cheap nvidia card

Having problems installing that new stick of memory? Found some great software or having issues with something? Or maybe want to chat about your PlayStation, X-Box, Nintendo, Sega, even your old Spectrum 48k....! Or maybe something you want to sell or acquire (computing related of course!). Let us know here...
Post Reply
nick
Active UBT Contributor 1+ yr
Posts: 383
Joined: Mon Feb 29, 2016 11:28 am

cheap nvidia card

Post by nick »

seems like I'm missing out by having an amd card and ideas on a low priced NVidia card to crunch more projects with? I won't be using it as my display so no need for it to be my gaming card as well and if I understand correctly some of the older cards are better than the low priced newer ones for boinc.
Image
Image
UBT - Timbo
UBT Forum Admin
Posts: 9673
Joined: Mon Mar 13, 2006 12:00 am
Location: NW Midlands
Contact:

Re: cheap nvidia card

Post by UBT - Timbo »

Hi Nick

I don't think you are missing out much at all.

Asteroids, Collatz, Einstein, MilkyWay, Moo! Wrapper, PrimeGrid and SETI all support both ATI/AMD and NVidia GPU's. :)

The only one that doesn't (AFAIK) is GPUGrid, which only supports NVidia (ie CUDA). GPUGrid doesn't support Open_CL which is what AMD/ATI require.

There's a good list here about which are the better NVidia GPU's....although this is applicable for the GPUGrid WU's it holds true for the other projects too:

https://www.gpugrid.net/forum_thread.php?id=2507#21073

and here is a list of NVidia cards and their respective computing power in FLOPS (this is an old thread, so you'll need to page down a lot to read all the info there !!):

https://www.gpugrid.net/forum_thread.php?id=1150#10607


You might also fancy checking out these pages for other projects ratings of GPU cards:

http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/gpu_list.php

http://boinc.thesonntags.com/collatz/gpu_list.php


For what it's worth, I picked up off fleabay, a MSI GTX560 TI Twin Frozr and a GTX580, which are installed in different PC's - both perform pretty well on all the listed projects and you can pick them up quite cheaply (ie less than £100 and if you're lucky, a lot less...)

Obviously, these are a bit out of date now, but you can pick up some nice second-user 6xx or 7xx series cards quite reasonably.

The only question I would raise is whether you can run an AMD and a NVidia card in the same PC and at the same time? I'm not sure how you'd be able to tell the BOINC project which card to use ? (unless you could create a specific XML file for BOINC Manager)?

regards
Tim
UBT - Mikee
Marvin the Dalek
Posts: 4395
Joined: Wed Mar 15, 2006 12:00 am
Location: North Wales

Re: cheap nvidia card

Post by UBT - Mikee »

If you want to do straight comparisons I've been using this...

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu_list.php

Mike
Follow us on Twitter... http://twitter.com/UKBOINCTeam

Image Image

Image
nick
Active UBT Contributor 1+ yr
Posts: 383
Joined: Mon Feb 29, 2016 11:28 am

Re: cheap nvidia card

Post by nick »

you can have different graphics card in the same system since windows 7 just disable there bloated managers and on my laptop its using the intel and the NVidia 950m to do work so I would assume the manager would be able to see a r9 270 and say a gtx750.

probably nothing to do with bionic but direct x 12 will let you use the vram off the card not in use on different makers of cards now and some other funky stuff.

there was a backend that would let you use the cuda off the NVidia on the amd card but I think that project is dead now.

the reason for the 2nd card is there are projects within projects that support open that have cuda only jobs and for some reason my less powerful laptop is beating my desktop that on paper has better but older stuff in it on the average daily score. this is probably the crappy built in intel GPU adding to the daily crunch but I would of thought a desktop would out preform 2 laptop gpus.
Image
Image
nick
Active UBT Contributor 1+ yr
Posts: 383
Joined: Mon Feb 29, 2016 11:28 am

Re: cheap nvidia card

Post by nick »

ok after a bit of playing around I got my on board to start working on Boinc now too have it hooked up to an hdmi switch (had to turn it on in the bios) so now I have 2 gpus on my desktop.

