NVIDIA says its new Turing architecture the greatest leap since “CUDA GPU in 2006.” And for what it’s doing to the new Quadro RXT GPU line, it could be.
At SIGGRAPH 2018 — a computer graphics conference in Vancouver, Canada — NVIDIA unveiled its eighth-generation GPU architecture: Turing. NVIDIA accompanied this architecture announcement with a new Quadro RTX line reveal. This new line is set to be the first chips to ever feature NVIDIA’s new RT Cores. “RT” means ray tracing. Ray tracing is a rendering method that traces a path of light as it interacts with an object.
According NVIDIA, Turing accelerates real-time ray tracing operations by 25 times compared to NVIDIA’s previous architecture – Pascal. NVIDIA even claims it maximum performance can reach 10 GigaRays per second and that is GPU nodes can handle final-frame rendering for film effect 30 times faster than the speed of CPU nodes.
New Quadro RTX GPU line Rundown
With the Turing artitecture comes a new line of Quadro RTX GPUs. Here are the highlights that the Quadro RTX line offers:
- Allows real-time ray tracing of subjects and environments with shadows, reflections, refractions and global illumination
- Accelerates deep neural network training and inference with Turing Tensor Cores
- Features up to 4,608 CUDA cores and delivers up to 16 trillion floating point operations with 16 trillion integer operations per second to accelerate complex simulation of real-world physics
- More advanced programmable shading tech
- Implements Samsung’s 16G GDDR6 memory to support more complex designs, large architectural datasets and 8K video files
Quadro RTX Turing GPUs will support real-time 8K playback.
The new Quadrio RTX GPUs will “significantly” speed up 8K workflow. You may not be working in 8K, but this technology could make it a lot easier to play videos in 8K. Also, creators not working in 8K can still see benefits.
“There’s more flexibility for image stabilization, or panning and zooming to reframe a shot without losing image quality in the final [4K] delivery format,” wrote NVIDIA. “For visual effects, high resolution can provide more detail for tracking or keying. Downsampling high-resolution video can help reduce noise as well as maintain a high level of quality.”
Currently, those that are working with 8K footage – like those that own RED cameras – must view it at a lower resolution. 35-megapixel files have trouble playing back, often having to skip frames.
Turing deals with wavelet decoding and debauering, which is what makes 8K real-time playback possible. “We expect there to be headroom in the decode performance to allow for effects layers as well in real-time, depending on your system specs,” said RED CEO Jarred Land. The tech will also make new effects possible, NVIDIA adds. “Editors will gain from new functionality like AI-enabled upscaling, which will let them intermix archival footage or zoom in beyond 8K resolution with the best possible results.”
Pricing and Availability
The Quadro RTX GPUs should be released in the fourth quarter. The RTX 8000, 48GB model is estimated to cost 10,000 dollars – not cheap. But the other models, the RTX 6000, 24GB and RTX 5000, 16GB versions, will cost 6,300 and 2,300 dollars. Still expensive, but certainly less than the top model.
For more information, check nvidia.com.
