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.
Seems very stable as well.