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[APOLLO]

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?

No, the amount of RAM is far more than sufficient as long as your VM has ~5GB to use for its needs.

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

You may have had the VM running a higher than idle priority setting, thereby making other threads such as system processes 'wait' for their CPU time. If anyone intends to do other things with their computers while running -bigadv in a VM, it is imperative that the .vmx process is set to idle priority, otherwise you'll barely have a usable system.

 

[georgexi]

No, the amount of RAM is far more than sufficient as long as your VM has ~5GB to use for its needs.

You may have had the VM running a higher than idle priority setting, thereby making other threads such as system processes 'wait' for their CPU time. If anyone intends to do other things with their computers while running -bigadv in a VM, it is imperative that the .vmx process is set to idle priority, otherwise you'll barely have a usable system.

how do i check what priority VM is set to? i don't see anything obvious listed in the VM settings?

 

[APOLLO]

how do i check what priority VM is set to? i don't see anything obvious listed in the VM settings?

You will need to check the .vmx file in your VM folder. Use notepad or other text editor to view it. It should have lines that look something like this:

priority.grabbed = "idle"
priority.ungrabbed = "idle"

If it doesn't have any lines like this, add them in. This will guarantee that your VM will always run in idle priority mode and should make your system more responsive. If it doesn't, then you can use the -smp 7 flag again.

 

[tjmagneto]

Two fast GPU clients (GTX200 series) plus the -bigadv client would turn out to be an immensely productive system if you have the hardware.

Quite true, I was getting around 40k ppd with an OC'd 920 running -bigadv and 2 GTX 275s.

Before I increased my RAM from 6-12 Gb, -smp 7 worked really good for me with the -bigadvs, -smp -8 really ramps up the amount of RAM utilized.

 

[georgexi]

You will need to check the .vmx file in your VM folder. Use notepad or other text editor to view it. It should have lines that look something like this:

priority.grabbed = "idle"
priority.ungrabbed = "idle"

If it doesn't have any lines like this, add them in. This will guarantee that your VM will always run in idle priority mode and should make your system more responsive. If it doesn't, then you can use the -smp 7 flag again.

alright i edited my .vmx and those lines weren't listed anywhere so i added them to the bottom. i did "power down" in order to shut down folding and reconfigure for -smp 8.. well i lost the damn WU @ 49% :-/

for future reference incase i need to reconfigure my SMP client again, what's the clean way to shut down folding?

 

[mplee]

I think Ctrl-C should stop the client. I read though that the bigadv units are sensitive and even shutting the client down can cause issues.

The Windows SMP seems robust though...I've stopped/started clients multiple times on multiple machines with no issues.

 

[Kendrak]

I think Ctrl-C should stop the client. I read though that the bigadv units are sensitive and even shutting the client down can cause issues.

The Windows SMP seems robust though...I've stopped/started clients multiple times on multiple machines with no issues.

Suspending the client (in a VM) is the best way. That way as far as the client is concerned it never stopped.

By default if you just "X" out of a VM it suspends it.

 

[mplee]

Suspending the client (in a VM) is the best way. That way as far as the client is concerned it never stopped.

By default if you just "X" out of a VM it suspends it.

Thanks, that's good to know. It can be a lot of time wasted if one of these is lost.

 

[QES]

I downloaded VM player 3 and that image, however when I try to open the configuration it says VM player only supports 4 cpu's and not 8. Is there a different one?

 

[Kendrak]

I downloaded VM player 3 and that image, however when I try to open the configuration it says VM player only supports 4 cpu's and not 8. Is there a different one?

Did you download 3.0 or a later version? This will only work with 3.0

 

[APOLLO]

I downloaded VM player 3 and that image, however when I try to open the configuration it says VM player only supports 4 cpu's and not 8. Is there a different one?

You need to locate an earlier version than the current version being offered for download because the latest will not work with more than 4 cores.

 

[QES]

Ahha. I believe it's 3.0.1, is that not the correct one? I'll take another look around.

 

[Kendrak]

Ahha. I believe it's 3.0.1, is that not the correct one? I'll take another look around.

3.0 will do 8 threads if you edit the .vmx file to do it. In later versions it seems they locked that down.

 

[APOLLO]

Ahha. I believe it's 3.0.1, is that not the correct one? I'll take another look around.

No, I'm pretty certain it is too recent. There is someone here who has hosted the older version for folders. It is really unfortunate we do not have virtual machine software that officially supports 8 cores or more and works well.

 

[amdgamer]

Ahha. I believe it's 3.0.1, is that not the correct one? I'll take another look around.

