Best driver versions for four folding rigs

[Nick200]

Hi

I'd be grateful for advice on the best nvidia drivers to use, pending the possible fix from nvidia that Dr Pande hinted at https://www.reddit.com/r/foldingathome/ ... l_support/.

My rigs all run FAH 7.4.4 on windows 8.1 Pro fully patched. The hardware differs though as follows:

• PC 1: Intel Core i7 4790K on Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. Z97X-SLI-CF (I cannot though see the options to enable/disable SLI) with two grapics cards:
  a. 2048MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 and
  b: 1024MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 465
  
  PC 2: Intel Core i7 4790K on a Gigabyte Z87M-D3H motherboard, with a single 3Gb GTX 780 (Asustek)\
  
  PC 3: Intel i7-2600 @ 3.40 ghz, with a 3gb Gigabyte GTX 780
  
  PC 4: Core 2 Quad Q600 @2.4K with a Gigabyte GTX 750

PC 1 runs with driver 327.23, PC 2 with driver 337.88, PC 3 with driver 337.88, and PC 4 with driver 347.05. Are these the best drivers for each PC? Any suggestions that will get me better folding performance?

I am also thinking of putting both the 780 cards together into PC1 as it's the SLI-capable machine - that would then enable a driver upgrade to the latest version without compromising performance, given they are both Maxwell cards.

That would mean putting the GTX 770 into PC1 and the GTX 465 into PC3. I think that would entail applying driver 327.23 to both machines.

Let me know if you need any more details.

Any advice and suggestions?

Thanks

Nick

[Napoleon]

I am also thinking of putting both the 780 cards together into PC1 as it's the SLI-capable machine - that would then enable a driver upgrade to the latest version without compromising performance, given they are both Maxwell cards.

I saw no Maxwell GPUs on your list. At the moment, the only graphics cards with Maxwell are 750Ti, 970 and 980. GTX 465 is Fermi, the rest are Kepler. IIRC, the deciding factor for Keplers is whether they're based on GK110 or not. Anyway, you'll probably want to match the GPUs per computer as closely as possible, for an easier decision on the driver version. Maybe something like this:

• PC 1: Intel Core i7 4790K on Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. Z97X-SLI-CF (I cannot though see the options to enable/disable SLI), http://www.gigabyte.com/products/produc ... id=4957#sp
  3Gb GTX 780 (Asustek)
  3gb Gigabyte GTX 780
  Make sure that the PSU and case (cooling) are sufficient for the task, though. The GPUs are about 250 Watts each, http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop ... ifications
  If this is fully dedicated to folding, see if a BIOS option allows you to use the iGPU to drive the display
  Maybe SLI requires the GPUs to be the same make and model, not sure how it is these days. Anyway, FAH doesn't use SLI at all
  PCIE3 at x8 is enough to keep top-notch GPUs folding at their full potential
  
  PC 2: Intel Core i7 4790K on a Gigabyte Z87M-D3H motherboard, http://www.gigabyte.com/products/produc ... id=4486#sp
  GTX 770, http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop ... ifications
  If this is fully dedicated to folding, see if a BIOS option allows you to use the iGPU to drive the display
  Too bad the 2nd PCIE slot is only PCIE2 at x4 (electronically), a high end GPU would run at somewhat reduced performance there
  
  PC 3: Intel i7-2600 @ 3.40 ghz with iGPU, PCIE v2
  Gigabyte GTX 750, http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop ... ifications
  If this is fully dedicated to folding, see if a BIOS option allows you to use the iGPU to drive the display
  Maybe go for legacy core15 work and NaCl / CPU:8
  
  PC 4: Core 2 Quad Q6[6]00 @2.4K without iGPU
  1024MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 465, http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop ... ifications
  Definitely driver v327.23 territory. GTX465 is unlikely to get a significant PPD boost from core17 & core18 QRB, so you could devote this setup to legacy core15 work (no QRB) by using v6 GPU client. Bright side is, core15 is CUDA-based and has a very low CPU usage, polling or otherwise. Saves some Watts on that 4C/4T C2Q (105W TDP), although you could try NaCl folding on top of core15 folding. NaCl PPD is relatively high for lower end CPUs, even if NaCl folding has no QRB

I suppose I'd always try 327.23 first and go with it whenever possible: viewtopic.php?f=38&t=27085&p=271957#p271957

[Nick200]

Hi Napoleon

Many thanks for the advice - and particularly for the tip about using the integrated GPU on the motherboard. I've made that switch for two of the four PCs - and it has eliminated a persistent gripe from family members about FAH's impact on multimedia. That has been cured - and they won't now be tempted to pause FAH all the time. Excellent! I will try the same trick with PC3 if I can find my way around that BIOS.

I will migrate the PCs in the direction you suggest pending upgrades for PCs 3 and 4.

And thanks for the correction too - I had been labouring under a misapprehension that the GTX780 was a Maxwell card. Don't know where I picked that up ...

Naku noa, na

Nick