[rescue] x86 power question

[Charles Shannon Hendrix]

Tue, 14 Nov 2006 @ 17:10 -0500, Sridhar Ayengar said:

> Bill Bradford wrote:
> > On Tue, Nov 14, 2006 at 08:46:37PM +0000, Peter Corlett wrote:
> >> I'd make a joke that 640MB is enough for anybody, but 1GB cards are
> >> out now. (Both are around #300.)
> > 
> > I now have a system at work running XP where it has more RAM on the *video
> > card* than the *entire system* that I first ran XP on in 2001.
> 
> The *laptop* I'm working on right now has *four times* as much space in 
> its *video memory* as my first *hard drive*.

To put the I/O, memory, and processing power of a modern GPU into
perspective:

It has more power, bandwidth, and memory that most supercomputers or
high end mainframes of just a few years ago.

Back then that kind of power was secured in guarded rooms, and reserved
for only the most critical tasks of business, government, and scientific
research.

Today it is used to make sure that the blood spatters pleasingly when
you cut an orc's head off while playing "Dungeons & Dragons".


-- 
shannon "AT" widomaker.com -- ["Secrecy is the beginning of tyranny." --
Unknown]