AM (myname4rwt@jee-male.com) on 8/6/10 wrote:
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>none (none@none.com) on 8/5/10 wrote:
>---------------------------
>>I picked the one which claims x300 speedup.
>>
>>http://www.opticsinfobase.org/oe/abstract.cfm?uri=oe-17-22-20178
>>
>>"In comparison,we compiled the CPU implementation, tMCimg,
>>using the “-O3” option with the gcc compiler and double-
>>precision computation on a single core of an Intel 64bit Xeon
>>processor of 1.86GHz."
>>
>>So single core, low frequency, double precision, out-of-the
>>box compilation. Enough said.
>
>They got these results using a card available (new) for $80+ these days http://www.google.com/products?q=9800+GT&scoring=p
>> (8800GT no longer avail, 9800GT uses the same G92 chip).
>
>Apparently, $80 won't buy you even the cheapest new Core 2 Duo, let alone a 1.86 GHz Xeon, which can cost as little as $188 (E5502) or as much as $3157 (L7555) http://www.intc.com/priceList.cfm

That's stupid argument. Video card can't do anything on its own. It needs at least $400 PC that includes (for Intel platform) at least $43 CPU (meet E3300, dual-core, 2.5 GHz, but small cache and slow bus). So for $70 more you can get $113 E7500 which is quite decent 2.93 GHz dual-core with 3MB cache and 1066 FSB and still buy some beer on remaining 10 bucks. Or, switch the whole platform to core-i3 and for the same $113 get i3-530 - another 2.93 GHz dual-core but with bigger cache and no FSB bottleneck.

Of course, if you have parallel code running on you CPU than buying dual-core makes little sense from price/performance perspective. Its much smarter to invest another $170 (< 50% increase if you look at the price of the whole system and not just a CPU) and get $284 i7-860 - 2.8GHz quad-core with HT, turboboost, 8MB L3 cache. Or, if you found HT not helpful, you can get exactly the same chip with HT permanently disabled now called i5-760 for just $205.

And those just Intel options. AMD offers even more GFLOPs/$.
Like Phenom II X6 1055T - six 2.8 GHz cores for $199.
Or Phenom II X4 945 - four 3.0 GHz cores for $149.
Or, on the low end, X3 720 - three 2.8 GHz cores that I can't find on official price list, but with the street prices as low as $99.