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Best folding card?

C

colinstu

2[H]4U
Joined
Oct 11, 2007
Messages
3,563
MSI K9A2 Platinum (4x PCIe x16 slots)

4x9800GX2
4x9800GTX+
4xGTX 280
4x4870X2

Does the extra memory bandwidth/memory help? Shader+Core clock more important?

Twice the number of cores (the GX2 and X2) would both be better choices right?

Would a CPU limit these cards like it does in gaming? (Cheap 2.6/3.0 dual core vs a lower clocked quad?).
 
The 9800GX2 is the best for ppd in a single card. (right now) I believe tiger hit the limit with 7 cores in one boxen useing XP. I might be wrong but vista tops out at 4.

Ive got 2 of them (4 cores) in a box with a E2140 and I have plenty of headroom with that proc. Box is good for 20K+ ppd
 
Fastra.
Thats the basis of the highest PpD box ATM.
My version of it is doing ~47k PpD.
If your getting a quad core to run it, dont worry about speed, just get a lower power energy efficient phenom.
But you could run it off a dual core CPU.

Edit. Vista hit a limit at 5x GPU cores, XP runs all 8.

Luck ............ :D
 
ATI cards do not get a lot of points now, but I worry about what will happen to Nvidia users later.
We know that larger lambda proteins made the Nvidia cards drop about 30% in ppd while the ATI cards went up a bit.
Recently there were even a few proteins that were larger than the lambda ones sent out to the ATI cards. I don't know how those would have run on Nvidia for sure, but my guess it not so hot.
I think it may be possible that with large enough proteins that ATI and Nvidia could end up roughly the same in output. Then all buying decisions might need to change a bit depending on where prices are at.

Oh, and a 4850 should get around 3000 or 3200 in ppd on the larger proteins, or at least mine did and it was running 100% stock, no overclocking.
 
osrk said:
DO NOT GET ANY ATI CARD FOR FOLDING. They suck.
Click to expand...

You are very mis-informed on ATI cards for folding.
nVidia went for speed. ATI went for stability.
You see where that landed the nVidia core today ....
They are both being worked on daily and getting getter.

pgaster said:
ATI cards do not get a lot of points now, but I worry about what will happen to Nvidia users later.
We know that larger lambda proteins made the Nvidia cards drop about 30% in ppd while the ATI cards went up a bit.
Recently there were even a few proteins that were larger than the lambda ones sent out to the ATI cards. I don't know how those would have run on Nvidia for sure, but my guess it not so hot.
I think it may be possible that with large enough proteins that ATI and Nvidia could end up roughly the same in output. Then all buying decisions might need to change a bit depending on where prices are at.

Oh, and a 4850 should get around 3000 or 3200 in ppd on the larger proteins, or at least mine did and it was running 100% stock, no overclocking.
Click to expand...

You are correct on this.
There were some large protein nVidia work units that came out and they killed their PPD.
Those were pulled due to stability issues but they will be coming back.

We are now waiting on F@H to release some large law5 or lambda units.
On the 48xx boards & 1.18 ATI core, you should get close to 3500-4000+PPD, and that is not with the other improvments enabled .... :)

 
Most 4850cards are running 2500-3300 PPD now on current units.
Most 4870 cards are running 2800-4000 PPD now on current units.

So when large units come out, the PPD will go even higher ...

That thread you linked to is kinda old, and does not even list the 48xx series of cards

You are also welcome to look at my stats: http://webpages.charter.net/evilalchemist/

All the cleints listed as GPU are ATI 4850's. Hope that helps you out a little.

 
Are the ATI cards getting a GPU client that doesn't hammer the CPU? I have one 3850 and the GPU client just keeps the CPU core pegged.
 
brycejones said:
Are the ATI cards getting a GPU client that doesn't hammer the CPU? I have one 3850 and the GPU client just keeps the CPU core pegged.
Click to expand...

Not at all. Running Vista x64.
My cpu load is about 10% on a Q6600 @ 3.0 ghz
On a E6420 @ 2.16Ghz , cpu load is around 34%.

I am running the new cal dll's. I have had them for a while, but they are in beta testing right now. Should come out to public within a week or so.

In the mean time, you can downlad the SDK pack from ATI and get the 1.2.0 dll's which will lower CPU load.

http://ati.amd.com/technology/streamcomputing/sdkdwnld.html

You will need the 32 bit version for either XP or Vista - which ever you use
Replace you current dll's with the ones in this package after install and restart cleint.
(The best way it two right down the two ati dll's in the F@H folder .. then search the SDK install folder for those two files .. and replace the old ones)

The ones in testing are 1.2.1 which support all the new 46xx & 47xx & 48xx cards as well.
 
EvilAlchemist said:
Most 4850cards are running 2500-3300 PPD now on current units.
Most 4870 cards are running 2800-4000 PPD now on current units.

So when large units come out, the PPD will go even higher ...

