MilkyWay credit drop ?

[Loewie]

My 'most recent' old crap machine (gathering dust indeed) is a Pentium III ... I think those don't support SSE2 (as that was introduced in the first Pentium 4's, right?).

You think it's still worth the 'investment'?

[jayBee666]

maybe you're better off selling that old crap machine for €99 and buy a HD4850 to replace that old X1950xtx.

[Annabel]

My 'most recent' old crap machine (gathering dust indeed) is a Pentium III ... I think those don't support SSE2 (as that was introduced in the first Pentium 4's, right?).

You think it's still worth the 'investment'?

It depends on what you want. Only MilkyWay accepts ATI gpu's for the moment. In fact, the boinc software is currently designed to only support nVidia cards, but some brilliant person has reprogrammed the milkyway software to use ATI GPU's.
I really wish that OpenCL would break through as soon as they agree on the standard. They there's is only one programming language for all GPU's (nVidia, AMD and Intel). But before this happens, it will take some time

BTW: we really need a some kind of a subforum for GPU project discussion, this is really going off-topic ...

[Giorgio]

My 'most recent' old crap machine (gathering dust indeed) is a Pentium III ... I think those don't support SSE2 (as that was introduced in the first Pentium 4's, right?).

You think it's still worth the 'investment'?

As Jaybee already said you better do not invest in this machine anymore. Furthermore a recent PCI-Express card such as a 4850 would not fit into that because it does not yet have such a slot.

If you want to upgrade your current videocard and want to use the new one for crunching then it naturally depends on which projects you are most interested in. Seti or GPUGRID => NVIDIA, Milkyway => ATI (NVIDIA code is being tested).

Currently I think the best ratio of investment / credits would be a ATI 4770. It costs less then a 4850, uses much less power and is almost as fast as a 4850.

Giorgio

[Loewie]

Ok guys, thanx for the input.

I'll give it some time to think about it, in the meantime I added a pc at work to help me crunch a bit

Greetz,
Loe

[DevinK]

Currently I think the best ratio of investment / credits would be a ATI 4770. It costs less then a 4850, uses much less power and is almost as fast as a 4850.

Giorgio

4850 512mb (Sapphire, MSi, Asus) @ €99
HD4770 still costs €100 - 105

[Giorgio]

4850 512mb (Sapphire, MSi, Asus) @ €99
HD4770 still costs €100 - 105

That is correct (for the moment). In theory the 4770 should be cheaper then a 4850 but apparently due to limited availability it is not. But a 4850 is consuming 130 watt and a 4770 "only" 80 watt.

According to the Milkyway specialists:

ref card: 3850 with 320 cores running at 668MHz consuming 90W = rated 1
=> power / rate = 90

4870 with 800 cores running at 750MHz consuming 150W = rated 2.81
=> power / rate = 53.44
4850 with 800 cores running at 625MHz consuming 130W = rated 2.34
=> power / rate = 55.58
4770 with 640 cores running at 750MHz consuming 80W = rated 2.25
=> power / rate = 35.63

=> the 4770 has the lowest (so the best) power / rate value

So if only their price would go down now...

Giorgio

[Loewie]

Another very Milkyway-related question ...

So that 100Euro HD4870 is actually a lot better than
a 3-year old 450Euro x1950xtx?

You'd recommend swapping?

( Why did I spend so much money on a graphics card 3 years ago! )


Greetz,
Loe

[Giorgio]

So that 100Euro HD4870 is actually a lot better than
a 3-year old 450Euro x1950xtx?

You'd recommend swapping?

That x1950XTX is not able to crunch Milkyway (no double precission), only the 48xx, 477x and the older 38xx have double precission. Before doing the upgrade you better check which cards work fine as some newer models tend to give problems due to compatibility issues between the application and the version of Catalyst which needs to be installed. But the 4870 and 4850 are ok.

Giorgio

[DevinK]

( Why did I spend so much money on a graphics card 3 years ago! )


Greetz,
Loe

The law of Moore, i'm afraid were all victims
If that x1950xtx is a PCI-E and you're planning on upgrading, go for a 4850 or 4770.
When money isn't the issue you can find the new 4890 for about 180euro.