Was thinking of buying this GTS450 card (not only for the CUDA but also for Skyrim in November... heh.)

For a Fermi card, at $130 with a $30 rebate I'm wondering why it's so cheap. Good "bang for buck"? I notice it has "only" 192 cores but maybe it gets more out of 'em than other cards. How would it stack up to, say, an equivalent GTX? (Same store has this EVGA GTX 550 Ti for the same price but no rebate, for example.)

Thanks in advance. :^)

---

I've read about people running 3 wu's at a time with the new x38g lunatics app and 275.33 drivers, the mid-range and upper-range Fermi cards are workhorses. You can expect good crunching performance from a GTS 450. Perhaps for the price range you could also consider a GTX 460 since there are good deals on them on Newegg.

---

I run a GTS450 during the summer and I'm very happy with it, great bang for the buck. I also have an ATi HD5850 that I swap out during the winter, it was more expensive, produces a lot more heat, but has the same RAC on SETI. On MilkyWay the ATi does about 10 times better than the nVidia

The GTX550Ti on paper looks like about the same card, but everything I've read says it crunches noticeably faster than the 450. If I were making the choice, and I had the extra $30, I'd go for the 550 and get the new model rather than one that's closer to being phased out.

Like Manuel said you should also shop around and look at the prices for the 460. Every once in a while someone has a sale or rebate offer where they're almost the same price as the 450. Whatever you decide to go with, I don't think you'll regret any of the choices.

I'm one of those running three at a time on my little GTS 450. It is running great and I'm at the highest RAC I've ever had. BUT... the 460s run rings around me as far as performance so if you can come up with the extra few bucks I would say go with the 460. I haven't seen anyone talking about the 550 yet that I can remember but it would probably fall somewhere in the middle of the 450 and 460 as far as performance. That's just a guess though. As I said, I would suggest the 460 all the way!

---

PROUD MEMBER OF Team Starfire World BOINC

I have a 550TI. It could do 2WU´s every 25 minutes for 200 credits.

The 460 use a lot more power, runs hotter and noiser.

The 550 runs at (+/- 50º).


The 450 is older. My advice, go for the 550.

www.xbitlabs/GTX550ti

---

460 can do two MAR units for 18 minutes with reasonable overclock(800-820 MHz). Same time, when overclocked, it can be undervolted and can consume 100-110 watts total, which is slightly more than 550 for much, much higher WU output.
Then, when undervolted, it runs lot cooler. I'll skip the details, but yesterday here was 33 degrees C ambient, perhaps even more in the room, both cards were max 68 deg with 52% fans(unadible).
I would always prefer 460(even 768 MB version and even 288 SP version), over 550.

P.S. ALL 460s I had, 6 pcs so far, allow overclock at 800+/2000(GPU/Mem) MHz with +0.05V less voltage than default. Every single one of them, even those with worst default voltage - 1.037 V.

---

Of course the 460 is fastest, it has more cuda cores and it's more expansive.

For a similar price to the 460, you have to consider the new 560.

The 550 is more in the range of the 450 price.

---

460 can do two MAR units for 18 minutes

Are you able to do 3 units at the same time? and how much time does it take?

---

My 460s can't, they are 768 MB versions.
But anyway, I run one units at a time, it utilizes GPU a little above 97%(97.3% average, to be exact). One MAR unit for little above 9 minutes(460s 1GB version are 7% percent faster, that's why I said 9 minutes per WU, 18 for two).
Running two units at a time brings me almost unnoticeable gain, but increases consumption about 10%, therefore I let it run only 1 WU per card. Also, running two WUs at a time slows down a bit CPU units, seems to me.

