Xilikon
[H]ard|DCer of the Year 2008
- Joined
- Oct 12, 2004
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- 15,010
You are in the right place if you have a NVIDIA or ATI video card and plan to fold with it. The guide will outline the installation process in a very simple and clear manner to help even those who doesn't know a lot on computers. This will be divided in 4 parts (4 posts) :
-Basic GPU2 installation and configuration.
-Advanced configuration and tweaking.
-Troubleshooting issues.
-Multi-GPU configuration.
Now, on the guide...
Part 1 : Preparation
The first step is to make sure your GPU can run the client. If you have a ATI GPU, the requirement is to be compatible with CAL and this mean that any card from X2xxx (R6xx) series and above can run any CAL application. This also means that unfortunately, X1xxx and older is not compatible because the shaders architecture is not unified. If you own a NVIDIA card, it must be compatible with CUDA, so the 8 series and above is compatible (a list is available to check if your card is compatible, including the GeForce, Tesla and Quadro lines). The GeForce series 7 and older is not compatible for the same reason as ATI.
After you checked that your GPU is compatible, you should update the driver to be able to use the client. NVIDIA official CUDA 177.35 driver can be downloaded here and you should use this version unless there is a compelling reason to use a different one. ATI driver supported for folding is currently the Catalyst 8.7 that you can find it here. To update the driver, it's suggested that you uninstall the old driver, reboot then install the new driver.
When it's done, it's time to download the current Folding@Home GPU2 client, which is currently 6.20 beta and found here. When you are done downloading, it's time to go to the next part...
Part 2 : GPU2 Systray installation
When you are done downloading the client, it's time to install so click on it to run. You should see this :
Click on next then accept the license. Click next and you should see this :
Click on next and it will install the necessary files. When it's done, close the installer and look at the new entry in the Start menu. The short cut is called Folding@home under the Folding@home-gpu folder so click on it. You will be presented with this configuration window :
After entering the necessary informations, click on the tab to get the next panel :
After configuring, click the tab again to get to the last panel :
For now, if you are unsure about the settings in the last panel, you can leave them alone and come back later when you feel more comfortable or after you asked questions and gotten the desired answers.
When it's done, click on Ok and it should run fine.
Part 3 : How can I monitor the client ?
Warning : For now, the graphical viewer is buggy and can cause issues if you open it to monitor the progress. For this reason, we strongly suggest you avoid using the viewer and rely on alternate methods below.
The simplest way is to check the log file generated by the client. For this, you can right-click on the systray icon to bring this menu :
Click on the item and you will see a notepad with the contents of fahlog.txt, which should look similar to this :
Just scroll to the bottom to see the percent done and check if uploads and downloads work fine. It's also a great way to check if you have problems like UNSTABLE_MACHINE or any other error.
A quick way is also possible by hovering the mouse cursor over the systray icon to have a balloon showing what the client is doing currently like that :
Finally, you can also use a third-party monitoring software like Fahmon or Fahspy. The fahlog.txt file can be found in the APPDATA folder, which can be found by opening the client shortcut properties and looking at the "Start in" field.
If you followed the guide carefully, the client should be running now and producing lots and lots of points for the good of the science If you have questions about the GPU2 client, a good FAQ has been written by the F@H staff and it can be found here or here.
If you have comments or suggestions about the guide, please PM me. If possible, make a new thread if you have a question or a problem and you need help.
-Basic GPU2 installation and configuration.
-Advanced configuration and tweaking.
-Troubleshooting issues.
-Multi-GPU configuration.
Now, on the guide...
Part 1 : Preparation
The first step is to make sure your GPU can run the client. If you have a ATI GPU, the requirement is to be compatible with CAL and this mean that any card from X2xxx (R6xx) series and above can run any CAL application. This also means that unfortunately, X1xxx and older is not compatible because the shaders architecture is not unified. If you own a NVIDIA card, it must be compatible with CUDA, so the 8 series and above is compatible (a list is available to check if your card is compatible, including the GeForce, Tesla and Quadro lines). The GeForce series 7 and older is not compatible for the same reason as ATI.
After you checked that your GPU is compatible, you should update the driver to be able to use the client. NVIDIA official CUDA 177.35 driver can be downloaded here and you should use this version unless there is a compelling reason to use a different one. ATI driver supported for folding is currently the Catalyst 8.7 that you can find it here. To update the driver, it's suggested that you uninstall the old driver, reboot then install the new driver.
When it's done, it's time to download the current Folding@Home GPU2 client, which is currently 6.20 beta and found here. When you are done downloading, it's time to go to the next part...
Part 2 : GPU2 Systray installation
When you are done downloading the client, it's time to install so click on it to run. You should see this :
Click on next then accept the license. Click next and you should see this :
Click on next and it will install the necessary files. When it's done, close the installer and look at the new entry in the Start menu. The short cut is called Folding@home under the Folding@home-gpu folder so click on it. You will be presented with this configuration window :
After entering the necessary informations, click on the tab to get the next panel :
After configuring, click the tab again to get to the last panel :
For now, if you are unsure about the settings in the last panel, you can leave them alone and come back later when you feel more comfortable or after you asked questions and gotten the desired answers.
When it's done, click on Ok and it should run fine.
Part 3 : How can I monitor the client ?
Warning : For now, the graphical viewer is buggy and can cause issues if you open it to monitor the progress. For this reason, we strongly suggest you avoid using the viewer and rely on alternate methods below.
The simplest way is to check the log file generated by the client. For this, you can right-click on the systray icon to bring this menu :
Click on the item and you will see a notepad with the contents of fahlog.txt, which should look similar to this :
Just scroll to the bottom to see the percent done and check if uploads and downloads work fine. It's also a great way to check if you have problems like UNSTABLE_MACHINE or any other error.
A quick way is also possible by hovering the mouse cursor over the systray icon to have a balloon showing what the client is doing currently like that :
Finally, you can also use a third-party monitoring software like Fahmon or Fahspy. The fahlog.txt file can be found in the APPDATA folder, which can be found by opening the client shortcut properties and looking at the "Start in" field.
If you followed the guide carefully, the client should be running now and producing lots and lots of points for the good of the science If you have questions about the GPU2 client, a good FAQ has been written by the F@H staff and it can be found here or here.
If you have comments or suggestions about the guide, please PM me. If possible, make a new thread if you have a question or a problem and you need help.