Best low-profile GPU for crunching?

[zombie67]

What is the best low-profile GPU for crunching?

nvidia or AMD, makes no difference. Maybe best for each?

PCIe, any power requirements.

[Fire$torm]

Maybe these two lists will help. Note that none of the ATI are DP so your probably better off going the nVidia route.

AMD on Newegg ---> http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007709%20600001667%20600100181%20600083901%20 600144221&IsNodeId=1&name=480%20Stream%20Processors&ShowDeactivatedMark=False

nVidia on Newegg ---> http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007709%20600001667%20600030348%20600007321%20 600315672&IsNodeId=1&name=96&ShowDeactivatedMark=False

[zombie67]

Maybe these two lists will help. Note that none of the ATI are DP so your probably better off going the nVidia route.

AMD on Newegg ---> http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007709%20600001667%20600100181%20600083901%20 600144221&IsNodeId=1&name=480%20Stream%20Processors&ShowDeactivatedMark=False

nVidia on Newegg ---> http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007709%20600001667%20600030348%20600007321%20 600315672&IsNodeId=1&name=96&ShowDeactivatedMark=False

Thanks. Good point about the AMDs. I keep forgetting, since I usually only buy top end GPUs.

On the nVidia side, it looks like these are the best out there. Low profile and double wide. Never knew such a thing existed:

$99 zotac: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500273

$109 xfx: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150633

Both are GeForce GT 640 (384 core w/ 2gb).

[Fire$torm]

OK I see why those two did not show up in my search, used a filter for "low profile bracket included" and those don't have one. GJ finding them :-bd I think I like the XFX unit more as it uses two fans. Lower rpms = less noise for the same amount of air flow.

[zombie67]

OK I see why those two did not show up in my search, used a filter for "low profile bracket included" and those don't have one. GJ finding them :-bd I think I like the XFX unit more as it uses two fans. Lower rpms = less noise for the same amount of air flow.

Yeah, now to find out if they would fit *under* a gemini II HS.

[John P. Myers]

New. Better. Faster. More.

Zotac has 2 new GT 640s that are faster. They use a different GPU chip even. Still 384 cores, but GDDR5 now instead of DDR3. Base clock is 1046MHz. Rated at 803.3 GFLOPS vs. 691.2 GFLOPS on the old ones. Old TDP was 65W. New is 49W. The physical size of the GPU die is 25% smaller.

1GB version: http://www.amazon.com/Zotac-Video-Graphics-Card-ZT-60208-10L/dp/B00DDXQLRW/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1372756792&sr=1-1&keywords=ZT-60208-10L
2GB version: http://www.amazon.com/Zotac-Video-Graphics-Card-ZT-60209-10L/dp/B00DDXQM4Y/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1372757262&sr=1-1&keywords=ZT-60209-10L

They don't provide many pictures, but both *do* come with low profile brackets (verified at Zotac's website). These have just been released and haven't made it to Newegg yet.

[zombie67]

Nice!

[FourOh]

I'm very happy with my HD 7750 low-profile card. It's installed in a very average Dell machine, and puts up 300,000/day in Poem or close to 200,000/day in DiRT. I also have an HD 6570 at home; the 7750 outperforms it significantly.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202002

[Fire$torm]

Cool! Thx.

[DrPop]

Zotac has 2 new GT 640s that are faster. They use a different GPU chip even. Still 384 cores, but GDDR5 now instead of DDR3. Base clock is 1046MHz. Rated at 803.3 GFLOPS vs. 691.2 GFLOPS on the old ones. Old TDP was 65W. New is 49W. The physical size of the GPU die is 25% smaller...

Are these cards that use only the PCI-e bus for power? As in no extra PCI-e 6 pin power required? :D

[FourOh]

I should have mentioned that the HD 7750 is Double Precision capable and requires no auxiliary power.

[John P. Myers]

Are these cards that use only the PCI-e bus for power? As in no extra PCI-e 6 pin power required? :D

Correct, no additional plugs required. All power comes from the motherboard.

Additionally, they also have 2 new GT 630s (1GB and 2GB versions). The new 630s are 1.5 GFLOPS faster than the old 640s and have a 25W TDP and still use DDR3. Also come with LP brackets. Newegg has them but not the 640s yet http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007709%20600001667%20600419828%20600030348%20 600007799&IsNodeId=1&name=64-bit&ShowDeactivatedMark=False TigerDirect still carries neither :/

It should be noted if you're planning to use the new 640 for graphics, you'll be highly disappointed since it's been gutted for that. The old one will be faster there. There new 630 would be a tad better than the old.

As FourOh mentioned, on the AMD side the 7750 is still the best LP card and gets almost 2x more DP than the new 640. The 900MHz version of the 7750 also gets about 14% more SP, though TDP is 75W vs. 49W for the 640.

Edit: seems the 900MHz version of the 7750 isn't available in low profile so ignore that :p 55W TDP for the 800MHz version. DP is ~1.5x better than the new 640 and SP is about 1% better.

[John P. Myers]

I have a benchmark coming for you guys :D

After the release of the new GPU chips that went into the GT 630 Rev. 2 and GT 640 Rev. 2 cards, i bought a GT 640 Rev. 2 and put it in the same computer as the GT 640 i have with the original GPU chip in it to see which is faster, and by how much.

