Hello & Dirty cheap GPU folding?

[jimwah]

Hi all - been away for a bit, again, but I got the strange urge recently to do a bit of distributed computing, again I'm hoping to tuck a few computers out of the way at work & get a little bit of ppd rolling in for XS. I always had much love for XS folding team so it's good to see some of the old faces still here, and banging out some serious points too.

I've only got an SMP client going on my work i5 workstation at the moment, but I was thinking back to when GPU folding first started & recalled running it on an old ATi X1900GT, which died as a result of my efforts to squeeze max ppd out of it I think

Anyway, is it worth stalking ebay for old cards like this for folding, or are they totally out of the game now? Or even picking up a cheap, modern card for say £50 and folding on that? If I can see a couple of thousand ppd out of a dirty old GPU then I'd be happy, whatever it takes to eventually beat Sparky (or maybe just get top 50 before the year is out)

[Sparky]

Well a few things - they found the work that the X1900s did was worthless

You'd do better getting a more modern card. Heck even a GTX260 would still be decent. I have one that I don't run anymore due to the light bill (I don't like seeing my name gray on the list either, catch-22) and also it was starting to dislike running under heavy load 24/7 (still does everyday stuff and games for hours OK as long as it gets a break on occasion). But if you could find a non-abused one, those go for somewhere in the $50-75 range and net 5000 ppd last I checked. But then, it's been a while, so I don't know what they can do now might be better off running a more recent card - might cost less to run due to less power usage for the same output.

Glad to see you decided to pop back in If it wasn't for my outdated/worn out GPUs I'd still be folding, but the GTX260 was getting grumpy and my 4870 wasn't worth the power it cost to run

[OCX600RR]

Not sure how cheap you can get one of these across the pond, but a used GTX 460 768mb should do quite well. I remember when I had the Twin Frozr II edition it was pulling around 14k ppd at ~ 925MHz core / 1850 shaders.

[GeorgeStorm]

Get any modern nvidia card and you'll get decent PPD

[jimwah]

Cheers for the input peeps & good to see you still on here Sparky & crunching for XS, even if it is the wrong project I was reading some of the old posts from the DC vault the other day, funny stuff, and some of sc00p's random posts

260GTX still goes for £80 over here, so I'm tempted by a cheap outdated 9800GT card right now, it has 112 cores so I could expect at least 2k or 3k out of that surely & they go for peanuts on ebay - budget is the key word here! I've got a few spare parts including a meaty PSU in an Antec P180 in the shed, hardly the most subtle box, but I'll just build it up as a test box and stick it in a rack in the comms room at work. Actually it might fit in quite well with the door off, & laid on its side in the rack.

Shame about the X1900's work getting scrapped! I worked mine to death at the time, trying to get some decent PPD out of it

[GeorgeStorm]

Where are you getting a GTX260 for £80??

On bit-tech at the moment, there is a GTX275 for £55, 260s tend to go for £50-60 atm.

I've got a couple of 8800 cards I'd be tempted to sell if you were after a cheaper lower end card (PM me if interested)

[Sparky]

Heh, I've been doing WCG on CPUs and F@H on GPUs forever Reason being my CPUs sucked for F@H anymore. But now my GPUs suck for it too

I'll get back in the game eventually, don't worry. I can't let you actually pass me

[coo-coo-clocker]

Hah!
Now this reminds me of the spirit of our folding team of old!
I do long for those days where we were the envy of the other teams, with such lively participation, trash-talking, and occasional points competitions.
I would agree that a more modern Nvidia GPU is probably the way to go. I currently am running a hodge-podge of older cards. Here's a quick view of what FahMon is saying:
GTX460 Project 6801, PPD 10,216
GTX260 Project 5772, PPD 1,631
8800 GTX Project 5772, PPD 1,245

I think everything is pretty much running at stock clocks since o/c results in problems and short life! I don't have the time right now to spend on a bunch of tweaking, so I keep it simple.

Good to see you back, Jimwah

[jimwah]

Sparky, I've got to pay you back for somehow putting almost 10mil points between us! Although even my thoughts of top 50 before the end of the year will need PPD beyond my reach, so I think you're safe for a while mate.

Cheers for the stats coo-coo & good to see old faces around here I presume there's some massive variance in PPD between projects there, cos the number of cores & frequencies between the 260 & the 460 doesn't seem that different to me? Although I am well out of date with anything Nvidia to be honest. I have a 250GTS at home, so if I buy anything halfway decent that'll be an upgrade & the GTS can go on f@h (@work).

The hardware site I was looking at was not priced well - Spotted a 260GTX on ebay for £45 last night - should have pulled the trigger but need to check the bank account first, as I think the mobo I planned to use is toast. Might have to wait til pay day - alternatively I might save some money & make my Xmas presents for loved ones this year, instead of buying them nice things. I think some dried pasta and glitter stuck to some card says 'Merry Christmas' better than anything money could buy anyway, right?

[GeorgeStorm]

That 260 PPD seems low, tend to think of them pulling 6-8k when I was folding.

I'd look at getting a 260+, 460+ or 560+. No point going lower than those numbers in each of the respective ranges IMO. (last time I checked)

[coo-coo-clocker]

yeah, sure enough.
Here's another snapshot from just now:
GTX460, Project 6801, PPD 10,216
GTX260, Project 10502, PPD 9,392
8800 GTX, Project 10503, PPD 4,886

[jimwah]

That looks more like it! Got my old C2D e6400 folding the SMP client today, not sure how it'll cope with the deadlines really (it picked up a monster 2200 point WU already but it should get 24/7 online at least (its living out its retirement as a deployment server at the moment).

