So it appears that the fan on one of my video cards (half height 9400GT) crapped out. In looking into replacements, I found these at the local Micro Center.
GTX470
GTX550 TI
Now obviously the 470 has more cores (448 vs 192) giving more crunching power but would it be better to go with the 550 because it is "newer tech".
I'm not worried about either overpowering my power supply as I should have enough headroom with 750 watts and a 60A 12v rail.
Thanks for any thoughts.
Dan

EDIT: I would like to stick with the GTX cards over the GTS. And preferably have at least 1 GB of ram.

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Have you looked into the 560ti? Check out Newegg, they're running a few sales right now that might be in your wheelhouse.

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Executive Director GPU Users Group Inc. -
brad@gpuug.org

Thanks for the suggestion Slavac. Unfortunately the money isn't available to go with the 560. I can get by with the 200 prior to the rebate and that is about it for now.
Thanks Dan

I was never too impressed with my 470....
My 465s seemed to OC better.
I would opt for the newer card myself.
Upcoming optis from the Luni boyz promise gains for any Fermi based card though.

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"Time is simply the mechanism that keeps everything from happening all at once."

Thanks for the suggestion Slavac. Unfortunately the money isn't available to go with the 560. I can get by with the 200 prior to the rebate and that is about it for now.
Thanks Dan

I'm keen to suggest saving up a touch to get the 560ti or better. My 560 runs rings around my 465, though the 465 isn't a slouch by any means.

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Executive Director GPU Users Group Inc. -
brad@gpuug.org

Well whatever I do will run rings around the 9400 it replaces. Also will run rings around the 9500 that still works. I have plans for a much bigger setup in the next 6-12 months. Just want to move up and see what happens.
Thanks for the thoughts so far and keep them coming.
Dan

Thanks for the suggestion Slavac. Unfortunately the money isn't available to go with the 560. I can get by with the 200 prior to the rebate and that is about it for now.
Thanks Dan

I have to second slavac's suggestion. I've been a big fan of the 460, but with recent price drops online the current sweet spot seems to be the 560 Ti model.

I saw someone had them for $219 (after rebate).

If you can't, you can't and the 460 would be my second choice. I like mine.

Thanks for the suggestion Slavac. Unfortunately the money isn't available to go with the 560. I can get by with the 200 prior to the rebate and that is about it for now.
Thanks Dan

I have to second slavac's suggestion. I've been a big fan of the 460, but with recent price drops online the current sweet spot seems to be the 560 Ti model.

I saw someone had them for $219 (after rebate).

If you can't, you can't and the 460 would be my second choice. I like mine.

GTX 560ti @ $236 after rebate, free shipping.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130604

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Executive Director GPU Users Group Inc. -
brad@gpuug.org

Have you considered going with a plain GTX 560 instead of the Ti? Nvidia's price check shows one for $197 and the specs aren't that much different...

http://www.nvidia.com/content/HelpMeChoose/fx2/HelpMeChoose.asp?lang=en-us

Here's their price comparisons ... http://www.nvidia.com/object/buy_now_results_ci.html?id=GFGTX560TI


Oops, it didn't carry over the specs check but all you have to do is drag the two up to the top and it will show them for you.

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PROUD MEMBER OF Team Starfire World BOINC

I have relooked through the local Micro Center selection and found this GTX560Ti. After rebate it is at $200 so I could probably do that.
It sounds like most people prefer the newer cards. I know Newegg has good deals but I was more looking to be able to stop by Micro Center and pick it up and have installed this weekend instead of waiting for shipping. Pay sales tax but no shipping so those costs generally cancel out.
Anyways I will keep looking.
Thanks for the input.
Dan

GTX 560ti @ $236 after rebate, free shipping.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130604

I've noticed that the market on nVidia cards is like watching a futures market.

I bought a 460. A few weeks later the prices were down and I bought another one and the more expensive models were less expensive (due to sale pricing) than the vanilla cards (overstock?). A week or so later they were all more expensive than when I bought my first one. Now the prices seem to be collapsing(because of a phase-out??).

And between stores the prices seem to vary too much, too. One day Tigerdirect is cheaper, the next Newegg, the next there's a sale at Best Buy (I bought my original 9800 GT there when it was cheaper than the online places had it). It's not surprising that there would be sales so the bargains rotate, but it is surprising how much prices vary from week-to-week and place-to-place.

Confusion reigns.

