Weird Idea: Reverse TurboCache?

S

Sovereign

2[H]4U
Joined
Mar 21, 2005
Messages
3,098
TurboCache is a driver technology that enables lower-end nVidia cards to access the main memory of a PCI-E based system as if it were local memory to the card (so nV's marketing department says, but you get the idea. Shared memory. Boo.)

However, can you reverse the process and allow applications to use the GDDR3 on a high-end videocard instead of going into the slower system RAM? I was using 3ds max today, and it was eating about 510MB of RAM and on top of that 510MB for virtual memory as well. I just thought "If 3ds max could use my second 7900GTX as RAM (with SLI off of course), then this wouldn't happen and everything wouldn't lag so bad..."

Thoughts? Is it ingenious or idiocy?
 
Sovereign said:
TurboCache is a driver technology that enables lower-end nVidia cards to access the main memory of a PCI-E based system as if it were local memory to the card (so nV's marketing department says, but you get the idea. Shared memory. Boo.)

However, can you reverse the process and allow applications to use the GDDR3 on a high-end videocard instead of going into the slower system RAM? I was using 3ds max today, and it was eating about 510MB of RAM and on top of that 510MB for virtual memory as well. I just thought "If 3ds max could use my second 7900GTX as RAM (with SLI off of course), then this wouldn't happen and everything wouldn't lag so bad..."

Thoughts? Is it ingenious or idiocy?
Click to expand...

Even though the connection between the GDDR3 and the GPU is very fast, it is because it is all direct traced from the chip to the RAM on the card. For the CPU to access the GDDR3, it would have to access it through the PCI-E bus, which could create some major latency issues as well as potential bandwidth problems.
 
I dont think the increase in speed would be worth it. You might see a minor increase, but thats about it.
 
NulloModo said:
Even though the connection between the GDDR3 and the GPU is very fast, it is because it is all direct traced from the chip to the RAM on the card. For the CPU to access the GDDR3, it would have to access it through the PCI-E bus, which could create some major latency issues as well as potential bandwidth problems.
Click to expand...

Doesn't the 360 use the video ram also as system ram? It has some dedicated system ram too but I believe it does share the video ram for system ram.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top