Probably an ATI HD3850

You can get a HD 4850 from 2nd Hand market (ebay/ etc.) for 30 - 40 EURO
A HD 3850 for 15 - 30 Euro. That is no big difference. But a hd 4850 you get more than 2 times crunching power with allmost the same costs for Energy.

My rig:AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3500+ 4 MB RAM Asus A8N-SLI SE needs with
1 HD 4850 230 Watt
with
2 HD 4850 370 Watt

and makes with two GPU's about 175 K Credits in MW

regards

Franz

Is the 230 Watts for the HD 4850 power for that board alone, or the minimum recommended power supply for the whole computer? So far, it looks like the answer to that question will affect whether I can get any AMD/ATI-based board at all that will handle Milkyway@home without overheating my computer room.

That's what the system will approximately draw with a single 4850 running flat out. So you would need to have a PSU which can provide that steady state with an appropriate safety margin.

You'd need a PSU with about double that capacity if you wanted to go with dual cards, which is why I put a 600 watt, high efficiency PSU in my 'Big Gun Battlecruiser'. I just haven't gotten around to scarfing up the other 1 GB RAM HD 4850 yet! :-)

It looks like if I ever want to go to dual cards, I'll need to do two things:

1. Buy a new computer with more than one slot that will hold GPU boards.

2. Get used to a computer room/bedroom so hot I can't sleep.

No second room available, other than a bathroom.

I'm no longer able to make major hardware changes in computers, such as a new PSU, myself.

It looks like if I ever want to go to dual cards, I'll need to do two things:

1. Buy a new computer with more than one slot that will hold GPU boards.

2. Get used to a computer room/bedroom so hot I can't sleep.

No second room available.

I'm no longer able to make major hardware changes in computers, such as a new PSU, myself.

LOL...

Well, that's pretty thin... almost invisible! :-D

Only Kidding... ;-)

Actually, unless you're talking about namebrand systems like Dell or HP, swapping a PSU out for a better one is easier than ever for the most part, especially for homebrewed.

In fact, if you're persistent, it's not all THAT bad for proprietary systems! ;-)

Unless of course, you don't have a physical expansion slot available that is! :-D

After a stroke, changing a GPU board is about all I can handle, and even that takes longer than you'd expect.

I could probably lift a PSU with one hand, but without enough movement in my other hand to fasten it in place.

Both of my computers that will still boot are from HP.

If you want to find out what it's like for me, try homebrewing a computer with one hand tied behind your back.

Well I apologize for the levity, and am thankful you've recovered enough to participate in the project as intellectually and physically as you have at this point.

Personal family experience tells me you need to keep pushing your envelopes though. Good luck, and godpseed.

Regards,

Alinator

<edit> I think I'm going to replace the battery in this wireless KB, even though the Batt inidcator says it's good. It's putting characters in I KNOW I didn't type! :-D

It looks like if I ever want to go to dual cards, I'll need to do two things:

1. Buy a new computer with more than one slot that will hold GPU boards.

2. Get used to a computer room/bedroom so hot I can't sleep.

No second room available, other than a bathroom.

I'm no longer able to make major hardware changes in computers, such as a new PSU, myself.

Hello!

the 230 Watts are that what I measure from the
power outlet. My rig has a PSU with 450 Watt's and worked stable with the 2 HD 4850.
But when you have to sleep beside the machine than something like this will be better.

http://cgi.ebay.at/HD4850-Grafikkarte-passivsilent-1GB-Gigabyt-ATI-Radeon-/250812303207?pt=DE_Elektronik_Computer_Computer_Graphikkarten&hash=item3a65940767

It is passive cooled. But I dont't know how much energy this card needs.

regards
Franz

...But when you have to sleep beside the machine than something like this will be better.

http://cgi.ebay.at/HD4850-Grafikkarte-passivsilent-1GB-Gigabyt-ATI-Radeon-/250812303207?pt=DE_Elektronik_Computer_Computer_Graphikkarten&hash=item3a65940767

It is passive cooled. But I dont't know how much energy this card needs.

regards
Franz

beware that all other things being equal, a passively cooled GPU is not going to dissipate heat as well as actively cooled GPU. it may be excellent for a build where low noise is key, but i have my reservations about passively cooled GPUs and distributed computing...just be sure that you're comfortable with temps on the high end of the "safe zone" if you're going to put a full load on a passively cooled GPU all the time...and make sure you monitor it!

