What GPU?
Out of context: Reply #10
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- detritus0
Ok, so I think I was over-egging it.
Whilst it's not as powerful, the GTX285 series of cards represent the current best in SINGLE GPU cards. The GTX 295 appears to be, like the 4870x2, two cards on one connection. It's also stupidly expensive.
One, often unmentioned, advantage with current nVidia cards is the ability to throw PhysX and CUDA-compliant code at the main processing cores. Now, I'm not going to pretend this is much use to me right now - but it'll be interesting to see if the likes of Processing or After Effects begin using this feature - I'd certainly like the option of getting the GPU to do more useful things than wait around all week for me to play a game.
Also, whilst the 4870x2 is undoubtedly the more powerful card, it also hoovers up a lot more electricity and makes a lot more noise (particularly during so-called idle periods, ie. most of the time, when I'm not throwing lots of vectors at it). Electrical costs alone mount up to a few tens of pounds difference over each year. OK, so a high-end GPU is an excess consumer product anyway, but at least the GTX285 is a *little* greener than other options.
I'll admit this isn't the most exciting of threads, but I thought I'd update with my latest thought on the matter (thanks uan, for the pull the other way!).
A mid-high end single GPU nVidia card it is. If and when I feel I've out-grown (in a technical, not maturative sense) a single GTX285 card, I can add another one in a year's time, when they cost £50.
- Sorry, more accurately - the GTX 295 is two GPUs on one card - it's a little more subtly done than the 4870x2.detritus