CUDA Performance : HashGPU
While the graphics performance boosts alone are impressive, that may not be enough for everyone. Many modern applications (
The Mercury Playback Engine in CS5, many GPU-accelerated raytracing systems, etc) use CUDA for GPU compute, and the Quadro can help there. While I didn’t have handy access to any of those during my tests, I did take one simple application for a test drive with visible effect.
IGHashGPU is a GPu-accelerated brute-force hash cracker useful for password cracking. Simply running their default example script (brute-forcing an 8-character password) on the various cards yields a graph like shown to the right. The Quadro5000 could make 930 Million attempts per second, breaking the password in a mere 45 seconds, while last generation’s Quadro 4800 only achieved 544 Million attempts and took 1 minute 16 seconds.
It’s interesting to see how close the GTX285 comes to the Quadro5000, tho. I believe this is indicative of the algorithm no longer being bottlenecked by the GPU, but rather the CPU.
Dear Randall,
My company is involved in marine simulation (both for training and research purposes). We will upgrade to Presagis Vega Prime. We are currently debating the choice for a GTX 480 or Quadro 5000 for our image generator PCs in our simulators. Our Visual Database development workstations run on the Quadro GTX 4800.
I am curious to hear your advise!
Kind regards,
Martijn
@ Griffin Doh, you’re right.. I just checked the BIOS, I’ve got 2 Xeon 5550’s (8 cores) with HyperThreading enabled. I missed that. I’ll update the article.
Randall,
Thanks a lot for the review, please keep up the great work.
I was wondering if you could clarify the test setup, It was my understanding that Xeon 5550’s could only run 2-way, not 4-way like the 7500’s? Could you please shed some light on your system and its configuration.
Thanks a lot for your time
@ Matt It depends heavily on the application, and faster/newer is always better. But, if you’re in the CAD or 3d Graphics market then I’m pretty sure you would see some improvement.
Randall,
thanks for posting your assessment. I habe a pretty basic question as I am in no way an expert in graphics hardware. Do I benefit of the new GPU with all kinds of workstations or do I need to have a minimal configuration in terms of CPU, working memory etc. to really feel the difference between, let’s say, a 5000 and its predecessor, the 4800?
Just wondering if the Fermi based cards are Mac compatible…
@ Nick D Well, for reasons similar to why you would choose a Quadro4800 over a GTX285. The GTX285 has 240 cores [link], while the Quadro4800 only has 192 [link], but you can look at the benchmarks I posted and see how the Quadro4800 smokes the GTX285 in several benchmarks.
While more cores is nice, it’s not the sole indicator of performance. The Quadro cards are optimized to use the advanced graphics features not typically used by games, but frequently used by CAD & Visualization products. Because of these optimizations, a Quadro will always beat a GeForce when those features come into play.
Randall,
Other than drivers and memory, can you tell me why the 480 core nVidia GTX 480 would not be better than the Quadro 5000 with only 352 cores?
After waiting so long, I am really disappointed the Quadros don’t have the same AND more cores than the GTX 480…
I wonder if NVIDIA could give you a 6000.
@ chris True, but I don’t know of many professional types that are using Stereo on 3 monitors.
“Add in the support for the new OptiX 2, 3d Vision Pro technology” but you would need 2 cards to do stereo on 3 monitors? makes it expensive