[sc00p]

What?

[sc00p]

The Hell...

[Sparky]

zomg first jimwah now sc00p!

How you been?!

[sc00p]

zomg first jimwah now sc00p!

How you been?!

Nothing spectacular...

Recently they let me out of a mental rehabilitation centre... not for my good behavior but because of decicion not useful to keep me in. He's mad anyways...


...seriously, haven't been folding for few years and not been around here (=XS) just couple of times in few years. Had a sudden urge to check this place up...
...what did I saw. Jimwah is alive


Sorry, sparky my friend, not keeping in touch. And probably won't be around too much for now

[Sparky]

I'm just glad to know you're both still alive and kicking. Pulling an UnG makes me depressed!

[jimwah]

This just made my day

Really good to hear from you again sc00p! Nothing spectacular going on here either my friend, at least now you're out of the institution they'll let you use a computer again

Would you mind if I stick one of these machines on folding in your name old man? We can both then enjoy the satisfaction of finally beating that evil cat-genius, who goes by the name AngryPickles (while he is not even here to defend himself - I think this is the best way to achieve our goals), and see your old username in lights again.

[coo-coo-clocker]

haha I like this very much. Resurrecting the points of folders-past. Just in time for Christmas, we can have a "Christmas Carol" kind of story going.

[jimwah]

Got my old C2D folding for sc00p Stupid box picked up a giant 4.8k point WU today! Obviously it likes a challenge, or maybe got a few screws loose like the user it folds for. It'll be working for a few days on that one, hopefully it figures it out before deadline!

coo-coo, that is one lovely bird in your avatar - very tasty Yeah nice to see some old names in lights, christmas carol lol, we're getting visited by the folders from Christmas past

[Sparky]

I'm trying so hard to budget (car stuff, I have my eyes on this one car come spring...) but at the same time you are making me want to pick up some hardware to at least do something on again.

[jimwah]

Haha no rush Sparky, would be good to see you on here again though matey. What car are you looking at?

I'm nursing an old '93 Golf Cabriolet back to health at the moment & it's costing me dearly That's where my GPU money went this month... also, driving a Cabrio during a wet British winter isn't the best move I ever made...

[Sparky]

OK story time!

Back in 2007 I bought a 98 Chevy Camaro. It was a POS, really It was rather beat up by the previous owner, which resulted in several thousand dollars worth of repairs over the next couple of years. Bad move buying it. Anyway, once I did all that the car was reliable and fun to drive. I really got attached to it and had all sorts of plans on fixing up the body (had damage from the previous guy and some random idiot hitting it while I was at college). Problem was it got rusty underneath from the salt from winter driving, and was beyond reasonable repair, so I went to sell it while it was still worth something.

Instead of selling it, I ended up in an accident in September 2010 - basically ended up getting the back end of the car spun and slammed into a concrete wall at around 45 mph. Yeah, destroyed the poor car Several factors contributed to the accident (road conditions sucked, my tires were worn, and I figured out later I had a suspension issue on the rear axle), good thing was because of the bad conditions and the number of accidents going on, the police didn't cite me even though he easily could have. Somehow I didn't hit anybody when sliding sideways and backwards across 4 lanes of rush hour interstate traffic It easily could have been so much worse, but I walked away with only some whiplash that pained me for about 6 weeks, and recurring flashbacks for the next few months. It really sucked

Anyway, I really, really liked that car. A friend of mine in PA owns a 99 Camaro that is virtually identical to my old 98 even down to the relatively rare color. It is in much better shape however, no rust underneath and all. This past summer I really missed my Camaro, and I've been wanting another one. My friend is selling his, so I'm trying to pay off my truck (should hopefully have that done in January), then saving everything I can so I can hopefully buy his Camaro this spring. Oh man, the thought of having a Camaro again gets me excited

OK, story over, hope the wall of text wasn't too bad

Oh, and this thread has gone lol so typical

[jimwah]

Well off topic, some things never change What colour & most importantly what engine in this '99 ? Got any pics? I'm quite jealous Sparky, wafting about in a big motor through US streets is the kind of thing I dream about, probably seems rather mundane for you! Actually as time goes by I find myself inspired by a lot of the culture in the US, if it wasn't such a hard place to get into I'd love to live over there one day.

Don't feel too bad for throwing money at the old one mate, I've chucked money at ridiculous cars my whole adult life, and I'm still doing it now... I've got an obsession for Golfs, you have one for Camaros, it's natural - guys need to have an obsession, keeps us from gettin up to mischief . Mostly.

My current project is only a 2.0 8v, slow & very low, that's the plan.

[Sparky]

Well, it is the same color and same engine as my 98, only a 3.8L V6, not the 5.7L V8 model. However, with a little bit of work it can hold boost pretty well, so I'm toying with the idea of putting a turbo on it down the road later Even in stock form it is pretty decent and can be fun to drive. And would you believe it, I got 32 mpg out of that car on the highway all day. I don't quite expect the 99 to be able to do that, as it doesn't have a stock camshaft in it.

Here's a couple pics of my 98. Basically what the 99 looks like except the headlights and turn signals are a bit different (mine weren't stock) and the car is overall in better shape.




Pics of the 99 I'm looking at.





I didn't think it would be that hard to get in over here.