Start folding again

[QES]

Over the last year I was lurking around the DC area for a little bit. Never asked any questions about anything and just set up what I could. I did have the GPU client setup and running for awhile, the last few months I was having troubles with it and uninstalled it. I also had the cpu client running for a bit but stopped doing that before I stopped the GPU client.

My rig is in sig., but here it is anyways. Let's get me back for the [H]orde!

i7 920 @3.8
asus 4850 top (680/1050)
6 gb ram

 

[musky]

Use this guide to set up the SMP client. Assuming this is your main rig, that will be your best bet.

Welcome back!

 

[APOLLO]

Welcome back to the fold!!

You have an i7 system, get that thing doing -bigadv!!

 

[Kendrak]

Welcome back!

Welcome back to the fold!!

You have an i7 system, get that thing doing -bigadv!!

This is his main rig, start him on A3s, then if he catches the folding bug he can go -bigadv in a VM.


Since your starting back up, make sure you enter the contest to win a boxen!

 

[QES]

Alright I got the SMP client setup and running. What are A3's, extra work units that are bigger/more points?

Also, should I run the gpu client again? I know radeon cards aren't very good compared to the green.

Edit: Can the SMP client be paused? or do I just close it. What is this contest for a boxen and where do I go to win it

 

[Kendrak]

The ATI card will steal cpu cycles to the point where I'm not sure it would net you anything.

 

[APOLLO]

Edit: Can the SMP client be paused?

Type Ctrl-C to close the window.

 

[QES]

Hmm alright then. Well this will make sure my cpu overclock is actually stable then. I was running 4.0 for awhile but it was only gaming stable, running lynx or any stress tester made it restart after a few mins. I brought it back down to 3.8 about a month ago. I changed the voltages to what I thought it would run fine at, we shall see.

 

[capreppy]

Windows SMP2 client will definitely stress your rig more than P95 or other stressors. Big Adv will bring stress to a whole new level. Rigs (mine included) that are 24H P95 stable aren't always stable when running Big Adv.

Welcome to the [H]orde!!!

 

[amdgamer]

Alright I got the SMP client setup and running. What are A3's, extra work units that are bigger/more points?

Also, should I run the gpu client again? I know radeon cards aren't very good compared to the green.

Edit: Can the SMP client be paused? or do I just close it. What is this contest for a boxen and where do I go to win it

Sadly it seems that while ATI cards are the best for gaming, they don't seem to do too well with Folding. There is another DC project called BOINc that some of the guys are doing as well, and apparantly ATI cards do very well there.

Hmm alright then. Well this will make sure my cpu overclock is actually stable then. I was running 4.0 for awhile but it was only gaming stable, running lynx or any stress tester made it restart after a few mins. I brought it back down to 3.8 about a month ago. I changed the voltages to what I thought it would run fine at, we shall see.

Many people use Prime95's cpu torture test to test for maximum stability of their overclocks, but many are finding that nothing stresses a cpu more than folding. In my gaming rig, no game has ever caused this cpu to work as hard and get as hot as folding 24/7 on it has. My Phenom II 965 X4 slightly oc'd to 3.5ghz usually runs at a max of 52-53 degrees C when playing even the most intensive 64 bit games like Crysis Warhead. However folding takes that processor and makes it run consistently at 56-59 degrees C which is why i'm going to upgrade that factory HSF.

Out of curiosity, what kind of maximum temps are you getting on your Core i7 920 oc'd with that Cogage cooler? My dedicated folding rig should be ready by tonight and I am curious what kidn of temps I should expect since Intel processors generally run much hotter, and are capable of running much hotter than AMD stuff.

 

[QES]

I have used BOINc before, primarily for running SETI. I just started the client up and am going to leave it running. Later tonight after a few hours I'll post some temps but I've never seen it go over 61 I believe.

 

[tjmagneto]

I started out with a 4850 with my i7-920 and discovered how much of a CPU cycle thief it was. There is a way to try to lower the impact of the ATI card by changing the Environment Variables. Go here to FrEaKy's Compendium to get more info. You might need to tweak it a bit to get it working reasonably.

With the 4850 I'd also test to see the impact on the CPU client by running a few frames with the GPU client on and then off. I'm going to place my bet on leaving the GPU client off for A3s and for bigadvs.

 

[QES]

Yeah I think im just not even gonna attempt to do anything with it and just do it on the cpu. Within the next 6 months I plan on getting a new gpu and then I'll probly look into it again if I go nvidia.

