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GPU folding?

  • Thread starter Deleted member 12106
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Deleted member 12106

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Hi, I have a few boxes around the house that I have had doing just CPU folding. What are some common/low budget GPU's I could snag up that can do some decent ppd?




 
450, 460, or the 550 and 560( if you can get a good deal on them used) are the good folding cards

Those cards should net you between 12 -16K PPD. Basically, all are good PPD/$ cards, it comes down to which you can get the best deal on.
 
Anything from the ATI side that is worth a crap?
 
sc0tty8 said:
Anything from the ATI side that is worth a crap?
Click to expand...

Not for folding. ATi = bitcoin, nVidia = folding.

I've got a trio of 460GTXes throwing off about 10k ppd each. All were purchased for about 100 quid each somewhere around a year ago (plus or minus). I'd hope they have dropped in price by now - at the time, they were the best bang for the buck, as I would not have gotten double the ppd for double the spend per card...
 
there are also a few of boinc projects that support ATI/AMD that kill nvidia as well.

the ones i can remember off the top of my head are Collatz Conjecture(mathematical work), poem@home(bio/medical science)(just started doing AMD/ATI projects), and milkyway@home(physical science).
 
MOO! also seems to favor ATI/AMD or at least from what I have seen so far.
 
AMD's VLIW architecture is only effective at very simple computations involving little more than hashing, this is why Bitcoin and some other dc projects do well on that architecture. Fermi (and the GCN architecture on the HD 79XX series) are able to do more advanced modern gp-gpu computing like F@H (although there is no GCN client yet).

Used 460's go for well under 100 bucks, they would be my recommendation.
 
How much of a difference does the CPU/Memory make on GPU folding? For example, 1 box I have is a q6600 and the other is a q9550, would I get more PPD on the q9550?

Thanks.
 
Historically, meaning with smaller GPU WU, I found that multi-GPU boxes can get CPU bound, with no CPU client running. Particularly, I had 5x GPUs with a intel dual-core CPU. All the GPUs had been tested individually good. When all 5 GPU clients ran, PPD dropped non-trivially, 40-50% or so as I recall. Task manager did NOT show the CPU as being maxed out. Swapped dual-core with Q6600, no other changes, all GPU client ran at full PPD. All the GPUs were G92 based. I discussed this at length on foldingforum.org, same name as here.

With the WU getting larger, this effect may no longer apply but I don't have the parts anymore to verify.
 
that plus teh OP is asking about 2 different quad cores with a ~400 mhz difference
 
I am looking to maximize the boxes I have now without spending a fortune. I can't play the 4p game.
 
W.Feather said:
it won't matter what box you put what gpu into
Click to expand...
When I run the GPU client, it takes about 35-40% of my Q6600 @ 3.4GHz. Are you sure it doesn't matter at all what the processor is? I am doubtful. That said, I imagine any processor no older than 4 years should be fine.
 
014 said:
When I run the GPU client, it takes about 35-40% of my Q6600 @ 3.4GHz. Are you sure it doesn't matter at all what the processor is? I am doubtful. That said, I imagine any processor no older than 4 years should be fine.
Click to expand...

I take it thats an AMD GPU? Nv is much more efficient in terms of cpu resources. I used to run 4 GPU clients on a stock E6600 and still run a pair of uni proc clients. Many others on here used to run GPU farms with the cheapest CPU they could get there hands on
 
1) op is referencing nvidia
2) both CPUs are quad cores with only a 400 MHz difference, assuming stock, OC they both will hit about the same.......so the percentage thing will be the same regardless on both quad cores...


014 said:
When I run the GPU client, it takes about 35-40% of my Q6600 @ 3.4GHz. Are you sure it doesn't matter at all what the processor is? I am doubtful. That said, I imagine any processor no older than 4 years should be fine.
Click to expand...
 
For example, 1 box I have is a q6600 and the other is a q9550, would I get more PPD on the q9550?
Click to expand...
My take is completely different, and this coming from a very heavy GPU Folder for nearly two years: don't purchase GPUs for Folding, ATI or Nvidia. Just recently I sold off my farm of GTS 450s (8 of them, to be exact), so that I could concentrate resources, power bill and cash, on more productive hardware. Start saving money for a new CPU and motherboard. You don't have to go all the way up to a multi-socket "big iron" rig to greatly improve production over what you've got now.

If you want a new video card for gaming anyway, well, that's another story. But I would not buy GPUs just for Folding - too much heat output, too much power draw, and too many little fans whirring for too little return. Good performing CPUs, like the i7 2600K are coming down in price. If you are an overclocker, the 2600K can still be a great performer.
 
What type of pdd is an overclocked i7 2600k good for? I don't really game.
 
A typical work unit in Windows, with an overclock of 4.5GHz or better, will net about 20K PPD. That's using the 'old' client version 6. V7, from what I understand, has work units available that produce more points. Folding in Linux will be up to 25 or 30% better.

