A little light at the end of the tunnel?

[nomad8u]

I stumbled onto this thread at FCF and thought you ATI guys could use a bit of lovin' for a change...

Vista64 with 1.2 CAL DLL(from 32 bit vista package) - seeing big CPU usage drop, used ~40-45% of my Phenom X3 at 2,4GHz, now ~20%. WU 4742, PPD remains about same, radeon HD 3850.

You're stealing my thunder with the good news. ;-) With a core update, this should drop further, but that update is still in testing as we have run into a few issues with the Brook side update. On XP, you will need the core update to really see any drop in CPU load. We want more testing internally to make sure we don't break things since we have had a few reports of the CAL update on it's own causing problems, and we have a few test systems seeing increased EUE rates with the Brook update (i.e. core update).

If you choose to attempt the CAL update on your own, please let me know if you run into issues, but realize this is not a supported setup.

WOW! This is HUGE difference! Before core usage was 100% and now it is 20%. GPU usage is the same though (96-97%). I hope the optimizations will improve GPU utilization too.

So while the points differential hasn't equalized, it looks like mhouston is getting close to releasing some updates that will greatly improve CPU utilization. Nice shot for ATI multi GPU setups!

Cheers!

 

[rmdashrrootsplat]

That's good news as I'm still on the fence on which video card to get for my next gaming rig/part-time folder. I really want to get an ATI but until recently it wasn't looking as good for folding.

 

[capreppy]

That is very good news. When I get the funds to ramp, I'd like to split my resources between ATI and nVidia.

 

[Kendrak]

I'd like to get an ATI card for the HTPC with an HDMI out.

That will most likely be next on this list after a few other upgrades (non folding related)

 

[nomad8u]

That's good news as I'm still on the fence on which video card to get for my next gaming rig/part-time folder. I really want to get an ATI but until recently it wasn't looking as good for folding.

I'd say go with whatever card fits your needs for gaming, not folding. Either vendors newer cards will fold but as time goes on in the project, which will fold faster/better will change and likely multiple times.

There are still optimizations in the works for ATI cards (and now that it's become necessary the Nvidia cards are being looked at for optimizing too) So hopefully that will pan out sometime soon and sorta level the playing field so to speak.

 

[jws2346]

While I really don't understand the code optimizations between ATI GPU cards and nVIDIA GPU cards, it does look like nVIDIA GPU cards (8xxx series?) have an edge in the folding department

To my brothers and sisters on the [H]orde, or any other individual, that is DC'n (folding) to find a cure with the ATI GPU brand card, I honestly hope this is good news.

OBTW: from what little info I have on the HTCP type computer (I think that's correct ?) the ATI GPU is equal or better to a nVIDIA GPU card (coolness, graphic abilities, size, noise, etc)

 

[EvilAlchemist]

I can tell you that the new cal does give the ATI client a good boost.

I did a few tests with some offline work units.
It dropped cpu usage from 25% to 15% on the standard Work units on my Q6600 @ 3.4Ghz
I don't have a % yet on lambda units, but those are much less cpu dependent. already so it will be another good drop.

There is also some core issues they are working out.
When both these components come together, it will make the ATI client even better.