ATI or Nvidia?

[codysluder]

For maximum points, the best combination is probably running both the SMP and the GPU clients. (Of course for maximum points, you also need to run 24x7, too, but you already said you didn't choose to do that.)

SMP really likes to take every bit of processing time and although you can check your email or do other things reasonably well because SMP runs at a lower priority than your email program, FAH will slow down when something else takes processing time that it might otherwise be using. That's to be expected and there's nothing wrong with that, though. Your email comes first because that's why you have your computer.

If you do run both clients, there's a minor configuration issue, though, because the GPU client needs a little processing time, too. For nVidia, that time is very small, but to keep the GPU running near full capacity, it's important that it get those little bits of CPU time whenever the GPU needs the next block of data to process. Thus you want the GPU client to run at a higher priority than the SMP client. In the FAH configuration, you have two priority choices. SMP should be the lowest possible setting and the GPU should be slightly higher.

[crash525]

ok thanks for the info. another question is when i first configured the smp client, how do i reconfigure it again so that i can run it with the set up that you described as above?

[Zagen30]

ok thanks for the info. another question is when i first configured the smp client, how do i reconfigure it again so that i can run it with the set up that you described as above?

http://fahwiki.net/index.php/How_do_I_r ... options%3F

[BigApplePi]

I'm going to ask a similar question. I've yet to purchase a video card. My purpose would be folding, no gaming at all. What card should I be considering? Price range is $100 -$500 whatever is most rewarding. I would have at least a 550 watt power supply. Is that all I need consider -- the power supply?

Also if I have room for two video cards for my desktop, are two cards at half "speed" better than one at full "speed." Not sure at all what parameters to consider.

[PantherX]

For ~$200 you can get GTX 460 768 MB Version. It is the best one for folding in PPD/Watts/Price. A single GTX 460 would require a 500 Watts PSU. If you want 2 X GTX 460, then you would need at least 700 Watts PSU. I recommend that you use a branded PSU like Zalman, Thermaltake, Enermax, Gigabyte, etc.

...Also if I have room for two video cards for my desktop, are two cards at half "speed" better than one at full "speed."...

Not sure what you mean by that. If you mean 2 PCI-E running @ X8 when compared to 1 PCI-E @ X16 then there won't be any difference for folding purposes I guess. However for gaming, it isn't a big deal unless your resolutions are high (Details)

...Not sure at all what parameters to consider.

Make sure that the GPU3 BETA Client has its own 2 folders (one for each Client) and you have to use these flags:
-gpu 0 -verbosity 9
-gpu 1 -verbosity 9
Also install the Recommended Drivers - 258.96 WHQL

[Nathan_P]

I'm going to ask a similar question. I've yet to purchase a video card. My purpose would be folding, no gaming at all. What card should I be considering? Price range is $100 -$500 whatever is most rewarding. I would have at least a 550 watt power supply. Is that all I need consider -- the power supply?

Also if I have room for two video cards for my desktop, are two cards at half "speed" better than one at full "speed." Not sure at all what parameters to consider.

Best bang for buck is GTX 460 768mb for folding. Regarding PSU - the standard recommendation is for a decent brand name power supply. for a pair of GPU's i would be looking at 650-750 watts from Corsair, Antec, Seasonic, Enermax et al. You can go and get a cheap one but under folding it will not last long before it goes pop and potentially takes everything else with it.

PCIe speed has virtually no effect for folding. An x16 slot running at x4, x8 or x16 will give virtually identical perfomance

You also need to consider slot spacing on the motehrboard and cooling, 2 x GPu's produce a lot of heat and that is not good - this heat needs removing by awhatever means necessary

[PantherX]

One thing that I would look for in GTX 460 (or any other GPU) is that; is the GPU dumping the heat inside the case or outside? I prefer outside the case so that my internal components won't get heated unnecessarily. If you happen to get the one that dumps the heat inside the case, make sure that you have a well ventilated chassis.