PowerPC & Newbie :)

[[_HeX_]]

Ive got a mac Laptop thats got a G4 Processor at 667Mhz. It downloaded a 50,000,000 Step work unit. And its been blasting through it. I did the math and its doing approx 61 Steps per second. Is that low, average, or high for a computer to be processing. and what exactly is 1 step.

I'm recently new to the Folding@home project and my grandmother died of cancer and im folding for her and for my mother since it runs in the family.

Can anyone point me to a good resource for FAQ and information? (Oh and also answer the first question too ) t

- Thanks
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[roftranspo]

folding on a mac is SLOW...dont know why but it takes 3-4 times longer on a mac...but just keep it up....every little bit counts

 

[[_HeX_]]

so is 61 steps per second slow? whats average for a computer.. cause my windows desktop downloaded a 250 Step packet and its taking it forever.. like 30 minutes per step.

 

[roftranspo]

it all depends on the protien and the cpu...usually things arent measure by steps since all steps on not alike...if you have a windows system...you can set you mac folding folder as a share and moniter it from the windows system using EM3.

 

[natermeister]

I wondered how well PowerPCs folded...

I'm looking for a dual G5 to play around with, and, of course I'm going to run F@H on it when I find one for the right price.

Obviously a 667MHz G4 isn't going to be very speedy, but I'm sure a dual 2.0GHz G5 machine would be pretty decent at F@H. I'm going to go check out that site that has benchmarks for different CPUs running different proteins.

 

[roftranspo]

mmm G5...when i worked at a school...that was my computer....yea...that thing KICKED ASS I would love to see it fold

 

[[_HeX_]]

My father's mac downstairs is one of the Quad Core PowerPC G5's. One of the last one's made before the new Power Mac's came out. I havent borged it yet but i plan to

 

[[_HeX_]]

Right now the 5 machines in my signature are all folding at Maximum speed.

 

[[_HeX_]]

I just Borged the Quad core running 4 of the fah instances... 92% average CPU usage across all 4 processors

 

[rayman2k2]

I just Borged the Quad core running 4 of the fah instances... 92% average CPU usage across all 4 processors

did you put four instances on it? why is it stuck at 92%. Should be 100%

 

[roftranspo]

I just Borged the Quad core running 4 of the fah instances... 92% average CPU usage across all 4 processors

oh thats sexy right there....you should post a screen shot of that

 

[roftranspo]

did you put four instances on it? why is it stuck at 92%. Should be 100%

for some reason macs stay just under 100% per core....dont know why...they just do

 

[rayman2k2]

for some reason macs stay just under 100% per core....dont know why...they just do

that 8% difference can add years to how long it will take to find a cure. let's boycott apple

 

[roftranspo]

that 8% difference can add years to how long it will take to find a cure. let's boycott apple

i just think that the code for the mac isnt that optimized...especially for the PPC....maybe it will be better once they have one for the Intel mac...but still...4 cores on one system...thats a nice meatball

 

[natermeister]

Yeah, 4 cores is awesome. I've always wanted to build a true DP system, I'm thinking I might actually pull it off next time, next year around May/June. Oh yeah, 8 cores folding @ 100%. I just hope against hope that Intel or AMD have a workstation level DP motherboard that can do CrossFire. Maybe AMD will, maybe they both will as ATi has been moving more aggressively into the nVidia owned workstation OpenGL accelerator maket. Then I can have 8 cores and two GPUs running...

People always ask me what I'd want to build a DP system, I'm afraid the only reason is for Folding@home, or some other DC project, notably SETI@home.