Question

Can anyone give me the approximate time (in nanoseconds) to access L1, L2 and L3 caches, as well as main memory on Intel i7 processors?

While this isn't specifically a programming question, knowing these kinds of speed details is neccessary for some low-latency programming challenges.

Was it helpful?

Solution

Here is a Performance Analysis Guide for the i7 and Xeon range of processors. I should stress, this has what you need and more (for example, check page 22 for some timings & cycles for example).

Additionally, this page has some details on clock cycles etc. The second link served the following numbers:

Core i7 Xeon 5500 Series Data Source Latency (approximate)               [Pg. 22]

local  L1 CACHE hit,                              ~4 cycles (   2.1 -  1.2 ns )
local  L2 CACHE hit,                             ~10 cycles (   5.3 -  3.0 ns )
local  L3 CACHE hit, line unshared               ~40 cycles (  21.4 - 12.0 ns )
local  L3 CACHE hit, shared line in another core ~65 cycles (  34.8 - 19.5 ns )
local  L3 CACHE hit, modified in another core    ~75 cycles (  40.2 - 22.5 ns )

remote L3 CACHE (Ref: Fig.1 [Pg. 5])        ~100-300 cycles ( 160.7 - 30.0 ns )

local  DRAM                                                   ~60 ns
remote DRAM                                                  ~100 ns

EDIT2:
The most important is the notice under the cited table, saying:

"NOTE: THESE VALUES ARE ROUGH APPROXIMATIONS. THEY DEPEND ON CORE AND UNCORE FREQUENCIES, MEMORY SPEEDS, BIOS SETTINGS, NUMBERS OF DIMMS, ETC,ETC..YOUR MILEAGE MAY VARY."

EDIT: I should highlight that, as well as timing/cycle information, the above intel document addresses much more (extremely) useful details of the i7 and Xeon range of processors (from a performance point of view).

OTHER TIPS

Numbers everyone should know

           0.5 ns - CPU L1 dCACHE reference
           1   ns - speed-of-light (a photon) travel a 1 ft (30.5cm) distance
           5   ns - CPU L1 iCACHE Branch mispredict
           7   ns - CPU L2  CACHE reference
          71   ns - CPU cross-QPI/NUMA best  case on XEON E5-46*
         100   ns - MUTEX lock/unlock
         100   ns - own DDR MEMORY reference
         135   ns - CPU cross-QPI/NUMA best  case on XEON E7-*
         202   ns - CPU cross-QPI/NUMA worst case on XEON E7-*
         325   ns - CPU cross-QPI/NUMA worst case on XEON E5-46*
      10,000   ns - Compress 1K bytes with Zippy PROCESS
      20,000   ns - Send 2K bytes over 1 Gbps NETWORK
     250,000   ns - Read 1 MB sequentially from MEMORY
     500,000   ns - Round trip within a same DataCenter
  10,000,000   ns - DISK seek
  10,000,000   ns - Read 1 MB sequentially from NETWORK
  30,000,000   ns - Read 1 MB sequentially from DISK
 150,000,000   ns - Send a NETWORK packet CA -> Netherlands
|   |   |   |
|   |   | ns|
|   | us|
| ms|

From: Originally by Peter Norvig:
- http://norvig.com/21-days.html#answers
- http://surana.wordpress.com/2009/01/01/numbers-everyone-should-know/,
- http://sites.google.com/site/io/building-scalable-web-applications-with-google-app-engine

a visual comparison

Cost to access various memories in a pretty page

Summary

  1. Values having decreased but are stabilized since 2005

            1 ns        L1 cache
            3 ns        Branch mispredict
            4 ns        L2 cache
           17 ns        Mutex lock/unlock
          100 ns        Main memory (RAM)
        2 000 ns (2µs)  1KB Zippy-compress
    
  2. Still some improvements, prediction for 2020

       16 000 ns (16µs) SSD random read (olibre's note: should be less)
      500 000 ns (½ms)  Round trip in datacenter
    2 000 000 ns (2ms)  HDD random read (seek)
    

See also other sources

See also

For further understanding, I recommend the excellent presentation of modern cache architectures (June 2014) from Gerhard Wellein, Hannes Hofmann and Dietmar Fey at University Erlangen-Nürnberg.

French speaking people may appreciate an article by SpaceFox comparing a processor with a developer both waiting for information required to continue to work.

