Blender, the free 3D modelling and animation software, has just released a preview of version 3.0 with support for hardware acceleration on Radeon 6000 GPUs using HIP (Heterogeneous Interface for Portability), AMD’s alternative to Nvidia’s CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture). This replaces the OpenCL acceleration used in Blender 2.9 and older versions. Here are my render times with the Barbershop benchmark, where a lower render time indicates higher performance.
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Cyberpunk 2077 on Surface Go 2: RTX Online
Cyberpunk is a subgenre of science fiction in a dystopian futuristic setting that tends to focus on a combination of low-life and high tech. Notable examples include novels Neuromancer (1984) and Snow Crash (1992), movies Blade Runner (1982), Ghost in the Shell (1995), The Matrix (1999), and the computer game Deus Ex (2000).
The tabletop role playing game Cyberpunk was written by Mike Pondsmith and published by R. Talsorian Games in 1988, followed by the sequels Cyberpunk 2020 in 1990, Cyberpunk V3.0 in 2005, and Cyberpunk Red in 2020.
Continue reading Cyberpunk 2077 on Surface Go 2: RTX Online
Raijintek Morpheus II
RX Vega 56 launched in August 2017 with a blower-style stock cooler that is incapable of adequately handling the excess heat from this GPU at its full performance level. The default settings deliberately limit the power consumption and fan speed to keep it running comfortably within its physical limitations. Can it be improved with a different GPU cooler?
External GPU with Thunderbolt 3
The AKiTiO Node Thunderbolt 3 eGFX Box is a 7Kg black metal powered external enclosure for connecting a full-size graphical processing unit (GPU) to any computer with a Thunderbolt 3 port. The front 12cm fan can be removed to make room for a water cooling radiator.
Fixing the XPS 13 9350
A follow-up to my previous post about the Dell XPS 13 9350. Thermal performance, dynamic brightness control, and a failed BIOS update.
Dell XPS 13 Review
Testing a Titan
We recently acquired a Nvidia GTX Titan graphical processing unit (GPU) for statistical computing at work, specifically double-precision floating point operations on the CUDA API. Before I lock it away in the server room I would like to see how it compares to my primary GPU at home – a Nvidia GTX 680, and my older GPUs – a pair of AMD Radeon HD 5770. This act of comparison is called benchmarking – running a number of standard tests and trials in order to assess the relative performance of a piece of hardware or software.