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ah but for 2....

Posted: Thu Jul 30, 2009 8:47 pm
by cordis
Yes, but the rebate is only good for 1 card, so if you want to get two cards, it's 180 + 150 = 330, but I think the code will apply for 2 cards, so that's 2 * 130 = 260. So definitely cheaper in bulk!

Posted: Fri Jul 31, 2009 11:21 am
by Lockheed
Post removed

should be ok...

Posted: Fri Jul 31, 2009 1:20 pm
by cordis
Well, the motherboard is in a cm cosmos, and I've filled out all the fan mounts in it, so there should be plenty of circulation. I have a mugen 2 on the cpu, a q9400, and that hasn't gotten anywhere near overheating. So, not too worried about it. But I don't know, I go back and forth, I'd kind of rather have gtx 275s, they're more compatible with ION boards, but these 260s are just so cheap! Think I'll see if any earth shattering rebates show up tomorrow.

Posted: Sat Aug 01, 2009 5:00 pm
by aristide1
I'm still trying to update the BIOS on my MSI quad board. I've never seen a board with such immature and untested BIOS. On top of that, I got home, there was a power interruption while I was gone. The PC was not only stopped, but when I booted it all the config settings for GPU folding were gone. I set them and the thing tells me CUDART.DLL is missing (these cards were already working) and the last card has the wrong drivers, even though it has the same drivers as the other 2 cards.

Now I'm having fun trying to make a bootable Vista CD.

power outages

Posted: Sat Aug 01, 2009 8:05 pm
by cordis
Yeah, I had a power outage last week, must have only been for a minute or two, but I was asleep and the machines were off a for 4 or 5 hours. Had a crappy 15k day. And then restarting all the machines, pain in the ass. Having a good day today, though. Think I will order those 260 cards, no better deals lately.

Posted: Sun Aug 02, 2009 7:17 pm
by aristide1
AZBrandon wrote:(deleted)
I was waiting to update the BIOS on my MSI K9A2 board, which I just completed today. With Vista 64 I'm still having problems, the latest is that it thinks its missing CUDART.DLL, even I have a copy of that miserable file in all 4 application and application data (work) directories. 8 copies and it can't find it. If I was Dick Cheney I'd tell it to fxxx itself.

I need to write up what a fiasco it was updating the BIOS on my MSI board. I'll never buy one of their products again.

an update

Posted: Tue Aug 04, 2009 10:42 am
by cordis
Just an update, I finally got the 9600 gso folding along with the integrated 9300M on the motherboard, and neither seems to be going slow. Well, the 9300M is pretty slow most of the time, but it certainly doesn't seem to be going slower than normal. I expected it would be ok, many message boards seemed to imply that having integral multiple shader counts on multiple cards works, and the 9300M has 16 and the 9600 gso has 96, so that's a nice even multiple of 6. Still kind of gratifying to see it work, though. :D

it's back, kind of

Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2009 11:02 am
by cordis
So it looks like it's kind of back:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... _-14121320

Although this one is up to $40 after the rebate. Still a fairly good deal, though. Oh, but there's also a sale, if you use the promo code on this page:

http://promotions.newegg.com/NEemail/Au ... ding.html?

then it's back down to $35. Cool!

Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2009 2:19 pm
by aristide1
While I have 2 myself and am with you for the most part I do have a small annoyance about these cards.

Of course within the price you really can't ask for more, but truth be told my cooler has no copper at all, and I don't think this one does either. It's not a deal breaker, but the entire card is pretty hot no matter how you look at it.

It also seems to me the fan can not be controlled by Riva Tuner, but it's not as bad as the XFX cards and their tiny fans.

I suspect what I will do to my Asus cards is what I did to my Asus northbridge cooler on my motherboard. Both are chunks of aluminum that are too hot. I won't replace them. Rather I will attach additional copper to them. I will probably epoxy pennies to the fins that go directly to the center. I may also change the fan to a Scythe 100mm 10mm thick fan that runs at 1000 rpm. I can use thermal epoxy on the pennies, but frankly why bother? A $4 tube of Phenoseal will do a great job.