Any Folding - whether a GPU, an old generation CPU, or a 4P beast, is a good thing! I'm not trying to steer you towards a 2600K necessarily, I'm just recommending that you take a good look at many different opportunities that are available. Also, take a look at the trading forum. Perhaps you have some hardware you could convert to cash. That would increase the number of options available for you.
 
My I7 2600K is running at 4.5ghz and producing around 27K ppd up to 34K depending on wu. Oh and it uses 230 watts at full load.

My GTX 460s were running from 155 watts and turning out about 11Kppd overclocked.

Now that does not include the idle wattage. 155 was just from idle to full load. So...

I just stopped 3 GTX460s and decreased my wattage on two boxes approx 385 watts (not all use the same wattage) and lost about 33K ppd.
Am building a new 2p xeon board that should make about 60 K ppd and use 300 watts. (from previous owner) So...
 
Using Linux is really worth that much of a gain over windows? Wow. I have 1 or 2 boxes I cold prob convert no questions asked. If I have the windows client that is partially through a WU, can this be imported to another machine?

I've been looking at my servers at the house in terms of what my options are for CPU. The older ones are not worth upgrading as they are maxed out, My desktop is an aging 9550 oc'd to 3.8ghz. My file server/vm box folds, that system could be converted to a 2p system.
 
Yes it is, my 2600k @ 4.5 GHz pulls 34k PPD on SMP w/o issue , no you cant import it to another machine in simple terms.

Big part as i understand it is because of the kernal optimizations that can be done, and less overhead
 
Linden said:
My take is completely different, and this coming from a very heavy GPU Folder for nearly two years: don't purchase GPUs for Folding, ATI or Nvidia. Just recently I sold off my farm of GTS 450s (8 of them, to be exact), so that I could concentrate resources, power bill and cash, on more productive hardware. Start saving money for a new CPU and motherboard. You don't have to go all the way up to a multi-socket "big iron" rig to greatly improve production over what you've got now.

If you want a new video card for gaming anyway, well, that's another story. But I would not buy GPUs just for Folding - too much heat output, too much power draw, and too many little fans whirring for too little return. Good performing CPUs, like the i7 2600K are coming down in price. If you are an overclocker, the 2600K can still be a great performer.
Click to expand...

The i7 2600k's price hasn't moved since it was released - it has been around the $320ish mark. Once you add the rest of the rig's components, you're looking at at least $500 for a 20-25k ppd machine in windows at stock. Compare that to a trio of 460GTX's that you can get for about $300 that will do 30k ppd (assuming you've got boxen you can drop them into), the 2600K doesn't provide a great return on investment for what is spent at this point. Sure, at some point the power will make up for it, but the cards will probably hvae let out the magic smoke before then.

So while I agree that the SMP side of things is the path with the most potential, if you're someone with limited funds to "invest" in this hobby, I wouldn't rule out GPU folding just yet.

sc0tty8 said:
Using Linux is really worth that much of a gain over windows? Wow. I have 1 or 2 boxes I cold prob convert no questions asked. If I have the windows client that is partially through a WU, can this be imported to another machine?

I've been looking at my servers at the house in terms of what my options are for CPU. The older ones are not worth upgrading as they are maxed out, My desktop is an aging 9550 oc'd to 3.8ghz. My file server/vm box folds, that system could be converted to a 2p system.
Click to expand...

If you want to finish the WU you're chewing on before moving to linux, you can put a -one unit (or something like that flag) on the fah command line so it won't grab another when it is done...

Honestly, GPU folding is a good way to "max out" aging rigs in my mind. For $100, you can add 10k ppd to the 9550 system with a used 460GTX. However, if that precludes you from going 2P somewhere else, its probably not worth it :)
 
Schro said:
Not for folding. ATi = bitcoin, nVidia = folding.
Click to expand...

R-Type said:
AMD's VLIW architecture is only effective at very simple computations involving little more than hashing, this is why Bitcoin and some other dc projects do well on that architecture. Fermi (and the GCN architecture on the HD 79XX series) are able to do more advanced modern gp-gpu computing like F@H (although there is no GCN client yet).
Click to expand...

It's my understanding that the AMD cards are much MORE efficient per watt at things like bitcoin, RC5-72 (I get under 10kppd with my 6950, but I get 2 billion key/s in RC5-72), and a 6970 should get 100kkey/s running WPA hashes.

An interesting fact, distributed.net's RC5-72 project is averaging around 1 Trillion key/s right now. it would only take 500 6970s to DOUBLE their average keyrate. 500.

As for GCN and f@h, if it all runs through openCL, then they just have to make a new project for it, right? it should (in theory) be able to run any openCL projects.
 
I would imagine you could do Core_16 OpenCL work units on F@H today with a 7970 if you could trick F@H into identifying the card as a 6970.. can't how what performance would be though. I can't wait until their's official support for it as I'm interesting to see what their new architecture can do ppd wise! :D
 
Yeah ... really want to get these 7950s up and folding! So far I only have the CPU on my desktop and the CPU on my laptop folding. Not sure if it's worth it to have my work laptop folding (i5 2520m)... but figured why not.
 
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