That thread you linked to is kinda old, and does not even list the 48xx series of cards

You are also welcome to look at my stats: http://webpages.charter.net/evilalchemist/

All the cleints listed as GPU are ATI 4850's. Hope that helps you out a little.

Click to expand...

No i'm not really misinformed. I tell it as I see it. I have both nvidia and ATI. Nvidia folds better then ATI, if you want to fold get an nvidia card.

That thread isn't old they don't list the 4800 series because of lack of data. They have the 200 series up.
 
osrk said:
No i'm not really misinformed. I tell it as I see it. I have both nvidia and ATI. Nvidia folds better then ATI, if you want to fold get an nvidia card.

That thread isn't old they don't list the 4800 series because of lack of data. They have the 200 series up.
Click to expand...

In a short time NV cards will not give the same ppd that they are now.

If you looked around a bit you would know how they calculate the ppd.

They Use an ATI card as the benchmark. If ATI cards get better and they keep the same PPD for the more efficient WU the NV cards will go down in in proportion.

I've got all NV cards, but I'm not going to be socked if I see a 50% drop in my ppd, in a month or so.

So back to the OP.

Both are good. You will see more out of a NV card now, but you will see a drop in that in the near future.

Get what card you like, and can get a good deal on. enjoy.

 
Kendrak said:
In a short time NV cards will not give the same ppd that they are now.

If you looked around a bit you would know how they calculate the ppd.

They Use an ATI card as the benchmark. If ATI cards get better and they keep the same PPD for the more efficient WU the NV cards will go down in in proportion.

I've got all NV cards, but I'm not going to be socked if I see a 50% drop in my ppd, in a month or so.

So back to the OP.

Both are good. You will see more out of a NV card now, but you will see a drop in that in the near future.

Get what card you like, and can get a good deal on. enjoy.

Click to expand...

So you're saying what ATI hasn't done in years they'll magically finally accomplish it in a month or so by making the ATI cards fold 50% better? I really don't care either way, once i upgrade my nvidia machine I'll be going to the ATI machine and adding GPU's to that one.
 
osrk said:
So you're saying what ATI hasn't done in years they'll magically finally accomplish it in a month or so by making the ATI cards fold 50% better? I really don't care either way, once i upgrade my nvidia machine I'll be going to the ATI machine and adding GPU's to that one.
Click to expand...

I don't know about the whole "years" thing.
What we are saying is that the 48xx cards will continue to get more PPD.
Reason 1 is due to the benchmark system having a better ATI core.
Reason 2 is due to the better core on the new 48xx cards.

Both of those will add up to a huge PPD boost.

Because of Reason 1 , the nVidia ppd will drop on some work units.
That % is yet unknown.
We will have some better numbers once the large work units come out.
I don't know if the benchmark system is running the new cal dll's but when those go in, you will see another PPD boost on the ATI side.

nomad8u said:
That's a clean looking stats feed. Nice..
Click to expand...

Why thanks you .... I got bored one night and got it setup so i could see my stats and check systems from work.
 
ATI cards have a large number of slow shaders, so they do better with larger protiens as they fill more of the shaders.
nVidia cards have a small number of quick shaders, so they do better with smaller protiens so they dont overflow the shaders.

The first test protien out was a small one, that the ATI cards tanked at, but the nVidia cards love.
Hence the difference in PpD between the cards.
As bigger protiens come out, expect the ATI cards performance to improve and the nVidias to drop.
ATI cards have seen ~50% improvement on their PpD since tne first protiens came out.
nVidia cards saw a ~30-40% reduction in their PpD when the bigger non-test protiens where tried.
So dont complain when the nVidia cards PpD drop.

Luck .......... :D
 
thanks for the info on the updated DLLs. I might try them with my 3850 and see if they make a significant difference.
 
brycejones said:
thanks for the info on the updated DLLs. I might try them with my 3850 and see if they make a significant difference.
Click to expand...
I tried them with my 3850 and it didn't seem to make a difference in performance or CPU usage. YMMV.

 
Tigerbiten said:
ATI cards have a large number of slow shaders, so they do better with larger protiens as they fill more of the shaders.
nVidia cards have a small number of quick shaders, so they do better with smaller protiens so they dont overflow the shaders.

The first test protien out was a small one, that the ATI cards tanked at, but the nVidia cards love.
Hence the difference in PpD between the cards.
As bigger protiens come out, expect the ATI cards performance to improve and the nVidias to drop.
ATI cards have seen ~50% improvement on their PpD since tne first protiens came out.
nVidia cards saw a ~30-40% reduction in their PpD when the bigger non-test protiens where tried.
So dont complain when the nVidia cards PpD drop.

Luck .......... :D
Click to expand...

If you want to read for your self, here is what Tigerbiten is talking about on the nVidia side

http://foldingforum.org/viewtopic.php?f=52&t=5452&st=0&sk=t&sd=a
 
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