Just a quick Q, does anyone know how many PPD the PS3 is able to produce? I've been thinking about using it for Folding since I don't use it much any more and it's just sat gathering dust, but I'm not sure if it would even be worth it.
Not a great deal - I believe it's about 900 PPD, and it uses quite a bit of juice for that limited number of points .....
You can get over 1000, but average is about 900-1000. I think it uses alot of watts for what it is, so a GPU would be alot more efficient in these days of being ripped off by energy companies.
It's benchmarked to be 900PPD however it will fluctuate slightly due to inherent project/work unit differences.
Yeah, I thought that might the case. I would fold on my 4870 but that's not worth it either given the low PPD of the ATI cards compared to nVidia's and the fact it gets real hot.
What he said. I first heard this from Saspro, he claims that for the power it draws its not worth running in comparison to a GPU. If it's all you have or you are really desperate for an extra 900ish PPD then by all means, but it's your leccy bill About your 4870... I have a 4850 in my everyday use rig. It's water cooled and moderately overclocked, and produces a steady 3500 PPD. It may not be as much as the nvidia cards but its still not bad. If you are stuck for points, the 4870 will do until you get something better! You're right in what you say about it getting hot though.
I did occaisionally get 1250ppd but haven't folded on my PS3 for a while due to the electric consumed. I think it's something silly like 280W, but stand to be corrected.
Thanks for the info on power consumption. I have an original 60GB PS3, so it's really not worth it for just 900 PPD considering my 1GB 4870 only uses 150W more under load than when idle and produces 3000-4000 PPD. I'm not sure about starting to fold with it, though, at least not until I get some better cooling sorted out.
I have the origional PS3. I only got one digit wrong, so does that mean I was only 8Ws out. (smilies are crap here aren't they)
it all helps in the end i got my bros ps3 set to run it when ever he leaves it alown after 10 mins (small work unit size) PS3 uses more like 180w (new models have less power use and small heat sink i got first gen ps3 thay are at 3-4 gen one now), need to get my power tester out agane to find out what it is
I did install Linux once on my PS3 to see if it was better at folding using the SMP client but it took almost 3 days, without a break, to complete a unit. I've since found out that Sony will not let you use all the cores whilst using Linux. Nice of 'em!
