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0 pointsmk_stjames1y ago0 comments

This is all very true for Machine-Learning research tasks, were yes, if you want that latest PyTorch library function to work you need to be on the latest ML code.

But my work/fun is in CFD. One of the main codes I use for work was written to be supported primarily at the time of Pascal. Other HPC stuff too that can be run via OpenCL, and is still plenty compatible. Things compiled back then will still run today; It's not a moving target like ML has been.

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kkielhofner1y ago

Exactly. Demand for FP64 is significantly lower than for ML/AI.

Pascal isn’t incredibly cheap by comparison because it’s some secret hack. It’s cheap by comparison because most of the market (AI/ML) doesn’t want it. Speaking of which…

At the risk of “No True Scotsman” what qualifies as HPC gets interesting but just today I was at a Top500 site that was talking about their Volta system not being worth the power, which is relevant to parent comment but still problematic for reasons.

I mentioned llama.cpp because the /r/locallama crowd, etc has actually driven up the cost of used Pascal hardware because they treat it as a path to get VRAM on the cheap with their very very narrow use cases.

If we’re talking about getting a little FP64 for CFD that’s one thing. ML/AI is another. HPC is yet another.

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