GPU Client That only use the idle gpu?

[i20234]

I was wondering if it would be possible to create a gpu client that only used the idle part of the gpu (much like the smp client).

This would be great because I can play games and not only run the smp client, which I do, but the gpu client as well.

Thanks.

[Zagen30]

If the PG could get the GPU client to work like this, they would. Unfortunately, GPUs have never been designed to handle multi-tasking very well since normally they're only doing one thing at a time, i.e. showing the pretty graphics of the game you're playing. Compare that to a CPU, which has always had to carry out various OS-related tasks while running all of the foreground programs you run, and you should see why the CPU client works better with other tasks than the GPU client.

[P5-133XL]

Not likely to happen any time soon. It would require chip-level HW changes in the GPU to support priority interrupts, driver changes, and OS changes.

[7im]

The GPU client is considered a high performance client, like SMP. Neither are designed to run on "spare" background CPU cycles. It's counter-intuitive to the design goals, and the goals of the project.

I wouldn't say never, but let's try to get a good working GPU client first, and then they can try for other configurations.

[i20234]

Was sure there was a reason, and makes sense, thanks.