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>For GPUs, there are further interesting options to consider next to buying. For example, Cirrascale offers monthly rentals of a server with four V100 GPUs for
by samfisher83 9y ago
>For GPUs, there are further interesting options to consider next to buying. For example, Cirrascale offers monthly rentals of a server with four V100 GPUs for around $7.5k (~$10.3 per hour). However, further benchmarks are required to allow a direct comparison since the hardware differs from that on AWS (type of CPU, memory, NVLink support etc.).
Can't you just buy some 1080s for cheaper than this. I understand there is electricity and hosting costs, but cloud computing seems expensive compared to buying equipment.
- elmarhaussmann 9y agoProbably not the best phrasing in the post ("next to buying"). It's only comparing cloud pricing (since the TPUv2 is only available there). If you consider buying hardware the situation is different as you correctly point out.
- dgacmu 9y agoYes, you can. The problem starts when "you" are a large company -- NVidia restricts "datacenter" use of consumer GPUs (see previous HN discussion of that one: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15983587 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15983587 ). A single Titan V is somewhere in the 90% range of a V100 at less than 1/3 the cost, and a 1080ti, if you can find one, likely offers a slightly better price/performance spot. 4-GPU training may suffer due the lack of NVlink, but not enough for it to matter too much. As you scale, though, the lack of NVlink will hurt more. And, of course, all of these things come with a capex vs opex tradeoff, and a sysadmin vs cloud tradeoff, that will appeal differently to different situations.
- my123 9y agoWith a mining exception for some reason, and their drivers blocking themselves when running in a virtualized environment unless you do some hacks.
- baybal2 9y agoHire people to buy 1080 in retail. This problem is solvable easily.
- ndesaulniers 9y agoIt's hard to find 1080[ti]+ in retail. Whenever they become available they sell out pretty quickly.
- dgacmu 9y agoIt's not about getting the cards (though supplies are limited because of cryptocurrency mining, but you could buy Titan V's off the shelf in batches of 2). It's about whether or not you're big enough of a target for Nvidia's lawyers if you violate the agreement and actually build a datacenter out with them.
- verall 9y agoThe new "datacenter" restriction only applies to GeForce branded cards. The Titan V is now called the "NVIDIA Titan V" and with no GeForce branding to be found anywhere. So the restriction applies to the 1080ti but _not_ the titan V. I completely agree the restriction is total bullshit but it's important to get the facts straight.
- dgacmu 9y agoNot according to the statement from NVidia quoted in this article: https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/27/nvidia-limits-data-center-uses-for-geforce-titan-gpus.html https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/27/nvidia-limits-data-center-us... It applies to both GeForce and Titan.
- verall 9y agoYou're right - it seems like they have added "Titan" to the agreement since it was first posted on HN: http://www.nvidia.com/content/DriverDownload-March2009/licence.php?lang=us&type=GeForce http://www.nvidia.com/content/DriverDownload-March2009/licen... Thanks for the tip!
- modeless 9y ago1080s don't have the "tensor cores" of V100, or NVLink, so they will not get anywhere near the same performance on this benchmark.