Folding @ Home on an ATI graphics card

[Keith75]

How is it going with your GPUs running F@H???

[Evil-Dragon]

Seems to be running ok now that i've turned down the GPU usage to 50%. I must admit though, i kinda have to wonder what this will eventually do to my graphics card due to running it all the time. I mean sure GFX cards are designed to be run faster than i'm running it now but not for days on end.

Kinda make me want water cooling, but i'm broke cause i've got no job at the moment. Once i get a good job again i will try and do something about the cooling.

[Strongbow]

I've been toying with the idea of buying one of these for a week or so now.

http://www.sapphiretech.com/en/produ...s.php?gpid=143

It's the Sapphire Toxic X1900 XTX watercooled ATI GPU. The water cooler takes up a slot but in doing so it also exhausts the heat out the back instead of into the case (which I like and feel that is worthy of a slot!). It's a bit pricey here in the UK but I like the idea especially as I'm a complete novice when it comes to over clocking GPUs.

[Evil-Dragon]

It's practically the same card as i've got except mine is air cooled. Even the air cooled one takes up two slots so i'd go for it if you've got the money.

The 1900 XTX is a fantastic card. I can play HL2 with max settings and high AA and AF to give you an idea of the cards power for graphics. Oblivion runs nicely on it too.

[Keith75]

I would like to think that running it at full load wouldn't hurt anything but I can just see them scrimping thinking that no one will use it 24/7. Hey they will replace it if it dies on you though for free. :D

Keith

[Evil-Dragon]

After completing my first GPU WU successfully, i started another which was not checkpointing properly and losing work done.

You will need to update your core to 0.7 to fix some problems with the GPU client. It fixes reporting and checkpointing. There is a minor performance increase also.

You can download it here: http://folding.stanford.edu/release/FahCore_10.v7.zip

Half way through my 2nd WU now and all is going fine!

[Strongbow]

Out of interest, how much stress does it place on the CPU if any?

[Evil-Dragon]

At the moment 1 core, it sorta follows the amount of GPU used. So 50% GPU would use 50% CPU. I assume this will change (it is an assumption at best)

There are still some small issues with GPU folding although it does give a 10x speed increase (it is difficult to compare CPU and GPU WU's though because they are two completely different types of work)

It's worth giving it a try if you've got a compatible GFX card. I'm using Catalyst 6.10 for the record and haven't had any EUE's yet.