Nvidia reveals the number of GPUs powering the world's largest "LED sphere"

Nvidia revealed on July 11 that the company that owns the Sphere building in Las Vegas has deployed graphics cards with the company's RTX A6000 chip to create eye-catching visual effects both inside and outside the building.

"The GPUs feed 16 16K displays on the inside of the building, along with 1.2 million programmable LEDs on the outside. Images are streamed from a nearby facility, using BlueField data processors, ConnectX-6 DX network cards, and Rivermax streaming software to ensure consistency across all displays," Nvidia's post reads.

Nvidia didn't detail how the A6000 chip works in this case, but it claims that all images are transmitted in real time and emphasizes that the system possesses "unprecedented performance," capable of creating three layers of images with 16K resolution and 60 frames per second.

The RTX A6000 chip was launched by Nvidia in late 2020. Each graphics card using this chip currently costs about $4,500, equipped with 48GB of GDDR6 memory and a maximum power consumption of 300W. The GPU system running the Sphere screen alone can consume a total of 45,000W, while the $2.3 billion project uses up to 28 millionW, equivalent to the needs of 21,000 households in the state of California.

The Sphere, which opens in 2023, is 111 meters tall and 157 meters wide. The 1.2 million LED lights on the exterior cover nearly 54,000 square meters. The interior is undisclosed except for a giant 16K x 16K LED screen on the ceiling that wraps around the audience, providing a multidimensional interactive experience. The Sphere was designed by Populous, the architectural firm behind many of the world's top sports arenas.