The BRAWL² Tournament Challenge has been announced!
It starts May 12, and ends Sept 12. Let's see what you got!
https://polycount.com/discussion/237047/the-brawl²-tournament
It starts May 12, and ends Sept 12. Let's see what you got!
https://polycount.com/discussion/237047/the-brawl²-tournament
I got my dream computer. Here's how that went bad for me
polycounter lvl 8
This is going to sound like I'm gloating, I'm sorry about that. I am not posting this to rub it in anyone's face, but to tell you about some of the pitfalls of "The Thing That Should Not Be".
Uh...? Specks I guess. Yeah, wait no.
So in April of 2024 my beloved gramma died at the age of 92, of not wanting to live any longer. She left us some money and I want to be clear right now: as much as the money has helped I would throw it all into a cesspit and light it on fire if it would bring my gramma back. [pause to cry about that. Keep pausing. Okay. I'm okay. I'm not okay. Give me a minute]
When we got the money I set out to do one of the things you do with a bunch of free money. Buy stuff! And I promised myself a decade ago that if I had the money ever I would buy a Titan computer from www.titancomputers.com.
2 cpus, at 128 cores each for a total of 512 threads (but only 2ghz, more on that below)
Uh...? Specks I guess. Yeah, wait no.
So in April of 2024 my beloved gramma died at the age of 92, of not wanting to live any longer. She left us some money and I want to be clear right now: as much as the money has helped I would throw it all into a cesspit and light it on fire if it would bring my gramma back. [pause to cry about that. Keep pausing. Okay. I'm okay. I'm not okay. Give me a minute]
When we got the money I set out to do one of the things you do with a bunch of free money. Buy stuff! And I promised myself a decade ago that if I had the money ever I would buy a Titan computer from www.titancomputers.com.
2 cpus, at 128 cores each for a total of 512 threads (but only 2ghz, more on that below)
2 nVidia Ada cards, so a 4090 series cuda processor and 48 gigs of gRAM
A terrabyte of RAM
Now when you read that you're probably thinking "Why? Why would anyone do that?" Well you wouldn't be the only one. Every person who knew what they were talking about, upon hearing my specs, had pretty much the same reaction. An AMD exec who checked into my hotel reacted impressed and said, "So you built the server yourself" and when I said, "It's not a server, it's a workstation!" Looked at me like I had just proposed we eat his dog. So its name became Atrociter (latin, one who commits atrocity. Laudatory.)
So let's get to where this goes sideways. First, it's a server motherboard, so installing drivers from inside the system is next level impossible for a stupid shlub like me. It's got a copy of windows 11 on it, and there are times where it DOES NOT LIKE that arrangement.
Straight out of the box we run into minor problem 1. It has a THREE MINUTE boot time. "Yeah, nomzod. Duh. It's running through 256 cores." Well you're much smarter than me, because I didn't count on that. Rebooting this thing is like the 90's all over again, when you would reboot your computer, go make a cup of tea, go to the bathroom, have a ciggy, take the dog for a walk, and when you get back your computer has another THREE MINUTES to go.
Now when you read that you're probably thinking "Why? Why would anyone do that?" Well you wouldn't be the only one. Every person who knew what they were talking about, upon hearing my specs, had pretty much the same reaction. An AMD exec who checked into my hotel reacted impressed and said, "So you built the server yourself" and when I said, "It's not a server, it's a workstation!" Looked at me like I had just proposed we eat his dog. So its name became Atrociter (latin, one who commits atrocity. Laudatory.)
So let's get to where this goes sideways. First, it's a server motherboard, so installing drivers from inside the system is next level impossible for a stupid shlub like me. It's got a copy of windows 11 on it, and there are times where it DOES NOT LIKE that arrangement.
