Las Vegas Sphere Uses 150 Nvidia GPUs; Estimated At Lighting Peaks To Use Same Energy Draw As 21,000 Homes
July 15, 2024 by Dave Haynes
Computing hardware giant Nvidia has put out a “behind the screens” post online to talk about what is underneath the hood, so to speak, of the Las Vegas Sphere, and the amount of power needed to run all that Nvidia gear and the LEDs is mind-wobbling.
Behind the screens, around 150 NVIDIA RTX A6000 GPUs help power stunning visuals on floor-to-ceiling, 16x16K displays across the Sphere’s interior, as well as 1.2 million programmable LED pucks on the venue’s exterior — the Exosphere, which is the world’s largest LED screen. Delivering robust network connectivity, NVIDIA BlueField DPUs and NVIDIA ConnectX-6 Dx NICs — along with the NVIDIA DOCA Firefly Service and NVIDIA Rivermax software for media streaming — ensure that all the display panels act as one synchronized canvas.
So that is 150 desktop workstation with Nvidia graphics processors. The digital publication PC Gamer ran the numbers to sort out what that would mean in aggregated computing power, and just how much that would mean in energy consumption.
For those that like big numbers, well, hold onto your hats. Each of those GPUs feature over 10,752 cores, 48 GB of memory and have a 300 W TDP, for a grand total of 1,612,800 cores, 7,200 GB of GDDR6 memory, and a potential maximum power draw of 45,000 watts at full tilt.
Another digital publication, focused on sustainability issues, also ran the numbers and concluded “Sphere is expected to need 28 megawatts to run at its peak energy usage. The organization in charge of monitoring the electrical grid in California says that one megawatt can power about 750 homes at once, meaning that the Las Vegas Sphere, at its peak electricity usage, would use enough energy to power 21,000 homes.”
The project’s backers – the Sphere formally opened last fall – indicated a year ago that that about 70% of the venue’s energy would come from solar power produced by Nevada’s main electricity utility, NV Energy, and a 25-year agreement is in place.
The monthly utility bill from NV Energy must be delivered by forklift.
As I have said in past Comments: Very cool…but… THERE IS NOTHING GREEN ABOUT DIGITAL SIGNAGE… it is a very effective communications tool, but green it ain’t!