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View Full Version : Eclipse Plus + i7 920 or 790FX-GD70 + PhII 955 for Milkyway@home with 4 X 5850


ajaidev
10-11-2009, 11:58 AM
Ok we wanted to make a 24/7 crunching system for Milkyway@home and i was thinking which will be better Eclipse Plus + i7 920 or 790FX-GD70 + PhII 955 without any OCing.

Cant get any other brand than MSI. The thing i am confused about is bandwidth i know the 790FX-GD70 will auto arrange all slots to 8x speed but what about Eclipse Plus, all i can find is that in SLi the speed goes 16x 16x 16x 4x but what about quad crossfire???

Will CPU be a limiting factor in the AMD platform ?? :shrug: Also since AMD supports lower amount of ram will that be a problem??
loonym
10-11-2009, 03:46 PM
Why would you want to waste an i7-920 on milkyway when you could help us run WCG and find a cure for cancer?
Angmaar
10-11-2009, 04:14 PM
Will CPU be a limiting factor in the AMD platform ?? :shrug: Also since AMD supports lower amount of ram will that be a problem??
No, it shouldn't be a problem.

Why would you want to waste an i7-920 on milkyway when you could help us run WCG and find a cure for cancer?

He would be using the 5850's for M@H. Which does a WU in 8seconds.
loonym
10-11-2009, 04:51 PM
He would be using the 5850's for M@H. Which does a WU in 8seconds.Yeah? That's fast... sounds like a great way to rack up some boinc points in a hurry.
jcool
10-11-2009, 05:21 PM
He would be using the 5850's for M@H. Which does a WU in 8seconds.

As a matter of fact, a milkyway WU currently takes about 26 seconds on an HD5850 using the latest optimized client ;)
I just started running milkyway a week ago so my ever idling ATI cards will finally have something to do :rolleyes:

It takes 19,6s on average for my overclocked 5870, 46s average for an HD4870 and 53s for my OCed HD4850. The same WUs on a 4Ghz Gulftown take about 25 minutes, for comparison.

Which is why Loony is right - running milkyway on a CPU is a total waste, since GPU and CPU WUs are the same.

As for that MSI, it will run the 4 slots in x16/x16/x16/x4 configuration. As to why that is the case, I do not know.. the x58 doesn't have that many lanes. Probably it uses one Nvidia NF200 chip to create the additional lanes, still - it won't be effective for the 4th card.

The only x58 mobo with a full 4x PCIe x16 slots is the upcoming evga 4way SLI classified motherboard, which uses 2x NF200's to supply all those PCIe lanes.

So if the OP were to build such a config, I would advise against going with 4 GPUs. I'd rather use 3x HD5870 instead, probably more power than 4x HD5850 if the 4th card only runs at x4 speeds.

As for the AMD setup, well.. I'd want an i7 powering 3-4 GPUs, that I know for sure. Why it has to be MSI is beyond me as well, to each his own, I guess.

Edit: Just looked it up.. the MSI Eclipse Plus does really use one NF200 chip, and the 4th PCIe x16 is actually a physical x16, ELECTRICAL x4 only slot. So no matter how many cards you run, anything plugged into the 4th PCIe will ALWAYS run at x4 speeds only, rendering the 4th slot effectively useless for running a GPU. Sounds like MSI to me :ROTF: :p:
JackOfAll
10-11-2009, 05:48 PM
The only x58 mobo with a full 4x PCIe x16 slots is the upcoming evga 4way SLI classified motherboard, which uses 2x NF200's to supply all those PCIe lanes.

Asus P6T7.
jcool
10-11-2009, 06:01 PM
Ok, let me rephrase that - the only decent board :p:
artemm
10-11-2009, 06:04 PM
Asus P6T7.

Asus is usually not an option in this part of the forum, Jack...

People here seem to hate it with a passion!

Doesn't the P6T6 also have 4x capability?
ajaidev
10-11-2009, 07:03 PM
If the Eclipse Plus runs 16x 16x 16x 4x for crossfire also its pointless to buy the 4th card as jcool said. The reason why i can only get MSI board is because of a cash coupon that i got for MSI products and its valued for Rs.5000 around $100 so i cant just throw it away.

