Few folding questions

[Syntaxvgm]

I'm looking to get into folding hardcore, but I have a few questions. 

 

1. Is there any figure or data out there for what kind of CPU is required to keep multiple GPUs fed? Right now I'm testing with a single GPU, but I'm looking to get a new PSU, case and 4 or 5 7970s likely depending on what deals I come across. 

 

This used to be a mining rig, and was just an old Phenom x4 820 of mine. I knew with mining you could even get away with a single core if you wanted to. But I noticed while folding on the CPU (I know, stupid low points, but I'm trying to complete more WU's for now to get the badge :lol: ), I check it today and it hadn't even completed 10% of the GPU unit, and the GPU usage in was idling a lot, even though it never went above 60 since my room is set up for mining. So, after I minute I figured it was the CPU not keeping it fed, and sure enough after I stopped the CPU folding the GPU jumped back to 100% and stayed there. Would a cheap quad core like this be good enough for 4 GPUs? I'm going to leave one core open on the CPU for 1 gpu and see if I can figure out for myself. It seems to use about 50% of the CPU for one card. 

 

2. Can you use 1x risers to fold like you can for mining? I would think yes, but better to check first. I don't plan to stop at one system, and the motherboard on my current one can do 5 GPUs

 

3. Do you think I should go for cost of cards/points or cost of power/points? I would think 7970s would be great seeing as some get between 175k and 200k points on them, but before I do the math like I always do with this stuff what do you think?

 

Thanks 

[AK0490]

I have been running a few mining rigs on folding. A very low end CPU, 4GB of RAM, and 5 GPUS on 1x risers has been working just fine for me. 

[Syntaxvgm]

I have been running a few mining rigs on folding. A very low end CPU, 4GB of RAM, and 5 GPUS on 1x risers has been working just fine for me. 

I wonder why I'm getting such high CPU usage during folding only with GPU?

[2mbur2n]

I wonder why I'm getting such high CPU usage during folding only with GPU?

 

There's a certain amount of overhead involved while utilizing OpenCL on your GPU.

[2mbur2n]

The 750Ti is a great card for power consumption and overall cost compared to the ratio of PPD. If you're interested in the most PPD I'd look at something like a 780Ti. Depending on how confident you are, the new 980 is also a great choice. Although Maxwell has been having some issues that are still in the process of being ironed out. Some people prefer AMD because they are cheaper and still compete (and sometimes outperform) Nvidia. The downside of course with AMD is power consumption and heat.

 

AMD's 280x and 290x are almost linear when it comes to PPD/$. Nvidia's GPUs not so much. Basically you get what you pay for with AMD, but Nvidia you're also paying a premium on top of that. I'd look at newer technology, the 7970 is somewhat outdated when it comes to power consumption.

[Syntaxvgm]

The 750Ti is a great card for power consumption and overall cost compared to the ratio of PPD. If you're interested in the most PPD I'd look at something like a 780Ti. Depending on how confident you are, the new 980 is also a great choice. Although Maxwell has been having some issues that are still in the process of being ironed out. Some people prefer AMD because they are cheaper and still compete (and sometimes outperform) Nvidia. The downside of course with AMD is power consumption and heat.

 

AMD's 280x and 290x are almost linear when it comes to PPD/$. Nvidia's GPUs not so much. Basically you get what you pay for with AMD, but Nvidia you're also paying a premium on top of that. I'd look at newer technology, the 7970 is somewhat outdated when it comes to power consumption.

The 280x is the 7970. But I see your point on power consumption, I'll have to run the numbers.

I'm looking at the 7970 since you can get them for about 125-150 USD used. Prices on amd cards are still way low becuase of the mass mining exodus.

A 750ti..can't find and numbers for it offhand...

[AK0490]

I wonder why I'm getting such high CPU usage during folding only with GPU?

I'm showing from 40-75% usage on mine with just the GPUs folding.

[Me1z]

The 280x is the 7970. But I see your point on power consumption, I'll have to run the numbers.

I'm looking at the 7970 since you can get them for about 125-150 USD used. Prices on amd cards are still way low becuase of the mass mining exodus.

A 750ti..can't find and numbers for it offhand...

 

With the recent drivers and bug fixes, each of my GTX 750tis are peaking around 55K ppd. They produce little to no heat and run very quiet and sip on power.

 

I recommend basing your decision on power/points, because while the initial cost may be a bit high, your power bills will kill you with multiple power hungry GPUs running full load 24/7.

[tobben]

With the recent drivers and bug fixes, each of my GTX 750tis are peaking around 55K ppd. They produce little to no heat and run very quiet and sip on power.