I guess one question that is coming back up in my mind is why are the 560s being suggested so much. I know they are part of the latest batch to come out but they have fewer cuda processors (as Micro Center calls them) than the GTX 470 that was originally linked to. So does the newer gen card with 384 cuda cores really do more than a older gen card with 448 cores? Guess I'm just looking for a rationalization to the affinity for the GTX5xx series.
THanks
Dan

So it appears that the fan on one of my video cards (half height 9400GT) crapped out. In looking into replacements, I found these at the local Micro Center.
GTX470
GTX550 TI
Now obviously the 470 has more cores (448 vs 192) giving more crunching power but would it be better to go with the 550 because it is "newer tech".
I'm not worried about either overpowering my power supply as I should have enough headroom with 750 watts and a 60A 12v rail.
Thanks for any thoughts.
Dan

EDIT: I would like to stick with the GTX cards over the GTS. And preferably have at least 1 GB of ram.

Might I ask why you haven't contacted Nvidia for a replacement fan? They normally will send out replacements free of charge to anyone with a video card from them. I have done it with a 7 yr old card and if they have replacement fans still they send them out.

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Thanks for the suggestion. I will have to look into that more. Guess I wasn't aware of that but I would also like to upgrade and do more science with it.
Dan

I guess one question that is coming back up in my mind is why are the 560s being suggested so much. I know they are part of the latest batch to come out but they have fewer cuda processors (as Micro Center calls them) than the GTX 470 that was originally linked to. So does the newer gen card with 384 cuda cores really do more than a older gen card with 448 cores? Guess I'm just looking for a rationalization to the affinity for the GTX5xx series.
THanks
Dan

I suppose it's partly because the 470s (for instance) have a reputation for consuming too much power, running too hot, and being too loud.

It "feels" like the specific specs should count should count for more they really seem to (for SETI work).

**Apparently** the best indication of useful work a card can do for SETI@Home is its GFLOP count. It doesn't make sense to me that a card which looks clearly inferior on paper can be have a higher GFLOP benchmark, but then I don't design hardware.

The 560Ti has on the order of a 20% greater GFLOP count than a 470 and a 50% advantage over a 460. The TDP watts (generally misunderstood, but still useful for comparisons) are 160w for the 460, and 170w for the 560 Ti making it a better choice (for heat) than a 470 @215w.

To get about the same computing power as a 470@215w you could get a 560@170w and save yourself a bunch of heat.

That's the best I can do to explain it.

If you look hard, you can find 768Mb GTX460's for under $100.

I just got 2 @ Newegg for $99 ($149 - $50MIR)

2 460's >>> 1 560ti

-Darren

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The 560Ti has on the order of a 20% greater GFLOP count than a 470 and a 50% advantage over a 460. The TDP watts (generally misunderstood, but still useful for comparisons) are 160w for the 460, and 170w for the 560 Ti making it a better choice (for heat) than a 470 @215w.

To get about the same computing power as a 470@215w you could get a 560@170w and save yourself a bunch of heat.

That's the best I can do to explain it.

Thanks tbret. That helps. I guess I will adjust what I am looking at when considering the cards.
Dan

The 560 Ti is a hell of a card...If you look at the reviews some of the very overclocked units from the manufacturers like the gigabyte running at 1000Mhz is actually cracking the 570 for some applications...that won't show up in CUDA SETI but they will be close.

I guess I should post an update. I purchased the Galaxy GTX560 TI GC from Micro Center over the weekend. So far I like it. I have pushed the overclock to 900 MHz from 835 on the core. I haven't played with the memory over clock.
I had originally purchased an H61 mobo for the 2600k processor so I fixed that mistake and replaced it with a MSI P67A-G43 board so I can overclock the cpu now. (I will at some point add another system with a non-k processor so the H61 board was not a total waste of money.) Also added a couple more fans to the system to help move more air with the increased load. I think the last things I need to do is to add some more ram (4 GB to double what I have) and swap out the fans on the H70 cpu cooler to make a quieter system to make the wife happy.
The shorty units over the weekend were taking about 5 minutes to run. A few more normal ARs of 0.36 have run in 20 minutes or so with 2 at a time. The GPU is running at 96% utilization and ~600 MB of ram used and a temp of 73°C with 100% fan so don't think I will try 3 at a time.
Thanks for all the input. Now to save up so I can add another 560TI.
Dan

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Since you went for a SC version of the GTX 560Ti it may have been well for you to have bought the MSI Twin Frozr III design. I myself own a GTX 460 with their Twin Frozr II Cooler and I must say it runs extremely cool under any load circumstance. The highest it goes during BOINC is 61C and under a very stressful game the highest i've seen is 66C @ 850Mhz core.

On a side note, 73C seems alright and adding a 3rd WU really would not increment the temperature very much, so I would say go on ahead and run that 3rd WU.

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