AMD’s 64-Core Threadripper 3990X, only $3990 Coming February 7th

Re:AMD’s 64-Core Threadripper 3990X, only $3990 Coming Febru... by ilaksh on Monday January 06, 2020 @11:50PM (#21976961)

I've been experimenting with some ideas for new ML approaches (not neural networks). I was thinking about playing around with FPGAs, which the high end ones are really expensive. 64 cores is making me think it probably is not worthwhile to focus on FPGAs or even necessarily GPU programming like I was thinking before.

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Re:AMD’s 64-Core Threadripper 3990X, only $3990 Coming Febru... by dragontamer on Tuesday January 07, 2020 @12:48AM (#21977287)

With 64-lanes of PCIe on this Threadripper... why not all three?

Plenty of PCIe space to afford a few GPUs to experiment with your 64-core CPU. You probably can shove 2x GPUs + 1x FPGA into one box.

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Re:AMD’s 64-Core Threadripper 3990X, only $3990 Coming Febru... by ilaksh on Tuesday January 07, 2020 @05:28AM (#21978675)

Right and it is possible that by doing something like that the power of the system would be multiplied by many times. It's really more about the programming model.

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Re:AMD’s 64-Core Threadripper 3990X, only $3990 Coming Febru... by dragontamer on Tuesday January 07, 2020 @11:44AM (#21981641)

I'm not sure if that's a big deal with a single box.

Threadripper is only 300W+ under load. Idles for the CPU are ~100W for the whole system. (https://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/luke-hill/amd-ryzen-t...)

GPUs are similar. GPUs take ~20W while idling, but 300W or 500W while under load. FPGAs are also similar.

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The total system idle of a Threadripper + 2x GPU + FPGA rig probably is under 200W.

If you happen to utilize the entire machine, sure, you'll be over 1000W. But you'll probably only utilize parts of the machine as you experiment and try to figure out the optimal solution.

A "mixed rig" that can handle a variety of programming techniques is probably what's needed in the research / development phase of algorithms. Once you've done enough research, you build dedicated boxes that optimize the ultimate solution.

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Re:AMD’s 64-Core Threadripper 3990X, only $3990 Coming Febru... by ilaksh on Tuesday January 07, 2020 @12:53PM (#21982501)

By power I meant compute power. Did not mean power draw.

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Re:AMD’s 64-Core Threadripper 3990X, only $3990 Coming Febru... by dragontamer on Tuesday January 07, 2020 @03:09PM (#21984239)

Ahh, gotcha. I guess I misunderstood.

Your earlier comment makes sense now that I understand what you're saying.

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Re:AMD’s 64-Core Threadripper 3990X, only $3990 Coming Febru... by dlemire on Tuesday January 07, 2020 @08:13AM (#21979596)

What are these new ML approaches?

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