It's been running for a little over an hour now, taking 4 minutes to do 1%. I'm using the -bigadv tag, temps are 57-59

Edit: Lets see if I have enough cpu power left to play starcraft 2 at the same time.

 

[Kendrak]

you might be useing the -bigadv tag but that is not a -bigadv WU.

Most of us get around 30 min tpf. I think your running a normal SMP.

-bigadv only work in linux currently (why many of us run VMs)

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

But then 4 minutes is still too long for an i7 at 3.8GHz, I barely get above 4 minutes with an i7 at 3GHz.

 

[amdgamer]

Yeah I think im just not even gonna attempt to do anything with it and just do it on the cpu. Within the next 6 months I plan on getting a new gpu and then I'll probly look into it again if I go nvidia.

It's been running for a little over an hour now, taking 4 minutes to do 1%. I'm using the -bigadv tag, temps are 57-59

Edit: Lets see if I have enough cpu power left to play starcraft 2 at the same time.

There are plenty of people who play games fine, but I close the client during gaming just in case. If you are shopping for a new GPU in 6 months, I believe ATI's Southern Islands family of GPU's will be out by then. I am curious to see how they will do in folding.

But then 4 minutes is still too long for an i7 at 3.8GHz, I barely get above 4 minutes with an i7 at 3GHz.

We have ruled out the possibility of it being a bigadv WU, but maybe he is doing other stuff or possibly gaming?

 

[metallicafan]

If you choose not to use your 4850 for F@H and still would like to put it to good use our Collatz team could use the help. Collatz Conjuncture is a BOINC project that uses ATI cards. ATI card do really well in the project. My 4850 does about 60K PPD. Its wasy on the CPU resources as well. It will take 5% or less of a CPU core. We could use all the help we can get. Thanks for considering and good luck! Welcome to the Horde!

 

[QES]

While I was just playing sc2 it was taking about 6 mins. my computer wasn't doing much while I was gone for an hour, just had aim up and uploading in bitcomet, took 3-4 mins then. I'm gonna close everything else except F@H tonight when I go to bed and see how long it takes then.

Ah ok I see what the bigadv is about. Does HT need to be turned off or can it be used? I thought I remember reading somewhere that it wouldn't run with it on. Maybe that was for BOINc though. I've had it off since day one pretty much.

Are the Southern Islands the codename for the 6-series cards?

Metallicafan ~ I'll take a look into it this week, maybe I'll check it out.

 

[amdgamer]

While I was just playing sc2 it was taking about 6 mins. my computer wasn't doing much while I was gone for an hour, just had aim up and uploading in bitcomet, took 3-4 mins then. I'm gonna close everything else except F@H tonight when I go to bed and see how long it takes then.

Ah ok I see what the bigadv is about. Does HT need to be turned off or can it be used? I thought I remember reading somewhere that it wouldn't run with it on. Maybe that was for BOINc though. I've had it off since day one pretty much.

Are the Southern Islands the codename for the 6-series cards?

Metallicafan ~ I'll take a look into it this week, maybe I'll check it out.

We know very little about Southern Islands at this time, and how AMD is going to number then. What we do know is that it is going to be released at the end of summer. We also know that due to yet more delays at TSMC(ATI and nVidia's fab facility), Southern Islands will be a compromise of stuff from Northern Islands and the current Evergreen family of GPU's(the 5xxx series). They had to delay Northern Islands as TSMC has delayed the move to 37nm yet again.

As for hyperthreading, someone else will have to answer that as I am curious myself since my upcoming folding rig is going to have a i7 930.

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

We have ruled out the possibility of it being a bigadv WU, but maybe he is doing other stuff or possibly gaming?

Yeah, it could be the GPU client. I can't believe I didn't think of that before...

They had to delay Northern Islands as TSMC has delayed the move to 37nm yet again.

No, they delayed Northern Islands because TSMC completely scrapped the 32nm process.

As for hyperthreading, someone else will have to answer that as I am curious myself since my upcoming folding rig is going to have a i7 930.

For SMP2, leaving HT on at worst, will not hurt. It is, however, vital for bigadv.

 

[QES]

Ah alright. I'll have to run some tests to make sure HT is stable. I believe it wasn't too much of a problem.

 

[tjmagneto]

Turn that HT on, test it, and get folding BIG! STAT!

