Remember the Las Vegas Sphere? We call it IMAX on steroids. Well, it appears that this supermassive screen with even more supermassive resolution is powered by super flagship GPUs. That would be 150 pieces of 150 NVIDIA RTX A600.
The graphic engine behind the Sphere
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. As stated by NVIDIA: “Sphere is captivating audiences not only in Las Vegas but also around the world on social media, with immersive LED content delivered at a scale and clarity that has never been done before. This would not be possible without the expertise and innovation of companies such as NVIDIA that are critical to helping power this vision”. Named one of TIME’s Best Inventions of 2023, Sphere hosts original Sphere Experiences, concerts and residencies from the world’s biggest artists, and premier marquee and corporate events. Rock band U2 opened Sphere with a 40-show run that concluded in March. Other shows include The Sphere Experience featuring Darren Aronofsky’s Postcard From Earth, a specially created multi-sensory cinematic experience that showcases all of the venue’s immersive technologies, including high-resolution visuals, advanced concert-grade sound, haptic seats, and atmospheric effects such as wind and scents (read our review here).
One card can support up to four 5K displays natively
Designed to handle professional workflows, the PNY NVIDIA RTX 6000 Ada Generation Graphics Card utilizes NVIDIA Ada Lovelace architecture. This graphics card features 48GB of ECC GDDR6 VRAM. The front panel of the card features four DisplayPort 1.4 outputs and can support up to four 5K displays natively. Computationally intensive programs can utilize the 18,176 CUDA cores to accelerate tasks using CUDA or other APIs. The card features a blower-style fan cooler and it costs $7,300. If one of these GPUs supports 4X5K resolution, how much resolution can be supported with 150 cards? A lot!
A dedicated power station is nearby
In order to power all that goodness, a dedicated power station is located near the Sphere. For those who haven’t visited there yet, go visit! In our opinion, this is the no.1 attraction in Vegas. The best and most affordable way to experience it is by watching Postcard, which was filmed with Sphere Studio’s Big Sky cinema camera. The Big Sky is THE camera that was developed specially for the Sphere’s giant screen. Aronofsky did a great job here, and indeed it looks like an IMAX on steroids. The initial scenes were shot on the ARRI ALEXA 65. Nevertheless, it’s amazing to explore that 150 NVIDIA RTX A6000 GPUs allow these visuals to be presented on this exceptional medium. There’s nothing like watching a movie like this.
