NVIDIA GPUs to Accelerate Microsoft Azure

Gregster · 30 Sep 2015 at 03:19

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Sept. 29 — NVIDIA today announced that Microsoft will offer NVIDIA GPU-enabled professional graphics applications and accelerated computing capabilities to customers worldwide through its cloud platform, Microsoft Azure.

Deploying the latest version of NVIDIA GRID in its new N-Series virtual machine offering, Azure is the first cloud computing platform to provide NVIDIA GRID 2.0 virtualized graphics for enterprise customers.

For the first time, businesses will have the ability to deploy NVIDIA Quadro-grade professional graphics applications and accelerated computing on-premises, in the cloud through Azure, or via a hybrid of the two using both Windows and Linux virtual machines. Azure will also offer customers supercomputing-class performance, with the addition of the NVIDIA Tesla Accelerated Computing Platform’s flagship Tesla K80 GPU accelerators, for the most computationally demanding data center and high performance computing (HPC) applications.

“Our vision is to deliver accelerated graphics and high performance computing to any connected device, regardless of location,” said Jen-Hsun Huang, co-founder and CEO of NVIDIA. “We are excited to collaborate with Microsoft Azure to give engineers, designers, content creators, researchers and other professionals the ability to visualize complex, data-intensive designs accurately from anywhere.”

http://www.hpcwire.com/off-the-wire/nvidia-gpus-to-accelerate-microsoft-azure/

How things are moving on. Grid 2.0 is looking fantastic for designers and has so many other implications. Cloud gaming anyone?

Marine-RX179 · 30 Sep 2015 at 07:36

Gregster said:
http://www.hpcwire.com/off-the-wire/nvidia-gpus-to-accelerate-microsoft-azure/

How things are moving on. Grid 2.0 is looking fantastic for designers and has so many other implications. Cloud gaming anyone?

I think it is probablly too soon to talk about Cloud gaming at this stage (considering not even Jen himself has bought this up yet?), and I think this talk mainly toward businesses. Even for VR stuffs we haven't got a commercial mainstream product that's "ready" yet, and companies have been going at it for ages.

I had the chance to try the Rift DK2 on Elite Dangerous the other day, and while there's no delining regarding the immersion, the graphic quality/resolution still leave something to desire comparing to monitor. I mean I am still only using 1920 res monitor, it would mean for people that are already on 2.5K and 4K they would find it a bit tough to jump on the VR. But I hope the commercial product that hit the shelf next year would be much better than the DK2.

andybird123 · 30 Sep 2015 at 08:34

what has this got to do with VR? you could never do VR in the cloud as you need sub 10ms latency, even the best internet connections run at 50ms+ to something like this

TV gaming is alright (so cloud could replace physical console), but you absolutely couldn't do VR over cloud

but yes, Azure is aimed at replacing workstation graphics by the looks of things

Marine-RX179 · 30 Sep 2015 at 10:11

andybird123 said:
what has this got to do with VR? you could never do VR in the cloud as you need sub 10ms latency, even the best internet connections run at 50ms+ to something like this

TV gaming is alright (so cloud could replace physical console), but you absolutely couldn't do VR over cloud

but yes, Azure is aimed at replacing workstation graphics by the looks of things

I brought up VR because same as Cloud gaming (that Greg brought up), they are both future of gaming...and both are not going to be ready and mainstream at well acceptable level any time soon. I didn't mean VR gaming via Cloud gaming.

Yes the ideas are there and being worked on as we speak, but it will still going to be a long while before they can be used as replacement of monitors/gaming wired directly to a high-end gaming PC. Hell, even for the audio scene, with all the Wireless audio going mainstream at the moment, they are still not yet as good as a good old wired hifi setup.

humbug · 30 Sep 2015 at 10:19

Gregster said:
Cloud gaming anyone?

# Microsoft charge Developers to host their games adding to end user price.
# End user pays a recurring fee to Microsoft to play those games online.
# Game IQ and resolution settings dicted by Mircosoft.
# Added latency from streaming.

No thanks. i don't game on consoles for a reason.

Marine-RX179 · 30 Sep 2015 at 10:21

humbug said:
# Microsoft charge Developers to host their games adding to end user price.
# End user pays a recurring fee to Microsoft to play those games online.
# Game IQ and resolution settings dicted by Mircosoft.
# Added latency from streaming.

