Folding Forum

Hello,
I have been doing quite a bit of research in terms of having a PS3 vs Computer with high speed GPU and I was wondering what is the best way to go about getting the most work done for the project. I am not looking to gather tons of points rather get as many work units done as quickly as possible. This is more about work units per watt rather than pts per watt. I like the idea of the PS3 since I can buy them for 250 bucks and start adding more units each month, however, I am not sure if it is better to save money and build dedicated machines. I read a lot about GPUs pulling in high scores but being rather limited in what work they can do. So can someone please explain to me which is better dedicated computers or dedicated PS3s.

Thanks
mcprimate

The type of work that can be done by the gpu and by the ps3 are very similar. The software for the smp or uniprocessor is more general purpose.

Don't let that bother you, though. FAH needs both types of work to be done rather than one being "better" than the other. Any machine that you buy or build should be a dual-purpose purchase that fits in with whatever other computing plans you have.

hey, thanks for the input. I am using the whatever I buy only for F@H which is why I am looking to find out how they compare. I am thinking about buying some ps3s to start and then getting into building boxes. However, if its worth the wait I would rather just start buy building a box with multiple GPUs. That being said I could always do both. There seems to be alot of hate around the PS3s due to the lack of points but that is not why I am into this, rather I am looking to get as much work done for the $ spent. This mean upfront and running costs.

OK,

There are dozens of threads on this general topic.

Just an overview.

The ps3 launched in 2006. At the time it represented a great deal of computational power for the price.
However, five years on, the computational power (and hence per watt efficiency) of subsequent CPU and GPU is likewise continuously improving.

However, WU per watt is really a meaningless metric. A WU by definition is just a divided and distributed part of a calculation. The size and complexity is completely arbitrary.

A WU that is designed to run ADV. SMP. is going to be larger and more complex than one designed to run on the PS3.

It is like comparing Southwest airlines and AIR FRANCE.

You could say Southwest is 100x larger because it has 100x more flights per day.

However, those flights are small planes (120-150 passengers) flying short routes (300- 1000 miles)

The more realistic comparison metric is not (flights)or WU, but rather passenger miles. Here AIR FRANCE is compared more favorably...because the larger planes flying longer routes are taken into consideration in the comparison.

Unfortunately, there is no analogous metric in FOLDING to (passenger miles)

You just know that more complex WU, that are larger, and run on more advanced systems are doing more FLOPS of calculations.

So, I can tell you that both the SMP and GPU client on any modern architecture is doing a great deal of "work"
However, Counting WU(regardless of the wattage) will not prove it to you.

For a dedicated machine:

An i5 2500K can be built that will allow you to run -SMP very efficiently.

While the points do not reflect completely or exactly the computational donation (passenger miles) they are designed to give an approximation.

If a $500-$700 SMP box that draws less than 150 watts generates 10,000 ppd.

You can with some sense of approximation believe that you would need 11 (ps3) at 900 ppd to generate the same work (not number of WU)

So even at $250 each, you are looking at over $2750 and a shed load of wattage to equal the work with the PS3.

Thanks both for the input.

I guess the only reason I also wonder if the PS3 is worth is is because they limited the ppd to 900. Where it should be getting higher ppd. Also was somewhat confused as to the ppd vs wu due to the PS3 cap which is why I was going on Workunits rather than points.

Also sorry if this is something that has been posted before but most of my research has come to finding flame wars between PS3 vs Computers.

It looks to me like I am going to start building some boxes once I have the cash rather than just buying a ps3 every month for a year.