diff --git a/doc.zih.tu-dresden.de/docs/jobs_and_resources/overview.md b/doc.zih.tu-dresden.de/docs/jobs_and_resources/overview.md index eb4aae34fc7850dbfa5d7d8f22628d569aa48f8c..caa501d3034e868a43743d1a102e3f478638af81 100644 --- a/doc.zih.tu-dresden.de/docs/jobs_and_resources/overview.md +++ b/doc.zih.tu-dresden.de/docs/jobs_and_resources/overview.md @@ -22,12 +22,25 @@ ZIH systems. There is also a page with extensive set of [Slurm examples](slurm_e ## Selection of Suitable Hardware -### What do I need a CPU or GPU? +### What do I need, a CPU or GPU? -The main difference between CPU and GPU architecture is that a CPU is designed to handle a wide -range of tasks quickly, but are limited in the concurrency of tasks that can be running. While GPUs -can process data much faster than a CPU due to massive parallelism (but the amount of data which -a single GPU's core can handle is small), GPUs are not as versatile as CPUs. +If an application is designed to run on GPUs this is normally announced unmistakable since the +efforts of adapting an existing software to make use of a GPU can be overwhelming. +And even if the software was listed in [NVIDIA's list of GPU-Accelerated Applications](https://www.nvidia.com/content/dam/en-zz/Solutions/Data-Center/tesla-product-literature/gpu-applications-catalog.pdf) +only certain parts of the computations may run on the GPU. + +To answer the question: The easiest way is to compare a typical computation +on a normal node and on a GPU node. (Make sure to eliminate the influence of different +CPU types and different number of cores.) If the execution time with GPU is better +by a significant factor then this might be the obvious choice. + +??? note "Difference in Architecture" + + The main difference between CPU and GPU architecture is that a CPU is designed to handle a wide + range of tasks quickly, but are limited in the concurrency of tasks that can be running. + While GPUs can process data much faster than a CPU due to massive parallelism + (but the amount of data which + a single GPU's core can handle is small), GPUs are not as versatile as CPUs. ### Available Hardware