The "Best deals for GPU folding" thread

M

Mohonri

Supreme [H]ardness
2FA
Joined
Jul 29, 2005
Messages
5,775
With the public GPU folding beta beginning on Monday, we now need to track prices for supported video cards. Currently all the Radeon X19x0, X1800, and X1600 series are supported

List of those cards at newegg

Currently, the cheapest prices are:
12 Pixel Shaders:
X1600 Pro - $80
X1600 XT - $113
X1650 Pro - $93
X1800 GTO - $120
24 Pixel Shaders:
X1650 XT - $135
36 Pixel Shaders:
X1900 GT - $150
X1950 Pro - $190
48 Pixel Shaders:
X1950 XT - $250
X1950 XTX - $370

The italicized cards are the ones I recommend from a performance/$ perspective. I've removed several cards that aren't really produced any more, and those for which the price went up. (there are several others I probably should remove as well, since there's only a couple of each on newegg, but I'll leave them on for now)

Please post good deals on folding GPUs here!
 
ATI Guys - Will the "Crossfire" edition cards function standalone? Or do they have to be doubled up? This is very important for those of us who haven't been following the evolution of Crossfire.



 
mwarps said:
ATI Guys - Will the "Crossfire" edition cards function standalone? Or do they have to be doubled up? This is very important for those of us who haven't been following the evolution of Crossfire.
Click to expand...
My understanding is that the cards will work stand alone as well. Someone please correct me if I am wrong.
 
soo tempted to get an XT now, but I think that is at best a sidegrade from my 7900gt.
 
drizzt81 said:
soo tempted to get an XT now, but I think that is at best a sidegrade from my 7900gt.
Click to expand...

For the [H]ardcorps, it's not even a question.

It's ramen for a month for this motherlover.
 
mwarps said:
ATI Guys - Will the "Crossfire" edition cards function standalone? Or do they have to be doubled up? This is very important for those of us who haven't been following the evolution of Crossfire.
Click to expand...

They definitely work by themselves!

ATI's crossfire is not nearly as fine tuned, or refined, as nVidia's SLI.

You have to have a special "master" video card to work with some other video card. Sounds kinda complicated and even more expensive. Seems like you can't just go get two $420 video cards and expect them to work in a crossfire fashion.




 
Yeah, Crossfire is a kind of clunky solution, with the master card and dongle requirements, so if you're looking to maximize your folding, probably two stand alone cards and let 'em rip. :D
 
Yes, they will work standalone. However, for the purposes of folding, CrossFire cards will fold at the same ppd as normal cards with the same core, while costing more money.
 
Good to know that Crossfire cards will work alone. Now to get some money :)



 
ok guys, I wasn't going to do this, but there is a x1900xtx 512MB for sale for cheap in the FS/FT forums :/ if you snatch if before me...

(cost is $280)
 
Well I've been trying to decide between ATI and Nvidia for my new rig. Looks like that decision is taken care of! :D

 
omg, i've been looking for a reason to upgrade my good ol 6600gt. do you guys think beta results will count towards permanent points?
 
Now I have a real dilemma. I was planning on getting a Core Duo dedicated folding box in the next week or two. Now I wonder if it'd be more efficient getting a fancy ATI video card and putting it in my PCI-E capable folding box instead.

I guess it depends on how much work the video card does v.s. a Core Duo. [:0]
 
^^ The smart thing to do would be to wait and see which produces better results, how they are scored and if it is stable.
 
Hito Bahadur said:
^^ The smart thing to do would be to wait and see which produces better results, how they are scored and if it is stable.
Click to expand...

Oh I'm going to wait and see what happens first before buying.
 
cool... I didn't know it started monday. Thanks for links :)


does anyone think nvidia cards will be supported? I have a 7800GT and I never play games anymore... would be nice to dedicate it to folding.
 
Bill Clo said:
I guess it depends on how much work the video card does v.s. a Core Duo. [:0]
Click to expand...
We don't know yet how many ppd you'll get from a GPU client, but we DO know that it will contribute WAAAAAY more in terms of work done for Stanford. For the money, the video card is a much better investment for the science.
 
Just as a heads up, according to the ATI slides, it looks like the beta client only supports x1900xt and x950xt. I am sure x1800 support will follow soon, but if you want to be an early adopter, you gotta get one of those two.
 
p[H]ant0m said:
Yeah, Crossfire is a kind of clunky solution, with the master card and dongle requirements, so if you're looking to maximize your folding, probably two stand alone cards and let 'em rip. :D
Click to expand...


Way to be behind on the times :rolleyes: :D. If I had two X1950xt's, I could run them both in crossfire, no dongle or master card needed.
 
I am going to bump this one, as it needs updating :)

so does 512MB make a difference? should I just get a cheap 256MB XT and hope it'll overclock nicely on my watercooling system?
 
I edited my above post. When they are instock for good prices I'll post it. I have a raincheck for E-Wiz for one at $160
 
AtomicMoose said:
Mohonri, Are you going to be keeping this thread up to date? :)
Click to expand...
Heh. Kinda forgot about it. Out of town at the moment (with little spare time), so I can't update it currently. Once I get back home, I'll update prices.
 
Ya

AGP should work fine.

The AGP bus is never filled up... not yet anyway.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top