I'm looking at CUDA cards for BOINC; I'm not a gamer.

Given my rig the right card is the GeForce 9600 GSO. One of the XFX offerings takes my fancy. They come in standard 768Meg or over-clocked 384Meg. Which should I go for?

In other words, is BOINC CUDA processing happier with RAM, or cycle speed?

Another consideration is noise, since my rig is in our living space.

Thanks, Tom

I would suggest at least a 9800GT.

But if you plan to work on the PC while crunching, then I would really take a GTX 260 or above. (concerning the choppiness!!)

That's the awful truth.

I use a 9800GT and it is still perceptible choppy.

Clock-Speed and number of SPs is more relevant than memory, as far as the minimum requirements are fulfilled.

Best regards,
Martin

I like my 9600GSO from ASUS. It is factory OC and is very comparable to the stock 9800GT (the overclock puts it over 500 GFLOPS) and sold for less than $90 US. I work on it all the time, and really the only significant choppiness occurs when I work in any 3-D apps. The large stock fan keeps it reasonably cool and is extremely quiet.

I'd also add that the 8800GS is essentially the same card. But be aware that any 9600GSO cards with 512mb or 1GB are actually based on the G94 chip and only have 48 shaders (and will therefore be MUCH slower).

Three choices, 9800GT, GTX 260/280, or GTX 295 ...

Sadly, all three are going to increase the noise because the fan IS going to run ... the slower the card, the slower the fan the lower the noise. So the question is, less noise or better production.

The 9800 GT I have takes about 12-20 hours per GPU Grid task ...
The GTX 280 I have and the GTX 295 take about the same time per task of 4-6 hours ...

The difference is that the GTX 295 does two tasks at the same time.

The other difference between the cards is cost. My opinion is to buy the best you can afford, or even a little more as the card remains "usable" for a longer time.

You can look at my computers for more if you like ... I am happy with all the cards to this point, I have both PNY and EVGA types. YMMV

Three choices, 9800GT, GTX 260/280, or GTX 295 ...

Sadly, all three are going to increase the noise because the fan IS going to run ... the slower the card, the slower the fan the lower the noise.

There is a remark to add.

Running GTX 295 card(s) requires IMHO an open case because the cards blow a lot of warm air out of their sides.
Then fan noise is no problem, at least in a sufficient cool room like now in the winter.
In the summer I probably have to shut down GPUGRID. :-(

Thank you all for your responses.

I should have explained up front that "Given my rig..." means that its warranty runs for another 18 months and to go for something more powerful than the 9600 GSO would require a power supply upgrade, putting the warranty at risk.

Given all your dire warnings about noise, I'm tempted by Scott's ASUS; "is extremely quiet".

Scott - can I please ask you to identify which of these you have. Thanks.

Tom

Given all your dire warnings about noise, I'm tempted by Scott's ASUS; "is extremely quiet".

Scott - can I please ask you to identify which of these you have. Thanks.

Tom

Regarding PS, the 9800GT may still be a possibility for you.

[quote]
All I have to do now is find a deal, and finding a deal in France is a big challenge!

Tom

When it was to be a 9600GSO, which needs one 6-pin supplementary power connector, I checked inside my tower. I found a spare 2x3 plug, marked P12, with three black and three white wires. I assumed that would do the job.

Now I see that the 9800GT needs two 6-pin connectors, so back inside the case. The only possibility I see is two unused 4-pin plugs marked P11, one near the graphics card and one at the other end of the case. How can I use them to provide the second connector for the 9800GT?

Thanks for the where-to-buy links, Scott. I'm still looking...

Tom

@ tomba

You only need to buy two PCIe power adapters which convert 6-pin PCIe sockets to 4-pin inline plugs (called 5.25'' connectors because 5.25''-devices like DVD-drives are connected with these).

