The firsts nVidia’s OpenCL drivers were slow at least (to not write buggy too), but the latest one are stable and real real fast, they provide incredible real-world level of performance:
Comparing Core2 Quad QX9650 and Core i7 to GeForce 9600M GT (mobile GPU) and GeForce 9600 GT show that actual GPU found on laptops or on the low-end desktop computer will crush CPU on many tasks, and more, enable you to double or triple the performance-level on many softwares:
SIS Software integrated OpenCL into their PC test-suite, Sandra 2009 SP4, and do benchmarks of CPU with OpenCL as well as benchmark of GPU with OpenCL.
I won’t compare Apple and Orange (albeit I prefer Mac on my lap and oranges on my glass), so the best is to compare OpenCL GPU-code and SSE2-optimized CPU-code, with actual ForceWare 190.89 video drivers. Fastest CPU implementation with hand-coding against great GPU implementation with adapted algorithms (but no hand-coding PTX)
- GeForce 9600M GT delivers 60Mpix/s, approximately the level of a Core2 Quad QX 9650, 4×3.0Ghz
- GeForce 9600 GT (under $100) delivers 170Mpix/s, 50% over any Core i7 965 4×3.2Ghz with 8 threads, that cost 1000$+!
I will finish talking about MCP79, GeForce 9400M integrated in most Mac, they offer with this benchmark the same level of performance than a Core2 Duo2 2×2.0Ghz with SSE2 optimized code, so it’s the opportunity to double (2X) performance on MacBook Air, aggregating CPU and GPU, and adds at least 60% performance on 2.53Ghz MacBook Pro based on GeForce 9400M.
Seems interesting, but imagine that a MacBook Air could be compared to a Core2 Duo 2×3.6Ghz desktop, or a MacBook Pro 2.53Ghz to a Core2 Quad 4×2.2Ghz desktop?
Or a MacBook Pro like mine, 2×2.8Ghz with GeForce 9600M GT, with the computational power of a Core2 Quad 4×4.5Ghz overclocked desktop, while running on battery, or to compare Apple and Apple, faster than an actual MacPro’s 4×2.26Ghz CPU???
PS: Oups, I do an error, on a MacBook Pro in Performance Mode, GeForce 9400M MCP79 and GeForce 9600M GT are BOTH active, and the gloable performance on SISoft Sandra 2009 SP4 benchmark is on a par with quad-core (8 threads) 2.66 Ghz MacPro CPU!!!
