Calling All You ATI Guys . . .

M

metallicafan

[H]ard|DCer of the Month - May 2010
Joined
Mar 30, 2005
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Calling All You ATI Guys . . .

As some of you may have seen on the front page news, the Hard Forum's folding team (the [H]orde) is currently in a four team folding competition called the Chimp Challenge. This is a friendly competition between four of the top folding teams in the world. Currently the [H]orde, is in second place. Now because this forum is full of [H]ard people who do not accept second place we are asking for your help (this is where the ATI graphics cards come in)! :)

Recently Stanford, who is using the Folding at Home distributed computing project to study the way proteins fold and mis-fold, (hopefully leading to cures for several different diseases) released a GPU client for the 2900 and 3800 series graphics cards. This client is an easy to install and configure, Windows-based client.

I have the client running on my machine and is currently donating about 1000 Points Per Day to the Chimp Challenge for the Hard Forum (I have a slow CPU) but several users are experiencing even better results. Some forum members are getting 2000+ PPD on a single GPU!! Please join the folding team and lets see if we can win this Challenge!!! If you need any help installing or configuring the client just post in this thread and I'll try and help you out. Take a look at the links below to download the client, view the official thread in the DC subforum, and view the current standings of the Challenge.

Make sure the use the username: [H]ardApe and the following team number: 33

Client Download: http://folding.stanford.edu/English/DownloadWinOther (look for the 6.11 beta3)
Current Standings: http://clintdavis.us/chimpchallenge2008/
Official Thread: http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1297404

PS: The following link is a link to the client stats on the Folding at Home page: http://fah-web.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/main.py?qtype=osstats
Currently it shows that there are 1904 GPUs folding for 131 TFLOPS worth of processing power. Lets see if we can raise those numbers! Show the processing muscle of the ATI cards!
 
I just started folding today with my 3870. With my C2D at 3.2GHz, I will be kicking out roughly 2170 PPD.

Like the OP stated, the folding client is very easy to install and run. The team will appreciate any help it can get!
 
One person? No one else wants to donate their spare processor cycles to do medical research and help out their fellow [H]ard Forum members? Stanford is starting to release some new WU's to the GPU client that utilize the full capacity of the GPU's processing power. This processing power would be much appreciated!!

Thanks for reading and considering!
 
Come on guys, we could really use your help.

As a reference, I ran the GPU1 client on my two X1950pro's for months with absolutely no problems what so ever... solid, stable and reliable, and as mentioned, extremely easy to install and run. I had no problems as with the hardware either....

Give it a shot, Join the [H]orde!!!

 
right now my trusty AXP and laptop (dual core) are 100% folding.

when i build the new system it will be folding on the 4870 ;)
 
same here on the 4870 comment. I currently have an x700 that takes many hours to get 1 fold done. lol
 
I want to join but if I fold will it tax my PC to the point where its unusable while folding?
Specs in sig.
 
BX_TECH_GOD said:
I want to join but if I fold will it tax my PC to the point where its unusable while folding?
Specs in sig.
Click to expand...

Absolutely not. The folding client runs at a very low priority. You will have the full functionality of your PC while folding. If there is ever a time where you feel the folding is "slowing your machine down" while you are doing something resource intensive you can pause the client and then just unpause the client when you are back to just casual browsing, emailing, or just not using your PC at all. :)
 
BX_TECH_GOD said:
I want to join but if I fold will it tax my PC to the point where its unusable while folding?
Specs in sig.
Click to expand...

Looking at the specs of your system, you only have one 3870, so just set the affinity of the folding at home client to only use one Core and all your other activities can use the other core, you'll probably not notice the difference in performance when doing everyday things like browsing the web or writing email.
If the slow down bothers you, just manually pause the client when you're actively using the computer and unpause it when you stop using it. Just letting it run all night and while you're working/or at school will defiinitely help the [H]orde out.

I do notice a slow down when folding, but then again I only have a dual core processor and have two 3870's being fed by it.

