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I upgraded my GPU to play Elite: Dangerous........

Discussion in 'bit-tech Folding Team' started by wilding2004, 18 Feb 2015.

  1. wilding2004

    wilding2004 What's a Dremel?

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    I started folding back in 2004, using an AthlonXP 3200+. The addiction took hold pretty quick and I added a bunch of Pentium 3's and a couple of Pentium 4's to my folding farm. Then over time I added an Athlon64 X2 and ran the SMP client on Linux. The P3's got retired when the GPU1 client got released, and I discovered that a couple of X1950XTX's could remove my need of central heating. Then came along the PS3 and another upgrade to the GPU2 client and a couple of G92 8800GTS's, and SMP on Windows. My wife was starting to get a little annoyed about the noise/heat/clutter - but my addiction was too powerful to stop.

    At this point I was offered redundancy or a large pay cut, and to be honest the electricity I was using was starting to get a bit pricey. So I knocked f@h on the head, thinking that after over 9000 WU's and 4,000,000 points I'd done my bit.

    Anyway fast forward to now, and my income is now back to its pre-recession levels. So I'm reading a review of the new Elite game and thinking that I like the sound of that, what GPU do I need to run it at max detail at 1920x1080 (I was still running 1 of the 8800's). An hour later I've ordered an R9 270X, anything more powerful would have been overkill, and just before I close the browser, I see a mention of "ppd". Now I haven't given folding a second thought for a few years now, but seeing "ppd" and ordering a shiny new GPU got me wondering again.

    When it arrived the first thing I did was download the latest f@h software, and got a bit of a shock when the program cleverly allocated 1 CPU core for the GPU and started an SMP WU on the other 3 cores. Another hour went by as I tried to speed read all the development I'd missed, and the realisation that I needed to complete 10 WU's to get QRB. Maybe Elite would have to wait a few days longer. After 15 or so WU's, I reckoned the 270X was giving me about 60k PPD, but I didn't have any point of reference for that figure. So more research and the realisation that I would have been better of with a 290X or a Geforce 9/60/70/80.

    Now I've ordered the parts to build a dedicated 3 GPU system, starting with a single Geforce 960 and adding 2 more GPU's over the coming months. I've also purchased and downloaded Elite, although that was nearly 2 weeks ago, and I haven't quite got around to actually playing it yet....I think the addiction might have me again. :eeek:
     
  2. DocJonz

    DocJonz Another CPC refugee .....

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    Great story :thumb:

    I remember those days Wilding - I started in 2005 with an Athlon XP 2200+ and soon after added an awesome FX-57. At one point in the intervening years I had up to ten machines on the go!

    As I approach 1Bn points (never thought that possible ...), I'll be looking to reduce the current number of Folding machines to three, and at the same time reduce my generous 'funding' of the energy company :hehe:
     
  3. wilding2004

    wilding2004 What's a Dremel?

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    Hi Doc. A billion points, damn that's a lot. 10 years ago 1 million was a major achievement, now it's just a weeks work with a decent GPU. There are some pretty serious PPD totals being produced atm. I'm hoping to get back into the top 20 soon. It feels a bit embarrassing now to have got Folder of the month for just over 900 PPD.

    I remember thinking that nobody would ever match Inpharm's PPD when he was the highest in the world - but the £100 GPU I've got now is already beating that!!:D
     
  4. DocJonz

    DocJonz Another CPC refugee .....

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    A PPD of 900 wasn't that different to other Folders of the Month at the time (back in 2006) - many PPD's were around 1000 to 2000, with inpharm the staggering exception at 35,000 - but then he did have racks of Blade servers packed with Xeon's churning flat out as a 'stress test' of the customer system he was working on :hehe:
     

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