What GPU brand to select for long term purpose?

Thomas
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Topic 196211

In a month I will have about 750 USD to invest in GPU. Will be there a shift to OpenCL or is nVidia the only worth choice for GPU computing?

Is it worth buying brand new Kepler chip?

tullio
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What GPU brand to select for long term purpose?

I don't have any graphics card but I like to do some window shopping at www.tomshardware.com.
Tullio

MarkJ
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RE: In a month I will have

Quote:

In a month I will have about 750 USD to invest in GPU. Will be there a shift to OpenCL or is nVidia the only worth choice for GPU computing?

Is it worth buying brand new Kepler chip?

At present there is a cuda app (Nvidia only) and an OpenCL being tested over at albert. Nvidia do support OpenCL 1.1 in their current drivers, so if you go for an Nvidia card you'll be able to run either of them.

ATI cards on the other hand support OpenCL so you'd have to wait until the OpenCL app is released, which could be a while.

You don't need to spend $750 on a top of the line card. I would suggest you get a cheaper one and run with that for a while. They generate a fair bit of heat and the average PC case isn't suitable. They also require power which on the high-end cards can be up to 300 watts so you'll need to factor that into your plans. You can get a fairly decent 500 series cards for a few hundred dollars and run with it until all the fuss over the new cards settles down and prices come down.

The alpha-test versions of BOINC support the detection and scheduling of OpenCL co-processors. There are also server-side changes for distributing work to OpenCL capable machines.

Thomas
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Thank you, Mark. I was

Thank you, Mark. I was thinking about gtx 590. I already have a giga case and 750 Watt PSU, so the power draw isn't a problem.

I had 2 gtx 260, but one died last year, so I'd like to buy a 2-chip card, rather than 2 cards.

Bernd Machenschalk
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To put our experience with

To put our experience with OpenCL in short: For GPU computing ("GPGPU"), buy NVidia. The ATI cards are great, powerful hardware, but the software (drivers, SDK) is crap and the ATI developers don't give a damn about GPGPU. "Support" (for application developers) is essentially absent.

Sorry, we're quit frustrated by ATI over here.

BM

BM

Mike Hewson
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RE: To put our experience

Quote:

To put our experience with OpenCL in short: For GPU computing ("GPGPU"), buy NVidia. The ATI cards are great, powerful hardware, but the software (drivers, SDK) is crap and the ATI developers don't give a damn about GPGPU. "Support" (for application developers) is essentially absent.

Sorry, we're quit frustrated by ATI over here.

BM


Oh. That bad. :-(

Cheers, Mike.

I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...

... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal

hotze33
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in my experience there is no

in my experience there is no difference in buying a card with two gpus or two card except the space occupied (and gaming preferences). And buying two mainstream cards is often cheaper than the ultra high end one for quite the same performance. A good overview is
http://einsteinathome.org/node/195983
Also keep in mind that you need a fast cpu and sufficient bandwidth on the PCIe bus to get the maximum out of your cards.
For the power: The main factor is not if your psu could handle the power but if you can handle the power bill ;)
Right now I would wait (1-2month) for the new kepler cards . Rumors are that they are quite promising. Even if they aren´t better for GPGPU than you will still get a better price on the "old" stuff.
For einstein everything up from the fermi series (gtx 460/470/480) is working quite well. (The rest also but not performance/watt)[/url]

Thomas
Thomas
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In Ukraine electricity costs

In Ukraine electricity costs 2.75c/kWh (for industrial facilities something closer 10c/kWh).

If you like this, send me your nodes for crunching)))

tolafoph
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RE: In Ukraine electricity

Quote:
In Ukraine electricity costs 2.75c/kWh (for industrial facilities something closer 10c/kWh).
)))

I would also Run my machine 24/7 at those prices, but I have to pay Nine Times as much here in Germany.

Tom95134
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I think the only thing to be

I think the only thing to be cautious about with the GTX590 is the length of the card (11 inches). Also, the NVIDIA web site indicates that the GTX590 can draw 700 Watts.

I'm running a GTS450 which is pretty mild. As prices drop I will likely upgrade since the system I'm using now has a Antec HCP850 as PSU.

archae86
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RE: the software (drivers,

Quote:
the software (drivers, SDK) is crap and the ATI developers don't give a damn about GPGPU. "Support" (for application developers) is essentially absent


I ran for a while an ATI GPU application developed by Raistmer to run SETI@home work. While he got it running, what he had to say about the ATI development environment and improvement thereof was even less happy than this.

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