Quote Originally Posted by thepossum1 View Post
Well, this is kind of OT here, but we seem to keep going back to it--what's the deal with GPUs? I've been looking at laptops ( and desktops) and have been trying to figure out what you need to crunch on GPU.

I have gathered that it's the video card--Googled and read a few threads but don't know what you have to DO to get it to crunch.
Saw a few options I might buy as far as ATI Radeon, Nvidia--same thing, yes? Like a gaming computer would stand the best chance of having the right GPU thing, yes? Some rigs had dual, quad and one even had 6 cores--that's CPU, yes? If you have more cores, more WUs get done at a time, but this GPU thing is better if you had to choose? Or can you do both at the same time? Are there only certain projects that run on the GPU? Do you just join that project, d/l WUs and it takes over? Remember, I need idiot proof. I am planning a purchase of SOMEthng within a few days. I have to buy off the rack because I am only up to changing out fans & cleaning dustbunnies, can't fiddle with the meat & potatoes of it.
This probably the simplest, but not necessarily the best way. Buy a high end nVidia card after confirming it has CUDA ability. Install it. Attach to a project that has cuda apps. Make sure your preferences allow GPU. It will crunch (for the most part) independent of the CPU.

ATI may be better, but it's a little more complicated.

IMO.

PS. Make sure the nvidia driver gets installed. Get it from nVidia not MS.

Is there a FAQ anywhere?