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Extreme GPU Computing
Page 19
Figure 18: Comparison of NAMD performance between C410X and C4130 with four GPU boards
Now we consider the relative performance on a molecular dynamics application NAMD. Figure 18 shows
the performance of NAMD with four GPU boards. In case of NAMD, lower is better, so we see a 3.7X
performance improvement on the STMV benchmark. The power consumption is 63% better in C4130 due
the improvements in GPU and system design. The performance per watt improvement can be
estimated as 3.7X x (1/0.63) = 5.8X. Similarly, Figure 19 show the performance improvement with
just two GPU boards, the performance gain is higher at about 4.3X and power consumption ratio are
similar at about 59%. The relative performance per watt is approximately 4.13X x (1/0.59) = 7X.
Figure 19: Comparison of NAMD performance between C410X and C4130 with two GPU boards