Hardware upgrade for Open-CL

[NotQuiteTran]

Hi,
Could someone advise me on a suitable NVidia graphics card that could replace my existing GeForce 7900GS (in a Dell Dimension 9200) so that I can use CUDA/Open-CL for LuxRender? I'm doing this on something of a budget but would rather buy a graphics card than a full PC just now. May upgrade the whole thing next year though.

I don't know much about hardware but enough to install the card myself. I just need to know if the card will fit the existing slot, power supply, etc. Any recommendations? Currently on Windows XP which would be good - but could upgrade to Windows 7 if absolutely necessary.

Thanks!

[Dade]

A good source of idea can be the list of LuxMark results: http://www.luxrender.net/wiki/LuxMark_Results

Or any Anandtech review like this one (SLG section): http://www.anandtech.com/show/4278/amds ... hd-6570/14

Select a list of cards with a price suitable for you than you can check there how well they can perform.

[NotQuiteTran]

I'm still a bit nervous about navigating that info. I'm not really a "hardware" type
Anyone got a recommendation. Will the 8800GT fit my PC?

The 8800GT has 112 CUDA cores - is this what makes it suitable for Open-CL? Pardon my ignorance! Only just getting into this stuff.

Thanks!

[Dade]

The 8800GT has 112 CUDA cores - is this what makes it suitable for Open-CL? Pardon my ignorance! Only just getting into this stuff.

The CUDA core count isn't that bad to compare different NVIDIA GPUs. You have also to factor that newer GPUs support a larger set of CUDA features (i.e. from CUDA 1.0 to 1.1 and 1.2 specs).

To obtain even a vague recommendation, you have to fix a target price, 100euro, 150euro, 200euro ?

[dougal2]

IMO the 8800GT is getting a bit old now. At a minimum I'd recommend moving up to the GTS250 model or above.

As a comparison, my 8800GT performs only at about the same level as a single thread on a Core i7 930 @2.8GHz with the default SLG scene.

[NotQuiteTran]

I'd spend 200-300 euro but not sure if I'd get a performance increase worth the price on my old hardware? Since I posted the original I found that Mesh do some pretty good hardware for a decent price - maybe I should just take the plunge? Especially if I'm limited so much by the old hardware.