Some beginner questions.

[HelloRutabaga]

Hello,

Just started this folding thing, looks like a good way to get some use out of old hardware - would have been even better in December - but I haven't been able to figure out some things yet...

So far running these folding things on two machines. One is a Q9450 @ 3.4 GHz, with a HD5870 and a GTX260. The other is a i7-950 @ 4.2 with 2 GTX580s. Also I've some older junk that looks too old to be effective, and a 8800 GT which may be able to fit in somewhere.

The newer machine seems to work without any trouble, but in the older machine the 5870 seems to need a cpu core all to itself, and is slower at folding than the 260?! If I'm reading the "PPD" numbers correctly, 9450 (4 cores) + 260 is about even with 9450 (3 cores) + 260 + 5870. Would replacing the 5870 with the 8800 allow me to use all four cores of the 9450? Is there some way to improve the 5870 performance?

Also, with the "HFM.NET" program, all these clients show Complete 0 and Failed 0, even though they have been finishing things for a few days now. Have I overlooked a setting somewhere, or perhaps changed a setting I should have left alone?

Ahh, just caught one as it finished, it's purple instead of green, and it says Complete 1. After refreshing a few times it's gone to yellow and now it says Complete 0. Presumably it's just cosmetic, but it would be nice to see accurate information.

Thanks for any assistance.

 

[W.Feather]

For GPU folding, the 5870 requires most of one core to work, just the way taht the code is written. So typically it is more beneficial (when running v6 clients) to use just SMP/Nvidia.....with the v7 client that 5870 should put out similar points to the 260, slightly higher actually.

Not sure what you mean by not showing complete numbers, HFM counts the units completed since the client was started, if your using GPU Tracker, that program auto restarts the client after every unit, so that would explain why HFM is not showing "accurate info"

 

[Andross182]

I am fairly new to the folding game myself, and was told in the "F@H issues" thread that I started, that there are a few issues with folding on ATI cards right now. As they require their own cpu core as well as the GPU themselves to fold.

 

[KMac]

H
Also, with the "HFM.NET" program, all these clients show Complete 0 and Failed 0, even though they have been finishing things for a few days now. Have I overlooked a setting somewhere, or perhaps changed a setting I should have left alone?

Are you running FAH GPU Tracker V2 as well? I believe that causes the HFM.NET issue you described. I just hide those columns in HFM and use Tools>Workunit History Viewer to see the completed jobs.

 

[HelloRutabaga]

Hello again, thanks for the assistance everyone. Looks like people understood what was happening even though I didn't explain it terribly well...

I am fairly new to the folding game myself, and was told in the "F@H issues" thread that I started, that there are a few issues with folding on ATI cards right now. As they require their own cpu core as well as the GPU themselves to fold.

For GPU folding, the 5870 requires most of one core to work, just the way taht the code is written. So typically it is more beneficial (when running v6 clients) to use just SMP/Nvidia.....with the v7 client that 5870 should put out similar points to the 260, slightly higher actually.

The v7 client idea sounds promising - will see how the 5870 numbers improve with it. Also noticed suggestions for deleting dlls and setting environment variables like BROOK_YIELD to tweak cpu utilisation with AMD gpu clients - will have to try that as well. Could always put the 8800gt between the 580s for a bit more foldy-power; doubt it would enjoy the heat however.

Not sure what you mean by not showing complete numbers, HFM counts the units completed since the client was started, if your using GPU Tracker, that program auto restarts the client after every unit, so that would explain why HFM is not showing "accurate info"

Are you running FAH GPU Tracker V2 as well? I believe that causes the HFM.NET issue you described. I just hide those columns in HFM and use Tools>Workunit History Viewer to see the completed jobs.

Yes, that was the problem. Currently using the FAH GPU Tracker V2 on both folding machines, and watching them with the HFM.NET program. If I am reading correctly the FAH GPU Tracker V2 is not able to interact with the newer v7 folding client. Do people generally use the command-line directly once they have a bit more experience with these foldy-things?

Thanks again for the help.

 

[jebo_4jc]

It sounds like you're actually in great shape. So, good job!

The GPU Tracker thing is newer, so most of us started before it came out, and many of us have not personally ever used it. So, the answer is yes, most of the experienced folders use the command line CPU clients. For the GPU, I think the systray client is most frequently used. However, there's nothing at all wrong with the GPU tracker, other than that minor issue you found. So, if you're comfortable with it, keep using it IMO.

Unless, that is, you really want to try to get more PPD out of that 5870. There are new work units for ATI cards that are only available on the v7 client. The new work units provide about 2x more PPD than you're currently getting, and there have been indications the PPD might increase in the future.