GPU client and longevity

[pejsaboy]

I'm thinking about getting my 8800gt folding now that nVidia cards are foldable, but I'm a little concerned with the lifespan of a card that's being run that hard on a 24/7 basis. It's probably a little too soon to tell for nvidia cards, but has there been anything with ATI cards that would suggest it's lowers the life expectancy?

[oakstave]

I'm thinking about getting my 8800gt folding now that nVidia cards are foldable, but I'm a little concerned with the lifespan of a card that's being run that hard on a 24/7 basis. It's probably a little too soon to tell for nvidia cards, but has there been anything with ATI cards that would suggest it's lowers the life expectancy?

Only the fans whistling at 100% 24/7 :) My temps were 63c or so. Considering I will probably only have these cards for year or two, I'm considering the GPU over the SMP folder. I'm sure there is wear on fan bearings at least with the GPU folding.

[OldSkool]

I use both clients currently and my temps on my GPU do not go higher than 43c.

[dfonda]

I have 2 ATI cards that I think failed because of the client. The one on my main system still ran games(Except for STALKER) and I don't blame the card.

These WU's for now.... any way.... only run the GPU for 30 min or less(8800GT) then take a break. While they send and fetch. That puts less stress on them for now.

In my opinion the 8800GT is now a low end card and is expendable. So truthfully we won't now for sure for a while.

Some of the sickest of us actually enjoy pushing things too far...it breaks we hold it up to the boss(spouse) and say "broken".:eek: We look sad ...we shake our heads...we don't know how it happened.

I won't name names but these folks are around here.:screwy:

Then we buy new shiny part and try to be more careful.

The hard part is always replacing parts that aren't broken.:)

Stalker and Crysis both pushed mine to failure on numerous occasions. Its still ticking..sometimes you just can't get a break.:(:)

[pejsaboy]

Only the fans whistling at 100% 24/7 :) My temps were 63c or so. Considering I will probably only have these cards for year or two, I'm considering the GPU over the SMP folder. I'm sure there is wear on fan bearings at least with the GPU folding.

Well, since my gpu fan runs at 100% 24/7 as it is [and I can't hear it over everything else ;)] I'm not so worried about that. I guess I'm more concerned that the GPU core itself isn't going to be able to stand up to 24/7 abuse like that for too long. CPUs have a long lifespan and are designed for heavy use, but I've never heard anything about how long a GPU is designed to live for. I guess if it dies I'll have a reason to upgrade :sn:

[Shiggity]

The opening WU's I'm getting (5001, 5002) for my 8800GT are pretty light on the core. I don't even go above 40C on my core. The shaders are doing most of the work, not sure if those will burn out though.

I really don't see why they would though, my temps and airflow are quite good. I dust pretty often as well.

Make sure to dust if you plan on running 24/7!

[OldSkool]

Some of the sickest of us actually enjoy pushing things too far...it breaks we hold it up to the boss(spouse) and say "broken".:eek: We look sad ...we shake our heads...we don't know how it happened.

I won't name names but these folks are around here.:screwy:

Then we buy new shiny part and try to be more careful.

The hard part is always replacing parts that aren't broken.:)

LMAO So true, so true.

[pejsaboy]

Hmm, ok. Guess I better unlink my core and shaders, get the bios flashed and continue clocking higher :)

[Shiggity]

Hmm, ok. Guess I better unlink my core and shaders, get the bios flashed and continue clocking higher :)

Yeah I left my memory at stock and my core really low and just pumped the shaders up. I see the same PPD with a 760c / 1850s as a 700c / 1850s. Memory makes 0 difference in PPD. (so far)

[keninishna]

Buy a card from BFG or EVGA they have lifetime warrentys

[WarriorII]

Yeah I left my memory at stock and my core really low and just pumped the shaders up. I see the same PPD with a 760c / 1850s as a 700c / 1850s. Memory makes 0 difference in PPD. (so far)

Can I get that in writting????
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=566887

:D

[dfonda]

Yeah I left my memory at stock and my core really low and just pumped the shaders up. I see the same PPD with a 760c / 1850s as a 700c / 1850s. Memory makes 0 difference in PPD. (so far)

Whats your ppd? 4980.71?

[Shiggity]

FahMon 2.3.2b says 5644.80 for my 8800GT | 1556.17 for my CPU

7200PPD :D

p.s. Affinity changer absolutely owns, gave me over 200PPD on the proc.

[dfonda]

If it has an asterisk after the number. Its estimating and will tend to estimate the same number. So you won't see a change when you oc.

[Shiggity]

If it has an asterisk after the number. Its estimating and will tend to estimate the same number. So you won't see a change when you oc.

Oh snap, there is an asterik. I'm overclocking this card up! Thanks Dfonda, I was wasting precious PPDs ;)

[pejsaboy]

I have 2 ATI cards that I think failed because of the client. The one on my main system still ran games(Except for STALKER) and I don't blame the card.

These WU's for now.... any way.... only run the GPU for 30 min or less(8800GT) then take a break. While they send and fetch. That puts less stress on them for now.

In my opinion the 8800GT is now a low end card and is expendable. So truthfully we won't now for sure for a while.

Some of the sickest of us actually enjoy pushing things too far...it breaks we hold it up to the boss(spouse) and say "broken".:eek: We look sad ...we shake our heads...we don't know how it happened.

I won't name names but these folks are around here.:screwy:

Then we buy new shiny part and try to be more careful.

The hard part is always replacing parts that aren't broken.:)

Stalker and Crysis both pushed mine to failure on numerous occasions. Its still ticking..sometimes you just can't get a break.:(:)

Ok, couple questions. You think the client caused two of your ATI cards to fail, but you say one of them still plays games. How is the card failing, does it just not perform like it use to?

