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RTX Super cards.

Posted: Wed Jul 03, 2019 12:50 am
by MeeLee
Here's some data on the newest super cards.

The RTX 2060 will remain in circulation, the cheapest ones sold for ~$350, a variety of sites confirm.

The RTX 2070 will be replaced by the 2060 Super. And would show roughly the same performance.
The good thing now is that one can finally fold at 2070-like performance for $100 less than before ($400).
My estimation is, that the 2070 did 1.1-1.2M PPD, the 2060 super will do between 1.08-1.14M PPD.
However, I think the 2060 Super won't be a great deal vs the original 2060; just because it's performance benefits are minimal, at presumably the same power draw; but they cost $50 more.
For that reason, the old 2060 is still my favorite; especially if you can get them cheap on the second hand market, while the new Supers won't be out on the second hand market anytime soon.

The 2080 will be replaced by the 2070 Super.
The 2080 folds at 1,4M PPD, I'd estimate that the 2070 Super will fold at around 1,20-1,25M PPD.
That's a little slower, but the price is also a lot lower.
The cheapest 2080 cards currently go for $700.
The 2070 Super cards will go for $500.
It's a small performance penalty, at $200 discount.
I don't think the RTX 2070 cards were very popular for folding.
The new RTX 2070 Super cards have a higher boost clock speed, which hopefully gets it more than just the 10% rated speed improvement, for folding.
But for the sake of information available on other sites, I will keep the 10% margin.
Still, even in this configuration, see below to see which one is more efficient and better to buy for folding. 2070 Super or 2080 Super?


As far as power consumption, it appears that in most cases there won't be a significant difference between the newer and older models they replace.
The 2060 Super and 2070 Super cards were clocked at about the same TDP as the older 2070 and 2080 cards they're replacing.
Not that it matters much, these cards run best at 128-136 Watts anyway. (178 Watts for the 2080 Ti).


For a budget oriented folder, I'd still recommend the old RTX 2060 as most economical.
The newer 2060 Super probably will pay itself off in 1.5 years of folding at $399 vs the older 2060. That's much longer than most people would dedicate themselves to actually folding.
Still, if you're in the market for a new RTX card, and will dedicate yourself for at least a year or two, keep an eye out for the RTX 2060 Super cards!
Or, wait for a great discount deal on a new or second hand RTX 2060, as prices for this card will probably come down (especially on the second hand market).


As far as buying second hand:
As long as older, second hand GPUs are working properly, they should serve you well for at least 3-5 years of 24/7 folding (that's an average of the FAN life running at about 80% fan speed).
The RTX cards are fairly new, so second hand models shouldn't have seen a lot of abuse yet.
If everything works within the first 30 days of purchase of a second hand model, chances are they will for the next 3 to 5 years, with careful use.
The first thing to go, is usually the fans.
Replacement fans go on amazon for anything between $8-$25, so it's not like the card will be unusable after a fan breaks.
As long as you replace the thermal compound at least once every other year, the card should function for much beyond 5 years.


At $700, the old 2080 won't be interesting anymore for folding; as the 2080 Super is more efficient at the same price; and the 2070 Super gets you 86% of the performance, for 71.5% of the price.
The main benefits of the 2080 is SLI support, which FAH won't use anyway.
Still, there's a good chance people will upgrade from 2080s to 2080 Supers, and second hand prices might get you a good deal on an old 2080.


The 2080 Super, estimated to come out in a few months from now, and if it follows the same 10% speed increase ratio as the others, will have an estimated PPD range of around 1.55M PPD, and falls between the 2080 (1.4M PPD) and 2080 Ti (2-2.2M PPD) in performance, but at the same price as the old 2080.
These types of cards are good if you are space (PCI slot) and/or power limited, and if you want to have high PPDs quicker, without shelling out $1k+ for a 2080 Ti.


There are rumors that probably towards the end of this year, or perhaps beginning 2020, the 2080 Tis will also get a 'super' version; but it's still a while away.
If they will follow the same 10% better performance line the other RTX Super cards do, they will be a better buy than the 2080 Ti, but not for economical minded people.
More for people who want to fold fast, at almost whatever cost; without shelling out $5 grand for a Titan RTX card.

2060 VS 2080 Super
If power or space is no issue, between the 2060 (my personal choice) and the 2080 Super (most economical GPU between the old 2080 and 2080 Ti)
2x 2080 Super cards would cost $1400, and run most optimal in Linux at 3.1M PPD @ 272Watts.
3x old RTX 2060 cards would cost $1050, and run most optimal in Linux at 3.1M PPD @ 384 Watts.
That means ~$112 of difference in electric bill per year between 2 setups; or, it'd still take just over 3 years to get even.
Any less than 3 years of 24/7 folding, and the 2060 still is the champion.
The benefit for a 2080 will be if you have an extra PCIE slot available for upgrading, you can plug in another 2080. While 3x 2060s probably will take up all full size motherboard PCIE slots and aren't expandable beyond PCIE 1x.

2060 VS 2070 Super
6 x 2060 = $2100, ~6M PPD @ 768W
5 x 2070 Super = $2500 ~6M PPD, @ 680W
= 88 Watt difference (=~$88 of electricity saving / yr).
= 4,5 Years of folding for the 2070 Supers to catch up to the cost of the 2060s.
Which, surprisingly, is worse than the 2080 Supers!

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Re: RTX Super cards.

Posted: Tue Jul 09, 2019 2:51 pm
by Theodore
Does anyone actually have them yet?
I think they aren't out yet.
Google says release date is in 2 days for the 2060 and 2070, and by the end of the month for the 2080.