Now the only thing i need is a comment on the AMD platform after all that one will save me more than a few bucks.
PoppaGeek
10-11-2009, 07:10 PM
If your main concern is MW on GPU there is no reason a Phenom 2 955 would hold you back.
jcool
10-12-2009, 02:38 AM
If the Eclipse Plus runs 16x 16x 16x 4x for crossfire also its pointless to buy the 4th card as jcool said. The reason why i can only get MSI board is because of a cash coupon that i got for MSI products and its valued for Rs.5000 around $100 so i cant just throw it away.

Now the only thing i need is a comment on the AMD platform after all that one will save me more than a few bucks.

Well.. so long as you stick with HD5850's, I guess the 8x PCIe wouldn't hold you back, as long as it's PCIe 2,0 x8. However, if you were to upgrade in the future to HD5870X2's or NV GT300 cards, you may see them bottlenecked after all.

However, I do think that for pure GPU crunching, the AMD platform is a valid plattform so long as you stick with HD5850's. You may lose 1-3% but that's about it, nothing to worry about.
ajaidev
10-12-2009, 04:26 AM
Well.. so long as you stick with HD5850's, I guess the 8x PCIe wouldn't hold you back, as long as it's PCIe 2,0 x8. However, if you were to upgrade in the future to HD5870X2's or NV GT300 cards, you may see them bottlenecked after all.

However, I do think that for pure GPU crunching, the AMD platform is a valid plattform so long as you stick with HD5850's. You may lose 1-3% but that's about it, nothing to worry about.

I don't think i will upgrade only GPUs, when i do upgrade. Collatz, folding@home and Milkyway@home are the three projects i am most interested in. I have tried Collatz on my GTX 275 and well it seems to work slower than my old 4850 "Don't recall the exact speed"

The real problem is heat, India is a very hot country and i hope 5850 does not under-clock it self when loaded. 3x GT300/5870x2 + Eclipse Plus + i7 920 would need a substantial amount of investment, i'll just change the mobo, cpu and gpu later maybe a classified x58 :D Out of curiosity how well is GT300 suppose to perform in say Milkyway@home and Collatz, any estimates??
jcool
10-12-2009, 05:52 AM
No, sorry. I just happen to know a bit about MW because I wanted something to keep my idling ATI GPUs occupied, my only real interest is World Community Grid.
I just wish they would start supporting GPUs already.. we could be doing SO much more work.
v0dka
10-12-2009, 07:15 AM
For a GPU cruncher I would definately go AMD. It's expensive enough to buy 3 or 4 GPU's and Phenom II is by no means slow. Should do around 4Ghz at 4 cores and be easily up to the task.
Oc-Ghost
10-12-2009, 11:18 AM
According to TechPowerup's review on PCIEx scaling a 5870 still works at about 60-75% of it's potential in GAMES, @4X PCIEX 2.0.

Someone with a card could test if it's the same deal with folding. Just a tip for the OP. :)
JackOfAll
10-13-2009, 03:57 AM
Asus is usually not an option in this part of the forum, Jack...

OK, just offering up another i7 board that has 4x double spaced 16x PCI-E slots.


People here seem to hate it with a passion!

Well, each to his own, but I've used the P6T7 with 4x GTX295's and no issues.
ctgilles
10-14-2009, 09:26 AM
Well.. so long as you stick with HD5850's, I guess the 8x PCIe wouldn't hold you back, as long as it's PCIe 2,0 x8. However, if you were to upgrade in the future to HD5870X2's or NV GT300 cards, you may see them bottlenecked after all.

However, I do think that for pure GPU crunching, the AMD platform is a valid plattform so long as you stick with HD5850's. You may lose 1-3% but that's about it, nothing to worry about.

A 5870 CF will lose only 1% and I doubt that a 5870x2 CF or 5890 CF will lose more than 3%

I just got 2x 5850 CF in an MSI 790GX-G65 @ 8x and they fly... 5 minutes per WU in Collatz (standard download client) Is MW@H better for points?
Running this until COD6 is released :D