• henfredemars@infosec.pub
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    50
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    2 months ago

    That’s rather depressing to hear. AI is often used as a crutch used to pave over crappy code that would cost money to properly optimize. Maybe Nvidia is also using AI as a crutch instead of developing better GPUs that can actually render more pixels?

    • catloaf@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      2 months ago

      Usually people are against just throwing more hardware at a problem.

      They’re going to keep making more powerful hardware either way, since parallel processing capability supports graphics and AI just fine. But if they can use a novel software solution to drastically increase performance, why not?

      • tunetardis
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        11
        ·
        2 months ago

        They’re going to keep making more powerful hardware either way, since parallel processing capability supports graphics and AI just fine.

        It’s not quite as simple as that. AI needs less precision than regular graphics, so chips developed with AI in mind do not necessarily translate into higher performance for other things.

        In science/engineering, people want more—not less—precision. So we look for GPUs with capable 64-bit processing, while AI is driving the industry in the other direction, from 32 down to 16.

        • catloaf@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          2 months ago

          For science and engineering, workstation cards like the A6000 aren’t going anywhere.

          • henfredemars@infosec.pub
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            2 months ago

            That’s true, but I would like to see improvements driven along the consumer segment also. AI rendering is a nice software addition but I could easily see it becoming a distraction from hardware improvements.

            Consumers generally can’t just throw more money at a problem in the way that professional and business can.

        • averyminya@beehaw.org
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          2 months ago

          It’s funny because we don’t even need GPU’s. There’s tech that offloads the model’s “search” to an analog computer which is ~98% accurate for a fraction of the energy.

          I imagine NVIDIA isn’t too excited about that side of AI, though.