im going to get a new gpu for folding

[StrongAsFe]

i want to get into curecoins and I was just wondering what should i get for max ppd/$

 

any suggestions?

[Guest]

Something with high speed and lots of Cuda Cores/Stream Processors for sure. 
390 probably would be a good one or a 970

Not too all know it all on AMD's cards mainly NVidia

[StrongAsFe]

Something with high speed and lots of Cuda Cores/Stream Processors for sure. 

390 probably would be a good one or a 970

Not too all know it all on AMD's cards mainly NVidia

i mean i want to upgrade from my 280x

 

what should i get for both folding and gaming

[Guest]

i mean i want to upgrade from my 280x

 

what should i get for both folding and gaming

Depends on the budget 

390 is again, probably the best bet 

[StrongAsFe]

Depends on the budget 

390 is again, probably the best bet 

not much of an upgrade tho

[Guest]

not much of an upgrade tho

not much but its still an upgrade, unless you want to get another 280x 

[StrongAsFe]

not much but its still an upgrade, unless you want to get another 280x 

hmm

[SpaceNugget]

Just going to point this out. You will likely have a very hard time figuring out how to spend a "cure coin" I would suggest just folding for folding's sake. It will save you the disappointment that inherently follows anyone who tries to invest in any of the little league crypto currencies.

[Deil Grist]

Just going to point this out. You will likely have a very hard time figuring out how to spend a "cure coin" I would suggest just folding for folding's sake. It will save you the disappointment that inherently follows anyone who tries to invest in any of the little league crypto currencies.

^ Inevitably there comes a point where the mining/folding doesn't even pay for your power consumption, let alone wear-and-tear. Just treat it as charity work. 

On the subject of folding: I'd personally say go with something from nvidia because of their better performance per watt. If it was straight up gaming I'd say do whatever, but for this case specifically, having components run cool and consume less power when using them for long periods of time is easier on you and your wallet. The GTX 970 is the best performance per watt card on the market right now, and the ASUS Turbo design (dual-fan blower-style card) is almost always on sale for less than $300. The design is really good for SLI, so you could add a second one in down the road and not have to worry about thermals. You can see them in action here: 

I get ~350k estimated ppd on my 970, but I don't usually run it 24/7 because the rig has to last me a couple years. The temps are fine, but I'm playing it safe and mostly fold on just the GPU while I sleep during cool/cold nights.

[comicsansms]

^ Inevitably there comes a point where the mining/folding doesn't even pay for your power consumption, let alone wear-and-tear. Just treat it as charity work. 

On the subject of folding: I'd personally say go with something from nvidia because of their better performance per watt. If it was straight up gaming I'd say do whatever, but for this case specifically, having components run cool and consume less power when using them for long periods of time is easier on you and your wallet. The GTX 970 is the best performance per watt card on the market right now, and the ASUS Turbo design (dual-fan blower-style card) is almost always on sale for less than $300. The design is really good for SLI, so you could add a second one in down the road and not have to worry about thermals. You can see them in action here: 

I get ~350k estimated ppd on my 970, but I don't usually run it 24/7 because the rig has to last me a couple years. The temps are fine, but I'm playing it safe and mostly fold on just the GPU while I sleep during cool/cold nights.

The newer AMD GPU's consume about as much power newer Nvidia GPU's

Folding doesn't care if it is a AMD of Nvidia GPU

 

Coin mining is better on AMDs

[Deil Grist]

The newer AMD GPU's consume about as much power newer Nvidia GPU's

Folding doesn't care if it is a AMD of Nvidia GPU

 

Coin mining is better on AMDs

Do you know what the average PPD of a 290 or 390 is? I doubt it makes up for the ~30% higher system power draw.

[Litargirio]

Here is a link with the folding performance of all major graphics cards.

 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1vcVoSVtamcoGj5sFfvKF_XlvuviWWveJIg_iZ8U2bf0/pub?output=html

 

(source)

 

Best one might be 980ti, which is just slightly below TitanX. Or - if you have too many moneys - you can wait until Nvidia releases their dual TitanX card and get that.

[Deil Grist]

Here is a link with the folding performance of all major graphics cards.

 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1vcVoSVtamcoGj5sFfvKF_XlvuviWWveJIg_iZ8U2bf0/pub?output=html

 

(source)

 

Best one might be 980ti, which is just slightly below TitanX. Or - if you have too many moneys - you can wait until Nvidia releases their dual TitanX card and get that.

Awesome, thanks for the graph. I can definitely back up the 970 being the best bang for buck card now (it's a close race between the 980 and 970 for efficiency, but it looks like the 970 still has it). 

Notedly missing is the 295x2. It performs about 20% faster than a single 980ti in games. I'd like to see its folding performance at some point. *shrug*

[don_svetlio]

Awesome, thanks for the graph. I can definitely back up the 970 being the best bang for buck card now (it's a close race between the 980 and 970 for efficiency, but it looks like the 970 still has it). 

Notedly missing is the 295x2. It performs about 20% faster than a single 980ti in games. I'd like to see its folding performance at some point. *shrug*

The R9 Nano is actually the king of performance per watt - it draws as much as a 970 and performs better than a 980. Just saying.

