We are working on optimizing the application even further. In September some news.

gdf

Will the other Fermi cards have performance benefit from this optimization, or just the GF104 based ones?

If it works, I would expect that all of them will benefit even g200 cards, but GF100 more and GF104 even more.

gdf

IMO the only way as not to discriminate or favoritise projects, is if BOINC Projects can agree to give credits based on CPU/GPU performance per watt & the CPU/GPU time used on WU's x deadline bonus. Is this even possible though???

If effective CPU/GPU's were encouraged & ineffective CPU/GPU's were discouraged. BOINC could send the message that wasting watts is a waste of time.

Good idea. Thing is the more credit a project gives the more likely crunchers concerned mostly about points will crunch for said project. That gives projects a motive to hand out more points.

Personally I'm not concerned about cross project points, only points within my favorite projects, and only because the points represent a relative level of contribution. More points equals a bigger contribution.

If it works, I would expect that all of them will benefit even g200 cards, but GF100 more and GF104 even more.

gdf

This sounds really promising. Looking forward to it and thanks for all the hard work.

i jusr read the topic quickly. correct me if i'm wrong, but if i've got OC'd GTX275 there is no sense to buy GTX460?

"With Swan_Sync "on" (Syan_Sync=0) similar tasks are taking about 15,850 seconds"
right now it takes me 14,550 (http://www.gpugrid.net/workunit.php?wuid=1737805)

the only thing - i'm using linux.

So, guys, what's the answer - should I rush to the shop or not? or may be it's better to wait a bit for GTX475 with 384 cores? what's the latest rumours - when we can expect it? later the summer?

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as MarkJ said:

Well initial performance is actually worse than the GTX275.

ok, it's clear for me - no rush at all :-)

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It wouldn't hurt Nvidia if you bought a GTX460, & I don't think GPUGRID would complain either. Personally I'm happy when others buy things fast, expensive, & help to make it cheap & mature for me when I feel like going for it myself.

The question is, are you selfish or selfless, are you rich or poor, & are you impatient or patient?

A last question I could ask is, a GPU "should" last for at least 2-3 years even if you OC & run it 24/7, but how long do you usually keep a GPU? Nobody wants Nvidia to not offer something better some time later, not even Nvidia.

I was late to buy even a GTX260(216) & I've only had them running 24/7 for under a year, that means I'm stuck with something for at least a year or two, & everyone else is busy trying to kill their new GTX4xx series. So even though I waited until the prices dropped, I waited too long, but the GTX2xx series is still being tweaked, so I might still get better results before I expect them to die in two years time.

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i'm trying to be smart :-) if i see no reasons to do smth - i will not do that.

if GTX460 gives less credits then my GTX275 on the same project - what the sense to buy it? :-) My question was to clarify that.

i'm pretty much patient, but i can afford to buy a small gift for myself :-)

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CTAPbIi, at present your overclocked GTX275 is supported by mature drivers and 2 years of application development. It outperforms most GTX460's by about 25%. The GTX460 has only been released and will take time to optimise, after the summer holidays.

I don’t see the GTX460 as an upgrade path for someone with a GTX275. It would be a step up to a new generation of card but a step down in terms of relative performance. Wait and see how the GTX475 turns out - it's due out in the autumn. It's not as if you are desperate to replace a failing, highly inefficient or obsolete card.

Even if the GTX460 prices fell or the GTX475 turned up early there would be little point replacing a faster card with a slower one. Enough people have a GTX460 for the scientists to try out new applications. After the GTX460 is better supported, it may or may not be faster than your card. It could take several application updates and driver releases before the GTX460 is a match. Your GTX275 is a good card and will be for some time yet. The shops can wait.

My general advice is: don't rush to buy anything, sit back and remember it's only a hobby after all. But if you see the opportune moment - go for it (e.g. some relative or friend needs a new card anyway). And if you buy go for best bang for the buck - but also remember that you only have so many PCIe slots and that running a PC to feed the GPU also costs power. I'd rather have 1 24/7 PC crunching with a fast GPU than 2 PCs with 2 slower GPUs.

MrS

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Scanning for our furry friends since Jan 2002

thx a lot, guys :-) that's what i wanted to hear - clear answer, yes or no.

for sure i'll wait till fall and then we'll see.

