Re: Cuda Support ("Certified" vs non-certified graphics cards)
ectobuilder50 Mar 14, 2011 12:35 PMI think EVERYONE has this same question on their minds. So let's ask it here once and for all.
Re: WE ARE ALL CONFUSED ABOUT ADOBE'S PREMIERE PRO CS5's SUPPORT FOR CUDA ENABLED GRAPHICS CARDS.
BACKGROUND FOR NEWBIES:
For those not familiar with NVIDIA's graphics cards, here is a simplified primer: A "Cuda Core" is Nvidia's implementation of Microsoft's DirectX 10's unified shading architecture. Back in the day, graphics cards had to use fixed function pipelines to break down the work, you can think of this as hiring an accountant to do finance work and hiring a plumber to do plumbing work. Now with Cuda, you can hire one person to do all the work because it is a unified architecture. Nvidia graphics cards with this capability are the Geforce 8xxx, Geforce 9xxx, Geforce 2xx, Geforce, 4xx, Geforce 5xx (Notice how NVIDIA went from a four-digit to three-digit model numbering system, therefore the 5xx is more powerful than the 8xxx). Even though this idea was done in conjuction with Microsoft, this design concept can be utilized by non-Microsoft applications such as Adobe's Premiere Pro CS5!
For the techies out there, a Cuda Core consists of a floating point processor and an integer processor. You can think of a lfoating point processor as a brain that can do fractional math or decimals (i.e. 1.5 + 0.32) while an integer processor can do whole number math (i.e. 1+2). Note that this type of "core" is much simpler than a "core" found in say an Intel CPU, however because a Cuda Core are more numerous (i.e. 512 cores in today's Geforce 5xx card vs 6 cores on a high-end Intel CPU} the Cuda core has the potential to be more powerful if used correctly by software.
The main differences between each generation of Cuda enabled graphics cards are numerous but not revolutionary. For one each generation features progressively more Cuda Cores (i.e. a 5xx card has 512 cores while a 2xx card has 120 cores, obviously the higher number equals more performance). Other differences include making memory access more efficient as well as power consumption efficiency among other things, but you get the point.
THE QUESTION:
If all of these cards implement CUDA (Geforce 8xxx, 9xxx, 2xx, 4xx and 5xx) then why are only a few cards being listed as "supported" under the Premiere Pro CS5 specification? We need clarity on the development process to answer this question, there shouldn't be any reason why my top-of-the-line Geforce 580 won't accelerate CS5 like the certified 470 would.
I think we all agree that we'd all prefer to use a Geforce 5xx for the increased performance and video-ram (it's also cheaper than the more expensive QUADRO and has similar specs).
Thanks!





