ Power consumption◦ Sturdier than HDD
Review Cont’d
Carnegie Mellon University
Ten Questions, multiple choice, 8 points each.
2 Questions, open – ended response, 10 points each.
Will be a review posted by the start of the weekend that should hold strong similarities to the midterm itself. Do the review!
Midterm
Carnegie Mellon University
Midterm Q&A
top related