Finally decided to get a GTX660Ti as an Xmas treat..... hopefully it will turn up this morning.

My one turned up yesterday. Installed and running. Now I just need to be able to download more than one unit at a time to see what the card can do. Only issue so far was the install. Had to move hard drive to another bay , move cables etc as the card is massive, really long.

Compared to other high-end cards most GTX660Ti are comparably short. Either you got one with the same PCB as bigger cards (some offer this for supposedly better overclockability) or you've got a rather small case.

GPU-Grid should allow you to download 2 WUs at a time. You don't want to load the 2nd one much earlier than upon completion of the first in order to get the quick-return bonus credits. And running more than one concurent WU wouldn't help at GPU-Grid.

MrS

---

Scanning for our furry friends since Jan 2002

set your minimum work buffer to 0.1 and max additional work buffer to 0.05 or 0.1. It should download next work unit about 2 hour before current finishes.

the 660 Ti should finish any tasks fast enough that it doesn't really matter if the second task is waiting for several hours, and still get the bonus.

---

XtremeSystems.org - #1 Team in GPUGrid

My one turned up yesterday. Installed and running. Now I just need to be able to download more than one unit at a time to see what the card can do. Only issue so far was the install. Had to move hard drive to another bay , move cables etc as the card is massive, really long.

I had problems with installing mine.... using it with a Gigabyte MA78LMT-US2H and found the length of EVGA 660Ti SC interfered with half the SATA ports. Luckily I can cope with the loss of those as that cruncher only requires 2 ports.

Nice card.... busily crunching it's first long WU now. :-)

There are SATA connectors angled by 90° - these cables might work for some of your blocked sockets, should you ever need them.

MrS

---

Scanning for our furry friends since Jan 2002

When buying a motherboard for GPU crunching its a good idea to check the position and angle of the SATA connectors. If the connectors are pointed straight up they will probably make it difficult to fit the GPU, and prevent you adding a second GPU.
Take a Z68A-G45 MS7750 for example,


I have one and could not add a second GPU. This one is a bad design because even if you try to use angled SATA cables, you find they force the cable into the motherboard/under the GPU, rather than away from it!

In slightly newer boards such as an MS7752, the connectors are pointed horizontally, towards the HDD's, and don't interfere when adding a second GPU,



You can zoom in on this image,
https://thunderbolttechnology.net/sites/default/files/Z77A-G45%20Thunderbolt%20_MS-7752%20V2_0_3D1%20%282%29.jpg

---

FAQ's

HOW TO:
- Opt out of Beta Tests
- Ask for Help

When buying a motherboard for GPU crunching its a good idea to check the position and angle of the SATA connectors. If the connectors are pointed straight up they will probably make it difficult to fit the GPU, and prevent you adding a second GPU.

The motherboard came long before I started crunching GPUGRID and was about the only mATX boards that could take 125W Phenom X6 CPUs and as such made a nice wallet friendly cruncher. As it's not a main rig it can survive with just 1 HDD and an optical and it looks like I might be able to fit 1 right angled SATA cable if I needed to add a 2nd HDD.

Disconnect the optical drive if not needed to save a little more electricity ;)

MrS

---

Scanning for our furry friends since Jan 2002

Oh dear, after a few failed WU's and a bit of testing, it looks as though I was sent a faulty card. The system it was in tested OK with a GTX 670.

Amazon will have a replacement out to me by Friday with a bit of luck.

I've also decided to upgrade the motherboard in the GTX660Ti system with an updated version of the Gigabyte MA78LMT which features a more robust VRM stage plus SATA ports that don't interfere with the PCI-E X16 slot ( it will be a belated Xmas present to myself and SWMBO thinks I'm replacing a faulty motherboard)

Replacement GTX660Ti is now happily crunching away... cheers Amazon - they dispatched it on Boxing day and it arrived yesterday!!!

I am reliably crunching NOELIA Long Runs on a GTX660Ti (Gigabyte TOC version - 1111MHz Boost Clock) in just under 12 hours. This card is not a full length card. I had a EVGA GTX480 in this same machine and it was much longer than this Gigabyte card.

Note that I am running Ubuntu 12.10 64-bit with Nvidia 304.51 drivers. This driver is a supported install in Ubuntu, so I have not upgraded drivers (it is somewhat painful to do in Linux). The system is stable and workunits process without error so I am not inclined to upgrade drivers, at least not until Ubuntu packages them for use with apt-get

Replacement GTX660Ti is now happily crunching away... cheers Amazon - they dispatched it on Boxing day and it arrived yesterday!!!

Not had a single failed unit with my replacement GTX660Ti.... Tempted to get a second one.

After waiting for the price of the 660ti to come down a bit, I finally pulled the trigger and bought a Gigabyte 2Gig OC'ed to 1032 (but GPUid says it is running at 1200)

On GPUGRID it has done short runs in 2:30 hours but I am not sure if it is any quicker than the 560ti. It uses 10 less watts so not bad but I thought it would be 20-30% faster. Maybe I should try a long run.

The best news is running HCC GPU for WCG. It is using 35 less watts and finishes a WU in 30-60 secs less time. The wattage is based on looking at my Killawatt at the wall. It also uses 10 less watts during the CPU phase of running HCC GPU so another bonus.

If anyone wants to buy my Gigabyte 560ti let me know before it goes on Ebay this weekend. It is a great card.

Hi, mymbtheduke:

That's good news. But don't you find there's an enormous amount of network traffic with HCC GPU tasks?

I don't find this with POEM or GPUGrid tasks.

Replacement GTX660Ti is now happily crunching away... cheers Amazon - they dispatched it on Boxing day and it arrived yesterday!!!

Not had a single failed unit with my replacement GTX660Ti.... Tempted to get a second one.

GTX 660 Ti now at Canada Computers for $269, was $319.....

Hi, mymbtheduke:

That's good news. But don't you find there's an enormous amount of network traffic with HCC GPU tasks?

I don't find this with POEM or GPUGrid tasks.

Network traffic doesn't concern me as I have cable internet. I quit crunching POEM GPU when I found out that it isn't for Medical research. It is for crystalline display technology. They brush over that on their home page. I think that it is misleading.

Correct me if I am wrong.

Hi, mymbtheduke:

That's good news. But don't you find there's an enormous amount of network traffic with HCC GPU tasks?

I don't find this with POEM or GPUGrid tasks.

Network traffic doesn't concern me as I have cable internet. I quit crunching POEM GPU when I found out that it isn't for Medical research. It is for crystalline display technology. They brush over that on their home page. I think that it is misleading.

Correct me if I am wrong.

You are not wrong, but POEM is no longer exclusively for medical research. A while ago, I and some others forced a modification to the web page for better disclosure and it now shows, in part:

By joining this project you will contribute to a computational approach to

-predict the biologically active structure of proteins
-understand the signal-processing mechanisms when the proteins interact with one another
-understand diseases related to protein malfunction or aggregation
-develop new drugs on the basis of the three-dimensions structure of biologically important proteins.
-simulate miscellaneous nanoscale systems, which are of importance for current biological or physical research

So, I now crunch GPU tasks as these become available.

Well.. POEM GPU is researching crystallization of organic molecules. The best possible application scenario they could think of are LCDs. However, being fundamental research you never know what else might come up :)

MrS

---

Scanning for our furry friends since Jan 2002

Does anyone know if the long runs have changed recently? When I ran them on my 560ti they would take 15 hours. On my 660ti they run in 5.5 hours. Is it the 660 or did they change in the past two months?

Thanks as always.