Follow the link to VMware's official site and make sure to download version 3.0.0. At least for me, it allowed me to choose between both versions. I wish we knew why in the hell they removed support for 8 cores in the more recent version. You'll have to register with VMware to download it, but it is a free registration. If you cannot find version 3.0.0, then i'm sure one of us has a copy of it on our computer. I have it, but my email won't allow me to send you anything bigger than 20mb.......

 

[QES]

Yeah I had to do that registration BS. Found it, had to un-hide the earlier 3.0.0 version, sneaky. Uninstalling the 3.0.1 and installing the correct one.

 

[georgexi]

Suspending the client (in a VM) is the best way. That way as far as the client is concerned it never stopped.

By default if you just "X" out of a VM it suspends it.

i usually suspend it if i'm playing a game or need to reboot.

but what if i want to reconfigure the VM client itself or reconfigure the SMP client itself? say i want to change the memory settings in the VM or change smp 7 to 8? i need to cleanly shut down folding to make changes.

doing "power down" cost me the WU. funny my computer locked up last night running smp8 but i didn't lose the WU. yay for stability games yet again

 

[APOLLO]

but what if i want to reconfigure the VM client itself or reconfigure the SMP client itself? say i want to change the memory settings in the VM or change smp 7 to 8? i need to cleanly shut down folding to make changes.

doing "power down" cost me the WU. funny my computer locked up last night running smp8 but i didn't lose the WU. yay for stability games yet again

Try this when you are afraid to lose a WU in mid process: suspend the VM, then copy the VM folder once it is suspended to another folder on your HD. Go back to VMware Player and release the VM from suspended mode. Shut down the client using the Ctrl-C command and shut down the OS by typing 'halt' or any other Linux power down command. Make the adjustments you need to do and restart the VM and client. If the client crashes upon restart, just stop the VM immediately, delete it from your drive, copy the backup to the original folder, and you will see the VM in suspend mode as it was prior to the restart. Works for me every time I need to make changes or restart the computer for some reason.

 

[georgexi]

Try this when you are afraid to lose a WU in mid process: suspend the VM, then copy the VM folder once it is suspended to another folder on your HD. Go back to VMware Player and release the VM from suspended mode. Shut down the client using the Ctrl-C command and shut down the OS by typing 'halt' or any other Linux power down command. Make the adjustments you need to do and restart the VM and client. If the client crashes upon restart, just stop the VM immediately, delete it from your drive, copy the backup to the original folder, and you will see the VM in suspend mode as it was prior to the restart. Works for me every time I need to make changes or restart the computer for some reason.

cool. i'll give that a shot. right now my VMware is configured for 8GB disk space. any idea if that can safely lower to 2 or 4GB? would make backing up the VM folder much faster until i get my system stable

 

[APOLLO]

cool. i'll give that a shot. right now my VMware is configured for 8GB disk space. any idea if that can safely lower to 2 or 4GB? would make backing up the VM folder much faster until i get my system stable

I'm pretty certain that you can reduce it safely by 50% to 4GB. In the past, I had much smaller VMs at approximately 2GB. Don't know if this is recommended for -bigadv, so make sure you copy your VM folder before making any changes in case something happens.

 

[QES]

Alright so I've got the right version now and it opens up inside the VM. How do I run it? not at all familiar with linux, how do I check to make sure it will grab bigadv units.

 

[APOLLO]

Alright so I've got the right version now and it opens up inside the VM. How do I run it? not at all familiar with linux, how do I check to make sure it will grab bigadv units.

Are you using the EVGA VM? Did you configure the client with your username, team number, pass key, etc?

 

[amdgamer]

Alright so I've got the right version now and it opens up inside the VM. How do I run it? not at all familiar with linux, how do I check to make sure it will grab bigadv units.

You can basically set it up exactly as how you would set up the SMP client. First you can run

./fah6 -configonly

Set it up, enter your passkey, and then you can also set command line switches for it to automatically start with each time. I use -smp 8 -verbosity 9 -bigadv.

As you are setting it up, make sure that you have the config turn off the advmethods switch.

Once you are done seting it up, you start it by typing something like ./fah6

 

[QES]

Are you using the EVGA VM? Did you configure the client with your username, team number, pass key, etc?

VMware Player 3.0 is what I am using, is this not what was recommended? I did a google search when I tried earlier on how to run and put in some command that I found, I set it up with my username, team etc etc. after that it grabbed some work but was using under 3gb ram so I closed it since it wasn't right.

I take it -smp 8 means to use 8 threads and the -bigadv, well for the bigger more intense WU's. What's -verbosity 9? I believe the command I had to enter for it to run contained that.