 

I recommend basing your decision on power/points, because while the initial cost may be a bit high, your power bills will kill you with multiple power hungry GPUs running full load 24/7.

been doing core 15 all this time, some core 17 wu's were moved back to beta for maxwellers, Hopefully they will get the issues sorted soon ish.

 

It really depends what he wants, if he just wants the most performance he can get or if he's after power efficiency or the best bang for the buck.

some very cheap used 7970's will give you good value, but if it comes to power efficiency maxwell is the way to go, but a 970/980 will certainly not give the most performance/buck. It would likely take years of 24/7 folding to actually make that back or break even in power savings. Yes you spend more electricity when having more cards, but you still spend x money on y amount of cards, it's linear scaling as far as i can tell.

 

for me power efficiency is a big thing, i want the elegant design that achieves the most with what it uses. But that's more about preference than actually being practical, atleast money wise. If you are lucky you might be able to find some cheap 780's. But probably not nearly as cheap as used amd cards, 175-200k for a 7970 seems very optimistic though..

 

i think your cpu usage is caused by something else, it shouldn't be possible to use 50% as it should only leave one thread for the gpu, 1 thread for the gpu and 3 for the cpu project. my cpu hovers at 1-5% when folding with the gpu.

[2mbur2n]

The 280x is the 7970. But I see your point on power consumption, I'll have to run the numbers.

I'm looking at the 7970 since you can get them for about 125-150 USD used. Prices on amd cards are still way low becuase of the mass mining exodus.

A 750ti..can't find and numbers for it offhand...

 

I didn't know that. More of an Nvidia guy myself.

 

The 750Ti consumes around 35W~ of power and gives upwards of 40k PPD. The 7970 consumes around 200W and gives only 130k PPD~. By doing the math you the 750Ti and 7970 get 1.1k/watt and 0.65k/watt, respectively. Of course, this all depends on who's paying the power bill. For me efficiency is important and it's just not worth running older hardware. Another thing to take into consideration is the heat. Less efficiency obviously equals more heat and less points.

 

I know the 780Ti scales almost perfectly when compared to the 750Ti. 200W for over 200k PPD, or 1k/watt.

 

For the power bill let's say hypothetically you pay $150 for a 7970 and are getting 0.65k/watt while running 24/7. A used 780Ti on the other hand you can pick up for used for around $400 (at least where I live). Within a month you've payed in power $14 for the 7970 and earned 3.9m points. If you chose you go with the 780Ti you'd pay almost the same price in power but get 6m points. I guess you just have to look at your priorities.

 

Anyways, just my two cents.

[Syntaxvgm]

I seem to be getting mixed reaction on the CPU usage. Some agree and some say they have none. I would think it's the core 17 taking the CPU, I guess OpenCL or something must take up CPU.

I'll figure some math later tonight for cost of electricity. I'll probably to a year out for that. 

[tobben]

I'm showing from 40-75% usage on mine with just the GPUs folding.

this is the usage on the 5 gpu rig with a crummy cpu right? what cpu do you have?

[ImBleu]

Heck I've been folding with an old Macbook Pro (i5/8GB Ram) perched infront of an aircon. Had been doing nothing but collecting dust so might as well, Got it running at medium using the chrome extension.

[AK0490]

this is the usage on the 5 gpu rig with a crummy cpu right? what cpu do you have?

Yeah, it's about the weakest thing out there. Here's a screenshot of what it's doing.

[Briggsy]

I have an old junker with a core 2 duo E6600 dual core @ 2.44Ghz, and a 660 folding away in it. the core 17 WU utilizes a lot of the cpu, and any cpu folding will lower the GPU ppd. I think newer cpu's that are using better instructions would stomp all over old cpu's like the one i mentioned. a cheap athlon quad core would probably do fine.

 

as far as efficiency goes, an R9 290 will probably do much better than 280x for watts to performance.

[2mbur2n]

I have an old junker with a core 2 duo E6600 dual core @ 2.44Ghz, and a 660 folding away in it. the core 17 WU utilizes a lot of the cpu, and any cpu folding will lower the GPU ppd. I think newer cpu's that are using better instructions would stomp all over old cpu's like the one i mentioned. a cheap athlon quad core would probably do fine.

 

as far as efficiency goes, an R9 290 will probably do much better than 280x for watts to performance.

 

The CPU folding will not necessarily lower GPU PPD. As long as you properly set the number of CPU cores there is more than enough headroom.

[MrArcadiaMine]

You want to have a core unused for every two gpus for maximum gpu potential, hopefully with the arm processor on nvidias 900 series this ratio  will become a relic but for now  most GPUs still have to run a lot of code with CPU.  If you can enable any more cores beyond that ratio, great do it, just watch for a performance drop off.