Folding Question

[The Borg]

Hi all,

I don't do any Folding, but have been recently looking at my graphics card as an area of upgrade. I have done almost everything else:

Fastest CPU my mobo can handle - X2 4800+
Water cooling
OC'ing
RAID 0 HDD's

But I have an old X300 card. Has (and still does) me well, but I have recently started FPS games.

ATI has just released their new card, but if it is in the same price range as the nVidia 8800 cards, than that is a bit much. But if it can do DC as well, well then, that is a different story.

How difficult is Folding to set up?
What will happen to my BOINC client on my X2?
What kind of credits should I expect?

Any comments will be appreciated.

 

[f4phantom2500]

the x1900 series does it too, IIRC.

 

[Alyx]

Based on the fact that folding doesn't work on Nvidia cards yet and it only works on some driver versions for supported ATI cards, my guess is that it will not work on the new ATI cards for some time to come.

Seems to me that coding for a new card lineup is the same thing as coding for a different manufacturer.

 

[Rudy Toody]

I have an x1900 on one of my FX-60s, but because I'm running WinXP x64, I can't try it (no driver). I understand it's quite effective under WinXP x32. Not sure about other OS's.

 

[GLeeM]

In a thread about the new ATI cards the head of F@H posted this:
"We'll take a look and see if this makes sense to fold on, and if so, we'll include it in the list."

So the new 2900 cards will not fold yet.

The x1950 cards do way more science than any other F@H client. The points are pretty good too, I think, someone else with experience will have to post exact points.

I do know that the GPU client also uses one CPU core to poll the GPU client (something to do with DX9). Also it is still in open beta testing.

Any more questions, please ask and I'm sure sooner or later someone with experience will post accurate info.

EDIT!!!: thread at folding forum on new ATI.
Looks like there will soon be an improved new client.

 

[CupCak3]

just as GLeeM said, one of the CPUs will be used for polling so you will loose some perf on R@H

if you can wait a couple weeks for your vid card, I'd wait to see how the x2900 performs and to come down in price a bit.

 

[Iron Chef]

Last week I converted my socket 754 rig into a GPU folder with this SAPPHIRE 100176U X1950PRO

Previously with the CPU console client I was averaging ~ 180-240ppd depending on the WU

Now with the GPU console client I'm averaging 604ppd according to FahMon

Setup of the GPU client was pretty easy. First install the most recent DirectX9c. I used this.

Then install the video card drivers. The following versions of Catalyst are known to work with the GPU client:
6.5
6.10
6.11 <-- I used this
7.2
7.3
7.4

You don't need to install the Catalyst Control Center driver. I just use ATI Tray Tools for tweaking and to monitor the gpu temp.

Currently the beta GPU client needs to use one cpu core exclusively. The other core should be able to run the Bionic client without a problem.

 

[sparks]

I don't game much, but when I do, I want the experience to be satisfying. That said, I would be willing to sacrifice a some frame rate if the 2900XT proves to be a good folder. As long as there is some price parity between the 8800GTS and the 2900XT, I would probably get the 2900XT when I do my next refresh.

 

[The Borg]

Thanks for the replies.

sparks, that is my opinion too. I like nVidia, but I cannot justify the high costs. If I can use the card for something else, then that is good.

It will be interested to see how the prices go!!!

 

[Alyx]

One other consideration, the Anandtech article complained about the performance per watt of the new hardware. I wonder how much extra power bill you are looking at with one of these new cards not to mention keeping them cool at 100% 24/7.

I just looked at the article, looks like 40-50 extra watts.