No thanks. i don't game on consoles for a reason.

Good point, I complete forgetten about Xbox Live...

But I guess it would depends on the quality of the streaming and graphic...if it is reasonable, and doesn't cost more than 3 quid to a fiver a month, it MAY worth considering.

muziqaz · 30 Sep 2015 at 10:21

Cloud gaming with UKs IT infrastructure

OK. Maybe next decade.

humbug · 30 Sep 2015 at 10:22

Marine-RX179 said:
Good point, I complete forgetten about Xbox Live...

Bold the first one too, the reason Console games are so expensive compared with PC is because developers have to pay Microsoft to run their games on XBox Live.

Marine-RX179 · 30 Sep 2015 at 10:25

humbug said:
Bold the first one too, the reason Console games are so expensive compared with PC is because developers have to pay Microsoft to run their games on XBox Live.

Didn't realise that...I must be living under a rock

Then again, I haven't owned a game console since SNES.

Gregster · 30 Sep 2015 at 10:28

I think it is great to see Nvidia and Microsoft striving forward. VR is so far off and not something I feel would work for a long long time due to latency issues but gaming I can see happening in the near future.

humbug · 30 Sep 2015 at 10:33

IMO its why Miscrosoft don't like PC Gamers, they don't make any money from us, i think its the same reason Direct-X has been stagnant for 10 years.

humbug · 30 Sep 2015 at 10:35

Gregster said:
I think it is great to see Nvidia and Microsoft striving forward. VR is so far off and not something I feel would work for a long long time due to latency issues but gaming I can see happening in the near future.

You wouldn't like what they have in mind for us.

nashathedog · 30 Sep 2015 at 10:49

The problem is that they're trying to find a way to put a charge on anything and everything.

Gregster · 30 Sep 2015 at 10:51

humbug said:
You wouldn't like what they have in mind for us.

Which is?

humbug · 30 Sep 2015 at 10:53

Your friendly Nvidia CEO wants more money from you ^^^ with a smile.

nashathedog said:
The problem is that they're trying to find a way to put a charge on anything and everything.

Yes, they are a business, right now as far as Microsoft are concerned PC Gamers are getting a free ride and have been for a very long time.

Lets put it this way, its time to start to champion something other than Direct-X.

Gregster · 30 Sep 2015 at 10:57

humbug said:
Your friendly Nvidia CEO wants more money from you ^^^ with a smile.

What does that even mean in logical terms?

andybird123 · 30 Sep 2015 at 10:58

humbug said:
Your friendly Nvidia CEO wants more money from you ^^^ with a smile.

Yes, they are a business, right now as far as Microsoft are concerned PC Gamers are getting a free ride and have been for a very long time.

Lets put it this way, its time to start to champion something other than Direct-X.

unfortunately, the fact that only Intel and PowerVR have done any kind of Vulkan demo is pretty telling on how likely it is to see big adoption on PC

mmj_uk · 30 Sep 2015 at 11:02

Gregster said:
Which is?

Making money off of consumer demand I would assume, apparently all businesses should take AMD's lead and run themselves into the ground.

I do agree that Microsoft want to put a price on everything though, even some free services are behind their Live paywall.

humbug · 30 Sep 2015 at 11:03

Gregster said:
What does that even mean in logical terms?

It means Nvidia want to power the "PC Live" architecture Microsoft are building. and you will pay for it, so will i.

andybird123 said:
unfortunately, the fact that only Intel and PowerVR have done any kind of Vulkan demo is pretty telling on how likely it is to see big adoption on PC

Some Game Developers can see the writing on the wall and they will fight it.

Gregster · 30 Sep 2015 at 11:12

humbug said:
It means Nvidia want to power the "PC Live" architecture Microsoft are building. and you will pay for it, so will i.

That's life. I understand how the world turns to a degree with computers and I was expecting there to be a catch with getting W10 for free. There is many things in life I don't like (paying to get into a club, paying tax, paying NI, paying car parks etc etc but I accept these things and if a subscription service is indeed coming, so be it. I can't say I would be happy but like everything, if you want it, pay for it.

Free to play games are the most expensive games I have ever played for the record