is ati viable at all for folding?

hey i was wondering if ati is still far behind in terms of PPD:gpu cost
i have a xfire able mobo, and a very able psu for crossfire 4870's.. but if something like a single 285gtx could out fold them both super easily, then i would get that instead
im not planning on buying anything super soon, but i just want to know for future knowledge

and another question:
my gpu2/smp deino clients end up crashing my computer after a random amount of time.. im not sure as to which client is actually causing the problem

Yes, the ATI cards are still way behind in PPD. The 295GTX is the best PPD folding card currently available.

I'm not sure what would be causing your computer to crash. What are the symptoms? BSOD or screen freeze?

I say if you already have an ATI card, use it. If you're looking for a card just for folding, get nvidia.

as for the SMP client crashing, have you tried the MPICH client? I don't know why, but most people feel it is superior. I just use it cause apparently deino doesn't support 64 bit.

I'm see roughly 4k-5k PPD out of a pair of 4850s. nVidia is definitely the way to go right now if your main use for the card will be folding@home.

From what I have read the GPU2 client only utilizes 320 of the RV770's 800 shaders. Hopefully PPD output on these cards will increase soon.

ah ok, nvidia is still the way to go
i think its bsoding, then automatically restarting.. im gonna run SMP only tonight and see if thats the problem, otherwise it could just be this 8800gt getting to hot (80c+) on this n00b cooling

yeah now im pretty sure that the GPU2 nvidia client is causing the problem.. could my not having any VREG cooling be a problem? im using a vf-700 with some mem sinks that i took off my x800pro, im thinking of just placing the stock cooling back on there