9 ms·

This is great! Just out of curiosity, how does the $0.70 / hour rate compare to the per-hour electricity cost of running a K80 (at full load)?

overcast 10y ago
K80 maximum input power is 300W. The average price people in the U.S. pay for electricity is about 12 cents per kilowatt-hour. So, around 4 cents an hour?
- brianwawok 10y ago
  Plus you need to cool that 300W in a datacenter, which costs a few cents I am sure.
  - overcast 10y ago
    Google is renewable at this point I believe.
    - bpicolo 10y ago
      Which doesn't even remotely mean their energy is free (though they don't pay as much as you do at home per unit, because they specifically build datacenters where they can get power cheaper, because it's a huge cost at datacenter scale)
      - overcast 10y ago
        I didn't say it was even remotely free, but it's at a scale compared to consumers that it's pretty damn close. 70 cents a minute is A LOT to pay to run these GPU's on Google's end. Which is the point of this discussion.
    - Buge 10y ago
      On the market, renewable energy costs more than non-renewable, simply because there is a higher demand for renewable, and non-renewable has no benefit for consumers.
imaginenore 10y ago
It's not $0.7/min, it's $0.7/hour.
- Xcelerate 10y ago
  Typo; thanks.
ucaetano 10y ago
https://images.nvidia.com/content/pdf/kepler/Tesla-K80-BoardSpec-07317-001-v05.pdf https://images.nvidia.com/content/pdf/kepler/Tesla-K80-Board... "The board is designed for a maximum input power consumption of 300 W" So one hour at home: Power used: 300 Wh Price: $0.20/kWh Total cost: $0.06/hour Google cost: $0.70 You could say it's 10X more expensive, but you need to include all additional costs, power is just a fraction of it. The GPU itself is $5k, which over - let's say - 3 years would cost $5/day, or $0.20/hour, and if you're using it a third of the time, just that amounts to $0.60/hour. Add everything else (you might use less than 1/3 of the time) and it would be far more expensive than using it in the cloud. As it is expected to be.
- rafinha 10y ago
  Unless you are using Geforces, which are much cheaper than 5k$ and have near performance (single-precision).
  - theDoug 10y ago
    A major use for GPU in the cloud is not being limited to the 8-12GB(ish) limits of enthusiast cards. There's similar processing performance, and the ability to store all you need in memory is a much closer reality to why these cards go for $5k
    - rafinha 10y ago
      I'm not sure most gtx users doing hpc can be called "enthusiasts". After all, most research is done in these devices, and most models should therefore fit memory requirements (unless you're doing some hardcore - or lazy engineered research model) . Correct me if I'm wrong, but AFAIK the tesla cards are designed to fit regulated markets and are not mass produced like the geforces, therefore the elevated prices.
  - arnon 10y ago
    The only problem is GeForce 1080s (for example) burn out much quicker under heavy load. They're not designed to sit inside an enterprise chassis

overcast 10y ago

K80 maximum input power is 300W. The average price people in the U.S. pay for electricity is about 12 cents per kilowatt-hour. So, around 4 cents an hour?

brianwawok 10y ago
Plus you need to cool that 300W in a datacenter, which costs a few cents I am sure.
- overcast 10y ago
  Google is renewable at this point I believe.
  - bpicolo 10y ago
    Which doesn't even remotely mean their energy is free (though they don't pay as much as you do at home per unit, because they specifically build datacenters where they can get power cheaper, because it's a huge cost at datacenter scale)
    - overcast 10y ago
      I didn't say it was even remotely free, but it's at a scale compared to consumers that it's pretty damn close. 70 cents a minute is A LOT to pay to run these GPU's on Google's end. Which is the point of this discussion.
  - Buge 10y ago
    On the market, renewable energy costs more than non-renewable, simply because there is a higher demand for renewable, and non-renewable has no benefit for consumers.

imaginenore 10y ago

It's not $0.7/min, it's $0.7/hour.

Xcelerate 10y ago
Typo; thanks.

ucaetano 10y ago

https://images.nvidia.com/content/pdf/kepler/Tesla-K80-BoardSpec-07317-001-v05.pdf https://images.nvidia.com/content/pdf/kepler/Tesla-K80-Board... "The board is designed for a maximum input power consumption of 300 W" So one hour at home: Power used: 300 Wh Price: $0.20/kWh Total cost: $0.06/hour Google cost: $0.70 You could say it's 10X more expensive, but you need to include all additional costs, power is just a fraction of it. The GPU itself is $5k, which over - let's say - 3 years would cost $5/day, or $0.20/hour, and if you're using it a third of the time, just that amounts to $0.60/hour. Add everything else (you might use less than 1/3 of the time) and it would be far more expensive than using it in the cloud. As it is expected to be.

rafinha 10y ago
Unless you are using Geforces, which are much cheaper than 5k$ and have near performance (single-precision).
- theDoug 10y ago
  A major use for GPU in the cloud is not being limited to the 8-12GB(ish) limits of enthusiast cards. There's similar processing performance, and the ability to store all you need in memory is a much closer reality to why these cards go for $5k
  - rafinha 10y ago
    I'm not sure most gtx users doing hpc can be called "enthusiasts". After all, most research is done in these devices, and most models should therefore fit memory requirements (unless you're doing some hardcore - or lazy engineered research model) . Correct me if I'm wrong, but AFAIK the tesla cards are designed to fit regulated markets and are not mass produced like the geforces, therefore the elevated prices.
- arnon 10y ago
  The only problem is GeForce 1080s (for example) burn out much quicker under heavy load. They're not designed to sit inside an enterprise chassis