New to Folding, what should I expect.

LiamJ · 18 Jan 2011 at 14:25

Hey everyone.

Started folding a few days ago, and everything seems to be running smoothly. I'm using FAH GPU Tracker V2, by the way.

I'm getting about 3k PPD on the GPU at the moment it seems, with WUs taking about 4 hours to complete on average. However, the SMP client has been running very slowly in comparison. Is this because the GPU client has priority over the SMP? I've been folding since 10am, but it has only completed about 8%. Is this normal?

Thanks for any help. Specs are in my sig.

Frozennova · 18 Jan 2011 at 14:42

ATI Gpus are weak in terms of PPD compared to the equivalent Nvidia card. a GTX460 is good for around 10-12k IIRC. What unit is the SMP client working on and what are the frame times like?

Biffa · 18 Jan 2011 at 14:46

Ati folding can be a b**** and I don't have a x2 to compare with. My Q6600 does 18 min per frame (or 1%) so I might think that an overclocked x2 does a little bit better than half, so maybe 30 minutes a frame isn't far off the mark where 8% = 4 hours.

But Ati cards eat CPU cycles and there are some enviroment variables you can use to alleviate that. They are:

BROOKE_YIELD 2
CAL_NO_FLUSH 1
CAL_PRE_FLUSH 1
FLUSH_INTERVAL 128

You need to set them in windows. Computer -> Properties -> Advanced System Settings -> Environment Variables -> System Variables -> New System Variable

Then add a new system variable for each of the above with the value indicated, reboot and then see how you get on.

LiamJ · 18 Jan 2011 at 14:56

Okay, added the environment variables. Any chance of explaining how these work? Will I notice a significant difference?

Frame times seem to be very close to your estimation actually Biffa. Didn't use a calculator, but 30-40 minutes seems about right, considering your performance with a Q6600.

Is a GTX460 really 3/4 times faster at Folding than a HD 6850? Is this to do with optimized code or something?

Will report back after a reboot. Thanks for the help guys, much appreciated.

Frozennova · 18 Jan 2011 at 15:06

If its a P6701 WU expect 24-30 mins a frame thats what I was getting on a Athlon II X2 @ 3.6ghz, 11-12mins frame for "shorter" work units.

Nvidia have worked with stanford optimizing the clients etc as well as CUDA being a Nvidia technology

adwol48 · 18 Jan 2011 at 15:06

yep gtx460 is 4x times faster at folding comapred to a 6970 in ppd terms.

my gtx 460 768 oc to 875Mhz produces close to 12.5k ppd where as my HD6970 oc modestly to 900Mhz can only produce 3.5k ppd.

LiamJ · 18 Jan 2011 at 15:09

Yeah, forgot to mention my 6850 is at 900/1100.

Currently the SMP client is running project 6025, according to FAH GPU Tracker. When I first tried folding, I was using the version that ran in a command prompt, and that seemed to be getting frame times of circa 10 minutes, so that was probably running a shorter WU.

Biffa · 18 Jan 2011 at 15:14

You should see lower CPU usage with those environment variables. Which should free up the cpu to do more on the smp client.

The 10 minute frame times were probably the non smp client with very low returns on the work unit.

Frozennova · 18 Jan 2011 at 15:16

On a P6025 I get 4:57 per frame, so you should see 11 mins per frame on that work unit give half the cores and 200mhz less clock speed

LiamJ · 18 Jan 2011 at 15:23

Okay, thanks Biffa.

Frozennova, I will attempt to record the length of the next frame.

Biffa · 18 Jan 2011 at 16:13

If you install HFM.NET it will give you all the stats you need

BaBa · 18 Jan 2011 at 16:15

You can see the frame times in GPU tracker, just click on the client on the left of the main window it will give you the client info including frame times.

LiamJ · 18 Jan 2011 at 16:26

BaBa said:
You can see the frame times in GPU tracker, just click on the client on the left of the main window it will give you the client info including frame times.

You wonderful, wonderful man. I presume the one labelled TPF is the one I'm looking at. If so, frame time appears to be 27:47. On a P6025, is this longer than it should be?

EDIT: FYI, just for reference, frame time on the GPU is at 2:30.

petriodet · 18 Jan 2011 at 20:41

LiamJ said:
You wonderful, wonderful man. I presume the one labelled TPF is the one I'm looking at. If so, frame time appears to be 27:47. On a P6025, is this longer than it should be?

EDIT: FYI, just for reference, frame time on the GPU is at 2:30.

it seem quite long but i don't know if thats normal for your cpu, i get a tpf of 10mins on an i5 laptop clocked to 2.5ghz seems steady at 3000ppd.

LiamJ · 19 Jan 2011 at 00:12

What project though? Surely a laptop CPU doesn't fold faster than mine.