Just kidding

 

[amdgamer]

Yeah, it could be the GPU client. I can't believe I didn't think of that before...


No, they delayed Northern Islands because TSMC completely scrapped the 32nm process.


For SMP2, leaving HT on at worst, will not hurt. It is, however, vital for bigadv.

Ahh, thanks for correcting me as I got it all wrong. Either it sucks for us graphics whores who were waiting on the smaller process for the next generation of graphics cards. nVidia probably needs it worse as hot as Fermi is running.

 

[QES]

Tonight when I have some more time I'll get HT turned back on, could that be why it's taking longer than it perhaps should? It was still 3-4 mins between each. The next task it started has taken up to 13 mins, seems like it's just a bigger sized task.

It's been folding for the last 22 hours without a problem so far, the highest temps have hit were 61 for core 0-2 and 60 for core 3. They've currently been fluctuating between 56-58. I'm really happy with this Cogage, I've gotten good performance out of it. Not too mention it's pretty cheap.

 

[Kendrak]

You just have a larger WU.

Use HFM.net to keep an eye on your ppd and give you more info on the client.

 

[QES]

I downloaded HFM.net, how exactly do I set it up right?.

I went to add client, named it FAH. For client processor MHz I assume I would put 3800 for what I'm at if thats what its asking for. I pointed the lof folder to the Folding at home install directory, is that all that needs to be done?

Edit:How many PPD should I expect to get with the i7?

 

[Kendrak]

I downloaded HFM.net, how exactly do I set it up right?.

I went to add client, named it FAH. For client processor MHz I assume I would put 3800 for what I'm at if thats what its asking for. I pointed the lof folder to the Folding at home install directory, is that all that needs to be done?

Edit:How many PPD should I expect to get with the i7?

Depends on what client your running and how much of an OC you have on it.

3.8 running A3 (-advmethods), you should see 15k ppd I think

3.8 running -bigadv, over 25k ppd I think.

 

[QES]

I've enabled HT. Highest temps so far now have been core 0-68 core1-69 core2-68 core3-67. I think that's still a very tolerable level to be at. Lets see if it holds up over night now.

 

[QES]

Everything has been going great since I turned HT back on. I was getting 10-11k PPD before and now 16-17k with it turned on.

So im getting interested in trying the bigadv WU's. Could someone help me to get started on them please?

 

[Kendrak]

Everything has been going great since I turned HT back on. I was getting 10-11k PPD before and now 16-17k with it turned on.

So im getting interested in trying the bigadv WU's. Could someone help me to get started on them please?

Well....

The short of it....

Get VM Player 3.0
Install your fave linux distro inside it.
Then download the linux client
Run the client with -smp -bigadv flags and your good to go.

There are also ready made VM's. Truth be told, if you have EVER installed in linux distro on an extra box, the above is easier in my mind. Just make sure you give the VM 5-6GB of RAM. These WU are hungry.

 

[QES]

Hmm alright seems pretty straightforward. Any suggestions on which linux? I've never ran or used it before, always thought about it though.

 

[APOLLO]

Hmm alright seems pretty straightforward. Any suggestions on which linux? I've never ran or used it before, always thought about it though.

Do you want to run the client natively or in VMware? If the latter, download this VM image here: http://folding.braindancer.net/linuxrouter/VMWare-FAH-1.2.zip

 

[QES]

Any big differences between doing it those 2 ways? I've got tons of space so partitioning would be fine. If one way is more stable generally over the other then I'd prefer to do it that route. Got VM Player earlier.

 

[APOLLO]

Any big differences between doing it those 2 ways? I've got tons of space so partitioning would be fine. If one way is more stable generally over the other then I'd prefer to do it that route. Got VM Player earlier.

Yes, there's a difference. If this is a dedicated folder, installing Linux natively will be faster and in my experience more stable. Going the VM route in Windows will be slower and require much more RAM, but you can run the GPU client if you have any compatible video cards. Some people don't want to run the GPU client because that slows down the SMP client, so it's your call. However, the accumulated production of running a fast video card plus the -bigadv client in a VM is the greatest for your system. Two fast GPU clients (GTX200 series) plus the -bigadv client would turn out to be an immensely productive system if you have the hardware.

 

[QES]

This isn't going to be a dedicated folder. I game periodically throughout the day and have been usually letting it run while I am. At the moment I'm going to be sticking with the 4850 until the next line of cards/refreshes come out, I wouldn't mind running GPU client too. I've been meaning to do some testing to see if I could squeeze some more PPD but havent had time to download and setup the other client to do comparisons of running both.

