I’m not sure about that, because some programs require a certain amount of ram and GPU memory to run, so if you tried to run cs 2 on a potato it will probably crash.
I avoid the nitty gritty because I’m a software guy but as far as I know nothing is inherently stopping the computer from using the hard drive as extremely slow RAM even for the GPU. I mean we already have page and swap files, might need to be implemented, but I don’t see why it couldn’t be technically done.
I think it’s more “technically nothing stopping you from making it happen”. I can’t find anywhere where it’s actually implemented because it really is a bad idea, molasses might flow up hill quicker in winter than a GPU would run using swap files
There is nothing fundamentally different about what goes on, bare metal, on a GPU, it’s just built to run certain kinds of operations much more efficiently, a lot more small operations in parallel. But you can have CPU run the same processes, it’ll just take much longer. Hell, with effort you can get a GPU to do what a CPU does. Would it take some seriously complex porting and weird black magic fuckery? Yah. would it be a massively inefficient, slow and difficult way to do it? Without a fucking doubt. Memory and storage are a non issue so long as you can get a signal out and attach a external storage medium, it’ll just slow things down, but with enough time and power…
all modern computers are universal Nueman-Turing machines, thus, with enough time and power, any program can be run.
Edit: to be clear I’m referring to universal turing machines and Von Neumann architecture
I’m not sure about that, because some programs require a certain amount of ram and GPU memory to run, so if you tried to run cs 2 on a potato it will probably crash.
I avoid the nitty gritty because I’m a software guy but as far as I know nothing is inherently stopping the computer from using the hard drive as extremely slow RAM even for the GPU. I mean we already have page and swap files, might need to be implemented, but I don’t see why it couldn’t be technically done.
Is there swap for GPU memory? I didn’t know that
I think it’s more “technically nothing stopping you from making it happen”. I can’t find anywhere where it’s actually implemented because it really is a bad idea, molasses might flow up hill quicker in winter than a GPU would run using swap files
There’s anything for anything, provided you write the drivers/toolchain/kernel/firmware/ISA to make it happen. That’s the commenter’s point.
What if I use a netbook with barely enough storage to run Windows and download the game?
Swap over NFS.
Oh yes.
swap over carrier pigeon
Or don’t even have a mounted drive and use some sort of http service.
Swap over dropbox
plug in external storage, like a flash drive.
There is nothing fundamentally different about what goes on, bare metal, on a GPU, it’s just built to run certain kinds of operations much more efficiently, a lot more small operations in parallel. But you can have CPU run the same processes, it’ll just take much longer. Hell, with effort you can get a GPU to do what a CPU does. Would it take some seriously complex porting and weird black magic fuckery? Yah. would it be a massively inefficient, slow and difficult way to do it? Without a fucking doubt. Memory and storage are a non issue so long as you can get a signal out and attach a external storage medium, it’ll just slow things down, but with enough time and power…
it is possible
thats why TMs are theoretical constructs that write on infinite tape
Not with normal settings, you just have to modify it to run at 1x10-30 frames per day.
The GPU is Harvard yes. Additionally most CPUs are modified Harvard, but the instruction architecture they run is Von Neumann