If bought new (rather than "open box") the ASUS cards needing the six-pin adapter will usually ship with one molex (the 4-pin adapters) to 6-pin adapter, though buying one is fairly cheap (for example, http://www.nanosys1.com/cbl-pwr-lp4pcie.html). The adapter will require two 4-pin molex power connections to feed into the 6-pin connector. Also, avoid chaining other devices on the same power connectors as the GPU (which might entail rearranging and chaining together the power for other internal devices).

Update by tomba...

It turned out that she who controls the household budget (and must be obeyed) put the 9800GT out of range so I bought locally a Nvidia 9600GSO, 384 megs.

Noise is not a problem running GPUGRID, though seti@home WUs do up the decibels somewhat. Strange.

I wonder, though, if I have a GPU heat problem. When its ticking over - no WU - it runs at 72-73C. With a GPUGRID WU running, the GPU temperature is a constant 102C. Is that OK???

Tom

Update by tomba...

It turned out that she who controls the household budget (and must be obeyed) put the 9800GT out of range so I bought locally a Nvidia 9600GSO, 384 megs.

Noise is not a problem running GPUGRID, though seti@home WUs do up the decibels somewhat. Strange.

I wonder, though, if I have a GPU heat problem. When its ticking over - no WU - it runs at 72-73C. With a GPUGRID WU running, the GPU temperature is a constant 102C. Is that OK???

I wonder, though, if I have a GPU heat problem. When its ticking over - no WU - it runs at 72-73C. With a GPUGRID WU running, the GPU temperature is a constant 102C. Is that OK???

Tom

The temp sounds like the fans are running "at default". I have an ASUS 9800GTX, and use the ASUS smart Doctor and/or RivaTuner. If you are not used to Riva Tuner, watch for its "advanaced user" warnings - its a powerful tool, and there are areas where issues can occur if it is not used correctly. If you dont see the warnings all is well. If you see them, focus that you really know what you are doing with the section of the tool that you just entered - if in doubt hit "escape" - else leave that particular section of the tool alone.

I have a midtower case, and running the GPU fan on the 9800GTX at 80% keeps the GPU at around 60 on my beastie. I would sort out the heating/cooling issue before running any Crunching to keep the load off it until cooling is sorted. 102 is as pointed out very high, too high, and is boarderline, dont load the gpu with heavy tasks until you resolve cooling.

Edit:
A further thought - on some case designs the construction of the front intake fan filter can be misleading. There is often a foam membrane inside the front grill. That can quickly clogg up as its not visible as such, and easily forgotten. The outside "holes" in the front grill look clear, but in fact behind it, the membrane is full of dust preventing any air intake - or at best degrading it severely. Worth double checking yours if you have a front intake fan/grill. That fan not working properly will have a big impact.

Regards
Zy

Update by tomba...

Thank you all for your help with my XFX 9600GSO. Here's where I am:

I downloaded the Nvidia performance application. It told me the fan was running at 30%. I tried a number of settings and found that 60% gave me 82 degrees on the GPU when CUDA-ing with no perceptible increase in fan noise. Anything more than 60% the noise was noticeable. At 100% it was a whirling dervish!

Yesterday I saw that the three clock settings were significantly lower than those on the Nvidia site so I upped them to those settings: 680/800/1800. I did a full WU and got a good result. The temperature is now a consistent 85 degrees.

I invested a fiver on one of these. We'll see what "Super quiet" means.

Tom

I see you already made your choice, but I also see that nobody answered your question

In other words, is BOINC CUDA processing happier with RAM, or cycle speed?

I invested a fiver on one of these. We'll see what "Super quiet" means.

Is the Nvidia control panel you mention part of the video card software or motherboard software for Nvidia chips?

Thanks.

Is the Nvidia control panel you mention part of the video card software or motherboard software for Nvidia chips?

I'm going blind looking for "find optimal" in the Nvidia Control Panel (182.08).

What version are you using?

Thank you.

After some surfing...it looks like you have to install Ntune...?
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Consciousness: That annoying time between naps......