From what I read, the memory modules are pretty much the same.
Overclocking reports 900Mhz stable memory overclocks on the super cards, while the older Turing cards can get up to 1900Mhz stable (I run them at 1400, as sweet spot).
They come from the factory clocked 1Ghz higher, leaving less headroom for overclocking; and probably run with exactly the same memory performance.

Save for the 2060 Super, which will have a 256 bit memory bus, vs 192 bit on the old 2060.
I guess all the new RTX cards will now run their memory at 256 bit, not sure if for Folding this would matter...

Re: RTX Super cards.

Posted: Thu Jul 11, 2019 7:44 pm
by toTOW
I didn't find any explicit references to new device IDs ... so I don't know if we support them already or not ... :(

Re: RTX Super cards.

Posted: Thu Jul 18, 2019 11:54 am
by Shirty
Just a quick update to this thread for anyone looking for the info. I've been running a blower-style Palit RTX 2070 Super for the past week. I've overclocked the core only and it's reliably boosting to 2025MHz as long as it stays under 50°C, which I can achieve with the fan at 100%. It's in an 18°C server room so the noise isn't an issue for me.

So far the lowest PPD I've seen is around 1.25M, the average is 1.41M and the high has been 1.51M.

It's a nice card if you can find a good price, managed to snag mine for 400 GBP delivered.

Re: RTX Super cards.

Posted: Fri Jul 19, 2019 1:56 pm
by foldy
@Shirty: Sounds nice, are you running Windows or Linux?

Re: RTX Super cards.

Posted: Fri Jul 19, 2019 8:13 pm
by Shirty
Windows 10 64-bit (1903), latest WHQL Nvidia drivers.

I've got the card in a dual GPU dedicated rig with an original 2070 for company, and it's roughly 30% more effective at folding.

I'm sure with a well set up Linux implementation it would probably impress even more, but I'm a sucker for convenience!

Re: RTX Super cards.

Posted: Sun Jul 21, 2019 9:51 pm
by HaloJones
@Shirty, where on Earth can you get a 2070 Super for £400 delivered?

Re: RTX Super cards.

Posted: Mon Jul 22, 2019 8:59 pm
by Shirty
Unless you come across a 15% discount, nowhere!

Re: RTX Super cards.

Posted: Tue Jul 23, 2019 6:51 pm
by foldy
RTX 2080 Super is next but only 10% faster.

Re: RTX Super cards.

Posted: Tue Jul 23, 2019 9:21 pm
by MeeLee
foldy wrote:RTX 2080 Super is next but only 10% faster.
Doesn't get as many extra CUDA or RT cores, as the 2070 or the 2060.
The 2060 super seems to have the biggest performance jump.
The 2070 Super folds nearly identical to the old 2080.
With the more optimistic than expected results,
The 2060 Super costs 14% more than the 2060, but if it also folds ~15-20% faster, it might actually be the better buy for 24/7 1 year long folding. It should get it's money back in about 1 year!

Re: RTX Super cards.

Posted: Fri Jul 26, 2019 7:44 pm
by toTOW
The 2080 Super has a fully enabled TU104 chip. :)

Re: RTX Super cards.

Posted: Sat Jul 27, 2019 7:32 am
by MeeLee
toTOW wrote:The 2080 Super has a fully enabled TU104 chip. :)
They're currently going on a premium price.
Super cards shortage is the reason why sellers want to sell them at premium prices. $50-150 above the introduction price.
We should see prices fall in a month to a month and a half.
In that time, I hope someone can confirm the 2070 results, as well as giving us a peek at the 2060 and 2080 numbers.
I don't think the 2080 Super will be folding at more than 1,65-1.7M PPD, but never know...

Re: RTX Super cards.

Posted: Sun Jul 28, 2019 4:07 pm
by Shirty
I now have 2 x 2070 Supers folding 24/7 in the same rig and have seen the output ranging from 2.1 to 2.9 million ppd.

Average over a week has been 2.65 million, so these are definitely averaging about 1.33M per card in PCIe 3.0 x8 slots.

Re: RTX Super cards.

Posted: Tue Jul 30, 2019 7:48 am
by MeeLee
I think, if the 2060 super nets 1.2-1.25M PPD or less, the 2070s might actually be the most interesting card on the market, and even surpasses the old 2060 and the 2080 Super for long term folding.
The 2080 Super is just too expensive now, and in the future to get the initial investment back in electricity.
2.5x 2060 Supers at 1.2 MPPD perform about the same as 3x old RTX 2060 @1M PPD, or 2x RTX 2070 Super cards at 1.5M PPD each.
However, right now 2,5x 2060 Super cards will cost more than 2x 2070 Super cards.
In the near future, when prices hit the suggested MSRP, 2,5x 2060s will cost exactly the same as 2x 2070s cards ($1k), and should perform the same.
Though 2,5x 2060s should pull about 55Watt more at the wall than 2x 2070s cards, when optimized (more when running stock).

For 2060 Super cards to competitive with 2070 Super cards, they would have to either be priced $50 less per card ($350) or make more than 1.36M PPD, which I don't think will happen.

With the information available today, the 2070 Super seems to be the best buy for an upgrade. Then the 2060 Super, the old 2060, followed by the 2080 Super.
The older 2070 and 2080 cards will need to show a significant drop in price, to be competitive.

So if you're retiring or upgrading some older GPUs right now, it would benefit most, when replacing them with a 2070 Super.

Re: RTX Super cards.

Posted: Fri Aug 02, 2019 3:43 pm
by MeeLee
Seems like most super cards are on backorder now. Those which aren't, are still priced $25-150 more expensive than MSRP.
The first cards hitting MSRP price point seem to hit Amazon 2 weeks from now, around Aug 14.

Time to save up!