Anybody into CUDA ?

[Tuork]

Thanks for the input mate.
I'll give this a go whenever I get some free time... which is no time soon

[walterman]

After a long night of fighting vs CUDA, i managed to finish the first alpha version of my benchmarking tool.

You can get the tool here:
http://www.speedyshare.com/566199380.html

Unrar, exec 'run_tests.bat', and you should see something like this:



The best time of my GTX285 in the 256x256 test was 0.024s, and the best time of my 3.6 GHz Xeon 3350 Quad was 0.65s (using the old tool that comes with my br2 patch). So, my GPU is running around 27x times faster than my CPU in this test. Finally, good results.

There is still a lot of room for optimizations, so, this is going really well.

There are some problems with the FP 'precision'. The ALUs in the GPU do not follow the IEEE FP standards, and there are some errors in the 1024x1024 test.

I would like to see your results.

[walterman]

Well, i was doing something bad, and the results of the test are not valid.

The kernel was not running, because i was selecting bad <<numBlocks, numThreads>>. The only real results for the 1st run are: [128,512] to [32768,8].

So, the GPU is only running 1.25x times faster than the CPU, which is a really bad result.

I have a new version, in which i get 2.5x times faster than the CPU.

This has been a big disappointment.

Note: I have deleted the dl link.

[walterman]

Z:\code\Visual Studio Projects\BloodRayne 2\br2cudaPerlin\Debug>br2cudaperlin 20
0 256

BloodRayne 2 FSAA Patch - CUDA Perlin Benchmark Tool 0.11 Alpha
---------------------------------------------------------------

Running Benchmarks ...
----------------------
[128, 512] Total Time: 0.263607s
[256, 256] Total Time: 0.256560s
[512, 128] Total Time: 0.256693s
[1024, 64] Total Time: 0.255465s
[2048, 32] Total Time: 0.251548s
[4096, 16] Total Time: 0.267286s
[8192, 8] Total Time: 0.306301s
[16384, 4] Total Time: 0.469901s
[32768, 2] Total Time: 0.908473s

Best Config [2048, 32]: 0.251548s

Running Verification Test at [2048, 32] ...
--------------------------------------------
Everything OK

Now, it is ok, but, the performance isn't that great as expected.

You can leech it here: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=Y9M8S5FB

[walterman]

I have a new version.

It uses 2 methods: texture fetching / shared memory.

BloodRayne 2 FSAA Patch - CUDA Perlin Benchmark Tool 0.15 Alpha
---------------------------------------------------------------

Running Benchmarks ...
----------------------
TF [128, 512] Total Time: 0.192191s
SM [128, 512] Total Time: 0.107221s
TF [256, 256] Total Time: 0.191223s
SM [256, 256] Total Time: 0.103024s
TF [512, 128] Total Time: 0.190813s
SM [512, 128] Total Time: 0.126796s
TF [1024, 64] Total Time: 0.189704s
SM [1024, 64] Total Time: 0.189470s
TF [2048, 32] Total Time: 0.189634s
SM [2048, 32] Total Time: 0.390741s
TF [4096, 16] Total Time: 0.198291s
SM [4096, 16] Total Time: 0.942939s
TF [8192, 8] Total Time: 0.255677s
SM [8192, 8] Total Time: 2.238887s
TF [16384, 4] Total Time: 0.435167s
SM [16384, 4] Total Time: 6.500768s
TF [32768, 2] Total Time: 0.856746s
SM [32768, 2] Total Time: 22.913676s

Best Config (Shared Memory) [256, 256]: 0.103024s

Running Verification Test at (Shared Memory) [256, 256] ...
------------------------------------------------------------
Everything OK

BloodRayne 2 FSAA Patch - CUDA Perlin Benchmark Tool 0.15 Alpha
---------------------------------------------------------------

Running Benchmarks ...
----------------------
TF [512, 512] Total Time: 0.697142s
SM [512, 512] Total Time: 0.370065s
TF [1024, 256] Total Time: 0.692771s
SM [1024, 256] Total Time: 0.374493s
TF [2048, 128] Total Time: 0.690623s
SM [2048, 128] Total Time: 0.464357s
TF [4096, 64] Total Time: 0.688960s
SM [4096, 64] Total Time: 0.712639s
TF [8192, 32] Total Time: 0.690871s
SM [8192, 32] Total Time: 1.504626s
TF [16384, 16] Total Time: 0.702908s
SM [16384, 16] Total Time: 3.673776s
TF [32768, 8] Total Time: 0.974903s
SM [32768, 8] Total Time: 8.863379s

Best Config (Shared Memory) [512, 512]: 0.370065s

Running Verification Test at (Shared Memory) [512, 512] ...
------------------------------------------------------------
Everything OK

BloodRayne 2 FSAA Patch - CUDA Perlin Benchmark Tool 0.15 Alpha
---------------------------------------------------------------

