title is self explanatory.

whats the best bang for buck (in terms of RAC/$) of cards available in 2018.

1080's and 1080tis are top producers of raw power, but what about how that power scales for what the card gives in terms of RAC?

if you were to build a multi-GPU rig for max RAC on minimum dollar, what would you choose?

doesnt have to be brand new cards, 700/900 series nvidia cards are on the table since prices of these are very reasonable compared to 10 series due to the mining boom, but prices are starting to come down on the used market.

---

Seti@Home classic workunits: 29,492 CPU time: 134,419 hours

980Tis are slightly slower than 1080s. But use more electricity. Depending on your electric cost, might be something to look at. Brand new cards are going to cost $$$. Good luck

---

You can start with Shaggie76's often updated chart of GPU FLOPS: Theory vs Reality

Shows that the best bang for the buck gpu is probably the GTX 1060. But that was at its original MSRP price and not the current inflated prices caused by mining and RAM shortages.

You won't likely find the 1060 used as a castoff from mining because it was perceived as a mining underperformer. A good used and reasonably priced 980 would be a good choice also.

---

Seti@Home classic workunits:20,676 CPU time:74,226 hours

A proud member of the OFA (Old Farts Association)

You can start with Shaggie76's often updated chart of GPU FLOPS: Theory vs Reality

I wish there were new cards released to motivate me to run another scan.

You can start with Shaggie76's often updated chart of GPU FLOPS: Theory vs Reality

I wish there were new cards released to motivate me to run another scan.

Could be interesting if you could run a scan with the Linux boxes who runs the latests CUDA builds.

I believe that could show if the 1070 realy has one of the best price x performance x power draw with them.

---

Thanks guys.

You can definitely find 1060s second hand from miners. Reddit is full of them. 3GB cards will be especially plentiful now/soon, since they are getting pushed out of ETH mining due to not enough vram. I have a bunch of 1060s in my personal mining machine, they are incredibly efficient mining ETH if you get good memory.

SETI isn’t terribly dependent on VRAM right? I think my current mix of 760s and 750tis are all 2gb models. With some 1050tis with 4GB

---

Seti@Home classic workunits: 29,492 CPU time: 134,419 hours

SETI isn’t terribly dependent on VRAM right?

I run a host with a 1060 with only 3 GB of Vram, running 2 WU at a time, with out any problem in S@H, but the host is mainly a office host, no heavely graphics games runs on it..
What you must not do is gamming or run any other apps who heavely use video and crunching at the same time on it, but that is not because the Vram itself, the GPU has no enought power to do both concurrently. If you try, it works but you will experience a heavy video lag on your screen.

---

You can start with Shaggie76's often updated chart of GPU FLOPS: Theory vs Reality

I wish there were new cards released to motivate me to run another scan.

Could be interesting if you could run a scan with the Linux boxes who runs the latests CUDA builds.

I believe that could show if the 1070 realy has one of the best price x performance x power draw with them.

My titan v does twice the 1080 with less power. Titan v uses about 125-145W. 1080 uses about 160W and 1080Ti uses 225W.

---

To overcome Heisenbergs:
"You can't always get what you want / but if you try sometimes you just might find / you get what you need." -- Rolling Stones

My titan v does twice the 1080 with less power. Titan v uses about 125-145W. 1080 uses about 160W and 1080Ti uses 225W.

But does your 1080 or 1080Ti really use that much power? I've never seen any of my Nvidia cards report the full theoretical power usage of their specs while crunching.

Nvidia-smi only shows about half to 2/3's of any card's max TDP being used.


C:\Program Files\NVIDIA Corporation\NVSMI>nvidia-smi
Thu Apr 05 08:47:58 2018
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| NVIDIA-SMI 391.24 Driver Version: 391.24 |
|-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
| GPU Name TCC/WDDM | Bus-Id Disp.A | Volatile Uncorr. ECC |
| Fan Temp Perf Pwr:Usage/Cap| Memory-Usage | GPU-Util Compute M. |
|===============================+======================+======================|
| 0 GeForce GTX 108... WDDM | 00000000:01:00.0 On | N/A |
|100% 53C P2 203W / 327W | 869MiB / 11264MiB | 94% Default |
+-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
| 1 GeForce GTX 1070 WDDM | 00000000:08:00.0 Off | N/A |
| 98% 59C P2 91W / 169W | 2331MiB / 8192MiB | 95% Default |
+-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
| 2 GeForce GTX 1070 WDDM | 00000000:09:00.0 Off | N/A |
|100% 67C P2 112W / 169W | 2331MiB / 8192MiB | 94% Default |
+-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+

---

Seti@Home classic workunits:20,676 CPU time:74,226 hours

A proud member of the OFA (Old Farts Association)

I think we all need to look at the title of the thread again....it's not what crunches the most... It's what's most cost efficient in this day of overinflated GPU prices.

I'm just as guilty in this.