 

[amdgamer]

VMware Player 3.0 is what I am using, is this not what was recommended? I did a google search when I tried earlier on how to run and put in some command that I found, I set it up with my username, team etc etc. after that it grabbed some work but was using under 3gb ram so I closed it since it wasn't right.

I take it -smp 8 means to use 8 threads and the -bigadv, well for the bigger more intense WU's. What's -verbosity 9? I believe the command I had to enter for it to run contained that.

What Apollo means is are you running the eVGA Linux image? It is linked from our guides here, and is what I think almost all of us running a VM use. Basically after you start up VMware 3.0.0, you load this Linux image in the VM, tweak the memory settings(smp 8 will require more memory than folding bigadv with smp 7), configure from the command line, and off you go. I forgot how much memory you need to enable in a VM in order to have enough during -bigadv folding, but 5000mb should be enough for 8 thread folding. Once the Linus OS has loaded, you can configure it like you configure the SMP client and then just type ./fah6 to let it run after you have configured it.

-bigadv enables you to recieve the bigass experimental work units that will kill your internet connection when it is finally ready to upload back to Stanford. If this rig is a dedicated folding rig, this is definately what you want to run. Just make sure to turn advmethods off during the config process as it could otherwise interfere from what i've read.

Verbosity 9 enables extra stuff reported to the log which is supposed to aid in troubleshooting if you have a problem. I am not sure this even matters in bigadv folding as I always used it on the SMP client by habit.

Some people choose to use the smp 7 switch instead of -smp 8 since they are also running a GPU client or are using the computer for other stuff.

 

[QES]

Ah I see. I was gonna add that in my post but didn't for some reason, yeah I'm using the image Apollo linked on page 2. I would like to do smp -8 but don't think I have enough memory for doing it in a VM. Lowest ram usage I can get windows to use by itself is a little over 1 GB and I'm running 6. Would be close.

I'll start with doing 7 thread -bigadv, how much ram does that need at least? I could probably make memory for 8 thread. Probly should make sure the cpu is stable first in case I run into problems, that hopefully would take anything related to ram performance out of the question.

 

[musky]

-smp 8 takes just under 4GB by itself. Add the VM overhead and you need a little more. I think the image you are using has 4.5GB allocated to it, so that is fine. Add another 1GB for Windows and you are left with about 500MB free. That may or may not be enough, depending on how you use you computer. You could probably back down the allocation on your VM image by 300MB or so.

My main system is almost identical to yours hardware-wise. I'll see what kind of memory usage I have running -smp 8 in a VM in a moment.

 

[amdgamer]

Ah I see. I was gonna add that in my post but didn't for some reason, yeah I'm using the image Apollo linked on page 2. I would like to do smp -8 but don't think I have enough memory for doing it in a VM. Lowest ram usage I can get windows to use by itself is a little over 1 GB and I'm running 6. Would be close.

I'll start with doing 7 thread -bigadv, how much ram does that need at least? I could probably make memory for 8 thread. Probly should make sure the cpu is stable first in case I run into problems, that hopefully would take anything related to ram performance out of the question.

Oh yes, make sure that cpu is stable!

The guys here suggested to me to use LinX to test for stability as Prime95 doesn't do a very good job when you look at the kind of loads that folding bigadv WU's will put on your cpu. Bigadv is a monster at pushing your hardware as very few programs are capable of pushing a system as hard. My system was perfectly stable folding regular A3 WU's at 3.67ghz, but it is currently not stable above 3.46ghz for folding -bigadv. In fact I lost a work unit after my system hardlocked on me. I've probably got some tweaking to do, but it is hard to find time to do that when FFXIII is keeping me very busy on weekends.

 

[musky]

With Win7 64 running a VM and -smp 8, I am currently using 5.13GB of my 6GB of memory. That is with the same board and same processor at virtually the same speed. The image itself has 4.6GB allocated to it, which is probably the default since I don't remember changing it. It looks like it is actually using just under 3.2GB or so at the moment.

 

[QES]

Hmm sounds good. I'm probably going to create a thread in the overclocking section sometime tonight or tomorrow and work on tweaking my voltages a little bit. I never fine tuned it too much, I did at 4.0 but when I backed down to 3.8 I just went by an educated guess of what I thought I could bring the voltages down too.

I'll run linx for awhile, heading over to a friends and probably will be there for 4 hours or so, if it's still running when I get back I'll let it go until I wake up.

Edit: What's the best way to run linx? been awhile since I have
Edit2: stock settings? Priority class is at normal, data alignment (KiB) is at 4, linpack32 max problem size is 15500, memory for OS at 5
Edit3: ha edit3, never done that before. So I come back and it passed 20 runs, i was expecting it to be running pretty much continuously, must have ran it wrong. Didn't BSOD though during that run at least.