As for giving the cards a rest, about how much downtime does the card get while sending and fetching? I know it will be dependant on your internet speed, but I'd imagine there's a general window of time.

In reference to Stalker and Crysis causing failures, do you mean they just caused the card to crash and you had to reboot your system, or what?

[LandShark]

I used to folding on 3 X1900/1950/XTX cards for 'bout 1/2 a year, I sold 2 and gave 1 to my nephew, and it's still running fine. just like CPU, keep the voltage and temp in check, and it should be fine.

[Raptord]

Ok, couple questions. You think the client caused two of your ATI cards to fail, but you say one of them still plays games. How is the card failing, does it just not perform like it use to?

As for giving the cards a rest, about how much downtime does the card get while sending and fetching? I know it will be dependant on your internet speed, but I'd imagine there's a general window of time.

In reference to Stalker and Crysis causing failures, do you mean they just caused the card to crash and you had to reboot your system, or what?

The downtime for the card hovers from 30 to 60 seconds in my experience.

[dfonda]

[quote=pejsaboy;5679295]Ok, couple questions. You think the client caused two of your ATI cards to fail, but you say one of them still plays games. How is the card failing, does it just not perform like it use to?

I guess I worded that wrong the GPU only failed at running the Beta GPU client at that time. Otherwise I couldn't find anything wrong with it.

They began eueing on the same day with the same client. They shut off in short power outage...I noticed the client had expired. Downloaded the new client and they never folded stable again.The AGP one was on an old P4 that wasn't going to play games any way so I never checked to see if it could. It displayed properly and so still worked.

The PCI played every game I had up until STALKER which was buggy as heck. It locked my rig up solid....requiring a "Cold" boot.Yet in retrospect may have been caused by the Creative sound drivers. It did everything I asked of it except run the folding client.(and STALKER)

When a new client came out I tried the PCI again it seemed to work then after a few good ones eued. Nedclocker had a problem with his at this time if I recall. I have a spike in one of my months when it happened but I caught it rather quickly.

This is all documented in a thread in the gaming section if you want me to link you to it. Link:http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=507480&highlight=Stalker

Any client or hardware failure needs to get shut down ASAP. I couldn't find a hardware failure , so I chose to blame it on the client. Right or wrong. I wasn't going to run it(Client) again just to see if I could figure out whether it was hardware or not.

As for giving the cards a rest, about how much downtime does the card get while sending and fetching? I know it will be dependant on your internet speed, but I'd imagine there's a general window of time.Just minutes. This is just my opinion I guess. This card seems to handle folding easily. Temps are lower then the 1950Pro which took I don't know how many hours to do a wu.
So if a card runs for 30min then takes a break wouldn't it be less stressed then one that ran for hours before it got a break?

In reference to Stalker and Crysis causing failures, do you mean they just caused the card to crash and you had to reboot your system, or what?This was meant tongue in cheek....It refers to the 8800GT which also crashed in STALKER.Until I replaced the sound card drivers. Crysis red screened. A lowering of the memory clock from 950 to 900 solved it.

But both of these games are beasts and crash on everybody. So I was joking that the card wouldn't die...thus causing me not to able to get a new higher speed one.(Thus "Tongue in cheek")

[pejsaboy]

Gotcha, thanks!

[Zerix01]

It doesn't make sense to think GPU's will not last under the stress of folding. Don't push the voltages and don't let the heat go over the chips limits. Otherwise AMD and Nvidia are selling these cards for games that push the limits of these cards. I know people who can game for many hours at a time with no issues. There is no reason to think they can not handle, at stock speeds, the stress of the Folding client. These chips are made using the same processes as normal CPU's, so I don't know what people mean by they were never made to run 24/7, if they are made in the same fashion as a CPU which can run 24/7 under a heavy load then why not a GPU?

[Adak]

It's not the chips themselves that are not designed to be durable. It's the thermal environment design of the overall board that has been lacking, imo.

We've had many GPU cards die within a year on the old FAH GPU client. That was not a coincidence, imo. Gaming 60 - 100 hours a week or more is a lot, but it's not the same as relentlessly running the GPU, 24/7, with the FAH client. :)

I do expect the new GPU client to work better, and the newer cards, to be more durable.

If you give O/C software tools out, for your chipset/board, I think you can bet the farm that it's going to be used. :)

[pejsaboy]

It doesn't make sense to think GPU's will not last under the stress of folding. Don't push the voltages and don't let the heat go over the chips limits. Otherwise AMD and Nvidia are selling these cards for games that push the limits of these cards. I know people who can game for many hours at a time with no issues. There is no reason to think they can not handle, at stock speeds, the stress of the Folding client. These chips are made using the same processes as normal CPU's, so I don't know what people mean by they were never made to run 24/7, if they are made in the same fashion as a CPU which can run 24/7 under a heavy load then why not a GPU?

What are these stock speeds you speak of? :D

Really though, I'm sure you're right about the actual GPU chip. Like Adak said, I think it's the rest of the board that may not be able to handle the extended torture. Not that it will ever happen, but I bet if some of the cards that died to the original client were returned to the manufacturer, they could pull the chips off, solder them on new boards and have a perfectly functional cards.

[benbaked]

I tried this GPU client out last night and noticed 80 degree temps reported through rivatuner, with the fan on 85% power the temps are more manageable. The client really slows the system down, typing and window drawing respond understandably slow. What GPU coolers are recommended for a 8800GT?

[harlam357]

How many MB on that 8800GT ben? 256 or 512?

I've got a touch of screen lag with my 8800GTS 512 but for normal desktop operations it doesn't really bother me at all.

[benbaked]

It's a 512MB card. My frametimes on a P5002 appear to be 30 seconds per frame.