Everything's the same. Same clocks, same FAH Control version, same OS. Same same same.

Why, then, is my GPU PPD dropping by 10k points?

One other note: desktop behavior has been a little weird lately. Windows Aero dropping in and out of operation, soft-locks and clunky video performance. I fired up OCCT and EVGA's stability checker, lowered some clocks and tried a few hours of gaming, but the only issue I had was while running the FAH Control module. So I put clocks back to where they were and same deal; OCCT + OC Scanner + Gaming is hotter, but more stable than FAH Control. I thought it might be a bad project file, so I flushed and tried again. Instability is gone, but PPD is still WAY low.

Is there an experimental batch of badness coming through or what?

edit: found the issue. DO NOT INSTALL nVIDIA DRIVER 280.26!

I noticed the new (?) GPU WUs are very different, and dropped my ppd quite a bit... if you look at their point values, you'll see what I mean. Each WU will give you more points than before, but they take longer to complete. Overall, it's a drop in points for me.

Googled around a bit. Check this out : http://forums.overclockers.com.au/showt ... p?t=978973

2 things about these new WUs :
- watch your temps, especially if overclocked (reports of 10 to 20 deg C rise !!!! )
- update to a more recent set of drivers (ppd increase, no temp drop) ; the 280 series seems to work, I'll have to try and see.

If anyone tries a set of drivers, can you post it here ? thanks !

Temps are actually a bit lower (?). Both my GPU and CPU are under water blocks, so temps are hardly a concern; the GPu maxes out at 56c and the CPU at 62c.

I could understand a 10% drop, but less than 50%? Yikes.

Huh, it could be a downclocking issue. Are you seeing any drops in gpu clock rate? Might want to try to get afterburner running and see if something is going on with that. There's something of a known issue with gpus just automatically downclocking themselves for no particular reason. Here's a link: http://foldingforum.org/viewforum.php?f=59&sid=d9a428925e34c9c29c03c97afff8a76e, check the threads on 'Nvidia driver lottery' and 'gtx 460 slows down'. But it could also be the new gpu wus, I haven't done any gpu folding for a while so I haven't seen much about them.

Nope, no downclocking.... The only thing I noticed was 7xxx projects. And when I check my client performace, I do see 7620 and 7621 units that yielded 1500 points less per day than the regular WUs. Back to "normal" WU for now it seems...

warriorpoet, do you have a way to check the WUs you were working on when you noticed the drop ?

[EDIT]
Putting all links in one topic (thanks cordis) : http://foldingforum.org/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=19390

Yeah, they were all 6800s.

Found the culprit. nVidia Driver 280.26 caused:

1. a PPD drop of 10k points
2. a WEI score drop of 0.8 points
3. Fallout New Vegas instability

I rolled back to the last WHQL 270 driver and all is well.

That's good to hear !!

Eh nuts. All was well, then I rebooted.

Now F@H tops out at 50% load on the GTX. Wondering how to fix this...

edit: somehow my CPU priority was resetting itself to "Real Time". That'll put a dent in your PPD :p