Folding experiment

[GOTSpectrum]

So guys, I have both a gtx 970 and 960 laying around. But my board only have a 16x and single 1x slot. I couldn't find to much to know if a riser would work with FAH so I got one anyway to try. Note this isn't a permanent set up. Also can I use a 960 as phyx on 1x?

[Nicnac]

dunno a whole lot about physx and the bandwidth required. I thought about doing a setup like this as well, so I am definitely interested in your results. I have heard people recommending not going lower than 4x pcie since f@h needs more bandwidth than mining would for example. However, I wonder if this holds true for less powerful cards as well. (in my case I'd like to add an rx460 to the bunch via 1x). looks like you are using a powered riser so no issues on that side.  how about you do a 12-24h benchmark run and post the results?  

[GOTSpectrum]

6 minutes ago, Nicnac said:

dunno a whole lot about physx and the bandwidth required. I thought about doing a setup like this as well, so I am definitely interested in your results. I have heard people recommending not going lower than 4x pcie since f@h needs more bandwidth than mining would for example. However, I wonder if this holds true for less powerful cards as well. (in my case I'd like to add an rx460 to the bunch via 1x). looks like you are using a powered riser so no issues on that side.  how about you do a 12-24h benchmark run and post the results?  

At the moment I'm having stability issues, the system freezes, but not sure if it's only when the eGPU is being used or if it's when it's just connected. I'm folding using just my primary, will do for an hour, if no crash/freeze I'll then try just the eGPU then if no issues with both again. To be honest the CPU is being ragged atm so that may be the issue too. I'll keep you updated.

[Nicnac]

2 minutes ago, Ben Quigley said:

At the moment I'm having stability issues, the system freezes, but not sure if it's only when the eGPU is being used or if it's when it's just connected. I'm folding using just my primary, will do for an hour, if no crash/freeze I'll then try just the eGPU then if no issues with both again. To be honest the CPU is being ragged atm so that may be the issue too. I'll keep you updated.

disable the cpu folding slot so it doesnt affect the gpu performance and gives a better result!

[GOTSpectrum]

@Nicnac already done, but think I may drop my OC in the old bird just in case it's causing any weirdness. Got my FX-6100 running on 4.5ish atm... Let's just say it's not exactly within spec haha.

[Nicnac]

3 minutes ago, Ben Quigley said:

@Nicnac already done, but think I may drop my OC in the old bird just in case it's causing any weirdness. Got my FX-6100 running on 4.5ish atm... Let's just say it's not exactly within spec haha.

haha damn that arctic freezer must be workin overtime!  

[GOTSpectrum]

1 minute ago, Nicnac said:

haha damn that arctic freezer must be workin overtime!  

It's designed for 200 watts so I'm sure its okay. would moved to water cooling but its somewhat expensive and i would need to mod my orginal 1996 alienware case. 

[Nicnac]

3 minutes ago, Ben Quigley said:

It's designed for 200 watts so I'm sure its okay. would moved to water cooling but its somewhat expensive and i would need to mod my orginal 1996 alienware case. 

yea air ftw imo. I still have my first gaming rig with a phenom x2 1055t and a huge thermalright macho heatsink  

[GOTSpectrum]

So an hour later, the system is still stable running just the 970 in the 16x slot. Now to try the 960 in the 1x slot on its own. Report back soon. 

[GOTSpectrum]

@Nicnac The GTX960 is showing 100% utilization when running on it's own giving me a PPD of 23,972. stable for 30 mins. going to try turning on both at the same time. It did take around 60 seconds to get going, most likely due to the bandwidth limitations. 

[Nicnac]

Hm maybe it will go up further? I've seen up to 182k ppd reported for 960s

[GOTSpectrum]

Just now, Nicnac said:

Hm maybe it will go up further? I've seen up to 182k ppd reported for 960s

That will be after the QRB I'm guessing... plus for some reason it is only running at 810MHz. During this testing with crashes I've missed some WUs so probable lost my QRB for a while. what freq should a 960 run at?

[Nicnac]

1 minute ago, Ben Quigley said:

That will be after the QRB I'm guessing... plus for some reason it is only running at 810MHz. During this testing with crashes I've missed some WUs so probable lost my QRB for a while. what freq should a 960 run at?

ugh dunno about that honestly  I mostly leave my cards at stock clocks for folding since WUs fail easily.

[GOTSpectrum]

2 minutes ago, Nicnac said:

ugh dunno about that honestly  I mostly leave my cards at stock clocks for folding since WUs fail easily.

GTX 960 Engine Specs:

1024CUDA Cores

 

1127 Base Clock (MHz)

 

1178 Boost Clock (MHz)

 

72Texture Fill Rate (GigaTexels/sec)

 

Thermal and Power Specs:

98 CMaximum GPU Tempurature (in C)

 

120 WGraphics Card Power (W)

 

400 WRecommended System Power (W)**

 

1x 6-pinsSupplementary Power Connectors

 

Seems like my dodgy off brand 960 is way underclocked... but it is running well below 50C at 100%. I guess its time to break out afterburner then. mine has 2x6-pin power too so should be able to get that up. Gotta nip out shopping them ill experiment with afterburner. So far though there seems to be no bandwidth issues. maybe i'll try my 960 in it over the next few days to push it as far as I can with the hardware I own.

[GOTSpectrum]

So, I have just ordered a gtx 980ti... got one for under £300($390USD) 'new'. Which is really cheap here when you consider we pay 20% tax on everything. They often go for £500-£600 here. So, the plan is to put the 970 I own into the riser and compare its performance to when it isn't the riser! By new i mean it was opened and then didn't fit in the guys case and he just left it. Evidence was provided of this. 

[GOTSpectrum]

Well the 980 ti has come today and was a headache to install, in the end I ended up doing an @LinusTech and cutting the end of the plastic shroud off the card. The guy who I bought it from clearly doesn't know how to measure anything! Pics for your entertainment. He said it was a few millimeters longer than my current card...

 

Anyway back to the experiment, I haven't looked at the gtx 970s PPD yet being run externally but i can say when in the 16x slot I would get around 230k PPD but that was with the bonus which I surly have lost with all this testing. The 960 running in the 1x slot right now is giving me around 175k PPD. But, I don't know effect the lack of a QRB will be having. I can tell you that utilisation seems to be limited to around 87-90 percent though so it clearly is having an effect.

 

I'll update again in the near future, the plan is to use the 980 ti to mine and that will cover the cost of running the entire rig, so although I wont be making a profit I will be able to fold 24/7 without worry about upkeep, at least for the time being. 

[GOTSpectrum]

@Nicnac - This is just to keep you updated.

 

The riser looks promising checking today the card is getting 220k PPD, which means a reduction of around 10kPPD. I would say that isn't too bad, but the bus interface utilisation is in the 70-75% ratio almost all the time so I think I am getting towards the maximum bandwidth a 1x riser can give.

[Nicnac]

That is great news! Thanks for keeping me updated. Sorry I couldn't reply earlier was very busy with Uni this week. That also means I can probably run my 1050ti on a riser in my main rig! Yay  

[GOTSpectrum]

Just now, Nicnac said:

That is great news! Thanks for keeping me updated. Sorry I couldn't reply earlier was very busy with Uni this week. That also means I can probably run my 1050ti on a riser in my main rig! Yay  

Glad I can be of service, and don't worry about the time to reply, as long as you have the info you need. Want me to link you to the exact one I bought?