Folding@Home bigadv for Windows

Man of Honour
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At last! :cool: :D

I've switched over one of my i7's @3.9Ghz to see how it goes.
Current memory usage with -smp 7 is just under a a gig. TPF (well it hasn't finished 1% yet)

To switch to bigadv, I just shut down the service, ran configonly and turned off -advmethods and put -bigadv into the additional client parameters (you can do the same sort of thing with startup switches if thats what you prefer)

bigadav.jpg


After reading the thread, I've switched to -smp with 8 cores as this machine only has one GTX470 in it, so I'll see how it goes like that. with -smp 7 I was getting >1hr TPF's

But then this machine was the one that was rubbish at bigadv in a vmware session.


Project 2684 On Windows Natively With A3 Core + Mini-Guide

PantherX said:
Introduction:
Finally after a long wait, bigadv is now available on Windows Natively: (compiled from different posts in this forum)
kasson said:
We've turned off bigadv on linux for the time being. We're switching bigadv over to A3, but as you may have noticed there's a bug in the linux A3 core that affects bigadv stability. We've been working on the bug, but it's still in hiding at this time. If you're running VM's under windows, I'd suggest trying the native windows client, which is still enabled for bigadv. OS/X is also still enabled. Run with the -bigadv command line option. Depending on the work unit availability, machines requesting bigadv may roll over to normal -advmethods.
More info here. Please note that it hasn't been updated for Windows yet, but it can give you a general idea about the bigadv WUs.


Running bigadv WUs:
1) A system with 8 or more Physical Cores. (MUST READ NOTE #1)
2) Download the latest SMP2 Client: <Click>
3) Install the SMP2 Client by following this guide or this one.
4) If you want to take advantage of the Bonus Points (highly recommended), make sure that your Passkey/Username is already qualified.
5) Run the Client with these flags before it downloads the WU:
-verbosity 9 -bigadv -smp
6) Windows OS 32/64 bit.

Notes:
1) Those of you running Intel Core i7-800 Series CPU or Intel Core i7-900 Series CPU will notice that in the Task Manager and Device Manager, 8 CPUs will be shown and may assume that your system is capable of running bigadv. This isn't the case. The fact of the matter is that these CPUs are Quad Cores with HT (Hyper-Threading) thus you have 4 Physical Cores with 8 Threads while Standford recommends 8 Physical Cores. The only reason you can obtain these bigadv WUs is because of a loophole(confirm?) in the detection mechanism of the Client which reports 8 Cores to the Servers. HOWEVER, if you have an Intel Core i7 system that is Overclocked and stable, you can try running the bigadv WUs and see if your system can fold within the Preferred Deadline. Please see Minimum CPU Speed For Each CPU Model below for more details.
2) The minimum amount of RAM is 0.50 GB/Core which turns out to be 4 GB. The recommended is 0.75 GB/Core which equates to 6 GB. The more-than-enough is 1 GB/Core which results in 8 GB. Note that 32-bit OS can't use RAM sizes above 4 GB. (This is the Official requirement for Linux and OSX. There isn't any Official word for Windows yet but RAM Usage for F@H Client is generally <2 GB)
3) If you are already running the latest SMP2 Client and have been qualified for the Bonus Points, use the -oneunit flag. After the Client exits, replace -advemthods flag (if you have it) with -bigadv flag.
4) If you forget to use the -smp flag, your Client will download a Classic WU which will use only one core/thread regardless of how many you have.
5) If you forget to use the -bigadv flag but are using the -smp flag, your Client will download a normal a3 WU.
6) New users should first obtain the passkey so that they can take advantage of the Bonus Points. I recommend that they qualify for the Bonus Points by first folding normal a3 WUs and once they become eligible for the Bonus Points, they can try folding bigadv WUs.
7) The current Project 2684 has a Preferred Deadline of 4 days which would mean that if you want to get Bonus Points, your TPF should be less than 57:36 otherwise you will exceed the Preferred Deadline and will only get Base Credits which is 8955.


Preliminary Results:
Please use this format to submit the data:

  • Project #: 2684
    Average TPF:
    CPU Model:
    CPU Speed:
    # of CPU sockets:
    # of cores/threads available:
    # of threads used by fahCore_a3:
    RAM installed:
    RAM used (F@H):
    OS:
    Dedicated:
Explanation Of The Terms:
Project #: 2684 -> This is the only Project available to Windows Users.
Average TPF: -> The Average Time Per Frame for this Project. You can use HFM.NET to get this data.
CPU Model: -> What is the Processor's Model that you are using?
CPU Speed: -> What speed is your Processor running at?
# of CPU sockets: -> Most motherboards have 1 CPU Socket. The exceptions are server motherboards and EVGA SR-2.
# of cores/threads available: -> The number of Physical Cores followed by the number of Threads available.
# of threads used by fahCore_a3: -> How many cores/threads have you dedicated to F@H Client?
RAM installed: -> How much RAM is installed in your system?
RAM used (F@H): -> How much RAM F@H Client is using while processing the WU. The value can be found in the Task Manager under the Processes Tab.
OS: -> What version of Windows are you using and is it 32 or 64 bit?
Dedicated: -> Is you system folding 24/7 or do you use it for other purposes?

