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Plethora of products plus inexperience equals total confusion....

post #1 of 8
9/7/12 at 5:35am
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Hi All!
I'm working on putting together a FAH system and am totally confused in the GPU department. I have a Q6600 on a GA-EP45-UD3LR with 8gb (4X2) OCZ2p1066. I have limited resources, but would like to get the best bang for my buck in a graphics card. I am currently folding on a Q8200 with a GA-EP35 board and XFX 6670 card. My PPD is averaging 5,000 to 5,500.
With this said, I actually have two questions:
1)- Best card for the Q6600 rig
2)- Increase performance on the Q8200 rig

I am a total novice on all of this. PWM (OCN staff) has helped me out A LOT. We attempted to get me up and running on a VM, but I have router issues that I have not yet had a chance to rectify, therefore I am folding on Windows SMP (I think!). If anybody out there could give me some advice or point me in the right direction I would be immensely appreciative. I have spent hours on the forums and am at least as confused on this stuff as I was when I started, if not even more so! I would really like to get my PPD up to a decent number on both of these rigs and on my other system (X4 965 BE on Asus M5A97, 8gb DDR3-1866, HIS 4670 "Ice Q"). I have another system as well that I built just for watching TV (A8-3870K on ASRock mobo w/8gb DDR3-1600). These specs are from memory as I am at work and suffer from a little bit of CRS syndrome, so if I've misquoted anything please forgive me!
I might mention that I have three of these four systems currently folding and am working on the Q6600.
Any advice, help, and even chastising would be greatly appreciated!
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post #2 of 8
9/7/12 at 5:40am
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Unless things have changed with the AMD side of things you would probably get better PPD (and power efficiency) folding on just the Q8200 and skipping folding on the 6670.

Regarding the Nvidia card, do you have a specific budget in mind? GTX 460s are pretty strong contenders, especially if you can pick one up second hand. Each of them should net anywhere from 10-15k PPD depending on the work unit. I haven't seen much data on the newer GTX500 or 600 series cards, so someone else could probably chime in.
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Shizuka
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post #3 of 8
9/7/12 at 6:49am
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Thanks for your reply!
When I set up FAH on the Q8200 it automatically picked up the graphics card. I do have the CPU clocked to 2.93 stable, so if I eliminate the GPU folding I'll get better PPD? How do I do this? Do I need to reload the FAH program?
On the GTX460. I think I can afford that. "Buy it now" on eBay is running 130'ish, so I can probably get one a little cheaper on bid. Any particular brand to look for? I've been running all Radeon cards and don't know much about nVidea.
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post #4 of 8
9/8/12 at 3:17am
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It's definitely worth trying. My previous experience folding with a 965 and 5850 was that I was getting roughly 1-2K PPD less when running both clients compared to running just the CPU client. Just did a quick search on Google and it looks like things haven't changed yet, 7970 was getting roughly 8500 PPD, which is on par with GTS 450/460 with low OC if memory servers me correctly. Guess the AMD crowd has to wait for new cores that better utilize the architecture and hardware on their GPUs :/

If you aren't in a rush, you should definitely shop around online. A great way to pick up cheap folding gear is to have a look at the Deals for Folders sticky in this forum. Often times, members looking to sell hardware offer additional discounts if you are an active folder. There's also the annual Black Friday sales that are coming up in 2 months where you can pick up some cheap GPUS, or maybe even a new CPU/mobo combination for cheap!

I don't use the v7 client (I assume you're using it) so I'm not sure. From looking at screenshots though, it seems like you can just click pause or stop with the specific client (in this case, the GPU client) and that should trigger the desired command.
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Shizuka
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post #5 of 8
9/8/12 at 5:48am
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Thanks for the info! I am going to slow down a little and look around. I'm having heat issues with the Q6600 anyway, so I'm gonna' have to lap it and/or do something different with cooling. Thought the Xigmatek Loki with two Arctic F9 fans in push/pull would be sufficient, but apparently not. At stock settings I'm pushing 62 on temps. Doesn't make sense. I've missed something. Plus, my individual core temp difference is as much as 7 degrees, so lapping is probably inevitable.
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post #6 of 8
9/8/12 at 8:38pm
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It's pretty fun trying to optimize folding, you play around with settings and see what best suits your particular set of hardware.

If you don't mind, you should also look into putting your computer specs in your profile so other people who happen across your threads can better help you. Just saying that you have a big 7C temp differential could mean improper heatsink mount or insufficient//too much tim being applied on the cooler's base. There are other things like general airflow as well that can be factored in when looking at operating temperatures.
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Shizuka
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post #7 of 8
9/8/12 at 8:46pm
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I don't know if you can afford it but the best folding card out there right now is the gtx 580 because of utilization of CUDA cores. It will run a little hot so good cooling is needed and it is a little more expensive but you can pick up one pretty cheap. HERE is one sold by a guy here on the marketplace for $225.
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post #8 of 8
9/8/12 at 8:56pm
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*
Edited by 4thKor - 10/8/12 at 5:01pm
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