Years ago I attached 2 small copper heat sinks to my rather large northbridge heat sink. With no other changes, no fans, temps dropped by 10C. Cost was less than $5.

The first card on all my PCs seems to run hotter as well.

know what you mean

Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2009 3:26 pm
by cordis
Yeah, I know what you mean, when I moved the motherboard this was on out of my Cosmos and into my little micro ATX cube case, kind of like this one:

http://www.directron.com/xqpackbl420.html

but with less ventilation, the case got really hot to the touch. The power supply is sitting right on top of the card slots, so I figured there would be some ventilation through that, but not much, and the power supply got really hot. I pulled out the unused slot covers and took off the unused 5.25 and 3.5 bay covers off the front, and temperatures have dropped to much more reasonable levels, but still, the card can pump out some heat. Since the fan is really just circulating air from the case around it, without a direct vent in the back like most dual slot cards, it's definitely trickier to keep this thing cool. I thought the lower power would make it better for a small form factor build, but now I'm not so sure. It is pretty quiet though, have to give them that.

I've never though of adding metal to the heat sinks, that's an interesting idea. I may have to give that a shot. Things seem resonable for the time being, but who knows how long it will last.

Posted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 6:57 pm
by aristide1
I have the quad board running naked. Eventually it will go into a tower, with the side off, and the case laying down so the "top" will be off.

Re: it's back, kind of

Posted: Thu Aug 13, 2009 5:47 pm
by aristide1
cordis wrote:So it looks like it's kind of back:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... _-14121320

Although this one is up to $40 after the rebate. Still a fairly good deal, though. Oh, but there's also a sale, if you use the promo code on this page:

http://promotions.newegg.com/NEemail/Au ... ding.html?

then it's back down to $35. Cool!
I overlooked something here. This is a 512MB memory card, ergo it has 48 stream processors, not 96. The 96 have 384 or 768 and a few XFX have 1.5GB, but at 1.5GB it can be either one.

yeah, but...

Posted: Thu Aug 13, 2009 7:21 pm
by cordis
Huh, that's strange, it's got '96 stream processors' written right above the picture, and the specs say 96 processors, so I wonder if it really has 96 or 48? Kind of confusing.

Posted: Fri Aug 14, 2009 10:36 am
by Lockheed
Post removed

Posted: Fri Aug 14, 2009 6:56 pm
by aristide1
The Asus sight doesn't list that spec. :?

Posted: Fri Aug 14, 2009 8:42 pm
by Lockheed
Post removed

Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2009 5:40 am
by aristide1
Impressive move by Asus, but I don't understand the further development of such an old gpu. I wonder if it will average higher ppd.

Did you notice the entire thread is about doubting the claim? 96sp? Now there's no way to know if its 48 or 96. More reason to move to the GTX260. Just kidding.

If it gets a couple of hundred points more than the 384 version it's worth the extra cost.

Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2009 11:13 am
by Lockheed
Post removed

Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2009 11:44 am
by aristide1
I simply recall that the 8800GT does pretty much better at PPD than the 8800GS. There used to be 256MB and 512MB 8800GTs out there and the 512 did better than the 256.

The question is, is 384MB enough for most work units or is it sending data back and forth on the PCIE bus :?:

Posted: Sat Sep 05, 2009 6:27 am
by aristide1
Wow, not only is this Asus card missing the fan control, it doesn't report gpu temps either. Oh well, live and learn.

Posted: Thu Nov 26, 2009 8:06 am
by frenchie
http://www.evga.com/products/moreInfo.a ... s%20Family

75$ with a 10$ email rebate (total 65$) !

single slot!

Posted: Thu Nov 26, 2009 11:26 pm
by cordis
Now that is interesting, it's a little pricey compared to others, but it's a single slot card! That's probably the most shaders I've seen on a single slot card yet, although I have had hope for the new cards. Nice find!

Posted: Fri Nov 27, 2009 6:58 pm
by aristide1
Most of the original 9600 GSOs were 96 shaders and single slot.

This one is 48, it has dain bramage.