WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.190 thanks for watching Techquickie click the subscribe button and enable 00:00:03.210 --> 00:00:09.719 notifications with the bell icon so you won't miss any future videos when it 00:00:07.589 --> 00:00:16.260 comes to processor speed whether it's a CPU or a GPU you probably think in 00:00:13.049 --> 00:00:18.990 megahertz or gigahertz at first but 00:00:16.260 --> 00:00:24.210 these numbers aren't actually very useful if you're comparing processors 00:00:21.060 --> 00:00:26.699 across different models so maybe that's 00:00:24.210 --> 00:00:32.099 why graphics card makers in particular have started leaning on a specification 00:00:29.220 --> 00:00:36.719 called flops to describe their latest and greatest hardware but what does that 00:00:34.440 --> 00:00:43.500 mean I mean is that a measure of how many disappointing $60 games your card 00:00:39.570 --> 00:00:45.360 will run before it dies no flops is a 00:00:43.500 --> 00:00:51.570 performance metric that stands for floating-point operations per second now 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 00:00:53.370 --> 00:01:01.280 answer but it's really a measure of how quickly your processor can do math that 00:00:58.710 --> 00:01:06.150 involves a mix of large small and fractional numbers and it matters 00:01:03.960 --> 00:01:10.979 because computers only have a finite amount of space to store the numbers 00:01:08.670 --> 00:01:16.770 that they work with for a single number this is typically either 32 or 64 bits 00:01:14.610 --> 00:01:21.869 depending on what processor and program you're using so in order to express a 00:01:19.170 --> 00:01:26.220 range of very large and very small numbers some of these bits are allocated 00:01:24.900 --> 00:01:30.900 destroying the digits of the number itself while others are reserved to 00:01:28.799 --> 00:01:36.540 specify where the decimal point should be a little bit like scientific notation 00:01:33.210 --> 00:01:39.540 this makes it easy to express huge or 00:01:36.540 --> 00:01:41.939 tiny numbers in a limited number of bits 00:01:39.540 --> 00:01:46.530 but keep in mind that floating-point operations are less straightforward for 00:01:44.520 --> 00:01:50.100 your processor to carry out than ones that only involve integers due to the 00:01:48.780 --> 00:01:55.439 computer needing to deal with ever-changing exponents converting them 00:01:52.920 --> 00:02:00.240 to and from decimal numbers and rounding them off now if you watched our episode 00:01:57.899 --> 00:02:04.049 explaining the difference between CPUs and GPUs which if you haven't you can 00:02:02.399 --> 00:02:09.330 check out here you might already understand why it's more common to see a 00:02:07.049 --> 00:02:15.340 flops measurement on a graphics card spec page versus one for a CPU much of 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 00:02:17.320 --> 00:02:24.820 your screen uses vectors to determine where each line and shape should go and 00:02:22.630 --> 00:02:29.770 crunching these numbers involves using many different floating-point numbers 00:02:27.160 --> 00:02:34.270 whose exponent values can vary quite a bit now supercomputers and more powerful 00:02:32.950 --> 00:02:39.490 workstations used for scientific research and weather modeling are also 00:02:37.120 --> 00:02:45.700 often described in terms of flops as they also heavily rely on using 00:02:42.280 --> 00:02:48.250 floating-point numbers but what exactly 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 00:02:51.310 --> 00:02:58.360 score a good deal on a video card should you go for whatever has the highest 00:02:55.510 --> 00:03:04.300 flops that you can still afford the answer is probably no even though more 00:03:01.390 --> 00:03:09.820 flops does indicate more raw computational power it means it's better 00:03:07.240 --> 00:03:16.870 in the same way that a CPU with more megahertz or a digital camera with more 00:03:12.580 --> 00:03:19.270 megapixels is better many other things 00:03:16.870 --> 00:03:22.930 will play a huge role in how good of an experience you'll have with your 00:03:20.500 --> 00:03:27.970 graphics card including memory capacity and bandwidth the specific architecture 00:03:25.450 --> 00:03:33.340 that your GPU uses and even how nicely the drivers play with the specific games 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 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 00:03:41.500 --> 00:03:48.520 hundred and ten teraflops of pure power 00:03:45.600 --> 00:03:52.540 but at least you know that the specification on the back of the box 00:03:50.190 --> 00:03:58.860 doesn't refer to the sound that your wallet makes as it 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