(Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
The Las Vegas Sphere has been wowing the public with its dazzling computer-generated imagery. It turns out over a hundred Nvidia GPUs are helping to render the effects.
In a blog post, Nvidia said the company behind the Sphere is harnessing around 150 RTX A6000 graphics cards to power the visuals both inside and outside the dome-like venue, which cost $2.3 billion to build.
In December 2020, Nvidia launched the RTX A6000, which currently cost about $4,500 a piece. The workstation GPU is now being used to render content for the “16k by 16K displays across the Sphere’s interior, as well as 1.2 million programmable LED pucks on the venue’s exterior,” the company said.
(Photo by Eliot J. Schechter/NHLI via Getty Images)The results have helped the Sphere display all kinds of imagery, often to promote concerts or special events at the venue. To do so, Sphere Studios, which is based in Burbank, California, will develop custom video content for the venue’s massive displays.
Nvidia’s blog post didn’t go into details about how the A6000 GPUs are powering the visuals at the Sphere. However, the company noted the visuals are “streamed in real time to rack-mounted workstations equipped with Nvidia RTX A6000 GPUs, achieving unprecedented performance capable of delivering three layers of 16K resolution at 60 frames per second.”
In addition, the Sphere has been using Nvidia’s networking technology to eliminate any stuttering to the content streaming. This includes using the company’s Bluefield data processing units and the Nvidia Rivermax software, which is focused on media streaming.
Nvidia’s blog post goes on to say the Sphere has been “captivating” the public. But all that technology isn’t cheap, with some estimates projecting the Sphere might use enough electricity to power 21,000 homes during its peak usage.