I checked the forums you pointed me to and you can use amd and NVidia on the same pc you just have to extend the desktop to the other gpu like I did with my onboard.

also looking at the threads it is more about shade's and ram speed than giga flops am I right?

sorry for the questions and rambling still figuring Boinic out. tweaking settings to get the most out my rigs, the older work ones took a bit to see what they could process and which were to intensive for them.
Image
Image
NaRyan
Posts: 851
Joined: Sun Dec 16, 2007 12:00 am

Re: cheap nvidia card

Post by NaRyan »

I own 3 Nvidia cards, a GTX460 (768MB), a GTX580 (1.5GB) & a GTX960 (4GB)

While the GTX460 is a "slow GPU" it is reliable and plods along quite happy on different projects
I was given the 460 by a friend (after I had a PSU go nuclear and basically blow the PC it was in apart, to replace a 8800GT that was killed)

The main 2 GPUs I "care" about are the GTX580 & GTX960.
While the GTX580 is an old card by todays standards it was the last "great" Double Precision GPU that Nvidia made before the Titan cards (but you talking silly money for them)

So on a Single Precision project (like Collatz) the difference between the GTX580 and GTX960 is not too far apart, about 5 min 9 seconds on the GTX960 vs around 6 minutes 20 seconds on the GTX580 (the GTX460 take around 21 minutes)
However on a project that uses Double Precision (such as Milkyway) the GTX580 hammers the GTX960 (it is around twice as fast).
I got the GTX580 on Ebay a few years ago (August 2013 I think) for £80, The GTX960 I got last December for £160 (it was mainly bought for playing games not Boinc work though).

So in all basic things, if you want an Nvidia card that is a good all rounder & you don't really care about it being the latest and fastest GPU around.
Keeping an eye on Ebay for a GTX580 or a GTX570, as despite them being older cards, depending on the Boinc project you are running it on they can give the newer cards a good run. Heck on Primegrid doing the Genfer World Record unts i have had the GTX580 beat a GTX980Ti :P
nick
Active UBT Contributor 1+ yr
Posts: 383
Joined: Mon Feb 29, 2016 11:28 am

Re: cheap nvidia card

Post by nick »

ill keep an eye out on fleabay for a GTX580 the new line comes out in April so might wait two weeks and wait for the flood of cards being sold for cheap unless I find a 50 pound one before then.
Image
Image
UBT - Timbo
UBT Forum Admin
Posts: 9673
Joined: Mon Mar 13, 2006 12:00 am
Location: NW Midlands
Contact:

Re: cheap nvidia card

Post by UBT - Timbo »

Hi Nick,

If you see a GTX 580 or a 590, (esp with higher levels of on-board memory) then these would be good for GPU work.

There's a working Gainward 580 on sale for £50 + p&p here:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/182054327696

Of the more recent cards, the GTX 770 is also highly thought of for BOINC work, so add that to your search.

Whenever there's a new NVidia release, always causes the "first adopters" to sell off their old kit and invest in new....the purple patch seems to be about a month or so AFTER launch, by which times the initial batch has been sold and people who have the new kit, want to sell off the old to help fund the new purchase.

regards
Tim
nick
Active UBT Contributor 1+ yr
Posts: 383
Joined: Mon Feb 29, 2016 11:28 am

Re: cheap nvidia card

Post by nick »

someone bought it :( there was an extreme edition for 20 pound more guess I need to check the clock rate to see if there worth it. maybe save a few more pennies and get a 980 when the flood happens and use it as my main card rather than my r9-270x.
Image
Image
UBT - Timbo
UBT Forum Admin
Posts: 9673
Joined: Mon Mar 13, 2006 12:00 am
Location: NW Midlands
Contact:

Re: cheap nvidia card

Post by UBT - Timbo »

nick wrote:someone bought it :( there was an extreme edition for 20 pound more guess I need to check the clock rate to see if there worth it. maybe save a few more pennies and get a 980 when the flood happens and use it as my main card rather than my r9-270x.
Hi Nick

There's another 580 going for £65 inc p&p here:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/162003056484

and another one here for £78 inc p&p:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/331786273022

and a nice looking 590 here for £125 inc:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/141912704459

TBH, a 980 is going to cost you a lot more...even if people start off-loading quickly, as they were expensive when they came out and most will want to see a good return when they sell them off. And be aware that a 770 can, in certain circumstances, outperform a 980 (at least from a BOINC perspective !!) - for gaming a 980 might be better ;)

regards
Tim
nick
Active UBT Contributor 1+ yr
Posts: 383
Joined: Mon Feb 29, 2016 11:28 am

Re: cheap nvidia card

Post by nick »

UBT - Timbo wrote:Hi Nick

There's another 580 going for £65 inc p&p here:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/162003056484

and another one here for £78 inc p&p:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/331786273022

and a nice looking 590 here for £125 inc:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/141912704459

TBH, a 980 is going to cost you a lot more...even if people start off-loading quickly, as they were expensive when they came out and most will want to see a good return when they sell them off. And be aware that a 770 can, in certain circumstances, outperform a 980 (at least from a BOINC perspective !!) - for gaming a 980 might be better ;)

regards
Tim
you can find used ones for 250-300 now I would imagine you could find sub 200 when the new ones drop
Image
Image
Post Reply