Software ECC for GPU ?

[peaceduke]

Hello !
As you know Quadro has ECC function that distincts it from GTX line
Is there any software that will do that error corrections inside VRAM ?

if I understand it correctly only thing that really makes quadro expensive is Drivers
drivers that have that ECC (not hardware itself)
or I'm wrong and there is a chip inside that makes Error corrections ?

 

[Eximo]

ECC memory is hardware based. It decreases performance for data stability.

 

[dark_lord69]

Well I know for RAM it's hardware only. There is no software ECC that I know of.
ECC slows you down.

Even Apple has stopped using ECC memory in it's computers.

"While ECC is often deemed a necessary component for confirming the viability of simulation results, it does come with a performance price. "
"They note that additionally, turning ECC on “reduces simulation speed, resulting in greater opportunity for other sources of error such as disk failures in large file systems, power glitches, and unexplained node failures during the timeframe of the calculation.”

These days less and less systems support ECC as it has become relevant to servers and specialty usage only. Like the example above they are talking about doing simulations.

 

[clarkjd]

Hello !
As you know Quadro has ECC function that distincts it from GTX line
Is there any software that will do that error corrections inside VRAM ?

if I understand it correctly only thing that really makes quadro expensive is Drivers
drivers that have that ECC (not hardware itself)
or I'm wrong and there is a chip inside that makes Error corrections ?

The ECC is not in the drivers, it is hardware based. and what makes Quadro so expensive is the addition support provided to customers by nVidia. Customers that use Quadro for their businesses cannot afford to be down for any length of time. They pay extra so that if anything goes wrong, they don't have to wait days (or weeks!) to get it fixed, usually only hours.

 

[hang-the-9]

Hello !
As you know Quadro has ECC function that distincts it from GTX line
Is there any software that will do that error corrections inside VRAM ?

if I understand it correctly only thing that really makes quadro expensive is Drivers
drivers that have that ECC (not hardware itself)
or I'm wrong and there is a chip inside that makes Error corrections ?

I think you are confusing ECC for accuracy in the drivers. Gaming video card drivers are mostly designed for speed of rendering, accuracy and quality are secondary. Meaning if you can get another 10fps but drop a few pixels here and there, it won't matter. If you drop a few pixels in a CAD drawing on a plane and a bolt is in the wrong location, that is not so good.

It's not ECC as in error correcting memory, it's drivers that are made to be more accurate with drawing vs speed.

 

[peaceduke]

Hello !
As you know Quadro has ECC function that distincts it from GTX line
Is there any software that will do that error corrections inside VRAM ?

if I understand it correctly only thing that really makes quadro expensive is Drivers
drivers that have that ECC (not hardware itself)
or I'm wrong and there is a chip inside that makes Error corrections ?

I think you are confusing ECC for accuracy in the drivers. Gaming video card drivers are mostly designed for speed of rendering, accuracy and quality are secondary. Meaning if you can get another 10fps but drop a few pixels here and there, it won't matter. If you drop a few pixels in a CAD drawing on a plane and a bolt is in the wrong location, that is not so good.

It's not ECC as in error correcting memory, it's drivers that are made to be more accurate with drawing vs speed.

it means when you giving 5000$ for QUADRO card instead of same power 1000$ GTX
you're giving +4000 only for drivers ?

 

[hang-the-9]

Hello !
As you know Quadro has ECC function that distincts it from GTX line
Is there any software that will do that error corrections inside VRAM ?

if I understand it correctly only thing that really makes quadro expensive is Drivers
drivers that have that ECC (not hardware itself)
or I'm wrong and there is a chip inside that makes Error corrections ?

I think you are confusing ECC for accuracy in the drivers. Gaming video card drivers are mostly designed for speed of rendering, accuracy and quality are secondary. Meaning if you can get another 10fps but drop a few pixels here and there, it won't matter. If you drop a few pixels in a CAD drawing on a plane and a bolt is in the wrong location, that is not so good.

It's not ECC as in error correcting memory, it's drivers that are made to be more accurate with drawing vs speed.

it means when you giving 5000$ for QUADRO card instead of same power 1000$ GTX
you're giving +4000 only for drivers ?

There are other differences, the high end quadro cards can have a large amount of memory, but yes, you will pay more for a business class system vs something for a gaming computer. When I used to work on Sun systems we would pay about 3 times normal street prices for the hard drives, just to keep the systems validated and supported.