davidhammock200 Posted October 1, 2006 Posted October 1, 2006 This is GREAT news! Enter the GPU Modern GPUs such as the R580 core powering ATI's X19xx series have upwards of 48 pixel shading units, designed to do exactly what the Folding@Home team requires. With help from ATI, the Folding@Home team has created a version of their client that can utilize ATI's X19xx GPUs with very impressive results. While we do not have the client in our hands quite yet, as it will not be released until Monday, the Folding@Home team is saying that the GPU-accelerated client is 20 to 40 times faster than their clients just using the CPU. Once we have the client in our hands, we'll put this to the test, but even a fraction of this number would represent a massive speedup. Unfortunately for home users, for the time being, the number of those who can help out by donating their GPU resources is rather limited. The first beta client to be released on Monday only works on ATI GPUs, and even then only works on single X19xx cards. The research group has indicated that they are hoping to expand this to CrossFire-enabled platforms soon, along with less-powerful ATI cards. The situation for NVIDIA users however isn't as rosy, as while the research group would like to expand this to use the latest GeForce cards, their current attempts at implementing GPU-accelerated processing on those cards has shown that NVIDIA's cards are too slow compared to ATI's to be used. Whether this is due to a subtle architectural difference between the two, or if it's a result of ATI's greater emphasis on pixel shading with this generation of cards as compared to NVIDIA we're not sure, but Folding@Home won't be coming to NVIDIA cards as long as the research group can't solve the performance problem. http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2849&p=3 Buy only ATI X19xx based GPU's! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Praz Posted October 1, 2006 Posted October 1, 2006 I can see faster times but 20 to 40 times faster is simply amazing. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
FXed Posted October 1, 2006 Posted October 1, 2006 Hah! That is good news, to be sure. I've been Folding for many years now but just got my first ATI GPU card last week. I have my own FAH team, very small but very dedicated. The system you see in my Sig is both new and older components; the FX-60 dual core, DFI CFX3200 MB and ATI X1950XTX being some of the newer parts. I'm also a BETA tester of FAH and at present I'm running two instances of FAH on my FX-60, one on each core. Being able to run FAH on my new ATI GPU is fantastic news! I also seem to recall reading that the new PS/3, I think, will be able to run FAH. Ain't technology grand!?! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Booster Posted October 1, 2006 Posted October 1, 2006 Read this last night and I'm looking foward to folding with my 1900xt especially this coming winter. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
WintersFury Posted October 1, 2006 Posted October 1, 2006 I saw that yesterday and while it may be great to do more work. The gpu is also one of the most power hungry units in a computer. I can only imagine how many kwh's it'll draw runing the cpu and gpu at max. And I also wonder about the long term stability of a gpu being asked to do that kind of work. A cpu has been designed to do that, however a gpu wasn't. So while it's great, I myself wouldn't be doing it even if I could, electricity bills and burning down my gpu would keep me from it. And I do Rosetta@Home instead of F@H myself Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jumpman Posted October 2, 2006 Posted October 2, 2006 So, im going to be a better person from now on ...be glad to fold @ home with my brand new x1900xt. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
p0tter Posted October 2, 2006 Posted October 2, 2006 Wow! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trevor Posted October 2, 2006 Posted October 2, 2006 Hope they solve the Nvidia problem. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
FXed Posted October 2, 2006 Posted October 2, 2006 The new GPU client is due to be released this afternoon, Oct. 2nd, Pacific Time! Here's a Link at ATI about the new GPU client. Professor Vijay Pande also has an annoncement on the FAH Forum here. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Praz Posted October 2, 2006 Posted October 2, 2006 Anyone that's going to try this will need to download the new CAT drivers. Download Catalyst Beta 6.10 for the Folding@Home client Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thraxz Posted October 2, 2006 Posted October 2, 2006 It doesn't appear to be working with my xtx. It's not loading my card up.... mayeb I'll reboot and try again. EDIT: Pfft... it won't even connect to the work server. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Praz Posted October 2, 2006 Posted October 2, 2006 It doesn't appear to be working with my xtx. It's not loading my card up.... mayeb I'll reboot and try again. It's not available yet. The file posted on the Folding@Home website is the 5.02 Windows text-only console. They must be using that file as a place holder till later this afternoon when the ATI version is released. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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