I've looked hard at using amazons gpu clusters, and the math just doesn't work out.
If you're working on applications that will need to be using the gpu regularly, you can build a system with 4 gtx580s for about $3,000, and one of those systems will outperform 2, maybe 3, aws gpu instances, which will run you about 1000 per month each. The ownership number does not include data center/power/etc., but I still think buying is better value if you'll be using it a lot.
Now, if you're running gpu jobs sporadically, aws may make sense, but you should really look carefully at this, it's not the same value relationship as hosting web servers on aws (which I'm a general proponent of).
Although, to be fair, that may change if they really do pass on some of their savings from this deal to the user.
If you're working on applications that will need to be using the gpu regularly, you can build a system with 4 gtx580s for about $3,000, and one of those systems will outperform 2, maybe 3, aws gpu instances, which will run you about 1000 per month each. The ownership number does not include data center/power/etc., but I still think buying is better value if you'll be using it a lot.
Now, if you're running gpu jobs sporadically, aws may make sense, but you should really look carefully at this, it's not the same value relationship as hosting web servers on aws (which I'm a general proponent of).
Although, to be fair, that may change if they really do pass on some of their savings from this deal to the user.