---

I think we all need to look at the title of the thread again

Initial cost x WU/day crunched x power draw i still believe the 1060 is the winner (specialy the 3 GB model)
maybe the 1070 could follow. That's why i sugest to run the Shaggie76 test for the Linux builds too.

In production obviusly the winner is the Titan V by a far margin, but it's the winner in initial cost too.

The 1080/1080Ti/1070Ti could produce a lot more than the 1060/1070 but cost a lot more and uses more power too.

At least with the Linux CUDA90 builds.

---

The 1080's don't use ALL that much power than the 1060.
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| NVIDIA-SMI 390.48 Driver Version: 390.48 |
|-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
| GPU Name Persistence-M| Bus-Id Disp.A | Volatile Uncorr. ECC |
| Fan Temp Perf Pwr:Usage/Cap| Memory-Usage | GPU-Util Compute M. |
|===============================+======================+======================|
| 0 GeForce GTX 1080 On | 00000000:05:00.0 On | N/A |
|100% 44C P2 117W / 215W | 3049MiB / 8116MiB | 98% Default |
+-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
| 1 GeForce GTX 1080 On | 00000000:06:00.0 Off | N/A |
|100% 44C P2 143W / 215W | 2680MiB / 8119MiB | 99% Default |
+-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
| 2 GeForce GTX 1080 On | 00000000:09:00.0 Off | N/A |
|100% 48C P2 135W / 215W | 2680MiB / 8119MiB | 99% Default |
+-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
| 3 GeForce GTX 106... On | 00000000:0A:00.0 Off | N/A |
|100% 55C P2 88W / 120W | 1912MiB / 6078MiB | 98% Default |
+-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
But I guess even 40 watts over 24 hours adds up. So every little bit helps. I too think the 1060 is probably the sweet spot.

---

Seti@Home classic workunits:20,676 CPU time:74,226 hours

A proud member of the OFA (Old Farts Association)

The 1080's don't use ALL that much power than the 1060.

Yes, produces a lot more but cost about 2.5-3 x more. And BTW the 3GB model it's even cheaper and works perfect with the builds.

I too think the 1060 is probably the sweet spot

That's my guess. But to be sure only if Shaggie76 runs the test.

FYI and add more data this are my GPU's power usage

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| NVIDIA-SMI 390.48                 Driver Version: 390.48                    |
|-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
| GPU  Name        Persistence-M| Bus-Id        Disp.A | Volatile Uncorr. ECC |
| Fan  Temp  Perf  Pwr:Usage/Cap|         Memory-Usage | GPU-Util  Compute M. |
|===============================+======================+======================|
|   0  GeForce GTX 1070    On   | 00000000:01:00.0 Off |                  N/A |
| 60%   52C    P2   118W / 151W |   2294MiB /  8119MiB |    100%      Default |
+-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
|   1  GeForce GTX 1070    On   | 00000000:02:00.0 Off |                  N/A |
| 60%   56C    P2   103W / 151W |   2292MiB /  8119MiB |    100%      Default |
+-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
|   2  GeForce GTX 1070    On   | 00000000:03:00.0 Off |                  N/A |
| 50%   50C    P2   119W / 151W |   2294MiB /  8119MiB |     97%      Default |
+-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
|   3  GeForce GTX 1070    On   | 00000000:04:00.0  On |                  N/A |
| 60%   52C    P2   102W / 185W |   2686MiB /  8118MiB |     97%      Default |
+-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+

---

yeah 3GB 1060's are getting very cheap. i see them popping up on reddit for ~$200 on reddit (used) fairly regularly now.

---

Seti@Home classic workunits: 29,492 CPU time: 134,419 hours

I paid $189 for a new EVGA a year ago.

---

I paid $189 for a new EVGA a year ago.

I paid $225 a year ago for my EVGA 1060 6GB.

That's my guess. But to be sure only if Shaggie76 runs the test.

The problem I believe is that Shaggie says he can't run his scan for anonymous or Linux hosts.

---

Seti@Home classic workunits:20,676 CPU time:74,226 hours

A proud member of the OFA (Old Farts Association)

key phrase "a year ago"

we're discussing today.

---

Seti@Home classic workunits: 29,492 CPU time: 134,419 hours

key phrase "a year ago"

we're discussing today.

I think the point we were trying to get across is that you can't buy the 1060 for anywhere near the price from "a year ago" My 1060 is selling for $290 now. Blame it on the miners and RAM shortage.

---

Seti@Home classic workunits:20,676 CPU time:74,226 hours

A proud member of the OFA (Old Farts Association)

I certainly can't complain about the 4x 1060 3GB cards here. ;-)

Cheers.

My Gainward GTX 970 Phantom, is pulling it's weight (I bought it over 2 years ago). Soon to be joined by a donated EVGA GTX 750Ti.

---

Don't take life too seriously, as you'll never come out of it alive!