What GPU card to get?

[SUncleSamA]

I'm interested in yet very confused by GPU's and not I'm not very technical. I'm particularly interested in crunching Prime Grid but want the option of crunching other projects (or at least one other project later). I also have a limited budget but have seen many $100 GPU cards in the stores.

Is there a table some where that lists GPU projects, what type and models of currently available GPU's are available and the cost and likely credits that are produced by the cards? I think I've seen this information scattered around on these boards but if it was together in one place that might be helpful to get me and others into GPU crunching.

Any help would be appreciated.

[Mr. Hankey]

I'm interested in yet very confused by GPU's and not I'm not very technical. I'm particularly interested in crunching Prime Grid but want the option of crunching other projects (or at least one other project later). I also have a limited budget but have seen many $100 GPU cards in the stores.

Is there a table some where that lists GPU projects, what type and models of currently available GPU's are available and the cost and likely credits that are produced by the cards? I think I've seen this information scattered around on these boards but if it was together in one place that might be helpful to get me and others into GPU crunching.

Any help would be appreciated.

If you click on the FAQ section at the top of the form there is an entire section dedicated to GPU crunching.

There is also currently an article on the front page that links to this:

http://setiusa.free-dc.org/vbforum/content.php?119-BOINC-GPU-Compatibility-List

[STMahlberg]

Any help would be appreciated.

The link Mr. Hankey posted has great information in it. My personal opinion is I would get a card that is double-precision, sparing the technical stuff, simply it will allow you to run Milkyway. As far as the ATI 5xxx cards that means anything above a 5830 which is somewhere around $150 at Newegg (http://www.newegg.com/).

I don't know where the ATI 4xxx cards start at double-precision but I do know the 4850 is and it's an excellent card but the price is around $125.

For the extra $25 you can get the 5830 which has almost double the power of the 4850.

I don't have much experience with Nvidia, but others here do; perhaps they could recommend a good inexpensive card on the Nvidia side.

[DrPop]

At this point, where projects such as MW are headed with OpenCL, I would not get anything lower than an HD 5830. $145 after rebate at Newegg. That is the least expensive card I could truly recommend, not just for points/$, but for capability to run later CAL code as well, which will be more important as time progresses. Considering the $ we spend to run the hardware month after month, which is not insignificant, it pays to get a higher end product that is actually "worth" the electricity. Save until there is enough in the coffers for one of those.

Someone else will have to give the equiv. NVIDIA recommendation; perhaps a GTX 460 for similar price? Note that it will only compete with the 5830 on PG (much lower credits / day on everything else), but you mentioned PG as your favorite, so...

[Dandasarge]

I have a google sheet posted here is the link

https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AmK84VNiTf6vdHZmU0NzYm5fN181V21hNHRYSllEb VE&hl=en&pli=1&authkey=CIyG89sF#gid=0

The best card under the 100 mark is a 9800 GTX+ make sure you get the "+" for 130 on ebay you can find the GTX 285 is more then twice as fast. These are great cards for PG.

Everyone may try and sell you on the ATI cards but if PG is what you want to do Nvidia is what you want for now. Maybe some coding issues will get fixed and ATI will become king, for now it dosn't hold true.

If you want to go with a sub 100 ATI card there are 2 things to look at. the HD 5770 is the fastist sub 100 but it is not a DP card. the best DP sub 100 will be the 4850 it is aprx 25% slower though. The best ATI deal is waiting on the sales that drop the 5850 to 150 bucks. it can be flashed to run as a 5870 its DP and can run like a 250 dollar card.

[Slicker]

nVidia GTX 460 on sale for $109.

It has 336 stream processors verses 128 for the 9800 GTX+. My guess is that it will do about 300K per day on PG.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6491183&Sku=G458-0464
(http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6491183&Sku=G458-0464)

[Teratoma]

It would help to know the specs on the PC. PCIe slot availability, PSU size, etc.

[Dandasarge]

nVidia GTX 460 on sale for $109.

It has 336 stream processors verses 128 for the 9800 GTX+. My guess is that it will do about 300K per day on PG.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6491183&Sku=G458-0464
(http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6491183&Sku=G458-0464)

Great deal find!