1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,190 thanks for watching Techquickie click the subscribe button and enable 2 00:00:03,210 --> 00:00:09,719 notifications with the bell icon so you won't miss any future videos when it 3 00:00:07,589 --> 00:00:16,260 comes to processor speed whether it's a CPU or a GPU you probably think in 4 00:00:13,049 --> 00:00:18,990 megahertz or gigahertz at first but 5 00:00:16,260 --> 00:00:24,210 these numbers aren't actually very useful if you're comparing processors 6 00:00:21,060 --> 00:00:26,699 across different models so maybe that's 7 00:00:24,210 --> 00:00:32,099 why graphics card makers in particular have started leaning on a specification 8 00:00:29,220 --> 00:00:36,719 called flops to describe their latest and greatest hardware but what does that 9 00:00:34,440 --> 00:00:43,500 mean I mean is that a measure of how many disappointing $60 games your card 10 00:00:39,570 --> 00:00:45,360 will run before it dies no flops is a 11 00:00:43,500 --> 00:00:51,570 performance metric that stands for floating-point operations per second now 12 00:00:48,899 --> 00:00:55,770 this might sound like the time it takes for your magic 8-ball to give you an 13 00:00:53,370 --> 00:01:01,280 answer but it's really a measure of how quickly your processor can do math that 14 00:00:58,710 --> 00:01:06,150 involves a mix of large small and fractional numbers and it matters 15 00:01:03,960 --> 00:01:10,979 because computers only have a finite amount of space to store the numbers 16 00:01:08,670 --> 00:01:16,770 that they work with for a single number this is typically either 32 or 64 bits 17 00:01:14,610 --> 00:01:21,869 depending on what processor and program you're using so in order to express a 18 00:01:19,170 --> 00:01:26,220 range of very large and very small numbers some of these bits are allocated 19 00:01:24,900 --> 00:01:30,900 destroying the digits of the number itself while others are reserved to 20 00:01:28,799 --> 00:01:36,540 specify where the decimal point should be a little bit like scientific notation 21 00:01:33,210 --> 00:01:39,540 this makes it easy to express huge or 22 00:01:36,540 --> 00:01:41,939 tiny numbers in a limited number of bits 23 00:01:39,540 --> 00:01:46,530 but keep in mind that floating-point operations are less straightforward for 24 00:01:44,520 --> 00:01:50,100 your processor to carry out than ones that only involve integers due to the 25 00:01:48,780 --> 00:01:55,439 computer needing to deal with ever-changing exponents converting them 26 00:01:52,920 --> 00:02:00,240 to and from decimal numbers and rounding them off now if you watched our episode 27 00:01:57,899 --> 00:02:04,049 explaining the difference between CPUs and GPUs which if you haven't you can 28 00:02:02,399 --> 00:02:09,330 check out here you might already understand why it's more common to see a 29 00:02:07,049 --> 00:02:15,340 flops measurement on a graphics card spec page versus one for a CPU much of 30 00:02:13,110 --> 00:02:20,020 the math your GPU needs to do in order to render the images that you see on 31 00:02:17,320 --> 00:02:24,820 your screen uses vectors to determine where each line and shape should go and 32 00:02:22,630 --> 00:02:29,770 crunching these numbers involves using many different floating-point numbers 33 00:02:27,160 --> 00:02:34,270 whose exponent values can vary quite a bit now supercomputers and more powerful 34 00:02:32,950 --> 00:02:39,490 workstations used for scientific research and weather modeling are also 35 00:02:37,120 --> 00:02:45,700 often described in terms of flops as they also heavily rely on using 36 00:02:42,280 --> 00:02:48,250 floating-point numbers but what exactly 37 00:02:45,700 --> 00:02:53,620 does any of this mean for you out there yes you Tom Smith who's just trying to 38 00:02:51,310 --> 00:02:58,360 score a good deal on a video card should you go for whatever has the highest 39 00:02:55,510 --> 00:03:04,300 flops that you can still afford the answer is probably no even though more 40 00:03:01,390 --> 00:03:09,820 flops does indicate more raw computational power it means it's better 41 00:03:07,240 --> 00:03:16,870 in the same way that a CPU with more megahertz or a digital camera with more 42 00:03:12,580 --> 00:03:19,270 megapixels is better many other things 43 00:03:16,870 --> 00:03:22,930 will play a huge role in how good of an experience you'll have with your 44 00:03:20,500 --> 00:03:27,970 graphics card including memory capacity and bandwidth the specific architecture 45 00:03:25,450 --> 00:03:33,340 that your GPU uses and even how nicely the drivers play with the specific games 46 00:03:30,790 --> 00:03:38,110 in your library so the takeaway here is that unless you're an AI or Big Data 47 00:03:35,920 --> 00:03:45,600 researcher there's no need to be all starry-eyed at how the new Titan V has a 48 00:03:41,500 --> 00:03:48,520 hundred and ten teraflops of pure power 49 00:03:45,600 --> 00:03:52,540 but at least you know that the specification on the back of the box 50 00:03:50,190 --> 00:03:58,860 doesn't refer to the sound that your wallet makes as it 51 00:03:54,690 --> 00:04:01,450 flops down on the checkout counter 52 00:03:58,860 --> 00:04:05,320 speaking of the checkout counter go ahead over to tunnel there we've got it 53 00:04:03,820 --> 00:04:10,390 linked in the video description and check out the simple VPN that makes it 54 00:04:08,650 --> 00:04:15,100 easy to browse privately and enjoy a more open Internet with tunnel bear 55 00:04:12,580 --> 00:04:19,239 turned on your Wi-Fi connection or wired connection is secured and your online 56 00:04:17,260 --> 00:04:24,280 activity is kept private from your internet provider advertisers or anyone 57 00:04:22,120 --> 00:04:29,889 looking to track you or profit from your data tunnel bear has a top rated privacy 58 00:04:26,530 --> 00:04:31,270 policy and not log your activity so try 59 00:04:29,889 --> 00:04:35,849 it for free with no credit card required at Tunnel Bear comm forward slash Linus 60 00:04:33,850 --> 00:04:39,669 we've got that linked below so thanks for watching guys like dislike 61 00:04:38,139 --> 00:04:43,949 check out other channels leave a comment with fee APIs suggestion for a future video and don't forget to subscribe