Just for a sake of 2015's review of the predictions for 2020:

Still some improvements, prediction for 2020 (Ref. olibre's answer below)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
   16 000 ns ( 16 µs) SSD random read (olibre's note: should be less)
  500 000 ns (  ½ ms) Round trip in datacenter
2 000 000 ns (  2 ms) HDD random read (seek)

In 2015 there are currently available:
========================================================================
      820 ns ( 0.8µs)     random read from a SSD-DataPlane
    1 200 ns ( 1.2µs) Round trip in datacenter
    1 200 ns ( 1.2µs)     random read from a HDD-DataPlane

Just for a sake of CPU and GPU latency landscape comparison:

Not an easy task to compare even the simplest CPU / cache / DRAM lineups ( even in a uniform memory access model ), where DRAM-speed is a factor in determining latency, and loaded latency (saturated system), where the latter rules and is something the enterprise applications will experience more than an idle fully unloaded system.

                    +----------------------------------- 5,6,7,8,9,..12,15,16 
                    |                               +--- 1066,1333,..2800..3300
                    v                               v
First  word = ( ( CAS latency * 2 ) + ( 1 - 1 ) ) / Data Rate  
Fourth word = ( ( CAS latency * 2 ) + ( 4 - 1 ) ) / Data Rate
Eighth word = ( ( CAS latency * 2 ) + ( 8 - 1 ) ) / Data Rate
                                        ^----------------------- 7x .. difference
******************************** 
So:
===

resulting DDR3-side latencies are between _____________
                                          3.03 ns    ^
                                                     |
                                         36.58 ns ___v_ based on DDR3 HW facts

Uniform Memory Access

GPU-engines have received a lot of technical marketing, while deep internal dependencies are keys to understand both the real strengths and also the real weaknesses these architectures experience in practice ( typically much different than the aggressive marketing whistled-up expectations ).

   1 ns _________ LETS SETUP A TIME/DISTANCE SCALE FIRST:
          °      ^
          |\     |a 1 ft-distance a foton travels in vacuum ( less in dark-fibre )
          | \    |
          |  \   |
        __|___\__v____________________________________________________
          |    |
          |<-->|  a 1 ns TimeDOMAIN "distance", before a foton arrived
          |    |
          ^    v 
    DATA  |    |DATA
    RQST'd|    |RECV'd ( DATA XFER/FETCH latency )

  25 ns @ 1147 MHz FERMI:  GPU Streaming Multiprocessor REGISTER access
  35 ns @ 1147 MHz FERMI:  GPU Streaming Multiprocessor    L1-onHit-[--8kB]CACHE

  70 ns @ 1147 MHz FERMI:  GPU Streaming Multiprocessor SHARED-MEM access

 230 ns @ 1147 MHz FERMI:  GPU Streaming Multiprocessor texL1-onHit-[--5kB]CACHE
 320 ns @ 1147 MHz FERMI:  GPU Streaming Multiprocessor texL2-onHit-[256kB]CACHE

 350 ns
 700 ns @ 1147 MHz FERMI:  GPU Streaming Multiprocessor GLOBAL-MEM access
 - - - - -

Understanding internalities is thus much more important, than in other fields, where architectures are published and numerous benchmarks freely available. Many thanks to GPU-micro-testers, who 've spent their time and creativity to unleash the truth of the real schemes of work inside the black-box approach tested GPU devices.

