SPCR

I found this article comparing PPW for a few different systems. Haven't had a chance to read it too closely, but looks interesting.


http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/640

A nice try, but unless you use the exact same work unit to compare then it is plain not possible.

e.g. my SMP setup (Linux 64 bit, 2 cores) varies between 37 pts/hour and 15 pts/hour, and that is just looking at the last 10 work units. [Sadly not in the same scale as the article but then again I am only running 70W, and multitasking.]

I can't open the OP's link but here is the de facto standard that I know of.

http://foldingforum.org/viewtopic.php?f=52&t=4709

Oh I just opened the OP's link. The prior model of the 8800GT with 256MB of memory uses far less electricity. You can find some on eBay, but the 9600GSO 384MB is the current best option. Plus you can get a 9600GSO for half the price of an 8800GT.

Based on the link above, it looks like nVidia cards do 4000-6000 ppd versus around 1000-2000 ppd for ATI cards. Is that accurate?

AZB - yes, based on the kinds of WUs developed. In the future they are suppose to be just about the same.

aristide1 wrote:AZB - yes, based on the kinds of WUs developed. In the future they are suppose to be just about the same.

Oh ok. I was scratching my head a bit on this one - for gaming, the new 48x0 cards seem real close to the 9800GT and 260GTX line, which implies they have close "power" but their PPD is far apart, which is confusing. I guess it can be explained by the fact that both companies have only just recently (in ATI/AMD's case, like a month ago) released official support of GPGPU or whatever they're calling it. Drivers and support should only improve over time from each maker and like you said, it should stand to reason that they'll get closer in PPD.