Experience is a wonderful thing: it enables you to recognize a mistake every time you repeat it.

Trying to figure nTune out now. However, this note bothers me.

Note: nTune does not support overclocking, underclocking or performance auto-tuning on multi-processor systems.

Try this...YMMV as I am running XP 64 pro

1. go to your computers control panel, and then double click on accounts, once that is open click on turn user accounts controls on or off,then turn off user accounts controls, apply and restart computer.

(Not sure about this step. I turned my Guest account on and off...)

2. download and install ntunes from nvidia and restart your comp
I downloaded 5.05.54.00

3. once its all installed and you have restarted your computer there will be two new programmes, "start/program/nvidia corperation" the programmes are nvidia control panal and nvidia moniter.

Open Ntune, and you "should" see a menu listing for "Performance". Expand this, and agree to the "user agreement". This will open up the "Performance" options for you.

"nvidia monitor" monitors temps and fan speed and nvidia control panel "NTUNE", allows extra control of clock speeds
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Consciousness: That annoying time between naps......

Experience is a wonderful thing: it enables you to recognize a mistake every time you repeat it.

Running W7 32-bit, but didn't have any issue installing.

There does not seem to be any "automagic optimizer" for the GPU, there is for the motherboard and CPU.

It will let me manually modify the GPU..........not what I want to do. I wanted to be auto.

Anyway, just have a piddly 8600 GT on this puter I play some games on. Puter has AMD 4000+ single-core, so nTune works there.

I tried on a quad-core AMD 9850BE with a 9800 GTX+ and an AMD 9850BE with an 8800 GT and neither seemed to want to work. I'll take another run at them tomorrow.

Ok, I don't use Ntune for anything myself. I just saw you were having a problem getting it werking...
____________


Consciousness: That annoying time between naps......

Experience is a wonderful thing: it enables you to recognize a mistake every time you repeat it.

I'm going blind looking for "find optimal" in the Nvidia Control Panel (182.08). What version are you using?

The temperature is now a consistent 85 degrees.

The temperature is now a consistent 85 degrees.

I've done nothing, but for the last two days the GPU temperture is a constant 66 degrees!!

I'm going blind looking for "find optimal" in the Nvidia Control Panel (182.08). What version are you using?

2.2.390.00.

Cheers, Tom

Is this a feecher of BOINC 6.5.0? Is there a better BOINC?

I've been running 6.6.20 for several days now. Was running 6.6.18 prior to that.

Nothing horrible has happened, and it does keep the CPUs and GPU busy. I'm not positive I understand the work scheduling or wotk fetch algorithms anymore, but nothing has missed deadlines and nothing has run out of work, so we'll see.

One of the things I didn't like about the pre-6.6.x clients was the problem described above -- it would stop working the GPU because it scheduled the GPU and CPU together, so you have to raise the priority on the GPU projects. I haven't had to do that with 6.6.x.

FWIW, I'm running SETI and GPUGRID on the GPU and a gaggle of wildly different projects on the CPU.

Mike

____________
Want to find one of the largest known primes? Try PrimeGrid. Or help cure disease at WCG.

Nothing horrible has happened, and it does keep the CPUs and GPU busy. I'm not positive I understand the work scheduling or wotk fetch algorithms anymore, but nothing has missed deadlines and nothing has run out of work, so we'll see.

I had a similar problem with my "old" E6850 C2.
At idle it was in the 60's and load 92 and 95C respectively with a thermaltake power fan.

I decided that this was not normal and sent the chip back to intel (through my local store) within 7 business day intel sent a brand new E6850 but as usual never said why.

I decided to exchange it against a Q9550 and I got $175 bucks back for a E6850.
Now even under stress no core goes pass 43C and thats at 100% load.

So there was a problem with it although Intel said that their processor can handle 100C.

But that's way too high as far as I am concerned.

Martin Chartrand