Bargain Hardware Thread

[TheMawn]

Originally Posted by petrw1

I have an i5-750 with a GIGABYTE P55M-UD2 MotherBoard

3. Otherwise can I simply check the GPU forum to see what is the "IN" GPU to get?

I'm thinking a GTX 770 is going to be a killer deal right about now. Your system will not provide the PCI-E 3.0 bandwidth but the card will be fine anyway.

EDIT: I should explain the GTX 770 a bit more: way back I did some research. I was thinking of adding three or four of these to the computer I'm slowly working on (when the time comes to add real GPU's) and exchanging TF credits for LL credits. The LL and TF performances, combined with the relatively low cost and power made it seem like the cheapest way to farm TF credits to exchange for LL.

[kracker]

Originally Posted by TheMawn

I'm thinking a GTX 770 is going to be a killer deal right about now. Your system will not provide the PCI-E 3.0 bandwidth but the card will be fine anyway.

EDIT: I should explain the GTX 770 a bit more: way back I did some research. I was thinking of adding three or four of these to the computer I'm slowly working on (when the time comes to add real GPU's) and exchanging TF credits for LL credits. The LL and TF performances, combined with the relatively low cost and power made it seem like the cheapest way to farm TF credits to exchange for LL.

Assuming you like nVidia of course... that would be best.
280X
GTX770

The 770 is a bit more expensive though.
Benchmarks according to mersenne.ca:
GTX770=286.9 GHz/days
280X=374.4 GHz/days

Also, the R9 290 which makes 521.4 GHz/days...

Or are you looking at prices at eBay etc?

[Mark Rose]

Originally Posted by kracker

The 770 is a bit more expensive though.
Benchmarks according to mersenne.ca:
GTX770=286.9 GHz/days

If you're concerned solely about TF throughput, my factory-overclocked GTX760 gives 270 GHz-d/d for a much cheaper price. Still nowhere near as good of deal as a used GTX 580 which can be had for about $125 used. But if you have to pay for power, I think the GTX 970 is the real sweet spot right now.

[petrw1]

It was off for over a day before I noticed....definitely more than enough time to cool.

How about my second question?
Any problem adding a GOOD GPU to that setup ...obviously I need a bigger power supply.

[Mark Rose]

Originally Posted by petrw1

It was off for over a day before I noticed....definitely more than enough time to cool.

How about my second question?
Any problem adding a GOOD GPU to that setup ...obviously I need a bigger power supply.

I don't see any problem. The first PCIe x16 slot is PCIe 2.0, so even gaming shouldn't be too bad.

The system is getting a bit long in the tooth though.

[petrw1]

So what I hear is that this PC won't be able to get full thruput from one of these cards?

No gaming....only gimps.

[kladner]

I Could be Wrong^TM, but I don't think PCIe 2.0 x16 is going to choke a single GPU significantly, unless there is competition for bandwidth.

[kracker]

Originally Posted by petrw1

So what I hear is that this PC won't be able to get full thruput from one of these cards?

No gaming....only gimps.

Don't worry about it. You're fine, PCI bandwidth doesn't matter too much for mfakt(c-o)

[Mark Rose]

Originally Posted by petrw1

So what I hear is that this PC won't be able to get full thruput from one of these cards?

No gaming....only gimps.

It'll be fine for gimps, and even gaming should be good, if you should choose to try gaming. A recent high end GPU could be hampered a bit in gaming, but for gimps you have no concern at all :)

[petrw1]

If I look at the benchmarks page the price is about the same but 40% more thruput with the 590. Is it a power hog?

[fivemack]

Yes, I would expect a single 590 card to use 350W or so, whilst the 970 is 150W