Ask GN 65: Buy or Wait for Volta? How CPUs Die

In this episode of Ask GN, we talk about whether it makes more sense to buy a GPU now or wait for Volta, along with other questions.

00:52 - Buy or Wait for Volta?

11:14 - How Long to “Saturate” Water Temperature: dyslex666 – “#askgn-questions When can you be sure that your cooling solution is enough after an overclock? Cos stress testing in Prime AVX or IBT for 60 minutes is fine. But if you have no way to see the water temperature, how can you tell when it has actual heat-saturation? At the moment, I really just rely on "I'm not gonna max the system for more than 60 minutes ever in the workloads I give it”

16:30 - Why Does the IHS Exist: Kenneth Higley – “Question: GPU heatsinks and waterblocks are placed in direct contact with the silicon, yet CPUs use a heat spreader. Why is this, and could you potentially get better heat dissipation from a CPU without a heat spreader? Could GN test this?”

19:11 - How Does Silicon Die from Overclocking: AllTracTurbo – “Question for Ask GN: Is it possible to damage your CPU or GPU from running it slightly unstable for a prolonged time (4 or 5 years) while maintaining a safe voltage. I understand that the higher the voltage the faster your CPU will deteriorate, but what if you were running stock voltage or even lower and you clocked the chip fast enough to become slightly unstable and left it there. I don't understand the inner workings of a CPU and what physically happens to a transistor if it is sent voltage to do something, but just barely doesn't have enough voltage to do it. Would allowing this to happen billions of times over the course of years cause problems?”

22:13 - Do You Still Feel the Same About VR: Juno – “Hey GN!, I just watched your video "Why We Won't Be Day-One VR Adopters" which I found interesting. I just recently invested into an Oculus Rift ( The $350 Holiday sale was convincing to me after trying a Microsoft MR demo) and after trying it for a bit I think a lot of your criticisms from "Why We Won't Be Day-One VR Adopters" are still valid. ”

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[xrrk]

Titan V is the seventh Titan.
TITAN GK110-400-A1 2688 CUDA
TITAN Black GK110-430-B1 2880 CUDA
TITAN Z 2× GK110 2× 2880 CUDA
TITAN X GM200-400 3072 CUDA
TITAN X GP102-400 3584 CUDA
TITAN Xp GP102-450 3840 CUDA
TITAN V GV100 5120 CUDA

[eknim]

your cat is lovely, can you benchmark it?

[catalystguitarguy]

i think it's the 7th or 8th titan.

[GrendalTheBeasty]

This cat video is brought to you by thermaltake...

[Corei]

U ARE NOT PETTING THE KAT. THE KAT NEEDS PETTS

[Taja_]

Why GN and Linus talked about the "V" being five? It is obviously V for Volta.

[yzputog]

Question for next week: do is pci-e 4.0 and 5.0 relevant for mainstream use case?

Today, graphics card don't really need more than by 8 3.0 for gaming, so what is the use case for really high bandwidth pci-e?

[photonboy]

VOLTAGE-induced failures are complicated. Here's the highlights of a book discussing this (not to explain HOW it works but rather how COMPLICATED it is) though my layman's explanation is to think of it like having a baseball bat (voltage) where you keep wacking away at a structure until you damage it whereas a sponge bat (weaker voltage) doesn't damage anything:

"In GaN high-electron-mobility transistors, electrical degradation due to high-voltage stress is characterized by a critical voltage at which irreversible degradation starts to take place. Separately, cross-sectional TEM analysis has revealed significant crystallographic damage for severely degraded devices. Furthermore, a close correlation between the degree of drain current degradation and material degradation has been reported. However, the role of the critical voltage in physical degradation has not been explored. In this work, we investigate the connection between electrical degradation that occurs around and beyond the critical voltage and the formation of crystallographic defects through detailed electrical and TEM analysis, respectively. We find that a groove in the GaN cap starts to be generated around the critical voltage. At higher voltages, a pit develops that penetrates into the AlGaN barrier. The size of the pit increases with stress voltage. We also observe a good correlation between electrical and material degradation."

[StephenCole]

I am a simple man, I see a kitteh, I press like...

[fifthgear]

#1. Titan
#2.Titan Black
#3. Titan Z
#4. Titan X
#5. Titan X Pascal
#6. Titan Xp

#7. Titan V

[luisbadolato]

Came for the news, stayed for the cat

[ichrismoku]

I'm a simple man, I see a cat in your video, I hit the like button.

[thepowah]

Huang: No plans for volta gaming any time soon.
Everyone else: OMG, that means soon! He said "soon".

[cotes]

@GamersNexus, Another great video guys, Thanks! - minor suggestion, could you add some b-roll to illustrate your context. For example 6:40 would have been a great time to show some old b-roll footage of vrms with and without heatsinks. Cheers!

[charliebrownau]

22:13 - Gday I would recommend Racing Wheel + Flight Stick + 3 Monitors 75-90hz 1080p-1440p over a single VR headset

[BagelCollector]

I'm a simple creature. I see cat, I click.

[papahandsoap]

The cat just wants some damn scritches

[SuviTuuliAllan]

I'm a simple cat; I see a beautiful man, I click.

[WoodWorkLIFE]

The whole dilemma of waiting for volta is the same as waiting for 8k 240hz, you'll just always be waiting. Volta 1080ti equivalent won't really add alot if any value to games until we get 4k 120hz monitors. 1080ti can run almost every AAA title and even most sub-optimal stuff at 4k 60 and 1440 144 all day long.

[rob]

Hey Steve, I'm building a 3D design PC. The program I use is solidworks. I heard that quadro/firepro series cards are better because it's better for high-poly counts, but I've also heard that they don't matter very much. Would it be better to go for an Amd Firepro/Nvidia Quadro series or should I get a geforce gtx series instead?