tftio wrote:Hey, everybody. My new job has me doing a lot of single-precision CUDA work, and I need to build a PC as a primary workstation. This will be the first time I've done this in more than a decade, so I'm feeling a little at sea here. As this is going to be the way I make my money, and I work from home, I'm interested in stability, then noise, and then everything else.
As long as you're sure you need the single precision performance, then the Titan X is an excellent choice. If by chance you need double precision support or you will in the future, the vanilla Titan or the Titan black would be a better card for it.
tftio wrote:Questions:
1. Is there any reason to think that Skylake will have a Haskell-E processor type line any time in the near future? IOW, should I pull the trigger on an X99, or wait a few months for something EVEN MORE TERRIFYING?
The answer is yes but Broadwell-E is looking to launch at the end of the year and utilize the X99 platform. From all indications, Broadwell-E will mimic the Sandybridge-E to Ivy Bridge-E change: not much to write home about. Expect a few 100 Mhz here and there, faster DDR4 support (officially) too.
SkyLake-E should be roughly ~12 months behind that in late 2016 or early 2017. The way Intel is updating their enthusiast/workstation platform, SkyLake-E will likely introduce a new socket and chipset. Current rumor is that future Xeon Phi and SkyLake-E chips will share a common socket so a 384 bit DDR4 memory interface is possible.
tftio wrote:2. How loud are the stock coolers on a Titan X? I see that EVGA has some -HYBRID version with a custom water cooling loop -- is that a noise solution, or a thermal one? I know the two are inextricably linked, but I'm more interested in a low noise floor at stock speeds than the ability to run much hotter
I haven't heard a Titan X specifically but my experience with reference GTX970 and GTx 980 reference coolers (which is similar to the Titan X reference one) has been good. I wouldn't call them loud but I can hear them under load. For non-load scenarios, I'd have to go out of my way to hear them by getting closer etc. Your mileage may vary with different ears and acoustictastes.
tftio wrote:If I do go X99, there's no good reason to pay 2x the cost for a 5960 (as opposed to a 5930), right?
The cheapest 6 core chip is neutered by only having 28 PCI-E lanes. In all honesty, I'd have preferred a 4 core chip with 40 PCI-E lanes for $300 to $400 as that is the primary driver of the X99 platform.