GPU Shopping: $400

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LAiN_OfTheWired

Gawd
Joined
Nov 6, 2008
Messages
825
Budget: $400
Motherboard: ASUS M4A79T Deluxe (Crossfire, no SLI)
Current Card: BFG GTX 275 OC
Power Supply: 850W Seasonic

Primary uses: Folding@Home
Secondary uses: Gaming (Mostly Gears of War for Windows, Borderlands, Dawn of War II, Bad Company 2)

Now that Fermi is here, I wanted to jump to a GTX 470 *if* it gave a good increase in F@H performance. Since estimates are a little... sketchy... at this point, the cards are not out in good volumes, and they use a fair amount more energy than the ATI cards do, I've decided to consult the powers that be (hardforum) and see what kind of purchase I should consider.

I had been thinking about maybe Crossfired MSI 5770 HAWKs and either keeping my GTX 275 or maybe knocking it down to a GTS 250. The important keys for me are really boosting my overall PPD while jumping up to DX11 in case any future games look intriguing. Right now, my GTX 275 is OCed decently and Fahmon reads out between 8600-9100 PPD depending on the unit so the cash isn't even worth spending unless I'm gonna hit 12000 PPD or better. Think I can do that with $400 while jumping on some new GPUs?
 
If Folding is really, really important, the GTX470 is your best bet. As of now, and for the near future, AMD can not compete. If Stanford releases an OpenCL client, it might be a different story.
Gaming wise, the 5850 offers much better performance for the price.
 
Buy a 5850 and keep your GTX 275. Then run on F@H client on both (can you do that?). Surely that should give you the PPD and gaming performance you're looking for.
 
No one has benched any of the Nvidia cards for folding yet, but odds are good they'll slaughter the 5800's in PPD. If that's what's important to you, then the 470 is probably the right card based on what I've read so far. Availability could be pretty tight though.
 
If folding is your thing, you'll have to pay extra. The 470 costs about $50 or more than a comparable performing (videowise) 5850. Go for it.
 
If folding is your thing, you'll have to pay extra.
The 470 costs about $50 or more than a comparable performing (videowise) 5850.
The other thing to consider is the power usage.
The 470 is not QUITE as much of a hog as the 480 but it consumes a considerable amount of wattage at load.
Will your PSU be able to handle both the 470 and 275 while they fold? Or will you be selling off the 275 once you get the 470?
 
My GTX 275 almost definitely will be leaving my system. It's a beast to be sure, but I'd like to keep the power draw right where its at, if not decrease it a little. Kinda sad I could run a 5870 and a GT240 for physx and keep the same power draw, but can't look at a single GPU solution from Nvidia that will meet every goal, huh? In that scenario, though, my F@H production will drop short of my current by 1000-2000 PPD.

I'm thinking of this as a giant math problem -_-

So, hypothetical scenario: I get the GTX 470, sell my GTX 275 to my buddy for a small chunk of cash and his 9800GT. PPD increases, I have gas money for a couple weeks, AND the girlfriend's PC gains a videocard (I'm piecing one together for her right now, she's currently got a 2 year old laptop). Sounds like a win/win?

I really like what MSI is doing with those "military-grade" components, though, which is why I mentioned the 5770 HAWKs. I haven't seen any reviews of the 5850 sporting the Twin Frozr II cooler but both the 5770 and 5870 have gotten really good reviews. Wonder if MSI will be putting out a 470/480 in the same fashion? Their release-day GTX 275 sported those upgrades as well.
 
I read that there is no F@H app for Fermi yet available.

$400 can get you a 5870 if you look hard enough.
 
until they update the apps ATI cards aren't going to keep up, and your probably not going to be that happy with a GTX480 either (they disabled a lot of the GPGPU functions on the non Tesla cards if you remember)

in your case I would follow the advise of the others and go with a 5800 series card or several lower end Nvidia cards.
 
eh my 4870x2 ran this hot. i'll be glad to go back to a single card solution. too bad the 5970 was still so expensive...
 