    +====================| + 11-12 [usec] XFER-LATENCY-up   HostToDevice    ~~~ same as Intel X48 / nForce 790i
    |   |||||||||||||||||| + 10-11 [usec] XFER-LATENCY-down DeviceToHost
    |   |||||||||||||||||| ~  5.5 GB/sec XFER-BW-up                         ~~~ same as DDR2/DDR3 throughput
    |   |||||||||||||||||| ~  5.2 GB/sec XFER-BW-down @8192 KB TEST-LOAD      ( immune to attempts to OverClock PCIe_BUS_CLK 100-105-110-115 [MHz] ) [D:4.9.3]
    |                       
    |              Host-side
    |                                                        cudaHostRegister(   void *ptr, size_t size, unsigned int flags )
    |                                                                                                                 | +-------------- cudaHostRegisterPortable -- marks memory as PINNED MEMORY for all CUDA Contexts, not just the one, current, when the allocation was performed
    |                        ___HostAllocWriteCombined_MEM / cudaHostFree()                                           +---------------- cudaHostRegisterMapped   -- maps  memory allocation into the CUDA address space ( the Device pointer can be obtained by a call to cudaHostGetDevicePointer( void **pDevice, void *pHost, unsigned int flags=0 ); )
    |                        ___HostRegisterPORTABLE___MEM / cudaHostUnregister( void *ptr )
    |   ||||||||||||||||||
    |   ||||||||||||||||||
    |   | PCIe-2.0 ( 4x) | ~ 4 GB/s over  4-Lanes ( PORT #2  )
    |   | PCIe-2.0 ( 8x) | ~16 GB/s over  8-Lanes
    |   | PCIe-2.0 (16x) | ~32 GB/s over 16-Lanes ( mode 16x )
    |
    |   + PCIe-3.0 25-port 97-lanes non-blocking SwitchFabric ... +over copper/fiber
    |                                                                       ~~~ The latest PCIe specification, Gen 3, runs at 8Gbps per serial lane, enabling a 48-lane switch to handle a whopping 96 GBytes/sec. of full duplex peer to peer traffic. [I:]
    |
    | ~810 [ns]    + InRam-"Network" / many-to-many parallel CPU/Memory "message" passing with less than 810 ns latency any-to-any
    |
    |   ||||||||||||||||||
    |   ||||||||||||||||||
    +====================|
    |.pci............HOST|

My apology for a "bigger-picture", but latency-demasking has also cardinal limits imposed from on-chip smREG/L1/L2-capacities and hit/miss-rates.

