CUDA Question -- Deciding which Card to buy!

[LUCI5R]

Ave,

Anyone here with CUDA Knowledge/Experience .. I have a question for you.

I'm upgrading my video card from an ATI Radeon X1950Pro to an nVidia GTX card. The primary, or I should say, the *ONLY* reason for the upgrade is CUDA. Please note that I do not play games or use this system for anything except Video Encoding. And that's where CUDA is the most important reason.

I'm using an application called TMPGEnc Xpress which has extensive CUDA support in it's most recent build, and I want to capitalize it.

Here's my Question:

Is the CUDA features/power different as you go higher up the GTX Models - Or is it the same? In other words, does the Core Clock, Core Processors, Memory etc. make a difference to the CUDA power at all?
More simplified ... will I get more CUDA Power/Speed using a GTX 275 then I would using a GTX 260?

Thanks.

[Arkangyl]

Short answer: yes.

However it will be more of a 5-10% thing than anything really major, and overclocking the lower-end card will cover that gap too. Thus, I would recommend the GTX 260, but honestly anything 9600 or better will get the job done

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3475&p=6

[LUCI5R]

Short answer: yes.

However it will be more of a 5-10% thing than anything really major, and overclocking the lower-end card will cover that gap too. Thus, I would recommend the GTX 260, but honestly anything 9600 or better will get the job done

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3475&p=6

Awesome! That's exactly the kind of answer I was looking for.
Thanks mate! I'm gonna read into that article and make the decision.

[ljiminez]

More simplified ... will I get more CUDA Power/Speed using a GTX 275 then I would using a GTX 260?

Thanks.

I am also interested in CUDA. I transcode video for playback on my smartphone. Here is an interesting thread I found. See post 6 at:

http://www.badaboomit.com/node/122