Global Memory Tradeoffs
Large, slow, and visible to every thread.
The Biggest Space You Have
Global memory is the GPU's main DRAM, often many gigabytes. It is where your big input and output arrays naturally live during a kernel.
Visible to Everyone
Every thread in every block can read and write global memory. That shared visibility is exactly why you copy your data there before launching. 🌍
All lessons in this course
- Registers and Local Memory
- Global Memory Tradeoffs
- Constant Memory and Its Cache
- A Mental Model of the Hierarchy