Can any one explain CUDA?

Hi,
My friend had a laptop ACER with Nvidia 9600M GT but the CUDA version with 1GB dedicated memory NOT 512.

these links contain info and CUDA toolkit BUT i still do not understand what is CUDA and IF i can use it and how??


http://www.nvidia.com/object/cuda_gpus.html


http://developer.nvidia.com/cuda-toolkit-40


Any one can explain it to me step by step,plz?

thanks

 

CUDA is a type of GPU acceleration that uses the GPU to do things instead of the CPU. Some types of tasks run more efficiently on the GPU due to the 9001 cores that they have, while leaving the CPU to do other tasks.

In my use, I use CoreAVC to run video through the GPU, which leaves the CPU to render the subtitles for anime that I watch.

I believe Photoshop can use CUDA to do real time previews of effects that you're applying to pictures, and improve performance in other areas of it, but I don't mess with that.

Another case of GPU acceleration is in Vista and 7, Aero runs off the GPU to draw everything on your display instead of using the CPU to draw the display, which is how XP worked and ate CPU cycles.

I suck at explaining things, in short it just makes some types of things you do run faster
Things that can use more cores at once will run better if you use CUDA, but it's not the only way to use hardware acceleration

 

thanks for help but i have 2 questions,

1-is it safe to install these toolkits on my L502x?

2-what the other ways can i use instead of this?

thanks again

 

You can install the toolkits if you want, but I don't think they'd do much unless you do programming.

I think some other ways of using it are for CAD programs (but there are better ways of doing that), Folding@Home type applications, Video transcoding, brute forcing passwords... among other things.

Might be better off listing what you're trying to use it for and seeing if it's possible to use cuda for it.

 

CUDA will only work if the program you have, supports it. As far as I know, CUDA will turn each bit line into a 1.1ghz cpu. For example, a videocard has a 512 bit connection. When CUDA is turned on, those 512 bits will be turned into 512 mini cpu's.

CUDA is about 80% faster then any quad core cpu.

Dont install the toolkit unless you have a huge knowledge of programming hardware. CUDA is supported and built in the apps that you may use.

 

to jump in here-So if the program, regardless of what you are doing, does not support CUDA, it won't help? Is that how I understand it works?

 

Your don't need CUDA for Aero, any GPU out there with WDM drivers will cut it.

Also, DirectX acceleration (also known as DXVA) works with many GPUs (including some newer Intel GPUs, starting with 4500MHD), this provides GPU acceleration for H.264 movies (as well as other video codecs).
CUDA uses your card's shader processors for rendering if your application supports it (newer versions of Photoshop do this, as well as some video converters and video editors).

CUDA is faster than many CPUs out there, but bear in mind that your GPU (9600M GT) has only 32 shader processors with an old arhitecture (1st generation of CUDA-supported cards). Newer cards (like GT 420M) have 3 times more shaders with an improved arhitecture, thus providing over 3 times more processing power (and remember, this is a low-to-mid-range GPU, high-end GPUs like GTX 485 will perform a lot better).

 

Exactly my mate

You can test it yourself, take 2 video converting programs. 1 with Cuda and 1 without. Youll see that the one with Cuda is much faster.

 

In depth CUDA definition/explanation: CUDA - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Good PDF covering it: http://www.haifux.org/lectures/175/LinuxClubGPGPU.pdf

 

I know what cuda is, but i do not belive it is significantly faster than openCL (crossplatform) or intel's quicksync. Especially in non-enterprise applications.

 

Many thanks for the information. Personally I don't really understand what CUDA is but I can assure you guys that the 3GB GT555M runs a lot faster than my 2 year old 512MB ATI HD 4570. It took half the time for me to encode a 60 minutes footage on the 3GB GT555M. Impressive...

 

Half the time than what?