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GTX 560 vs. GTX 460 three way shoot-out - no surprises

Discussion in 'bit-tech Folding Team' started by Christopher N. Lew, 26 Jan 2011.

  1. Christopher N. Lew

    Christopher N. Lew Folding in memory of my father

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    I couldn't find this comparison on the web, so decided to do it myself. Very tedious, I'm glad I don't have to do it for work. But the numbers all look good, so I'm pleased with the results.

    PC plugged into watt meter, then wall socket; side off throughout. Client GPU3 (6.30r2); drivers 266.44, temps and fan speeds from GPU-Z 0.5.1; TPF and PPD from HFM.NET 0.6.1; running P6801 (R1999, C1, G7) credit 1348 in all tests. Each card tested three times.

    (This forum software has stripped out the neat columns I'd made, so I hope the layout makes sense :D)

    EVGA GTX 460 1Gb EE clocks 720/900/1440
    Watts idle 113 103 104
    Watts folding 194 202 197
    Temp idle 29 31 33
    Temp folding 62 64 65
    Fan folding 42% 45% 46%
    TPF 1:53 1:53 1:53
    PPD 10306 10306 10306

    EVGA GTX 460 SC 1Gb EE clocks 763/950/1526
    Watts idle 104 102 102
    Watts folding 208 214 215
    Temp idle 30 31 31
    Temp folding 63 65 65
    Fan folding 44% 46% 46%
    TPF 1:47 1:47 1:47
    PPD 10884 10884 10884

    MSI GTX 560 1Gb Twin Frozr clocks 880/1050/1760
    Watts idle 110 105 105
    Watts folding 230 227 230
    Temp idle 28 27 29
    Temp folding 51 52 53
    Fan folding 49% 50% 51%
    TPF 1:26 1:26 1:26
    PPD 13542 13542 13542

    By waving my hands around, I found the two Exhaust Edition cards expelled their hot air at the rear. In contrast the MSI card only pushed a little out of the back, most got dumped into the case at the front of the card.

    If I listened out for the noise, I could hear a faint 'wooshing' from the two EVGA cards; the tone was a little higher than the case fans. In contrast I couldn't hear the MSI card at all.

    My numbers for watts and temperatures are similar to those in other reviews, and PPD go up by ~30% for the new card, which is pretty much the figure I expected having read other reviews. Result!
     
    Last edited: 26 Jan 2011
  2. GeorgeStorm

    GeorgeStorm Aggressive PC Builder

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    Hmm, doesn't look too bad
    Especially since the 560 can overclock so well, any intentions of rerunning at 950+ (1Ghz mabye?)
    Thanks for the results :)
     
  3. Christopher N. Lew

    Christopher N. Lew Folding in memory of my father

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    I now have all three cards squeezed up tight in the case with the MSI card in the uppermost slot, and the side panel in place. It is apparent that the cards are not getting enough air flow. Almost immediately the noise has increased. The GPU temps are 72C (GTX 460), 78C (GTX 460 SC), and 83C (GTX 560), with the fans at 53%, 60% and 81%. Removing the side panel gives some relief to the lowest card, but the temperature of the others only drops a couple of degrees.

    The two GTX 460 cards seem to have slowed down, according to HFM.NET, although GPU-Z still reports the clocks as they were before. I don't quite understand this - the CPU is not folding, so has 6 cores to lavish on the GPU clients.
     
  4. GeorgeStorm

    GeorgeStorm Aggressive PC Builder

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    Bit of thermal throttling? Although temps aren't THAT high...
    Just up the fanspeeds on them all and push them harder ;)
     
  5. Christopher N. Lew

    Christopher N. Lew Folding in memory of my father

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    Shuffled the cards a little. The MSI GTX 560 is still in the top slot, then an empty slot, then the two GTX 460 cards. Case side on. Each card seems 8-10C hotter than when they were on their own, and hence fans are a little more noticable, but nowhere near as bad as the try-out with the three cards together. Total watts 550. I'm going to leave this set-up running o/n and hope for no nasty surprises.

