Video card for folding@home?

[Hondaman]

Guys,

I'm looking at an NVidia 9800 for folding in an old rig in the basement (Athlon 2900, Win XP 32-bit, 1+ Gig RAM, AGP video slot).

(nVidia is way better for folding than ATI, I think I read, and the 9800 has a good bang for the buck when bought used).

Would a Dell NVidia 9800 have a slower clock, cheaper capacitors, etc. than other brands of 9800 (Powercolor, eVGA, whatever)? Would 256 MB video memory be needed, or could I get by with 128 MB?

Could I use an aftermarket video card fan if I wanted?

I ask here because you are familiar with such a broad base of hardware. Any insights appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

[Hondaman]

Re: Video card for folding@home?

Forget it. The Dell video card runs the engine at 325 MHz and the memory clock at 580 MHz. Other NVidia 9800 cards run the engine at 600 MHz (or a bit faster for some models) and the memory clock at 1500 MHz (or a bit faster for some models).

"Downclocked" would be an understatement.

[Pentium4]

Re: Video card for folding@home?

Yeah, you should at least get a 9800GT green edition. They're underclocked and undervolted slightly, so their performance isn't affected much but they are way more efficient per Watt than a regular 9800GT.

[BigTroll]

Re: Video card for folding@home?

I noticed on ebay the orignal 8800gts 320meg models are incredibly cheap, if you don't mind a bit of reduced performance, they also have cool looking massive dual slot coolers.