Why are the top of the line ATi cards so cheap??

[zanzabar]

there is openCL on the ati cards, but no1 has updated the folding clients for it since they (ati, via that only use openCL) dont pay to subsidize software, there are real shader based transcoders that work on both and ati is faster now at it when comparing a 260 to a 4770. i would expect openCL to take over now that NV supports it and the spec is finalized and can work on the x86 and gpu

ive also seen more use for the cell than the gpgpu since the cell is cheap and it can do more kinds of workloads u need nested fractals for the gpgpu stuff right now to get an advantage so there are limitations

[Serra]

ive also seen more use for the cell than the gpgpu since the cell is cheap and it can do more kinds of workloads u need nested fractals for the gpgpu stuff right now to get an advantage so there are limitations

What do you do, may I ask, that leads you to believe you are able to support this claim? Just how many of these installations have you actually seen? nVidia has the entire Tesla line and backing from the likes of Supermicro. The cell is an awesome chip, but unless you go to a PS3 farm the hardware costs are sky-high and you lose the price:performance ratio. Even the PS3 farms lose when you take into account the labor one has to put into setting it up and supporting it (as, obviously, there is no-one who will offer you any kind of technical support).

A Tesla-based computer, on the other hand, has nVidia support from day 1. That's why many hospitals use them in imaging machines, and why so many well-funded scientific projects use them (though the ones who have tons of free grad students will, of course, have the grad students put together the PS3 networks for them - provided their grads are knowledgeable in computers).

Of course there are limitations of CUDA, but that does not change the fact that there is a large market for it in industry and that nVidia has likely dumped a ton of money into R&D and promotion of it.


Again, I'm not saying that it alone is why prices are so high, but it is a factor. This post has largely been OT and I apologize to anyone I have derailed.