Also looking at the GPU utilization meter, the ATI GPU2 client is *really* CPU intensive because anything I do on the computer spikes down the GPU utilization rate way down.
 
w1ngzer0 said:
same here on the 4870 comment. I currently have an x700 that takes many hours to get 1 fold done. lol
Click to expand...

I thought the ATI GPU clients only ran on X1900 and the newer HD chips. I was not aware that they had a GPU client for the x700 series.
 
I hear the new GPU work units are out, how many ppd are people getting with those?
 
jebo_4jc said:
I hear the new GPU work units are out, how many ppd are people getting with those?
Click to expand...

With the original WU's I was getting about 950 PPD with an Opteron 170 @ 2.0GHz (GPU core was only about 50% utilized.) With the newer GPU WU's I am getting about 2100 PPD (GPU about 93% used). :cool: Much better!!
 
I've never done this and don't know much about it, but I'd like to give it a try tonight when I get home. I have an X2 5000 and a 1900GT. So this uses the CPU and GPU? Does connection speed matter, because I have a slow internet connection.
For my system, I would just install the windows client? Where's the GPU1 client?
 
Mat3 said:
Where's the GPU1 client?
Click to expand...

Sadly, it's no longer available..... which sucks big time. I now have two X1950pro's that are doing nothing more than making Vista look pretty. I don't game and bought the damn things specifically for folding..... :(

Just install the Windows console (non-graphical) client, configure it using [H]ardApe as the user name folding for team 33. You might want to change the advanced settings and enable the -advmethods flag. Also, to keep things simple, set it to install and run as a service. Other than that, just stick with the default config and you should be good to go...

Thanks for joining, and be sure to check in down in the DC sub forum. Bunch of great guys there.

Fold On!!!!!

EDIT....sorry, missed the "X2" part there:rolleyes:
You can install two instances of the client on your machine. Make two new folders (F@H1 and F@H2 or whatever)... download the client into each folder, and when configuring the client, make sure the first one is configured with "Machine ID 1" and the second as "Machine ID 2".......


 
stangdude22 said:
Thanks, Also, Metallica's coming to tucson next friday!!!

PS: is the GPU version no longer available? or just for that card?
Click to expand...

It's just the GPU1 client (for the X19XX series cards) that is no longer available. The GPU2 client is up at Stanfords site and works with the newer generation of ATI cards.....

And welcome to the team, glad to have you folding with us!!!!

 
Anything out there for those of us who have GPU's from the green team?
 
Not yet..... but possibly in the future. No real solid information on that as of now, but my guess is that eventually there will be a client available for nvidia cards....

 
metallica.. nice! (the early albums!)
folding.. nice! (women, dough, thoughts, folders and space from Ix)
ATI... please get nice multisampled AA soon..

Chimps ! ...why not :D

Folding on my trusty old Toledo X2 4200+ and a HD3850
 
nakedhand said:
Folding on my trusty old Toledo X2 4200+ and a HD3850
Click to expand...

Great news! Glad to have you folding!

Are you participating in the Challenge? Hope so, but regardless, just happy that your putting that card to good use.....:)

 
Great news! Glad to have you folding!

Are you participating in the Challenge? Hope so, but regardless, just happy that your putting that card to good use.....
Click to expand...

I am participating in the folding yes, according to instructions. It has folded 1200 points since I posted the first post. As far as I understood, and I am borderline bedworthy here, it adds to the teams total and the team is in the challenge. Am I missing out on something? Let me know if there is there more I need to do?
 
nakedhand said:
I am participating in the folding yes, according to instructions. It has folded 1200 points since I posted the first post. As far as I understood, and I am borderline bedworthy here, it adds to the teams total and the team is in the challenge. Am I missing out on something? Let me know if there is there more I need to do?
Click to expand...

You need to change the user name to [H]ardApe, and keep the team number 33. Once that is done, you will be contributing to the Challenge. It's not an overall team race so to speak, but a race between four teams that have all selected a specific user name for their team members to fold under...