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if GTX460 gives less credits then my GTX275 on the same project - what the sense to buy it? :-) My question was to clarify that.

The real answer is: it depends. If you have the card to run GPUGRID then your GTX 275 will do more work but also will use more electricity. If you're running Collatz the GTX 460 will be more than twice as fast as the GTX 275. The GTX 460 is also faster in DNETC and Folding...

i jusr read the topic quickly. correct me if i'm wrong, but if i've got OC'd GTX275 there is no sense to buy GTX460?

"With Swan_Sync "on" (Syan_Sync=0) similar tasks are taking about 15,850 seconds"
right now it takes me 14,550 (http://www.gpugrid.net/workunit.php?wuid=1737805)

the only thing - i'm using linux.

So, guys, what's the answer - should I rush to the shop or not? or may be it's better to wait a bit for GTX475 with 384 cores? what's the latest rumours - when we can expect it? later the summer?

I don't think a GTX-460 makes sense for you to run GPUGRID at this time.

Expect both drivers and apps for the GF104 to improve with time, we are expecting a boost sometime after Summer break.

As I understand it the GF104 is underutilized at this time, much like my ATI HD-5770 cards are when Folding. They work, but they don't work up to their full potential.

This is all quite normal as Software has traditionally lagged behind hardware.

That said I'm not sorry I purchased a GTX-460. The card is currently making decent credit and has the potential to do even better.

I know it can be frustrating to have shiny new hardware that is not fully utilized but you can be assured that "they" will eventually work these things out.

You might wait and see what becomes of the GTX-475 and see also what happens when the newer software becomes available.

It is a good time to just wait a bit IMHO.

bigtuna,
yep, i'll wait for gtx475 and then we'll see.

Beyond,
talking about collatz, IMO it makes way more sense to get ATI ;-)

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Beyond,
talking about collatz, IMO it makes way more sense to get ATI ;-)

I agree for sure if you're only running Collatz, DNETC & RC5-72. The HD 5770 is as fast as the GTX 460 at Collatz and faster at the other two. In addition the HD 5770 is quite a bit less expensive. The advantage for the GTX 460 is that it can currently run GPUGRID and will hopefully run it well in the not too distant future.

pricewise GTX460 is pretty close to 5850, which will well outperform GTX460 in collatz, MW, etc. For MW i'm using 4870 and 4890, which gonna be replaced by 6970 this fall, but for GPUGRID i'm not sure what should I do. may be GTX475 is the answer...

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Beyond,
talking about collatz, IMO it makes way more sense to get ATI ;-)

I agree for sure if you're only running Collatz, DNETC & RC5-72. The HD 5770 is as fast as the GTX 460 at Collatz and faster at the other two. In addition the HD 5770 is quite a bit less expensive. The advantage for the GTX 460 is that it can currently run GPUGRID and will hopefully run it well in the not too distant future.

I've got twin HD-5770 cards in one system. Just for grins I ran the 5770 cards on Collatz for a day and they scream. They made more points in that one day than all my CPUs had made on Rosetta in months of crunching.

I think the GTX-460 will be the one to have for GPUGRID. They already work pretty well considering how new they are.

I came across a few GTX460 2GB cards (Palit/Gainward, ECS, and Sparkle). Going by the specs, some offer a small advantage in clock speeds, but all are more expensive than 1GB cards. While these are not quite gimmick cards (they should be better for video editing and some games, especially 3D games and for supporting 3 monitors in 2-way SLI gaming) dont buy one just to crunch with here - you would be better of with a cheaper card and high clocks, such as this Galaxy.

TechPowerUp's comparison of an OC'd Zotac GTX460 to a GTX275 - just remember which is presently faster here (GTX275), and that a GTX475 is due out soon.

I've gone through a bunch of results for my GTX460 and compared them to the GTX275 that was in the machine previously.

GTX275 average run time 19833 sec (sample of 9)
GTX460 average run time 21968 sec (sample of 9)

Remembering that the science app needs to be tweaked for the GTX460. I suspect its probably using 224 out of the 336 shaders, but we'll have to wait and see.

I've got some pics and stuff on my blog regarding the 460.

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BOINC blog

should i buy a 5850 or a gtx460 ? what would work best with gpugrid ? (and if you will say that i shouldn't buy the gtx460 use arguments)