Are Mining Graphic Cards compatible with BOINC and Folding@home?

[BeauZaux]

I'm considering the purchase of something like this ZOTAC GPU p106-90 3Gb Low Power Consumption Mining Graphic Card

ZOTAC GPU p106-90 3Gb Low Power Consumption Mining Graphic Card | eBay

The Zotac P106-090 is a professional mining card by Zotac. This processor contains 4.4 BILLION transistors. Google "P106 417.22 driver" for more information. Condition is New. Zotac has designed this card for mining applications, so it does not have a video output.

www.ebay.com

Thanks

 

[Nick Name]

I don't have time to look right now but I'm pretty sure I recall discussion of mining cards working well on Einstein awhile back. If memory serves they were very efficient because the cards being discussed had a BIOS switch for high / low power, and low power was about as fast as high but used a lot less power. I don't know if that still applies, Einstein apps have changed since then. But in general, yes they should work.

 

[BeauZaux]

Yep, saw that post, thanks. Still felt a little in the dark. Saw very little on google, except full mining systems. Guess I'll give it a try.

Got 2 new builds ready to go but GTX 760 crapped and my Radeon is acting up. Maybe it's just the new ASRock MB. It is now running with a GTX 275 I found in bulk trash week, though it is not getting any Folding, Asteroid, or GPUGrid tasks.

Waiting for a CPU cooler for the 990x. Nothing I had on hand was up to the task.
And, two SSD's were delivered today, but unfortunately not to my box. Third time in as many months.

Thanks, again. Stay safe.

 

[Jason Jung]

They look like they are just GTX 1050 Ti cards without a video output so they should work. You can find regular 1050 Ti and 1060 3GB cards for about the same price on eBay so I'd go that route instead.

 

[BeauZaux]

You're right, Jason. I've been looking at so many numbers on Google, Craigslist and EBay, I think my head's gonna explode. Price, cores, price, memory, price, clock speed, price.... Could buy 2 miners, wait a month and a half and save $20 . Nah, I ain't doing that...yet. But would prefer not to go below the 1152 cores of my GTX 760. I know it still isn't much.
I have found a nice NVIDIA spec chart to simplify ... sorta.

NVidia Graphics Card Specification Chart - Studio 1 Productions and David Knarr

The NVidia Graphics Card Specification Chart contains the specifications most used when selecting a video card for video editing software and video effects software. Chart by David Knarr

www.studio1productions.com

Oh BTW got that trash can GTX 275 and a Quadro 600 to run PrimeGrid.
Thanks, Jason

 

[Nick Name]

Yep, saw that post, thanks. Still felt a little in the dark. Saw very little on google, except full mining systems. Guess I'll give it a try.

Got 2 new builds ready to go but GTX 760 crapped and my Radeon is acting up. Maybe it's just the new ASRock MB. It is now running with a GTX 275 I found in bulk trash week, though it is not getting any Folding, Asteroid, or GPUGrid tasks.

Waiting for a CPU cooler for the 990x. Nothing I had on hand was up to the task.
And, two SSD's were delivered today, but unfortunately not to my box. Third time in as many months.

Thanks, again. Stay safe.

What problems are you having with the 760? Unfortunately, the 275 is too old for GPUGrid and F@H, probably for Asteroids too. I can't remember the minimum Compute Capability for GPUGrid, but that generation is well below it.

That 990x does pump out the heat. I used a Noctua NH-D14 on it, which I still have and works great after 8+ years of hard use.

 

[BeauZaux]

The 760 starts with streaks on bios screen and then small random squares and streaks during boot until the whole screen is unrecognizable.
The Radeon is good in bios then turns into a full screen small bit pattern as it continues to boot. That one may be the OS drivers.
Blew them out and cleaned contacts several times. I'll will test them in another system later, one that is presently using a 760.
Yes on 275. PrimeGrid is the only project that will distribute tasks to it so far. But all I got for now.
Going to try this for cooling the 990x. Your cooler looks like what my son is using on his system.

Amazon.com: Scythe Ninja 5 Air CPU Cooler, 120mm Single Tower, Intel LGA1151, AMD AM4, Dual Quiet Fans, Black Top Cover: Computers & Accessories

Buy Scythe Ninja 5 Air CPU Cooler, 120mm Single Tower, Intel LGA1151, AMD AM4, Dual Quiet Fans, Black Top Cover: CPU Cooling Fans - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases

smile.amazon.com

 

[BeauZaux]

So I'm browsing ebay for deals on graphics cards. I have in my mind, the highest number of cores is best. But, being a newbie to anything later than 20 years ago, I could be wrong. Got my eyes popping for a good deal on a PNY Nvidia GeForce GTX 690 | 4GB GDDR5 | Graphics Card | PCIe 3.0, dual cpu, 3072 cores. A real house warmer (won't be good for the San Antonio summer coming.) The prices tell me it may not be a popular board and yes it is a complete refurbished card. What should I prioritize for my GPU search, besides being a NVIDIA?

 

[Jason Jung]

The AMD 5870 has extremely good FP64 performance. Even though it was released in 2009 it still out performs most current generation Nvidia cards on projects like Einstein@Home. AMD cards generally have better FP64 performance but most projects demand FP32 performance so it really depends on what projects you want to run.

 

[BeauZaux]

So I should be looking at TFLOP vs cores. I'll have to see if Folding, GPUGrid and Asteroid are 32 or 64.
Thanks

 

[Nick Name]

The 760 starts with streaks on bios screen and then small random squares and streaks during boot until the whole screen is unrecognizable.
The Radeon is good in bios then turns into a full screen small bit pattern as it continues to boot. That one may be the OS drivers.
Blew them out and cleaned contacts several times. I'll will test them in another system later, one that is presently using a 760.
Yes on 275. PrimeGrid is the only project that will distribute tasks to it so far. But all I got for now.
Going to try this for cooling the 990x. Your cooler looks like what my son is using on his system.

Amazon.com: Scythe Ninja 5 Air CPU Cooler, 120mm Single Tower, Intel LGA1151, AMD AM4, Dual Quiet Fans, Black Top Cover: Computers & Accessories

Buy Scythe Ninja 5 Air CPU Cooler, 120mm Single Tower, Intel LGA1151, AMD AM4, Dual Quiet Fans, Black Top Cover: CPU Cooling Fans - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases

smile.amazon.com

Sounds like the 760 is done. Sometimes you get lucky and it's just that particular output that's bad, you can try switching to another if you haven't already. The only other thing you might try is baking it to reflow the solder, but it sounds like one or more of the VRAM chips is gone or going.

I almost bought that cooler awhile back but ended up getting a smaller one instead, the CPU is only a 4C/8T model.

So I should be looking at TFLOP vs cores. I'll have to see if Folding, GPUGrid and Asteroid are 32 or 64.
Thanks

Folding requires the card to support 64 bit, but the top cards there are Nvidia which have terrible double-precision so I don't think the apps, or at least most of them, are actually using it. GPUGrid is 32 bit and Asteroids is 64, which is partly why GPU performance there hasn't been very good. I haven't tried the latest app yet but I doubt it's much better.

Locally I see deals on new RX 570 / 580 cards now and then. Those are solid performers and you might be able to find a good deal on a used one.