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anyone do any PS3 folding?

T

twoodcc

Limp Gawd
Joined
Nov 25, 2009
Messages
265
i'm just curious if anyone folds with ps3s? i do fold with mine when i'm not using it, but i really don't know what kind of ppd it really gets.

i also wonder how the newer PS3s fold. they should use less power than the older ones. i've read they only get around 900 ppd, but not sure if this is correct.
 
The most recent units will get close to 1000PpD, but the delay in between units (uploading the completed one and downloading the next one) will kill you some days.

The performance of every model is pretty much the same, the only difference is power consumption.
 
I fold on my PS3 slim, its a good contributor. I also heard 1050 +/- PPD.
 
so they consume about 100w, right? (the new ones). but at only 1,000 ppd, isn't worth it unless you already have a ps3 and fold when you aren't using it
 
Both of mine F@H when not gaming or watching a movie on them.
 
yea, just over 1k PPD on expert mode, I leave mine going
 
ok. so i guess i why no one really has a ps3 folding farm. just doesn't make sense
 
NO, its a shame that stanford wont update the points scale for a PS3, for the power you put in and the return rate (under 8 hours per WU) it should be closer to 3k to be fair I think, and its ROCK SOLID stable, never had a crash running 365+ days in a row, no shut downs
 
but many people are building PS3 farms for their number crunching ability, including the government (Navy)
 
My Phat has 1800 even and my slim has 445 completed wus. :)
 
I should have 1000+ on my 80GB BC PS3 that I got with the MGS4 bundle. If it's not playing games or movies, it's folding :).
 
I had a bit over 1000 when I dragged the system and put in a 360gig HDD
just passed 1337 units a week or so ago :)
Posted via [H] Mobile Device
 
The PS3 is a case of folding on it if you already have one but you don't buy one specifically to fold with. In most cases it seems the PS3 does maybe 1k PPD. In comparison, my main system with a Q6600@3.6 running the WinSMP client and my 8800GT running the GPU client will do 10-15k PPD depending on the work units I get. I'd say on average it does about 11k PPD. It would take approximately 11 PS3s to match the output of my main machine. That's why you don't see anyone building PS3 folding farms. The cost of the unit and the cost of power just don't make financial sense for folding only. However, if you already have one, no reason not to fold on it.

 
is there a way to set it up to automatically fold when you're not using it? right now i have to manually turn it on/off
 
My ps3 runs the clients through the week until the weekend where we use it for netflix and whatnot. I average about 800-1000 PPD with it, its not a bad unit to have.
 
Vaulter98c said:
yea, just over 1k PPD on expert mode, I leave mine going
Click to expand...

What's the difference here though...regular mode yields less? Why (I wonder).

I used to Fold on mine, I haven't in awhile. Not crazy about the heat given off.
 
its cold here, heat is good

They claim that going from normal to expert will net you 100ppd, from 900 to just over 1000
It shuts off all the fancy stuff and stops tracking all the other channels. I just wish the PS3 was used better and got points more inline with what it does.

And yes, you can set it up to auto fold, I forget where the setting is but you can, so that way if you sit at the XMB (home) for X minutes (I think mine is 15) without doing anything it starts folding
 
Man ain't that the truth (re: getting more points).
Guess it's because Cell is a PITA to develop for; you'd think something that powerful would yield at least a few thousand PPD on it's own not including the RSX gpu.
 
RSX isnt CUDA
You could fold on it, just not using standard GPU folding

as for the CPU, I think they only use a few of the SPE's (or whatever it's called)
When I was in college we studied the Cell for a few days, and it's VERY adapt at repetitive math, which I figure would make it good for folding. Of course, its up to stanford and what kind of WU's they want done
 
zero2dash said:
Man ain't that the truth (re: getting more points).
Guess it's because Cell is a PITA to develop for; you'd think something that powerful would yield at least a few thousand PPD on it's own not including the RSX gpu.
Click to expand...

Vaulter98c said:
RSX isnt CUDA
You could fold on it, just not using standard GPU folding

as for the CPU, I think they only use a few of the SPE's (or whatever it's called)
When I was in college we studied the Cell for a few days, and it's VERY adapt at repetitive math, which I figure would make it good for folding. Of course, its up to stanford and what kind of WU's they want done
Click to expand...

The "problem" with the Cell for folding is that the Cell is very limited in the types of calculations which can be done quickly compared to an x86 CPU even if it is faster than an x86 CPU with those specific calculations. x86 CPUs can process just about any type of work unit but it is the slowest overall, the Cell can't process nearly as many work units but it's actually quicker than x86 CPUs with what it does process and GPUs are the most limited with what they can process but they are a hell of a lot faster with what they can do than the two previous. This is the reason the PS3 doesn't have the larger number of points attached to the work unit as SMP or GPU.

However, compared to single processor work units, the PS3 does a hell of a lot better for points which is probably what the work units are measured against. While the Cell does have multiple SPEs, they are not whole separate general processing cores and can only do limited types of calculations. They are fast at what they do within their limitations.

An additional "problem" could be the amount of RAM on the PS3. This could be limiting the types or sizes of work units it can process. In the last few years or so, we've seen the RAM requirements of work units skyrocket. The original uniprocessor work units didn't use much RAM at all and you couldn't even tell it was there. Slowly the RAM requirements started to creep up and then you had the QMDs run on P4s. Those work units required 500MB of system RAM or you couldn't get them and they did use up a huge chunk of that RAM. SMP work units also use up a large chunk of RAM and of course the -bigadv units are now using even more.

I am by no means defending Stanford's point scale as I've had a problem with it for a long time now. It's one of the reasons FLECOM said to hell with trying to keep all his systems running when he had his borg as all he could run were the uniprocessor clients. He had hundreds of uniprocessor clients going and someone with a few quad core systems and some GPUs could match his production with little time and energy spent on their part. Stanford has refused to scale the uniprocessor point system and keeps it basically in the dark ages. A Q6600@3.6 might do 1k PPD or so with 4 uniprocessor clients running or you can run the A3 SMP units and get 6-8k PPD. I can understand a bonus for certain types of work units and I have no problem with that, but the massive scaling difference is way out of proportion. I have a feeling the PS3 is a set it and forget it type of work for Stanford just like the uniprocessor client. As long as the work units keep coming in, Stanford isn't going to do anything about it.
 
Ya hit it on the head there, especially about the scoring scale
 
I took my original PS3 out of service folding because it uses about 180 watts for about 900ppd. I put that power into another video card for about 5,000ppd.
 
I used to fold on my PS3, but the points seemed insufficient for cost of running it. It ran flawlessly. If the points were higher, I'd ramp it up again.

Fold on!

 
I still fold on mine. Honestly speaking, i purchased mine at least partially because of folding so the marketing worked for Sony there.

I got one with a broken Blu Ray diode on ebay and fixed it. We don't have cable so I do take it off of folding pretty frequently for Netflix/me playing games.

I think I am up around 1500 units on mine now though.
 
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