Can data mining GPUs be used more widely for processing?

[Rikmeister]

I'm aware that some data mining GPUs can be used for machine learning but I'm curious if they could be used more widely e.g. rendering, movie production etc?

 

[Rikmeister]

Something that is Nvidia and has CUDA cores should be usable for a few things, yes, at least regarding science. Problem is that they are not that powerful...

Reading elsewhere I got the impression that using GPUs in this was was essential. Interesting to hear they are not that powerful. Thanks.

 

[Rikmeister]

I mean, they are not that powerful compared with the GPUs you would really like to use that are, at minimum, the top gaming GPUs of each generation and ideally Quadros or Teslas .

ISWYM. May be worth a go if you want to dip you toe in the water of data science on the cheap, but will need £££s for a Quadro say if you get serious.

 

[Rikmeister]

Certain things can be done in parallel very fast and other things simply cannot just due to the properties of what you're doing, so it's hit and miss what accelerates well on a GPU.

So, depends very much on the task. Not unexpected I suppose.

You can definitely use them for learning purposes, yes, that should be no problem. In many apps you may run out of memory, though, it depends on the software. I think that a good and cheap starting point would be a 1080Ti, that already has 11Gb .

I see Overclockers have a B grade 1080ti for £250, way cheaper than I expected (but still too rich for me at the mo). https://www.overclockers.co.uk/b-gr...4mb-gddr5x-pci-express-graphic-bg-01t-zt.html