Complete details here.... and thakns again for folding!!

 
You need to change the user name to [H]ardApe, and keep the team number 33.
Click to expand...

I did that when I set it up, so everything should be in order I guess :D

Cheers!
 
nakedhand said:
I did that when I set it up, so everything should be in order I guess :D

Cheers!
Click to expand...

Sounds good. You should be all set. Thanks for contributing to the challenge!! Hopefully the Horde can get out of the rut we seem to be in! :)
 
BX_TECH_GOD said:
I want to join but if I fold will it tax my PC to the point where its unusable while folding?
Specs in sig.
Click to expand...

The beauty of the folding clients is that they use the SPARE cpu/gpu cycles which means it uses the idle power of your pc. If a game or application needs the cpu/gpu cycles the folding client well release what it is using and allow you to get your job done. I've confirmed this by installing fah as a service and told a paranoid roomate that folding was shut down while he was playing desert combat. He raved at how much smoother the game was without the pc folding.....until I told him that it was indeed running, but without a box in the taskbar :D

 
Proxy said:
Anything out there for those of us who have GPU's from the green team?
Click to expand...

Jumping on board, but building a new system this week and will be switching to Nvidia. Hoping for a green client soon. :(
 
Inf0 said:
Jumping on board, but building a new system this week and will be switching to Nvidia. Hoping for a green client soon. :(
Click to expand...

great thanks for helping us out!! What kind of card are you folding with?
 
I want to send out a big thank you to Inf0, nakedhand, stangdude22, and JasonWSC (and maybe anyone else I might have forgot, BXTECHGOD did you get yours running?) for helping out the Horde for the Chimp Challenge!! These ATI cards have an awesome amount of processing power and are a big contributer to the Folding at Home project!:)

Ok so we have had 4 - 6 GPUs added here which is excellent. Who's next? We are gonna need some more processing power to jump out of a 200K hole!!:D
 
Alright, the GPU2 client says it has some bugs in Vista. Should I be concerned about this?
I'll get the x86 for now.
Lemme know
 
I have been folding for [H]Ape since the competition started a couple days ago on my C2Q. Haven't done the GPU folding since I heard that I have to turn it off so I can play games (I play games a lot)
 
stangdude22 said:
Alright, the GPU2 client says it has some bugs in Vista. Should I be concerned about this?
I'll get the x86 for now.
Lemme know
Click to expand...

Could you give me a link to where you found this info? I have been running this client for about a month in Vista 64 with, to my knowledge, no issues whatsoever. Hopefully there are no big issues with Vista.
 
Mr. Stryker said:
I have been folding for [H]Ape since the competition started a couple days ago on my C2Q. Haven't done the GPU folding since I heard that I have to turn it off so I can play games (I play games a lot)
Click to expand...

Yeah if I play games I usually just pause the GPU client and then re-enable it when I'm done. (Although there has been no gaming for me since the Challenge started!:D) Anyway I figure that folding part time on my GPU is better than no GPU folding at all.

Is the GPU in the same machine as your Quad? If you are already running 2 SMP clients on your Quad, you probably want to still with that instead of a GPU client (because the GPU client will need 1 CPU core.)
 
why [H] ape?

oh well contributing to my name and [H] team 33
 
ALL4AMD said:
why [H] ape?

oh well contributing to my name and [H] team 33
Click to expand...

If you use the username [H]ardApe you will be contributing to the Chimp Challenge and hopefully helping the Horde win the challenge. Many of the folders have taken a break from folding with their own usernames, for fun competition between a couple of the top folding teams in the world. Currently [H]ardApe is in second and we could really use your help in the Challenge!! :) I would urge you to change your username to [H]ardApe just for the challenge and then you can change it back. Bottom line is that your folding and thats what counts but we could really use the help. We have been gaining a little ground the last couple of updates!!
 
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