Folding Forum

Hi everyone,

I am currently in the process of building a new dedicated FAH computer. When finished, it is going to have three GPUs (2 PCIE 4.0 x 8, 1 PCIE 4.0 x 4).

I currently have one RTX 4070 in it and I'm looking forward towards the next two cards. My original plan was to have 3 4070s, but looking at the 4070 ti it looks like for only $200 more its about 11M PPD vs ~6.5 PPD. Unless I'm missing something it seems that 4070 Ti's would be a much better bang for the buck.

Anyone have thoughts on which route would be better? Thanks!

Strictly for Folding, I agree that the 4070Ti is better bang for the buck. But the 4070 is a much smaller card physically, can you even fit in a 4070ti (let alone 2) into the build? What Mobo and Case are you running that could fit on that or is it a Rack unit?

Mxyzptlk wrote: ↑Fri Apr 28, 2023 2:59 am Strictly for Folding, I agree that the 4070Ti is better bang for the buck. But the 4070 is a much smaller card physically, can you even fit in a 4070ti (let alone 2) into the build? What Mobo and Case are you running that could fit on that or is it a Rack unit?

It is a Corsair 680X case and an ASUS B-650 ProArt-Creator motherboard. The size of the 4070 was originally why I wanted to use them. 4070 Ti's would be a tighter fit but I should be able to get two in for the top two slots and the already purchased 4070 should fit on the bottom.

Looking at initial numbers the ti is going to win long term in bang for the buck. Unless the regular 4070 is super efficient in terms of power use, it's just not going to pull the numbers to make it the long term choice. But with it being a couple hundred bucks less, smaller and easier to fit into many rigs, as well as not taking multiple power connections, it might be a budget choice for those that want to add a reasonably efficient GPU without case/MB/PS changes.

On a moment of reflection, If you just go with a single 4090 you will be using less power at 450 Full Load watts then (2) 4070ti's and (1) 4070 for a total of 770 Full Load Watts. That's also 320 watts (oddly enough the power a 4080 uses) less in heat removal that you have to contend with. You should have an over all PPD advantage, but at a premium to upfront costs and ongoing power costs.

Judge for yourself, but even with these cards being much more efficient, they are going to cost a ton to run. I know, I have (3) 4080's, (3) 4070ti's, and a 3080ti. In the past I ran a bunch of dual card setups of 2070 Supers w/ 2070's and then moved up to dual card setups of 3080's w/ 3070's. They were all decent heat generators and the upper cards always ran ~5c higher with good separation between the 2 cards. When I upgraded to the 4080's and 4070ti's I never even contemplated running dual cards. They are just to big and the upper card would have less then 5mm separation. These cards do run cool, but that's with plenty of air flow.

Hello guys,

I am hesitating between building a rig to fold using 2 (maybe more in the future) RTX 4070 TI or getting a top end desktop with a 4090.

Desktop with 4090 cost about 3500 usd at dell and a rig should be much cheaper. I am expecting the same amount of PPD for both systems, right no?

What would you do, in term of cost, evolution and simplicity?

Also do you fold with Linux or Windows. Do you see really a difference of PPD?

Choices, choices....

Size, price, power consumption, throughput, etc all play a role, so sometimes the choices aren't easy. As far as efficiency goes, 1 GPU takes less resources to run than 2, but if you already have case space, the right power supply, or multiple rigs it gets more complicated.

For me personally I would go with the route of a single GPU if possible most likely. But I might own multiples of things others would only buy one of, so what I do might not be what you do.

As for building vs buying.... I opt to build myself. There is rarely any advantage to buying anything pre built other than short term.

If this were the past generations of GPUs, then I’d lean towards multiple GPUs. But with the new stuff, go with one and be done. It’s a hard fit for even two 4070ti’s in one rig, and you’ll be using more power for the same PPD as a single 4090.

If you can avoid it, avoid the prebuilts and do it yourself. It’s fun and you will learn some great stuff.

Pick your operating system that your comfortable with. The most PPD isn’t the end goal, consistency in the science is.

IN my experience with 2 x 4070ti and a 4070 and 4060ti the 4070ti's are significantly more efficient than the either the 4060ti or 4070. I'm, seeing regularly ~75kPPD/W efficiency on the 4070tis and only 50-60kPPD/W from the 4060ti and 4070. So in my experience the 4070ti is at a sweeter point in terms of efficiency but also close to the value of the 4070 and 4060ti (PPD/$). For comparison, 2000-series GPUs I've observed run at 25-30kPPD/W efficiency and 1000-series at 15-20kPPD/W.

The trade-off, off course, is getting more than one to fit in a standard mid-tower ATX case. I've found running them in the lower slot with the 4060/4070 in the upper leaves enough clearance for all to run at reasonable (<70C) temperatures.

But the above must all be taken with the caveat that I run my Turing, Ampere and Ada GPUs clock-limited to a maximum of 2205MHz and my Pascal GPUs at the minimum power-limit which I've found to be the peak efficiency for Folding so the GPUs consume less energy and produce less heat.