    |.pci............GPU.|
    |                    | FERMI [GPU-CLK] ~ 0.9 [ns] but THE I/O LATENCIES                                                                  PAR -- ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| <800> warps ~~ 24000 + 3200 threads ~~ 27200 threads [!!]
    |                                                                                                                                               ^^^^^^^^|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ [!!]
    |                                                       smREGs________________________________________ penalty +400 ~ +800 [GPU_CLKs] latency ( maskable by 400~800 WARPs ) on <Compile-time>-designed spillover(s) to locMEM__
    |                                                                                                              +350 ~ +700 [ns] @1147 MHz FERMI ^^^^^^^^
    |                                                                                                                          |                    ^^^^^^^^
    |                                                                                                                       +5 [ns] @ 200 MHz FPGA. . . . . . Xilinx/Zync Z7020/FPGA massive-parallel streamline-computing mode ev. PicoBlazer softCPU
    |                                                                                                                          |                    ^^^^^^^^
    |                                                                                                                   ~  +20 [ns] @1147 MHz FERMI ^^^^^^^^
    |                                                             SM-REGISTERs/thread: max  63 for CC-2.x -with only about +22 [GPU_CLKs] latency ( maskable by 22-WARPs ) to hide on [REGISTER DEPENDENCY] when arithmetic result is to be served from previous [INSTR] [G]:10.4, Page-46
    |                                                                                  max  63 for CC-3.0 -          about +11 [GPU_CLKs] latency ( maskable by 44-WARPs ) [B]:5.2.3, Page-73
    |                                                                                  max 128 for CC-1.x                                    PAR -- ||||||||~~~|
    |                                                                                  max 255 for CC-3.5                                    PAR -- ||||||||||||||||||~~~~~~|
    |
    |                                                       smREGs___BW                                 ANALYZE REAL USE-PATTERNs IN PTX-creation PHASE <<  -Xptxas -v          || nvcc -maxrregcount ( w|w/o spillover(s) )
    |                                                                with about 8.0  TB/s BW            [C:Pg.46]
    |                                                                           1.3  TB/s BW shaMEM___  4B * 32banks * 15 SMs * half 1.4GHz = 1.3 TB/s only on FERMI
    |                                                                           0.1  TB/s BW gloMEM___
    |         ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
    +========|   DEVICE:3 PERSISTENT                          gloMEM___
    |       _|______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
    +======|   DEVICE:2 PERSISTENT                          gloMEM___
    |     _|______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
    +====|   DEVICE:1 PERSISTENT                          gloMEM___
    |   _|______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
    +==|   DEVICE:0 PERSISTENT                          gloMEM_____________________________________________________________________+440 [GPU_CLKs]_________________________________________________________________________|_GB|
    !  |                                                         |\                                                                +                                                                                           |
    o  |                                                texMEM___|_\___________________________________texMEM______________________+_______________________________________________________________________________________|_MB|
       |                                                         |\ \                                 |\                           +                                               |\                                          |
       |                                              texL2cache_| \ \                               .| \_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _texL2cache +370 [GPU_CLKs] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ | \                                   256_KB|
       |                                                         |  \ \                               |  \                         +                                 |\            ^  \                                        |
       |                                                         |   \ \                              |   \                        +                                 | \           ^   \                                       |
       |                                                         |    \ \                             |    \                       +                                 |  \          ^    \                                      |
       |                                              texL1cache_|     \ \                           .|     \_ _ _ _ _ _texL1cache +260 [GPU_CLKs] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ |   \_ _ _ _ _^     \                                 5_KB|
       |                                                         |      \ \                           |      \                     +                         ^\      ^    \        ^\     \                                    |
       |                                     shaMEM + conL3cache_|       \ \                          |       \ _ _ _ _ conL3cache +220 [GPU_CLKs]           ^ \     ^     \       ^ \     \                              32_KB|
       |                                                         |        \ \                         |        \       ^\          +                         ^  \    ^      \      ^  \     \                                  |
       |                                                         |         \ \                        |         \      ^ \         +                         ^   \   ^       \     ^   \     \                                 |
       |                                   ______________________|__________\_\_______________________|__________\_____^__\________+__________________________________________\_________\_____\________________________________|
       |                  +220 [GPU-CLKs]_|           |_ _ _  ___|\          \ \_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ \ _ _ _ _\_ _ _ _+220 [GPU_CLKs] on re-use at some +50 GPU_CLKs _IF_ a FETCH from yet-in-shaL2cache
       | L2-on-re-use-only +80 [GPU-CLKs]_| 64 KB  L2_|_ _ _   __|\\          \ \_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ \ _ _ _ _\_ _ _ + 80 [GPU_CLKs] on re-use from L1-cached (HIT) _IF_ a FETCH from yet-in-shaL1cache
       | L1-on-re-use-only +40 [GPU-CLKs]_|  8 KB  L1_|_ _ _    _|\\\          \_\__________________________________\________\_____+ 40 [GPU_CLKs]_____________________________________________________________________________|
       | L1-on-re-use-only + 8 [GPU-CLKs]_|  2 KB  L1_|__________|\\\\__________\_\__________________________________\________\____+  8 [GPU_CLKs]_________________________________________________________conL1cache      2_KB|
       |     on-chip|smREG +22 [GPU-CLKs]_|           |t[0_______^:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\:________]
       |CC-  MAX    |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|           |t[1_______^                  :________]
       |2.x   63    |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|           |t[2_______^                  :________] 
       |1.x  128    |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|           |t[3_______^                  :________]
       |3.5  255 REGISTERs|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|           |t[4_______^                  :________]
       |         per|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|           |t[5_______^                  :________]
       |         Thread_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|           |t[6_______^                  :________]
       |            |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|           |t[7_______^     1stHalf-WARP :________]______________
       |            |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|           |t[ 8_______^:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~:________]
       |            |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|           |t[ 9_______^                  :________]
       |            |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|           |t[ A_______^                  :________]
       |            |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|           |t[ B_______^                  :________]
       |            |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|           |t[ C_______^                  :________]
       |            |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|           |t[ D_______^                  :________]
       |            |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|           |t[ E_______^                  :________]
       |            |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|       W0..|t[ F_______^____________WARP__:________]_____________
       |            |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|         ..............             
       |            |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|           ............|t[0_______^:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\:________]