Reading The Data:
CPU Model---CPU Speed---RAM Used (F@H)---SMP X---TPF---OS---32/64---Notes---Username
Code:
2 x Xeon X5650---2.66---1.45---24---25:15---Win 7---64---Notes---ahu
2 X Xeon X5650---4.07---1.40---24---17:03---Win 7---64---Dedicated---Parja
Xeon L5640---3.79---1.20---12---Win 7---64---Notes---brentpresley
i7 980X---4.40---1.13---12---30:05/30:23---Win 7---64---Not Dedicated---Kougar
i7 980X---4.00---1.13/1.15---12---31:26---Win XP---64---Notes---pholcman
i7 980X---3.86---RAM Used (F@H)---12---32:16---OS---32/64---Notes---fiCaks
i7 980X---3.78---RAM Used (F@H)---12---35:03---Win 7---64---Dedicated---Mactin
i7 950---3.77---RAM Used (F@H)---SMP X---52:17---OS---32/64---Not Dedicated---rickoic
i7 930---4.00---RAM Used (F@H)---8---43:57/45:27---Win 7---64---Notes---uncle fuzzy
i7 930---3.80---1.00---8---47:20/46:06---Win 7---64---Not Dedicated---Zagen30
i7 930---3.52---1.00---8---51:28---Win 7---64---Not Dedicated---cordis
i7 920---3.90---1.00---8---47:00---Win 7---64---Not Dedicated---the animal
i7 920---3.88---RAM Used (F@H)---SMP X---51:50---OS---32/64---Dedicated---rickoic
i7 920---3.80---1.01---8---45:45---OS--32/64---Notes---10e
i7 920---2.22/3.70---RAM Used (F@H)---SMP X---56:25---OS---32/64---Dedicated---rickoic
i7 860---3.80---0.96---7---52:09---Win 7---64---Not Dedicated---PantherX
i7 860---3.36---1.00---8---56:49---Win XP---32---Not Dedicated---cordis
Minimum CPU Speed For Each CPU Model:
Core i7-860 - 3.36 @ -smp 8 OR 3.80 @ -smp 7
Core i7-860S -
Core i7-870 -
Core i7-875K -
Core i7-880 -
Core i7-920 - 3.80 @ -smp 8
Core i7-930 - 3.52 @ -smp 8
Core i7-940 -
Core i7-950 - 3.77 @ -smp 8
Core i7-960 -
Core i7-965 Extreme Edition -
Core i7-975 Extreme Edition -
Core i7-980X - 3.78 @ -smp 12


Observations:
1) Please remember that all these values are calculated from Project 2684. Future Projects may decrease/increase these requirements.
2) This category of WUs is classified as trial.


Can somebody verify that the maximum TPF to get the Bonus Points is correct?
If you want more data columns to be added, please tell me and I will try my best to do so.
If I have made a mistake, please tell me so that I can correct it.

Thanks to whoever came up with the data format.
Thanks to DonMarkoni who suggested that I elaborate on Intel Core i7 Series which will help new users.
 
Last edited:
Soldato
Joined
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Location
Sheffield/Norwich
I may give this a try in a bit :D

I'm fairly confused by their recommended minimum CPU speeds though. There doesn't seem to be any consistency. If an i7 920 can do it at 3.8GHz -smp 8, why does an i7 980X need 3.78GHz -smp 12, yet an i7 930 can do with 3.52GHz -smp 8?

Edit: How're your frame times on -smp 8?

Edit2: Hmmm, it doesn't seem able to connect to the Work Server. Using client 6.29. Looks like I may be switching back to A3 :mad:
 
Last edited:
Man of Honour
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Just noticed that my cpu was dropping to 12 multi every 2 minutes or so for 30 seconds. Might account for the poor output I've had with this system. :(

Bit of bios tweaking and we are back at full speed, lets see if the TPF starts to drop down to what other people are getting.
 
Associate
Joined
1 May 2007
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2,354
Location
London
Doing good here on the good old dual X5450. Put the sucker up to 3.2 thanks to setfsb and I'm seeing a TPF of 43:31. The half GB per core is really ott for A3 bigadv units. All 8 cores going with -smp 8 given and 100% cpu time dedicated to the A3 core file, only 1.4GB is used by the A3 process.

Happy, not sure if you're still stuck but you did navigate inside the command prompt to the folder where the client is installed right?
 
Man of Honour
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install.bat only runs the following commands:

@Echo off
smpd -install
mpiexec -register
mpiexec -np 2 foo
pause

the programs smpd and mpiexec should be in your folding folder for it to work.
 
Man of Honour
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Joined
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Posts
15,807
Location
Surrey
Different machines I have seem to be more or less stable with or without it, YMMV so test it out and see.

A couple of updates to this post. If you install the newest client (6.30) from here then its worth noting that it doesn't need the mpiexec stuff any more which uses much less resources and is much more stable and portable.

What I did was:
Stop folding
Start folding with the -oneunit flag and let it finish the unit you are working on.
Then stop folding again
Install the new version (copy into fah folder)
Then do a reverse of whats in the install.bat, so cd to the folding folder and typed:

mpiexec -unregister
(this removes the mpiexec service)

smpd -uninstall
(this removes the account login from the registry)

Then delete mpich*.* from the folder
Then delete install.bat from the folder
For good measure I deleted the work folder as well (all units were finished and sent)

Much cleaner and neater :) Seems very stable as well.
 
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