I don't know about Portugal, but here Palit GTX 460 Sonic 1GB is 120 EURO(and 100 EURO for 332 SP 768 MB version if it can be found), while 560(not TI) is 150 EURO. They are literally same cards, except that 560 can overclock 50 MHz more(900 instead of 850 e.g.). Which doesn't make me eager to have it.
Most cheap 550 is 100EURO, which naturally makes it not considerable choice, having in mind its far more slow than 460 768 MB. And best choice is Palit 460 768 MB Green Edition, which is 94 EURO, with 288 shaders and is still far better than 550 after clocking it(it clocks same good as 332 SP units).
I had 450 for exactly one night and I returned it on next morning after I saw what it is capable of(read as "incapable of" :))
550 has just mixed memory access(part of it thru 192-bit bus, other part thru 128-bit) and is nothing more than few percent faster GTS 450.

---

Filipe,
I have the GTS 450 1GB. I was doing three at a time on it but I seemed to have a problem with my computer getting sluggish after about 24 hours and needing to shut down SETI client and BOINC manager and restarting. I have just gone back to two at a time to see for sure that was my problem. I decided to try three at a time right after I installed the new V0.38e installer and saw how much faster it was than the old V0.32 flavor. Three at a time were running in about the same length of time it took me to run two at a time with the old version. I'm running a special version now from Jason to see if we can find out what is causing my slowdowns. My 450 ran three quite well for some time before first a down clock and then the slowdowns began. It could be something else on my machine causing it but we will see how it runs at two at a time.

---

PROUD MEMBER OF Team Starfire World BOINC

Thanks for the replies. :^) I will hold off for now and see if any GTX models go on sale.

The NVidia naming convention is rather confusing, for example, a 460 GTX is more powerful, it would seem, than a 550 GTX. The best indicator seems to be price alone! NVidia should be publishing descriptive and easy-to-understand benchmarks like this one to make it easier (unfortunately that one needs to be updated. Really the GPU makers should be doing them...)

---

Thanks for the replies. :^) I will hold off for now and see if any GTX models go on sale.

The NVidia naming convention is rather confusing, for example, a 460 GTX is more powerful, it would seem, than a 550 GTX. The best indicator seems to be price alone! NVidia should be publishing descriptive and easy-to-understand benchmarks like this one to make it easier (unfortunately that one needs to be updated. Really the GPU makers should be doing them...)

Oh, im pretty sure the GTX460 will way outgun a 550. The 550 only has 192 cores.

---

Thanks for the replies. :^) I will hold off for now and see if any GTX models go on sale.

The NVidia naming convention is rather confusing, for example, a 460 GTX is more powerful, it would seem, than a 550 GTX. The best indicator seems to be price alone! NVidia should be publishing descriptive and easy-to-understand benchmarks like this one to make it easier (unfortunately that one needs to be updated. Really the GPU makers should be doing them...)

Oh, im pretty sure the GTX460 will way outgun a 550. The 550 only has 192 cores.

The 550 should actually be a bit slower than a 460 1GB but could be very similar to a 460 768MB in fact.

Cheers.

---

Perhaps only if you leave 460 768 on stock frequencies.
Which I consider criminal irresponsibility :)

---

Perhaps only if you leave 460 768 on stock frequencies.
Which I consider criminal irresponsibility :)

No doubt, I've got some of my GTX460's 768MB at 900, with good airflow.

---

For anyone interested, CompUSA has a GTX 460 SE on sale right now for $99.99 after a $30. mail in rebate. http://www.compusa.com/applications/searchtools/item-Details.asp?EdpNo=6976278&sku=E145-0475&SRCCODE=COMEM861C&cm_mmc=email-_-Main-_-COMEM861-_-compusaemail861

---

PROUD MEMBER OF Team Starfire World BOINC

For anyone interested, CompUSA has a GTX 460 SE on sale right now for $99.99 after a $30. mail in rebate. http://www.compusa.com/applications/searchtools/item-Details.asp?EdpNo=6976278&sku=E145-0475&SRCCODE=COMEM861C&cm_mmc=email-_-Main-_-COMEM861-_-compusaemail861

I'd suggest spending another $20, and getting the full 1GB, 336 core card. the SE version is pretty crippled comparatively.

http://www.compusa.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7106278&csid=_23

::EDIT::

Wierd, this is now showing at the SE version as well. Guess someone caught it. By bad.

