Best PCI-e powered card

[bmadd89]

Currently running an i7-2600k in a HP 8200. I have F@H running on it 24x7 on 7 threads and I’m curious if I add a GT 440 or something of the like would it be advantageous to my ppd or would it cost me points. Since the system is a HP I am limited to the bus power of the pci-e slot. Are there any recommendations or am I out of luck?

Thanks

 

[biodoc]

Since you're only using 7 of your 8 "cores" for F@H cpu processing (smp client, right?), you shouldn't see a drop in ppd for your smp client by adding a F@H gpu client.

 

[blckgrffn]

Is the SMP client really using seven threads? And to back up biodoc, no, you won't see a drop! You'd likely gain ~6k ppd.

Which is what? Nearly 2M over the course of year, certainly nothing to sneeze at.

 

[Ken g6]

I'm just wondering which would be faster: a GT440 or a Radeon 7750?

 

[bmadd89]

I'm running the V7 client and just change it to run on 7 threads instead of auto (it is a work machine after all so i do need a core to surf the web and do other stuff)

What i would do is drop the smp down to 6 threads and use 1 thread for the GPU so i still had 1 thread for actual work. I would be sacrificing an smp thread for a gpu. Is that still a better option?

@Ken g6: The 440 would be as the ATI cards are not as good as the Nvidia for F@H

 

[Ken g6]

Those are hyper-threads, so you're only losing virtual cores. I notice the text says the value should be a multiple of two anyway.

I still wonder about the 7750 because although it's AMD, it's much faster intrinsically than a 440. I wonder how that balances out?

 

[blckgrffn]

Those are hyper-threads, so you're only losing virtual cores. I notice the text says the value should be a multiple of two anyway.

I still wonder about the 7750 because although it's AMD, it's much faster intrinsically than a 440. I wonder how that balances out?

There just aren't the WU's available on the AMD side for consistent work. If you have CUDA, you'll get a constant stream of non-beta, actually-useful-to-science work to do.

 

[theAnimal]

Nvidia cards use very little CPU for folding (should be less than 2%), ATI cards considerably more unless that has changed (haven't folded ATI for a while now).

 

[bmadd89]

Very good. So is the GT440 the best bus powered card i can buy to use for folding?

 

[blckgrffn]

Nvidia cards use very little CPU for folding (should be less than 2%), ATI cards considerably more unless that has changed (haven't folded ATI for a while now).

Nope, the OpenCL WU's still eat a lot of CPU, that is true across all the DC projects where I have been able to utilize OpenCL... except MW@H. That one seemed to play nice without a ~core per WU.

Very good. So is the GT440 the best bus powered card i can buy to use for folding?

Survey says.... YES! I'd spend the coin to get one with a good fan since you be forced to listen to it all the time otherwise.