Running Benchmarks ...
----------------------
TF [2048, 512] Total Time: 2.361321s
SM [2048, 512] Total Time: 1.282897s
TF [4096, 256] Total Time: 2.369100s
SM [4096, 256] Total Time: 1.336673s
TF [8192, 128] Total Time: 2.361914s
SM [8192, 128] Total Time: 1.677807s
TF [16384, 64] Total Time: 2.360700s
SM [16384, 64] Total Time: 2.639611s
TF [32768, 32] Total Time: 2.360139s
SM [32768, 32] Total Time: 5.692210s

Best Config (Shared Memory) [2048, 512]: 1.282897s

Running Verification Test at (Shared Memory) [2048, 512] ...
------------------------------------------------------------
Everything OK

It's 6.5x times faster than the CPU. It will be hard to make it faster.

You can leech it here: http://www.speedyshare.com/455357158.html

I have problems to run it on my old G80. If somebody can try it, i would like to know if it works with other cards.

[Dreamweavernoob]

how do you learn this stuff? I have always wanted to learn about software development but never knew where to start

[walterman]

Originally Posted by Dreamweavernoob

how do you learn this stuff? I have always wanted to learn about software development but never knew where to start

If you want to do it professionally, at the University, or another sort of superior studies.

Personally, i started with the BASIC of my Sinclair ZX Spectrum, 25y ago, and i haven't stopped learning yet.

Time & patience make the master.

[Dreamweavernoob]

Originally Posted by walterman

If you want to do it professionally, at the University, or another sort of superior studies.

Personally, i started with the BASIC of my Sinclair ZX Spectrum, 25y ago, and i haven't stopped learning yet.

Time & patience make the master.

Much respect for you dude.

[Phyxion]

Originally Posted by Dreamweavernoob

how do you learn this stuff? I have always wanted to learn about software development but never knew where to start

First start with some VERY basic examples. Good languages to start with are C# and maybe Java, however I do suggest C#. After going through some more difficult C# you can take a look at C++. There are some pretty good tutorials available on how to start.

[lightman]

Originally Posted by Phyxion

First start with some VERY basic examples. Good languages to start with are C# and maybe Java, however I do suggest C#. After going through some more difficult C# you can take a look at C++. There are some pretty good tutorials available on how to start.

I would suggest against C#. C++, with all its shortcomings is a widely used, cross platform, and standard language. C# is not so diffused outside the Microsoft/.NET environments (Mono tries to replicate most of the functionalities and the environment, but only up to .NET 2.0, as far as I know, although the implementation of the C# standard is complete).

To start, either go with Java and/or C++ if you want to begin with a OO language, or go with (clean) C.

C has the advantage of not letting any wrongdoing go unnoticed. You have to be very careful with memory allocation/deallocation (think explicit garbage collection), otherwise you risk ending up with segfaults really quickly. You have to thoroughly understand pointers and how things are stored in memory, which is always a good thing. And when you're ready, you can delve in more difficult to master techniques, like e.g. pointer arithmetic.

If you want to start with C, look for the abundant online tutorials and the K&R book.

For C++, the Stroustup can be a little hard in some points, but it's still one of the best books out there.

[walterman]

A new "beta" version:
http://www.speedyshare.com/366621969.html

It will benchmark your CPU vs your GPU.

It supports multi-GPU rigs too.

You can specify from the command line, the number of GPUs to use. You will need to disable SLI to use multiple GPUs in CUDA, according to nVidia papers.

Examples:

br2perlin 1 5 -> This will use just 1 GPU
br2perlin 2 5 -> This will use 2 GPUs

The library also supports mixing the CPU & GPU at the same time. In theory, when i designed it, i thought that CPU+GPU was going to be faster, but, due to the asynchronous nature of CUDA, it ends slower than the CPU or GPU alone.

My BR2 Patch is using the new CUDA code now, and the perlin effects run on the GPU now.

Unluckily, if you only have 1 gfx card, this is not a good idea, because the framerate is lower due to the resources used for the CUDA calculations. But, if you have 2 gfx cards, you won't lose any fps, and the perlin code will run faster in the GPU (bigger & more complex effects).

Basically, i've written this to use my old 8800GTX to run the Perlin effects, and my GTX285 to render the shiny graphics at 1920x1200 SSAA 2x

The results of my Xeon 3350 @ 3.6 GHz + eVGA GTX 285 SSC:

CPU SSE3 4 Threads
Total Time: 0.660127, Min: -0.699944, Max: 0.798931, Range: 1.498875
GPU
Total Time: 0.106165

In my system, the GPU is 6.5x times faster than the CPU.

[Tuork]

Hey mate, you think you could whip up a simple tutorial on how to work with CUDA?

I know several people here, including myself, would greatly appreciate it.