GPU PPD - NVidia vs. AMD

[Bud Specter]

Hi,

I was looking at the GPU PPD database (https://folding.lar.systems/gpu_ppd/overall_ranks) and was wondering why all the top places are taken by NVidia. The Radeon RX 7900 XTX does not even make the top 15. In other metrics (like gaming) it's comparable to a 4080 but even the 3080 or 4070 seem to beat it in folding. Is this maybe due to better driver support or differences in the GPU's design? I'm in the process of upgrading my PC and while folding is not a crucial criteria for selecting a graphics card it would be nice to know why some cards perform better than others in that regard.

[bikeaddict]

When they added CUDA support a few years ago, NVIDIA GPUs gained a major performance advantage over AMD, which still uses slower OpenCL.

https://foldingathome.org/2020/09/28/fo ... rt/?lng=en

[Joe_H]

In addition to Nvidia GPUs that are recent enough using CUDA and therefore a performance advantage over using OpenCL, AMD is moving away from OpenCL for calculations. Not all recent drivers have had good support for OpenCL. AMD is pushing towards use of HIP, eventually F@h should support that, but not sure when.

[Bud Specter]

Thanks for the insightful replies! I will probably go with AMD so I hope they will improve the drivers in the foreseeable future.