[Deil Grist]

The R9 Nano is actually the king of performance per watt - it draws as much as a 970 and performs better than a 980. Just saying.

The TDP is actually 30 watts higher (but actually draws 50 watts more) than the 970 and it only performs 25% better for 2x the price. When we're talking about getting the most for your money for folding, the nano isn't even a consideration.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/9621/the-amd-radeon-r9-nano-review/16

[don_svetlio]

The TDP is actually 30 watts higher (but actually draws 50 watts more, see: the 970 and it performs 25% better for 2x the price. When we're talking about getting the most for your money for folding, the nano isn't even a consideration.

TDP isn't exactly power draw - the 970 has a TDP of 145W but draws about 180-200W.

[Deil Grist]

TDP isn't exactly power draw - the 970 has a TDP of 145W but draws about 180-200W.

You got to replying before my edit. Anywho: http://www.anandtech.com/show/9621/the-amd-radeon-r9-nano-review/16

The system power consumption for Crysis 3 was ~50 watts higher with the nano over the 970. Looks like it might depend on the application, but I think it's more likely there was a testing error in one of their testing scenarios. 

[don_svetlio]

You got to replying before my edit. Anywho: http://www.anandtech.com/show/9621/the-amd-radeon-r9-nano-review/16

The system power consumption for Crysis 3 was 50 watts higher with the nano over the 970. Looks like it might depend on the application, but I think it's more likely there was a testing error in one of their testing scenarios. 

Furmark just pushes the GPU past typical gaming load and shows the 100% maximum power a chip can draw

[Deil Grist]

Furmark just pushes the GPU past typical gaming load and shows the 100% maximum power a chip can draw

Hmm. Perhaps someone will benchmark power consumption during folding, though it's been shown a lot of the Maxwell efficiency is related to changes for gaming, so the gap's probably closer to your graph. It's hard to say as the nano's not even on the folding performance chart.  

Still, the fact that you can get 2 970 Turbo cards for the price of an entry Nano kinda kills the nano for me in terms of price to performance. I did some napkin math using your furmark numbers and it's 1.9x the power draw for 1.6x the performance to SLI two 970s vs a Nano, but the entry cost is the same, and you're exhausting the heat directly out the case (something I would value in a 24/7 folding rig). 

[don_svetlio]

Hmm. Perhaps someone will benchmark power consumption during folding, though it's been shown a lot of the Maxwell efficiency is related to changes for gaming, so the gap's probably closer to your graph. It's hard to say as the nano's not even on the folding performance chart.  

Still, the fact that you can get 2 970 Turbo cards for the price of an entry Nano kinda kills the nano for me in terms of price to performance. I did some napkin math using your furmark numbers and it's 1.9x the power draw for 1.6x the performance to SLI two 970s vs a Nano, but the entry cost is the same, and you're exhausting the heat directly out the case (something I would value in a 24/7 folding rig). 

Fun fact - the turbo cards can melt their own VRMs - a 960 turbo has the VRMs reach 100*C under load. A 970 turbo goes past that into the 110*C area. The worst cooler imaginable is the Asus Turbo currently - even the GTX 480 was better with the reference leafblower as the VRMs were kept cooler at 102*C

[Deil Grist]

Fun fact - the turbo cards can melt their own VRMs - a 960 turbo has the VRMs reach 100*C under load. A 970 turbo goes past that into the 110*C area. The worst cooler imaginable is the Asus Turbo currently - even the GTX 480 was better with the reference leafblower as the VRMs were kept cooler at 102*C

VERY interesting. Do you have a source on hand I can go look at, because I'm genuinely curious given the great buyer reviews. The TJ-Max is ~120-125 for VRMs based on who you ask, so there's still some wiggle room, but that's definitely uncomfortable. 

Also, do you know if the VRMs on the similar Gigabyte offering fair any better? http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gigabyte-video-card-gvn970ttoc4gd

[don_svetlio]

VERY interesting. Do you have a source on hand I can go look at, because I'm genuinely curious given the great buyer reviews. The TJ-Max is ~120-125 for VRMs based on who you ask, so there's still some wiggle room, but that's definitely uncomfortable. 

Also, do you know if the VRMs on the similar Gigabyte offering fair any better? http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gigabyte-video-card-gvn970ttoc4gd

Thermal camera - look at the white spots

[Morgan MLGman]

i mean i want to upgrade from my 280x

 

what should i get for both folding and gaming

R9 290X is better than R9 390, it's more powerful, and it can be found for amazingly low prices right now. Go check if you can find one. If you can, get it.

[Deil Grist]

R9 290X is better than R9 390, it's more powerful, and it can be found for amazingly low prices right now. Go check if you can find one. If you can, get it.

I think the better question is "what's your budget and monitor resolution?"

[Morgan MLGman]

I think the better question is "what's your budget and monitor resolution?"

OP said that the 390 doesn't seem much of an upgrade to him. A logical being such as myself assumed (correctly I believe) that he can afford that exact card. As the 290X are near their end of sale, they got around a 390 price point, sometimes even cheaper. And they're better. Unless he doesn't want two R9 Furys, it's the best bang for the buck