---

Yeah, the GTX 460 SSC+ card is $149.99 after the mail in $30 rebate. It's the full 336 core card. http://www.compusa.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7106280&csid=_23

---

PROUD MEMBER OF Team Starfire World BOINC

It didn't take long for the sale I was waiting for, very similar to the one perryjay pointed out:

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/searchtools/item-Details.asp?EdpNo=6976278&sku=E145-0475&SRCCODE=CANEM2172&cm_mmc=EML-_-CanadaMain-_-CANEM2172

$134.99. Use coupon code AGW35350 and it goes down to $99.99. Just the card I wanted for a hundred bucks. Of course you have to wait for the rebate but EVGA is good with their rebates.

I can't even hear the fan on it. It comes with EVGA Precision which makes overclocking the GPU, RAM and fan as simple as dragging sliders. Currently at 1508MHz. I upped the fan to 55% to keep the GPU below 70C.

I watched several CUDA work units go by.
Three minutes each.
I couldn't believe it... must be a run of short ones, so I watched a few more. Three minutes, with an occasional eight minutes. Even with the fewer cores.

The verdict: happy shopper. :^)

I needed this after the nightmare I went through with the third/spare system. I should have just upgraded the GPU and forget the rest. Live and learn.

Thank you all again for your assistance!

---

This thread is of particular interest to me, as I am looking at purchasing a 460 card to supplement my primary computer and setup CUDA crunching on it.

In case you haven't already ordered the 450 card, then please consider the following purchase of a particular 460 card instead.

Via http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeForce_400_Series we can get a general reference of performance per each particular GeForce card. The other series are also available on their respective pages if you prefer to look at them as well.

Note, that this is "general" reference info. Each manufacturer will change their clock speeds per each model they sell. Adjust the numbers to figure out the total GFLOPs capability.

A stock 450 rates 192 cores running at 783MHz @ 601 GFLOPs
A stock 460 rates 336 cores running at 675MHz @ 907 GFLOPs

So you can already see that the 460 equates to an approximate 50% performance gain in GFLOPs (just a general reference).

The EVGA 450 card you list rates 192 cores @ 822MHz approximating 630 GFLOPs
Newegg has another EVGA 450 at http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130573 for $110 and a $20 MIR for end total of $97 with shipping.

Now, this one I list is overclocked to run as stock at 882MHz.. so approx 677 GFLOPs..

But let's look at the 460 now. NewEgg has a superclocked 460 at http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127534
It runs 336 cores at 810MHz @ approx 1088 GFLOPs.

Looking at the original wiki link with all the 400 series data, we see that the 1088 GFLOPs is coincidentally the rated GFLOPs for a stock 470 card!

So, with this current deal from MSI, you can get an "overclocked" 460 running at stock speeds 135 MHz higher than normal... ie at performance level of a 470 card.

The card is currently running $170 and a $40 MIR. So, if you are willing to wait for rebates, you can get a 470 level performing card for $133 after shipping.

Note that MSI makes 3 versions of the 460.. The current REBATED prices are:
810MHz @ $130
780MHz @ $170
725MHz @ $180

So the prices are actually reversed for their performance levels!

Additionally, the commentary on this card are rated very highly. Many users say that they overclock it to over 1000 MHz easily with the builtin fans, as it's a dual fan cooler.

All in all, there is nothing particularly wrong with a 450 card. It will still perform for you just fine. But if you want a better "bang for the buck" then this particular model 460 is in a nice sweet spot right now.

Loking at the 500 series cards as comparators at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeForce_500_Series we see that the corresponding performance card would be a stock 560 card, yielding 1075 GFLOPs. Prices for those however, START at $165 AFTER rebate...

I'm really looking to buy one of these cards for myself, but haven't committed to the cash yet. The rebate check from MSI Expires on 7/8/11 for anyone who is interested in purchasing this card.

---