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GT240 better than 9600GSO ?

Posted: Tue Jan 19, 2010 11:25 am
by frenchie
http://www.goldfries.com/hardware-revie ... rd-review/

It's not one of my favorite review sites but this caught my attention :
[quote]If I could summarize this card in a few words, I’ll just say “It is a 9600GSO that consumes lesser powerâ€

yeah

Posted: Tue Jan 19, 2010 11:54 am
by cordis
The power is very intriguing, although it may not be that much lower, maybe as little as 20 watts less than the 9600 gso. But yeah, if you're spending your own money on power for it, it will probably pay for the price premium over the long haul. One thing I worry about with that card, though, is that since it's powered by the PCIe bus, and it's pretty much right at the limit of what it can support, I doubt you could put 2 or 3 240s in the same machine, unless they had supplemental power connectors. So if you have a couple other free PCIe slots that you want to fill at some point, then it might make more sense to go with the 250 or the 9600 gso. On the other hand, if you're looking for low profile cards, then you may not have spare slots, and the 240 would probably be a good way to go. It's a tough call, but if you do go with the 240, be sure to let us know how many ppd you get out of it, I'd definitely be interested to hear.

Posted: Tue Jan 19, 2010 1:37 pm
by dereksbelanger
check this out: http://www.bit-tech.net/bits/2009/08/03 ... ding-rig/4

GTS 250 produces 1800ppd more than the 9600 GSO for just 3 more watts

Posted: Tue Jan 19, 2010 3:47 pm
by aristide1
NVidia should announce something good in March.

9600GSOs were fun when you could buy new ones for $40, but GT240's at over twice as much is less interesting.

:?

yeah

Posted: Tue Jan 19, 2010 8:02 pm
by cordis
But if the power consumption is really that much lower, it could pay you back over time. But yeah, I'm holding off on new video cards until March, unless something hot pops up or there's a breakthrough with the next generation of gpu folding software from Pande.

Posted: Wed Jan 20, 2010 12:15 pm
by aristide1
It would take a long time to recoup $30 at a power usage reduction of 20-30 watts per hour.

The talk is we won't hear anything from NVidia until March.

Posted: Wed Jan 20, 2010 12:29 pm
by aristide1
dereksbelanger wrote:check this out: http://www.bit-tech.net/bits/2009/08/03 ... ding-rig/4

GTS 250 produces 1800ppd more than the 9600 GSO for just 3 more watts
If the 9600 OCs better than the GTS250 then the whole story may possibily not be told here.

With lower power consumption in general, less power storage and regulation the newer cards perhaps may not OC as well.

The no extra power connector cards, certain green models, are not going to OC at all, given some reviews out there. They barely fall into the "less than 75 watt power comsumption" required for no extra connectors.

Posted: Sun Feb 07, 2010 2:49 pm
by aristide1

Posted: Sun Feb 07, 2010 11:19 pm
by frenchie
Well well well !!!! Thanks Aristide !
80 to 100 ppd/watt, that's not bad at all is it ? I'd really love to get one of those, in low profile... no luck so far... grrr !!!

The only decent low profile I can find here is the GTS250... but it puts out more power and it'll be hard to cool almost passively.

thanks!

Posted: Sun Feb 07, 2010 11:51 pm
by cordis
Yeah, it's some good info, it does seem to get more ppd than the 9600 gso, and less than the gts 250. And the power dissipation does seem pretty low. As has been noted before, the price is a little out of line, but I wouldn't mind trying one sometime.

Posted: Fri Apr 30, 2010 6:56 pm
by aristide1
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/ ... html#sect0

Here we see the 240 drawing less power than a 9600GT, which has fewer shaders.

My biggest concern with the 240 is most of them have no 6 pin power connector and they get all their power from the main board. This is so close to the maximum allowed (75 watts) that I would be concerned OCing this product. On the other hand if one could undervolt it then it may become an even bigger star.

The fact that no articles directly compare it to the 9600GSO really annoys me.

yeah

Posted: Mon May 03, 2010 2:22 pm
by cordis
Yeah, since it draws all power from the motherboard, I really doubt you could do a multi-gpu 240 system. Would make a good card for a dedicated smp machine, though.

Posted: Mon May 03, 2010 3:34 pm
by aristide1
It has the same potential issues during overclocking as the hex core AMD. It so close to the power limit that OCing could send it over the edge.

Re: yeah

Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2010 6:41 am
by stall3
cordis wrote:Yeah, since it draws all power from the motherboard, I really doubt you could do a multi-gpu 240 system. Would make a good card for a dedicated smp machine, though.
I have the opportunity to buy 4 GT240's for $100. I was hoping I could put all four of them in a dedicated folding rig. Here's the components I have so far:

CPU - AMD X3 445
P/S - Rosewill RV2-700 700W
MOBO - MSI K9A2 Platinum

Some folks seem to think the GT 240 can get 4000PPD .. So, 16K PPD for $100 seems pretty good to me.

What do you guys think? Would this setup work? I really don't know much about power requirements of components vs. the ideal power supply setup. I know it's more complicated than just adding up the watts.

Thank you.
-S3

Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2010 4:53 pm
by aristide1
Wow that's great and efficient as well. Good luck! Try to get an K9A2 Revision 2, though I personally don't care for this board.

Posted: Fri Jul 23, 2010 9:20 am
by stall3
yeah, what can I say, I got it used. (cheap). It's all about the PPD per $ per watt for me.

Posted: Fri Jul 23, 2010 9:30 am
by aristide1
Just don't use Vista 64 bit. absolutely dreadful.

tricky

Posted: Sun Jul 25, 2010 1:58 am
by cordis
Yeah, I'm not sure a quad 240 system will work, but it's definitely worth a try. I'm not sure if the pci slots are rated for max power each, but the 700W supply should be able to handle it. Do stay away from Vista, you'll need dongles for the unused displays, I think. You'll probably need the latest gpu folding version, but I think that's working in both Win 7 and linux now, so you should be covered. However it turns out, let us know how it goes!

Posted: Sun Jul 25, 2010 6:05 am
by aristide1
Ow, Cordis brings up a painful concern. The 240's have no extra power plugs and get all their power from the motherboard. They are barely within the specification limits. That means you can't overclock the shaders on these cards you will stress the motherboard beyond it's limits. If possible you should attempt to connect the gpu fans to a separate 12volt rail, as you will probably need to increase the fan speed, perhaps max it out.