Graphics Card Reccomended

[batman113]

What grahics card would you reccomend for folding? all sugestions welcome.

[John Naylor]

I've heard only good things about the 8800GT (GTX260 if you can stretch to it, although it is expensive for the performance it gives) on nvidia's side or the HD4850 on ATI's side, I don't think you can go far wrong with any of those.

[batman113]

What sort of ppd would the 8800GT and the HD4850 give?

[shatteredsilicon]

8800GT 256MB is awesome for folding. And available for under £50 new!

[codysluder]

What sort of ppd would the 8800GT and the HD4850 give?

no matter what answer you get, you can't trust it. The software is still being optimized and changes seem to happen rather frequently.

[batman113]

8800GT 256MB is awesome for folding. And available for under £50 new!

May i ask where you are getting that price because i cant find it for that price anywhere!

[ChelseaOilman]

Just one of many ways to find good prices: http://www.pricewatch.com/video_cards/

[batman113]

Not even £50 on that site. If you can tell me the site you found it on i would like to buy it at that price.

[shatteredsilicon]

Try here:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showprodu ... -PN&tool=3

[batman113]

Try here:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showprodu ... -PN&tool=3

Thanks for that!!
Any idea what sort of PPD you would get from that with a Q6700 2.66Ghz and 8GB DDR2 RAM(my new pc im building after christmas)?

[shatteredsilicon]

IIRC, I was getting around 4000 back when I was still using an 8800GT. I've since upgraded to 9800GX2s since those yield most PPD per cubic meter.

CPU and RAM are going to be irrelevant for the nVidia GPU client. My advice would be to get a Q6600 if you can still find one, you won't get any more OC out of a Q6700. Unless, of course, you've found a Q6700 for less than the Q6600.

If you're going to do some gaming on a sensibly sized screen (something with 1440x900 native resolution), then 2 of those GTs in SLI are going to be hard to beat in terms of price/performance (just make sure you get a SLI mobo if that's your plan). One of my reasons for upgrading to GX2s was that my 8800GT couldn't really handle my new monitor at 2560x1600 in games.

[batman113]

Thats why i am buying the Q6700 because it is cheaper than the Q6600(i dont know why but i think it is because it is the oem without the heat sink!!)
Also SLI Mobo?? Whats that?? Ive not heard of that or am i being completley ignorant.

[shatteredsilicon]

Thats why i am buying the Q6700 because it is cheaper than the Q6600(i dont know why but i think it is because it is the oem without the heat sink!!)
Also SLI Mobo?? Whats that?? Ive not heard of that or am i being completley ignorant.

Depending on how well you know the retailer, I'd think twice about getting an OEM CPU. Depending on the vendor to accept and test the CPU properly is risky. I've had problems in the past. With a retail CPU, you get warranty service direct with Intel, which is a lot more predictable and hassle-intensive. It's certainly worth an extra £10, even if you end up just binning the OEM cooler in favour of an OCZ Vendetta2.

SLI is nVidia's Scalable Link Interface. Without a motherboard that supports it, you cannot link up multiple cards to speed up frame rates in games. With the exception of some X58 Nehalem boards, only nVidia chipset based motherboards support SLI (nVidia specifically block SLI from working on non-nVidia chipsets in the drivers, it has nothing to do with hardware capability). Without SLI support, you can still use 2 cards with 2 monitors, and fold on each card separately (in fact, you have to disable SLI for the folding client to work), but then your games will be limited to single card performance.

[batman113]

Ok I dont really do much gaming anyway and if i buy on it will pnly be for the purpose of folding and perhaps some light gaming. So i will not need an sli mobo then? Also i think i will go with a retail cpu actually now.

[shatteredsilicon]

Considering you can get a nVidia chipset based motherboard for not a lot extra compared to a decent X38/X48 motherboard, I'd get one for the sake of SLI. You'll be glad you did the every time you fire up a game if you are planning to get more than one of those 8800GTs.