    I need some better case fans, but don't believe I've found a card suitable for a 4-GPU system. :sigh:
     
  6. megadriveguy

    megadriveguy Minimodder

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    Don't say that you might jinx yourself, you didn't hang about on the 560
     
  7. standinwave

    standinwave Folding in memory of my mum

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    I have just two GTX460s in a huge Coolermaster HAF_X case with giant fans and there is an 8 Celsius difference between them when both grinding out GPU3 WUs.

    What mobo would you be looking at using for a 4 GPU system? One about a metre long with room to drive a bus between the cards?:eyebrow:
     
  8. Christopher N. Lew

    Christopher N. Lew Folding in memory of my father

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    Been shuffling the cards about this morning. The two GTX 460s give their 'normal' PPD if they are in the machine on their own; when I add the GTX 560 the PPD drops. In addition, the GTX 560 seems to grab the files for GPU1 (or GPU0 if you prefer) whichever physical slot it is in. Total points for the three cards is still greater than two GTX 460s at 'full speed'.

    Last time I saw an issue like this, it was a result of different GPU architecture and was resolved by a driver update (just tried the latest 266.66 with no joy) so I leave it as a warning and nothing more.
     
  9. StreetSam

    StreetSam Minimodder

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    This happened to me with 3x450s but not as much, it was the GPUs using the same core in the CPU. The rule of thumb seems to be 2 Fermi cards/core, any more and they slow down. Install Priffinity and assign the cores.
     
  10. Christopher N. Lew

    Christopher N. Lew Folding in memory of my father

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    Just my trusty MSI K9A2 Platinum board. I have some XFX 260 Black Edition cards which are very good at expelling the hot air at the back (though a bit noisy) - crucially they have the fan at the front of the card in a part of the shroud that is recessed, so there is space for the cool air to get in; the similar recess is smaller in my EVGA Exhaust Edition cards, and there is nothing similar in the MSI Twin Frozr heatsink. Looking at the new Gigabyte card the fans are angled, which might work well to get the cool air in, but they just dump the hot air into the case.

    The GTX 260s get about half the PPD of the GTX 560 cards, with a higher wattage. I'll keep on the look out for suitable third-party cards or after market coolers. I am impressed by the GTX 560s performancce.
     
  11. Christopher N. Lew

    Christopher N. Lew Folding in memory of my father

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    At the risk of being tedious, I did a bit of overclocking on the MSI GTX 560 (already factory overclocked). Same set up as before, single card, case side off.

    With P6801 (R2368, C1, G8) 1348 points, the PPD rose from 13542 with the card out of the box, to 14742 when overclocked to 985/1050/1970, temperatures up by just a couple of degrees, and a very slight increase in the fan speed. I couldn't get a reliable figure for the increase in power drawn, so it must be less than 10W increase.

    Similarly P6805 (R822, C1, G23) 1280 points gave increase in PPD from 15798 to 17280.

    When I tried going up to 990/1050/1980 the WU would fail with a NAN error, but remarkably it would automatically restart, with the clocks at 985/1050/1970, and pick up where it left off. A HUGE bonus for unattended folders!
     
    Last edited: 27 Jan 2011
  12. One_Box

    One_Box Folder of the month April 2012

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    Thanks for your info on the GTX 560, very interesting.

    From your data it would seem that it is an even more efficient folder than the excellent GTX 460 which is really good news.
     
  13. coolamasta

    coolamasta Folding@Home CC Captain 2010/11/12

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    Interesting results bud, I got 2 x EVGA 1GB GTX460's with the EE exhaust and with the cores at 871mhz core they are pumping out around 12200ppd on most projects.

    I wonder what the GTX560 will be like with a core speed of around 950~ish :)
     
  14. littlepuppi

    littlepuppi Currently playing MWO and loving it

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    Or get a SOC with a pre clocked 1000mhz!!!
     
  15. Speed

    Speed I'm all you need!

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    Not half bad. My three EVGA GTX 460s 768MB @ 900 Core do around 12,288 for a 1280 pointer and 12,259 for a 1348 pointer. Although of course it varies with each WU and project. That is with a i7 920 doing BigAdv in the background.

    Pretty sure most GTX460s will do 900 on air without any issues, not had any problems with mine.

    Do the new drivers help or hinder the PPD?
     
  16. meandmymouth

    meandmymouth Multimodder

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    Feeling the need for a 460 or 560 reading this!
     

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