       |            |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|           ............|t[1_______^                 :________]
       |            |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|           ............|t[2_______^                 :________] 
       |            |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|           ............|t[3_______^                 :________]
       |            |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|           ............|t[4_______^                 :________]
       |            |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|           ............|t[5_______^                 :________]
       |            |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|           ............|t[6_______^                 :________]
       |            |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|           ............|t[7_______^    1stHalf-WARP :________]______________
       |            |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|           ............|t[ 8_______^:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~:________]
       |            |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|           ............|t[ 9_______^                 :________]
       |            |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|           ............|t[ A_______^                 :________]
       |            |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|           ............|t[ B_______^                 :________]
       |            |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|           ............|t[ C_______^                 :________]
       |            |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|           ............|t[ D_______^                 :________]
       |            |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|           ............|t[ E_______^                 :________]
       |            |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|       W1..............|t[ F_______^___________WARP__:________]_____________
       |            |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|         ....................................................
       |            |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|          ...................................................|t[0_______^:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\:________]
       |            |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|          ...................................................|t[1_______^                 :________]
       |            |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|          ...................................................|t[2_______^                 :________] 
       |            |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|          ...................................................|t[3_______^                 :________]
       |            |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|          ...................................................|t[4_______^                 :________]
       |            |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|          ...................................................|t[5_______^                 :________]
       |            |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|          ...................................................|t[6_______^                 :________]
       |            |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|          ...................................................|t[7_______^    1stHalf-WARP :________]______________
       |            |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|          ...................................................|t[ 8_______^:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~:________]
       |            |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|          ...................................................|t[ 9_______^                 :________]
       |            |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|          ...................................................|t[ A_______^                 :________]
       |            |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|          ...................................................|t[ B_______^                 :________]
       |            |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|          ...................................................|t[ C_______^                 :________]
       |            |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|          ...................................................|t[ D_______^                 :________]
       |            |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|          ...................................................|t[ E_______^                 :________]
       |            |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|tBlock Wn....................................................|t[ F_______^___________WARP__:________]_____________
       |
       |                   ________________          °°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°~~~~~~~~~~°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°
       |                  /                \   CC-2.0|||||||||||||||||||||||||| ~masked  ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
       |                 /                  \  1.hW  ^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^| <wait>-s ^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^|
       |                /                    \ 2.hW  |^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^          |^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^|^
       |_______________/                      \______I|I|I|I|I|I|I|I|I|I|I|I|I|~~~~~~~~~~I|I|I|I|I|I|I|I|I|I|I|I|I|I|I|I|I|I|I|I|I|I|I|I|I|I|I|I|I|I|I|I|I|I|I|I|I|
       |~~~~~~~~~~~~~~/ SM:0.warpScheduler    /~~~~~~~I~I~I~I~I~I~I~I~I~I~I~I~I~~~~~~~~~~~I~I~I~I~I~I~I~I~I~I~I~I~I~I~I~I~I~I~I~I~I~I~I~I~I~I~I~I~I~I~I~I~I~I~I~I~I
       |              \          |           //
       |               \         RR-mode    //
       |                \    GREEDY-mode   //
       |                 \________________//
       |                   \______________/SM:0__________________________________________________________________________________
       |                                  |           |t[ F_______^___________WARP__:________]_______
       |                                ..|SM:1__________________________________________________________________________________
       |                                  |           |t[ F_______^___________WARP__:________]_______
       |                                ..|SM:2__________________________________________________________________________________
       |                                  |           |t[ F_______^___________WARP__:________]_______
       |                                ..|SM:3__________________________________________________________________________________
       |                                  |           |t[ F_______^___________WARP__:________]_______
       |                                ..|SM:4__________________________________________________________________________________
       |                                  |           |t[ F_______^___________WARP__:________]_______
       |                                ..|SM:5__________________________________________________________________________________
       |                                  |           |t[ F_______^___________WARP__:________]_______
       |                                ..|SM:6__________________________________________________________________________________
       |                                  |           |t[ F_______^___________WARP__:________]_______
       |                                ..|SM:7__________________________________________________________________________________
       |                                  |           |t[ F_______^___________WARP__:________]_______
       |                                ..|SM:8__________________________________________________________________________________
       |                                  |           |t[ F_______^___________WARP__:________]_______
       |                                ..|SM:9__________________________________________________________________________________
       |                                ..|SM:A      |t[ F_______^___________WARP__:________]_______
       |                                ..|SM:B      |t[ F_______^___________WARP__:________]_______
       |                                ..|SM:C      |t[ F_______^___________WARP__:________]_______
       |                                ..|SM:D      |t[ F_______^___________WARP__:________]_______
       |                                  |_______________________________________________________________________________________
       */

The bottom line?

Any low-latency motivated design has to rather reverse-engineer the "I/O-hydraulics" ( as 0 1-XFERs are incompressible by the nature ) and the resulting latencies rule the performance envelope for any GPGPU solution be it computationally intensive ( read: where processing costs are forgiving a bit more a poor latency XFERs ... ) or not ( read: where ( might be to someone's surprise ) CPU-s are faster in end-to-end processing, than GPU fabrics [citations available] ).

Look at this "staircase" plot, perfectly illustrating different access times (in terms of clock tics). Notice the red CPU having an additional "step", probably because it has L4 (while others don't).

Graphs of access times with different memory hierarchies

Taken from this Extremetech article.

In computer science this is called "I/O complexity".

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