F@H Power Consumption Question

[goobee]

Well you guys are a bad influence and I have 2 more 8800GTS cards on the way for a total of 3. I can either put them into 3 separate boxes or get a SLI mobo and run only 2 boxes. Power consumption wise, I'm thinking 2 boxes will be more efficient but since these videos cards are pretty power hungry under load, will it make any difference in overall consumption?

What do you guys think?

 

[PCTC2]

well, what's your first card?

If you can get a Tri-SLI board and run all three cards on a single box for the lowest power consumption. Each motherboard and processor you add you add more power, but you also add a potential CPU to run an SMP client on. But yeah, the less boxes, the less power. With 2 computers, I'm already drawing about 450-550W continuously for F@H (when I was using F@H)...

 

[goobee]

All 3 are 8800GTS. The first one is stock overclocked and the two on their way are normally clocked. Newegg has a cheap 3x PCIe 16x (8x in SLI) board but the slots are too close to each other.

 

[PCTC2]

what's your processor?

 

[goobee]

Seeing that I will need a core for each GPU client, I probably can't go 3 on the same board. Dual core e2140 is what I'll probably go with for two vid cards. My other boxes are dual Opterons and I'm not looking to spend any money upgrading those mobos. My best machine is an 8-core Xeon 5430 box, if the Skulltrail boards weren't so damn expensive, I would be set.

 

[PCTC2]

well, go for 2 boxes then. You don't need an SLI board. A crossfire board works as well, since they can't be in any form of Dual-GPU mode for F@H.

 

[Insidious]

Originally posted by: goobee
Seeing that I will need a core for each GPU client, I probably can't go 3 on the same board.

If you use the latest drivers (180.xx), the CPU required for each GPU client is very nearly nil. You would be able to run 3 GPUs on a dual core.

-Sid

 

[VirtualLarry]

I went with a K9A2 Platinum, and an AMD BE-2400 dual-core. That mobo is 4-way crossfire. Three of the cards can be dual-slot, the bottom-most depends on your case. In my case, with an Antec 300, with the Antec EarthWatts 650W PSU at the bottom, I can only fit a single-slot card down there. Thankfully, two of my 9600GSOs are dual-slot, and the other two are single-slot.

 

[goobee]

Great, I think I may go with the MSI P7N SLI Platinum. I'll be able to put all 3 cards into it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813130159

Will it matter that 1 card is faster than the others?

 

[Insidious]

I've read posts that indicated when you use multiple cards, if they have different numbers of shaders there can be issues (not substantiated). But I know from my experience that the speed difference does not matter.

-Sid

 

[goobee]

Originally posted by: Insidious

Originally posted by: goobee
Seeing that I will need a core for each GPU client, I probably can't go 3 on the same board.

If you use the latest drivers (180.xx), the CPU required for each GPU client is very nearly nil. You would be able to run 3 GPUs on a dual core.

-Sid

Thanks Insidious,

I got the P7N SLI installed with 2 vid cards installed. For what ever reason, I can't get the GPU2 client running so I have 2 of the older GPU clients running. I think the problem is because I'm running Windows x64 which I believe is currently unsupported with the newest GPU2 client.

Anyway, with the latest beta video drivers installed, I'm getting almost zero CPU utilization which is great. Hopefully my 3rd video card will be delivered soon (may have to leave negative Heatware feedback for someone :roll: )

Let's see what kind of results I can achieve with these 2 vid cards. :thumbsup:

 

[Insidious]

I don't think the project will give you any points for the original GPU client. Actually, I didn't think the original GPU client could even get work any more.

There is a great guide for installation at the F@H site (Did you remember to extend your display to the second monitor and did you remember to disable SLI while attempting to fold?

If you follow those instructions (after COMPLETELY removing your original attempts to install F@H) it will work.

-Sid