With the advancement in artificial intelligence technologies, there will be a drastic shift in how work will be done in future. At COMPUTEX 2024, we saw how AI is starting to change the world, and how various AI use cases used in different industries have made work more efficient and productive. It seems like the AI revolution is imminent.
In order to embrace the new AI era, GIGABYTE has just released the GIGABYTE AI TOP strategy aimed at equipping engineers and researchers with the tools required for AI training and empowerment. Understanding the gap in the market where AI practitioners finds a lack of a decent workstation for their AI ambitions, GIGABYTE’s AI TOP aims to provide them with an all-rounded solution for AI models to be trained locally.
Through the motto “Train Your Own AI on Your Desk”, GIGABYTE wants to bring AI training to the convenience of one’s personal computer be it at work or at home. Essentially, they are trying to make AI training compute capabilities accessible.
GIGABYTE AI TOP strategy comes in 3 parts – AI TOP Utility, AI TOP Hardware and AI TOP Tutor.
AI TOP Utility
The AI TOP Utility enables AI engineers to train their own models locally on their AI TOP workstations. This tool brings control to their own data set and gives a peace of mind. Since the AI model will be trained locally, no data will be transmitted over the internet, ensuring data integrity and privacy.
Furthermore, AI TOP Utility can also enable hardware optimizations for improved AI training capabilities. For example, to increase the overall system memory, memory space from the DRAM, SSD and VRAM can all be used as a medium for the memory demanding training tasks.
AI TOP Utility also supports the some of the largest models available for use now for fine-tuning, where a pre-trained model is taken to be trained with another data set. This allows it to adapt the model to domain specific use cases.
GIGABYTE has also made the utility with user experience in mind, enhancing its usability. This makes it extremely simple for AI training. In fact, with AI TOP Utility, there is no need for any codes to be written at all, as this is all handled by the utility.
AI TOP Hardware
Typically, AI training is done on an cloud where a huge number of GPUs are able to work together to create AI models. In order to bring that AI training compute performance to the home or workspace, there needs to have specialized PC components brought to a workstation setup. GIGABYTE recommended components, which are able to meet the high demands of AI training, are introduced as AI TOP Hardware.
The AI TOP Hardware are specialized for AI training. One of the key features of these workstations is its power efficiency. For example, a regular PC build could only generate 0.34 tokens for every Watt on a generative AI model. With AI Top Hardware, we can generate about 2.63 tokens per watt. This is a drastic efficiency improvement of almost 8 times.
Specifically, AI TOP hardware also only utilizes premium critical components and have been tested to work under intense AI training workloads. As we understand that training could take up a very long time, especially with very large models, it is fundamental for the workstation to work reliably. GIGABYTE also gives the assurance by providing extended warranty for AI TOP Hardware.
The idea of AI TOP Hardware is to bring the capabilities various high-end components to a single tower chassis build. Some of the key components showcased are as such:
TRX 50 AI TOP
The TRX 50 AI TOP can support the latest AMD Theadripper processors for unparalleled CPU computing performance. On top of that, it can be equipped with up to 4 x Graphics Card all at PCIe 5.0 communication standard.
As part of the TRX 50 platform, this motherboard can also support up to 2TB of DDR5 memory with 8 x R-DIMM slots, and also 4 x M.2 SSDs in RAID 0 for unparalleled performance.
This motherboard also features dual 10GbE ports that can bring the system to the next level, possibly working with other AI nodes for further computational processes at high bandwidth.
W790 AI TOP
Similar to the TRX 50 AI Top, the W790 AI TOP is another solution which is based on the Intel platform. It is also featured packed with similar features. The W790 features 2 x Thunderbolt 4 ports, and can run up to 6 x M.2 SSDs.
RTX 4070 Ti SUPER AI TOP 16G
For an affordable AI training workstation build, the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER AI TOP specifically designed to fit within 2 expansion slots. This allows the workstation to fit a maximum of 4 graphics cards within. These cards are also also redesigned with a different blower cooler, so that they can still be efficiently cooled.
AMD Radeon W7900 AI TOP and W7800 AI TOP
Announced not long ago by AMD, the Radeon PRO W7900 Dual Slot is validated to work in a 4-GPU setup. The W7900 and W7800 are purpose built workstation graphics cards. With a large 48GB and 32GB of GDDR6 ECC RAM, it makes these graphics card suited for AI training tasks.
AI TOP 100E 1TB/2TB SSD
The new GIGABYTE AI TOP 100E 1/2TB SSD is designed with reliability in mind. It has been tested with enhanced TBW (Terabytes Written) for workload scenarios of AI training. It also supports LDPC of ECC algorithm, ensuring that the data integrity is met for optimal AI training.
UD1600PM PG5 AI TOP
To power all the graphics cards and other high-end components within the system (especially one configured with 4 x GPUs) requires a high wattage power supply. The UD1600PM PG5 AI TOP is the right one for the job. Rated at 1600W, it is able to efficiently power all the power demanding components equipped on the AI TOP builds. It comes with a fully modular design, where all of its cables can be used only when required, or removed totally from the power supply for optimal airflow and cable management. Despite its high wattage, it even comes with the 80PLUS Platinum certification, which means that it can work efficiently with minimal power loss.
Showcased Builds at COMPUTEX 2024
GIGABYTE also showcased a few workstation builds that caters for various use cases at COMPUTEX 2024.
System 1 : TRX 50 AERO D with Threadripper Processor and 2 x GeForce RTX 4090
System 2 : TRX 50 AI TOP with 4 x W7900 AI TOP 48G
System 3 : TRX 50 AI TOP with 4 x RTX 4070 Ti SUPER AI TOP
AI TOP Tutor
The AI TOP Tutor is GIGABYTE’s service chat bot that helps AI researchers and developers with their enquiries on the AI TOP systems. The AI TOP Tutor offers thorough consultation for AI TOP solutions, easy-to-follow setup instructions, and technical assistance. These features make GIGABYTE AI TOP user-friendly for both beginners and experts, facilitating the initiation of local AI training projects.
