Maximum PC

Since my wife went back to work and the kids are in daycare, we're not home for an average of 9 hours a day.

Does ATI Folding still suck?

If not I don't mind throwing F@H on my two HTPCs and my desktop.

n0b0dykn0ws

I don't know if they've made any additional headway since the latest GPU core for AMD/ATI ('GPU3'), but, with that one, on Radeon HD 5000 series (or later) hardware, it's better than it used to be, even if it's not as great as I'd like.

I can get ~3500-4000 PPD from the 5670 (400 stream processors @ 775MHz) in my HTPC, and ~3000 PPD from the (mobile) HD 6570M (400 stream processors @ 650MHz). I run the v7 Windows client with the GPU slots set to client-type: advanced. If anyone reads this and can suggest a better configuration (outside of overclocking, both those machines are hot enough as is), I'm all ears!

For comparison's sake, I get ~4000 PPD out of a Nvidia GT 430, which, on paper (and for gaming) is a much weaker card than the 5670. Plus it looks like (if I get lucky WUs), the new beta projects with QRB could bump that even higher. Stanford says they are planning to implement QRB for all GPUs eventually, I think, so that could help GPU points across the board.

Since GPU3 is only for 5000 series and higher (more info on GPU3 and AMD), that means unfortunately my two 4870s can't use GPU3, and I can't justify the power consumption of those juice guzzlers for even weaker results.

Hope this might help you make the decision, one way or the other!