Specifically, this is the GT 640 Rev. 2 i just received today: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125468
And this is the old one i already had: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7778569&CatId=7387

Edit: i'm posting this here because the GT 640 Rev. 2 i got today also has the option of being low profile, and it does come with low profile brackets even though there's no picture of them. But i can verify they were in the box.

Currently they're each running Dirt. Will post the results in about 2 hours.

[John P. Myers]

Here's how they read in BOINC:

CUDA: NVIDIA GPU 0: GeForce GTX TITAN (driver version 320.49, CUDA version 5.50, compute capability 3.5, 4096MB, 4096MB available, 5268 GFLOPS peak)
CUDA: NVIDIA GPU 1: GeForce GT 640 (driver version 320.49, CUDA version 5.50, compute capability 3.0, 2048MB, 1982MB available, 692 GFLOPS peak)
CUDA: NVIDIA GPU 2: GeForce GTX 560 (driver version 320.49, CUDA version 5.50, compute capability 2.1, 1024MB, 943MB available, 1089 GFLOPS peak)
CUDA: NVIDIA GPU 3: GeForce GT 640 (driver version 320.49, CUDA version 5.50, compute capability 3.5, 1024MB, 940MB available, 803 GFLOPS peak)
OpenCL: NVIDIA GPU 0: GeForce GTX TITAN (driver version 320.49, device version OpenCL 1.1 CUDA, 6144MB, 4096MB available, 5268 GFLOPS peak)
OpenCL: NVIDIA GPU 1: GeForce GT 640 (driver version 320.49, device version OpenCL 1.1 CUDA, 2048MB, 1982MB available, 692 GFLOPS peak)
OpenCL: NVIDIA GPU 2: GeForce GTX 560 (driver version 320.49, device version OpenCL 1.1 CUDA, 1024MB, 943MB available, 1089 GFLOPS peak)
OpenCL: NVIDIA GPU 3: GeForce GT 640 (driver version 320.49, device version OpenCL 1.1 CUDA, 1024MB, 940MB available, 803 GFLOPS peak)

GPU 1 is the old GT 640
GPU 3 is the GT 640 Rev. 2

[John P. Myers]

Here we go...

old GT 640: 8,530.80 secs http://boinc.freerainbowtables.com/distrrtgen/result.php?resultid=47137257
GT 640 Rev. 2: 7,776.48 secs http://boinc.freerainbowtables.com/distrrtgen/result.php?resultid=47133820

Looks like the new GT 640 Rev. 2 is ~9% faster than the old 640 and only has a TDP of 49W vs. 65W on the old one.

Ran at 58C with a 99% load. Clocks/voltage on both GPUs were stock. Stock Dirt app used as well. I do believe we have a winner :D

[Mumps]

Specifically, this is the GT 640 Rev. 2 i just received today: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125468

Edit: i'm posting this here because the GT 640 Rev. 2 i got today also has the option of being low profile, and it does come with low profile brackets even though there's no picture of them. But i can verify they were in the box.
So, based on the NewEgg picture, the Low Profile config must use 2 slots? Or else you have to lose the SVGA port and only use the HDMI?

[John P. Myers]

So, based on the NewEgg picture, the Low Profile config must use 2 slots? Or else you have to lose the SVGA port and only use the HDMI?
Yeah the full low profile config uses 2 slots. If you only use 1 slot you get the HDMI and the DVI. Both brackets are included so you have the option.

[Fire$torm]

@Mumps: You could just use a HDMI-to-VGA adapter. Of course if the low profile itself is double wide then you'll have to massage that puppy with a Dremel tool... :D

[John P. Myers]

It's only single wide. You can also use a dvi to vga adapter because you still would have both the hdmi and dvi plugs in single width config. You probably have a small collection of those adapters lying around anyway from previous GPU purchases.

Sent from my Galaxy S4 using Tapatalk 4 beta

[Mumps]

Thanks guys. I only own 2 LCD monitors that take DVI inputs, and they're both being used by other systems. The system I need the Low-Profile for is that stupid ThinkCentre 6073-A1U (http://download.lenovo.com/pccbbs/thinkcentre_pdf/43c8797.pdf) from a few posts back, and where it sits, I don't want to have to give up the extra 1.5 inches behind it for one of those adapters. Bad enough the GPU fan will be partially obstructed by the HD Bay assembly... Also, the PCIe slot is the one closest to the immovable drive bay assembly, so if the Low Profile can't have the SVGA portion to the left of the actual card, when looking from the back of the system, that would preclude using that second slot anyways.

Bit of a pipe dream, but I'll keep my eye out for NewEgg specials and probably pick one up anyways. ;)

[John P. Myers]

if you chose to go with the 2-slot config you can put the vga plug on either the left or right of the card if you have another slot you could use. Unfortunately pretty much all low profile GPUs have the same bracket/output standards regardless of brand, making the low profile brackets universal. The thing about this card though is that with the heatsink/fan assembly, it's still only 1 slot wide. Most others encroach at least a little into the 2nd slot and that wouldn't work for me. Also the back of the card near the fan is open-ended so some air can flow through there if the front is blocked.

Regarding the benchmark, i forgot to mention no monitor was plugged into either of the GT 640s, keeping things as equal as possible.