Folding Forum

hello

im planing on building a computer specifically for running FAH 24/7. Im looking to get a dual GPU card setup and was wondering if FAH performs better with either a Nivida or ATI card. I know that the specific model and specifications of the card factor in but all else being equal (or close to) does one brand tend to perform better?

Additionally regardless of brand should i be more concerned with a specific specification of a card when shopping? ie should i value more cuda cores/stream processors above other factors like memory speed/gpu speed, memory capacity, etc? eg: if i had a 3gb and 6gb card to choose from where the 3gb card had more processors (other stats all equal) would that be preferred for the work FAH does or should i be focusing on some other properity?

lastly, is it even fair to make a 1:1 comparison of cuda cores to stream processors? ie one cuda core equates to one stream processor in terms of computer power?

any help this forum can offer is appreciated...just looking to get the best rig set up as possible.

thanks in advance, sorry for so many questions.

vesprini@gmail.com wrote:I'm looking to get a dual GPU card setup and was wondering if FAH performs better with either a Nivida or ATI card. I know that the specific model and specifications of the card factor in but all else being equal (or close to) does one brand tend to perform better?

Most donors seem to prefer NVidia by a large margin, but a lot depends on your personal choice and whatever else you run that benefits from a powerful GPU. Both require the OpenCL driver from the manufacturer.

There has been talk about creating a FAHCore that uses CUDA in addition to OpenCL. If that ever happens, it'll increase the preference in favor of NV.

Additionally regardless of brand should i be more concerned with a specific specification of a card when shopping? ie should i value more cuda cores/stream processors above other factors like memory speed/gpu speed, memory capacity, etc?

You can multiply (cuda cores or stream processors)*(gpu speed) to get a number that is pretty good at describing the overall performance on OpenCL for FAH.

Memory capacity/speed can be called "unimportant for FAH" ... but it may be important for other applications.[/quote]

thanks very much for the information. much appreciated!