So far I'm thinking doing a partition would be better, might be a pain to switch for gaming when I want to. I game about 30 mins to 3 hours a day when I do, the rest of the time is pretty much page browsing. but I don't want to tweak anything that I wouldn't have to otherwise.

How much RAM would be ideal for using the VM? I've got 6gb and since windows uses ~1gb I could assign 5gb to it.

 

[APOLLO]

This isn't going to be a dedicated folder. I game periodically throughout the day and have been usually letting it run while I am. At the moment I'm going to be sticking with the 4850 until the next line of cards/refreshes come out, I wouldn't mind running GPU client too. I've been meaning to do some testing to see if I could squeeze some more PPD but havent had time to download and setup the other client to do comparisons of running both.

I would probably avoid running the GPU client on a 4850 if you will be processing -bigadv WUs simultaneously. Too little production on the Ati cards for too much power and heat, not to mention the affect on-bigadv performance. A nVidia card or two is OK as long as you have a fairly decent card to make up for the reduced performance of the SMP client. It's an overall delicate balance with -bigadv.

So far I'm thinking doing a partition would be better, might be a pain to switch for gaming when I want to. I game about 30 mins to 3 hours a day when I do, the rest of the time is pretty much page browsing. but I don't want to tweak anything that I wouldn't have to otherwise.

You will be losing too much time if you reboot the system to game for several hours each day and not run the -bigadv client during that time. The -bigadv client requires 24/7 operation for best results. It will take over 2 days to complete each WU especially if your system is under 4GHz. Losing as much as 6 hours during that time is very significant. You might still make the bonus deadline but at a significantly reduced total credit. I don't recommend doing this unless you restrict the down time to a minimal amount. Stanford advises to have these WUs completed as quickly as possible for their research.

Best setup is running the client simultaneously and just have the VM set to idle priority so it won't affect CPU usage of your other apps. If your games require more memory than you'll have available after VM allocation, then that could cause problems running both since they'll vie for the memory. I don't know what else I can say about this because I don't play games, and thus have little knowledge of the latest ones.

How much RAM would be ideal for using the VM? I've got 6gb and since windows uses ~1gb I could assign 5gb to it.

That would be OK. It's the exact same configuration I have on my two systems with VMs. 5GB for the VM and 1GB for Windows. Works fine for me.

 

[QES]

Hmm. I frequently don't use my computer for a few days (usually weekends) as I get too busy or im out of town. It looks like just running A3's 24/7 while I normally use it and then do -bigadv WU's while i'm away for more than a day would be best. I'd just have to have it not fetch a new WU most of the time. Doing 1 -bigadv WU a week while doing A3's the rest of the time would be better than none right? I could at least make that work.

 

[musky]

I'd do one or the other. Switching between the two would be a pain. I would also run a VM in your case if you do go the bigadv route. The last thing you want to do is to make folding more of a chore than it already is. There is nothing wrong with doing 17K ppd on your machine. If you want to play around with bigadv, get the pre-made VM image linked above and run it.

 

[Kendrak]

I'd do one or the other. Switching between the two would be a pain. I would also run a VM in your case if you do go the bigadv route. The last thing you want to do is to make folding more of a chore than it already is. There is nothing wrong with doing 17K ppd on your machine. If you want to play around with bigadv, get the pre-made VM image linked above and run it.

This.

 

[georgexi]

Hmm. I frequently don't use my computer for a few days (usually weekends) as I get too busy or im out of town. It looks like just running A3's 24/7 while I normally use it and then do -bigadv WU's while i'm away for more than a day would be best. I'd just have to have it not fetch a new WU most of the time. Doing 1 -bigadv WU a week while doing A3's the rest of the time would be better than none right? I could at least make that work.

i have a very similar setup to yours (i7, 3.8ghz, 6gb RAM) and run -bigadv -smp 7

when i was running all 8 cores, my system (which passed prime95, IBT, A3 folding like a champ) became unstable. plus simple daily tasks like web browsing or excel... unacceptable performance. windows had a tendency to "freeze" for a few mins. i couldn't do anything at all while it churned. i'm guessing because i only have 6gb RAM?

now running 7 core, stability problems went away, windows is fast and smooth. you'll only net around 20-22k ppd but still better than A3. just something to consider if 8 cores doesn't do it for you