Straight out of the box we run into minor problem 1. It has a THREE MINUTE boot time. "Yeah, nomzod. Duh. It's running through 256 cores." Well you're much smarter than me, because I didn't count on that. Rebooting this thing is like the 90's all over again, when you would reboot your computer, go make a cup of tea, go to the bathroom, have a ciggy, take the dog for a walk, and when you get back your computer has another THREE MINUTES to go.
That's a minor problem, but it is sometimes exhausting when you're trying to sideload a driver and you have to keep rebooting.
Minor problem 2: Hey didja know that most programs aren't designed to run on 256 cores??? Yeah! They take up like 8 threads, and then run at 2/3rds the speed of a "nuthin special" gaming rig. Photoshop for instance takes as long to load as it did in 2003.
Aside: All other problems with adobe (and that's a lot of other problems) aside, why do they think I would like a program with MORE popups? With more time and more clicks between me and OPENING A DOCUMENT? Are they getting paid by the time I spend using their programs?
Minor problem 2: Hey didja know that most programs aren't designed to run on 256 cores??? Yeah! They take up like 8 threads, and then run at 2/3rds the speed of a "nuthin special" gaming rig. Photoshop for instance takes as long to load as it did in 2003.
Aside: All other problems with adobe (and that's a lot of other problems) aside, why do they think I would like a program with MORE popups? With more time and more clicks between me and OPENING A DOCUMENT? Are they getting paid by the time I spend using their programs?
This does not bring us to major problem 1, but I'm going there anyway. This thing is loud as all bejesus-shit. Out of the box it's running all six fans at 100%. All the time. I start looking in to just how hot this thing is, and safe tolerances and stuff. But all the software I can find is designed for ONE cpu, and faced with two it garbles the data. Some software is showing my CPU at 60°C so I start looking for another to check and I get anywhere from 55° to 107°!!!
So that's a problem. And I get some help, (Shout out to @Wellbot on discord!) trying to figure out how to install/access/jury rig fan/temp support.
But it's a server! What need does a server have to run quiet enough you can have a conversation within 10 feet of it! It's on a rack in an airconditioned room, just blowing away.
Within a week of getting the thing, I void the warranty and crack the case to install a Corsair ICE fan control box. That goes fine and I'm seeing temps like 55°-60°, which is inside the tollerances for the CPU. WHEN IT FEELS LIKE REPORTING THE TEMPS. Which it does not, all the time. Windows also like to just randomly uninstall the program too, so that's choice.
Am I happy I got the thing?
No. I'd much rather have more years with my gramma. My children were old enough when she died to have concrete memories of her, and I considered that the very least I could ask for. But I would ask for so much more than that. As a consolation prize it sucks, but next to time with gramma everything does.
But part of the consolation is that I won't need another computer for 10 years or more. That's good. And a render that had taken Arnold 8 hours and 42 minutes on my previous computer, Atrociter did in 17 minutes, at double the resolution and double the samples.
But it's a server! What need does a server have to run quiet enough you can have a conversation within 10 feet of it! It's on a rack in an airconditioned room, just blowing away.
Within a week of getting the thing, I void the warranty and crack the case to install a Corsair ICE fan control box. That goes fine and I'm seeing temps like 55°-60°, which is inside the tollerances for the CPU. WHEN IT FEELS LIKE REPORTING THE TEMPS. Which it does not, all the time. Windows also like to just randomly uninstall the program too, so that's choice.
Am I happy I got the thing?
No. I'd much rather have more years with my gramma. My children were old enough when she died to have concrete memories of her, and I considered that the very least I could ask for. But I would ask for so much more than that. As a consolation prize it sucks, but next to time with gramma everything does.
But part of the consolation is that I won't need another computer for 10 years or more. That's good. And a render that had taken Arnold 8 hours and 42 minutes on my previous computer, Atrociter did in 17 minutes, at double the resolution and double the samples.
I didn't have a conclusion ready when I started this and I'm surprised to find that I still don't. Thank you for reading. It's been a ride.
Replies
Apparently, "more of everything" is not necessarily an improvement in a linear manner.