---

I am currently running Zydor's app_info.xml file to run two Milky Way separation WUs concurrently. It works well but it uses so much of the GPU that my display sometimes freezes. I had the idea to run my monitor off the on-board integrated graphics and use my card for 100% crunching.

I made a dummy plug following the instruction at overclockers.net


I plugged the monitor into the VGA plug and plugged the dummy into the DVI plug on the card. The computer started up fine but there was never any signal to the monitor so there was no display.

It appears that as long as a card is installed, the display must be run from it. Is that correct?
If not, how can I get this idea to work?

I am currently running Zydor's app_info.xml file to run two Milky Way separation WUs concurrently. It works well but it uses so much of the GPU that my display sometimes freezes. I had the idea to run my monitor off the on-board integrated graphics and use my card for 100% crunching.

I made a dummy plug following the instruction at overclockers.net


I plugged the monitor into the VGA plug and plugged the dummy into the DVI plug on the card. The computer started up fine but there was never any signal to the monitor so there was no display.

It appears that as long as a card is installed, the display must be run from it. Is that correct?
If not, how can I get this idea to work?

have you checked the BIOS to make sure your integrated video is enabled? if its not enabled through the BIOS, then no signal will be output to the VGA port on your motherboard, regardless of what kind of display you have hooked up to it.

---

It appears I would need to install nvidia drivers for the on board graphics and use ATI Catalyst for the card. Will the two play together?

i believe its possible...i've seen it talked about on either these forums or the SETI@Home forums, can't remember which one exactly. it may be a crap shoot though, as i'd imagine it will work well with certain combinations of system hardware and not so well with others. i don't have to deal with both nVidia and ATI(AMD) drivers b/c both my IGP and my discrete GPU are ATI(AMD) - they both run on the same set of drivers, which is convenient to say the least. i'd search the forums here and @ S@H...i wish i could remember exactly where i saw it talked about, but i can't. if i come across it, i'll link you though...

---

Thanks for the advice. This is an otherwise stable system so I think I will leave it alone. I was trying to avoid moving some other software onto a laptop. Since it looks as if I have to mess with installs and uninstalls anyhow, I'll just do what is more likely to give satisfactory results.

Under Windows 7, my nVidia 8800GT 512MB doesn't get any tasks and the messages report that it's not powerful enough (as expected)

Under Elementary OS (basically Ubuntu Linux), messages report:
NVIDIA GPU 0: GeForce 8800 GT (driver version unknown, CUDA version 3020, compute capability 1.1, 511MB, 336 GFLOPS peak)

...but still doesn't get any tasks. Why does Linux recognise the card's capabilities where Windows just rejects it altogether?

Are there any plans, that the 6870 Series by Ati will be able to crunch?

Under Windows 7, my nVidia 8800GT 512MB doesn't get any tasks and the messages report that it's not powerful enough (as expected)

Under Elementary OS (basically Ubuntu Linux), messages report:
NVIDIA GPU 0: GeForce 8800 GT (driver version unknown, CUDA version 3020, compute capability 1.1, 511MB, 336 GFLOPS peak)

...but still doesn't get any tasks. Why does Linux recognise the card's capabilities where Windows just rejects it altogether?

Neither Windows nor Linux cares whether it's able to crunch or not.

The corresponding version of BOINC is where its capabilities should be reported, but they should accept computing capability 1.1 as the minimum required to use it under BOINC. You MIGHT have an old version of the Windows Nvidia driver, or perhaps a Windows version of BOINC so old it does not know how to report that information.

The BOINC project you're trying to get workunits from is generally the most critical part of the chain in getting workunits. I doubt if that card has a GPU chip with any double precision capability; Milkyway@home requires cards with double precision capability to be able to run their workunits at all. You could probably still run Milkyway@home CPU workunits, though, since nearly all CPUs available these days include double precision capability.

Are there any plans, that the 6870 Series by Ati will be able to crunch?

Since the 68xx series cards do not have double precision capability, but the Milkyway@home project makes heavy use of double precision, Milkyway@home has no current plans for anything that can use a 6870.

Looking through this thread I see where the HD6970 is listed but see no mention of the HD6970M.

Anyone have experience with these or know if they will work?