If Stanford ever gets around to doing a OpenCL or DXCompute based F@H, the 5800s would probably be more competitive

LAiN_OfTheWired said:
My GTX 275 almost definitely will be leaving my system. It's a beast to be sure, but I'd like to keep the power draw right where its at, if not decrease it a little.
Click to expand...

Well, if power consumption is a concern, then the 480 is out of the question. The 470 seems to be roughly the same power consumption at load as the GTX 275.

The best solution would have been a 5850 (draws 100W less, and since ur folding, I'm assuming this is on all the time) but again, its performance isn't up there right now.

BTW has the client program been updated to use the 4xx's yet?
 
cant have it all, if you want more folding ppd, gtx 470. you will use more power. ati is crap for folding. I have 3 folding rigs with nvidia, that is all they are used for. I guess you can have it all...build more boxes!
 
GTX470 should be ~16K at least in F@H, while having the same TDP as a GTX285.

58xx get what, 3KPPD? ATI is useless for F@H, there's no other way around it. You would be much better buying an i7 and doing BigAdv.
 
sushiwarrior said:
GTX470 should be ~16K at least in F@H, while having the same TDP as a GTX285.

58xx get what, 3KPPD? ATI is useless for F@H, there's no other way around it. You would be much better buying an i7 and doing BigAdv.
Click to expand...

Here's to wishful thinking eh? The only estimates from the review sites say somewhere between 13k-17k for the GTX 480. That doesn't bode well for the GTX 470's capabilities.

Also, the 5870s have been netting up to 5300 ppd, a "standard" OCed 4890 nets 3.5K usually. So not "useless" so much as "definitively slower."

An i7 setup is definitely out of the question and for multiple reasons, the first being that a CPU+motherboard combo for an i5 can run $300+ (most on newegg are about $350). It also isn't going to give me the kind of bump a new videocard will for games coming out in the next 6 months, nor will it offer DX11.

I am leaning toward a GTX 470. We'll see if official availability from etailers knocks the Radeons prices down a notch, though, since a $20 dip in the cost of a 5870 would be a welcome sight.
 
X-fired 5770 Hawks. They'll sip power in normal mode, have insane overclocking headroom when the gaming need arises, run cool and silent and have that mil-spec. longevity.

Considering where the graphics card market is headed, if Stanford isn't hard at work programming to optimize for ATI cards, they aren't all that serious about their project, and if they aren't, why should you be?

If they are serious, they are beavering away on such a project, so you're covered.
 
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spigzone said:
Considering where the graphics card market is headed, if Stanford isn't hard at work programming to optimize for ATI cards, they aren't all that serious about their project, and if they aren't, why should you be?

If they are serious, they are beavering away on such a project, so you're covered.
Click to expand...

Well with OpenCL and DXCompute available now, Stanford should hopefully get on track with it if they ARE sreious about it
 
W.Feather said:
get a 5850, and use that 275 for PHysx
Click to expand...

Anybody here silly enough to use a GTX275 solely for Physx? They'd need to seriously have their head examined...even if you already owned the card. It would be a better, and more cost-efficient option to sell the GTX275 and get something less.You can do physx with a GTX220 for a fraction of the price.
 
I have to disagree, GT220 is a horrible dedicated physx card. Minimum would be the GT 240 since its close to the 96sp 9600GSO (which many consider is the minimum dedicated physx card). EVGA seems to feel that a 9800GTX+/GTS 250 is what is necessary. I also have an offer in the air from my buddy, a 9800GT and some cash for my GTX 275.

I believe Stanford is serious about folding, its just that utilizing 800 slower shaders is a bit more difficult in code than 240 faster shaders, especially when one architecture ties the shaders directly to the GPU core and the other does not.

I'm in F@H for a reason, my memory is already horrible and Alzheimers is almost a sure bet later on.

I also don't have much time for gaming over the summer, so I might as well put my PC to use somehow, right? The major throw-up in the program here is that come autumn I'll have plenty of time to game again. Hard to get the best of both worlds right now, but that's why I posted my thread in the first place!
 
Standford is supposed to release a OpenCL version of the F@H client sometime in the future. That should make ATI MUCH more competitive in the PPD arena.
 
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