Points Delay? PPD?

[tyj8tim]

Hello all!
I've been folding for almost 2 months now and just today I discover I can check my PPD (Points-Per-Day).

I have 3 computers running it (Stats read from HFM 0.5.1)

All running GPU3 and SMP2.

1st computer
Q9450 - ~2600PPD
8800GT - ~4000PPD
8800GT - ~4000PPD
Total - ~10600PPD

2nd computer
i5-750 - ~5000PPD
9800GT - ~5000PPD
Total - ~10000PPD

3rd computer
E6550 - ~1300PPD
8800GT - ~4400PPD
Tatal - ~5700PPD

Total between three computer is ~26300PPD.

However, I'm not getting that much points each day only about ~18000PPD on average. That's about ~30% loss.

So is there a delay in points or something? I don't get where my other ~8300PPD disappeared off to hehe.

Thanks for any help provided. Let me know if you want more information.

[the animal]

Are you using a passkey for your SMP2 clients? HFM assumes you are & includes bonus points.

[tyj8tim]

I thought I don't need to use passkeys to get the points?

[PantherX]

Welcome to the F@H Forum tyj8tim,

Passkey is need for SMP2 Clients to enable the bonus feature. More details can be read here. I highly recommend that you use it on all your F@H Clients (PS3 doesn't have this feature) for security reasons. Make sure that you keep the same Username/Passkey combination across all your F@H Clients if you are folding under one Username. Passkey can be obtained from here.

[kiore]

I thought I don't need to use passkeys to get the points?

You don't need the passkey to get points, but you do need one to get the bonuses (currently only on the SMP), which you seem to be running. Reconfig with the passkey and you will start getting those bonuses, probably a good idea to add them to all your clients but at the very least you will need them for your SMPs, you will then need to complete 10 SMP units with 80% success rate to qualify, as you are running 3 SMPs that should only take a couple of days.

[tyj8tim]

Ohh, thanks for the fast response! How do I know if the passkeys are working? all those time i didn't get bonus =(

[Zagen30]

You can use the official stats to just track work returned under a passkey. If you only put the passkey on your SMP clients to begin with, you'll see when you hit 10 completed. After that, if you record the number of points on each update, you might be able to tell from the difference between updates whether the bonuses are being earned. The third-party stats sites can make that easier, as they calculate 3-hour point totals automatically.

[guest3412]

Passkeys.... only apply to SMP clients for Bonus Points? Would using a Passkey on a GPU client earn bonus points? If only SMP clients are eligible for bonuses then no passkeys are needed if you do not run SMP, is that right?

[Zagen30]

Passkeys don't really do anything for the GPU or Classic clients right now other than verify that it's definitely you who's returning them, as opposed to someone just typing in your username and team number. In the future, though, the Pande Group may decide to incorporate the bonus structure for GPU and/or Classic projects. You don't need a passkey for non-SMP clients, but it can't hurt and may save you some qualifying time in the future should PG deicde to implement bonuses elsewhere.

[guest3412]

is there any postings that back up that Pande is planning to implement bonuses on anything else (GPU/classic)? or is it a assumption/guess?

[kiore]

is there any postings that back up that Pande is planning to implement bonuses on anything else (GPU/classic)? or is it a assumption/guess?

Assumption/guess/hope.. certainly would be useful to implement for the GPU client, it was first trialled for the bigadvanced, then for the normal SMP, so people anticipate, as it has seemed to be a success, that it will also extend on to the GPU (at least).

[Flathead74]

is there any postings that back up that Pande is planning to implement bonuses on anything else (GPU/classic)? or is it a assumption/guess?

Assumption/guess/hope.. certainly would be useful to implement for the GPU client, it was first trialled for the bigadvanced, then for the normal SMP, so people anticipate, as it has seemed to be a success, that it will also extend on to the GPU (at least).

Bonus points are good so far as pushing for a quicker return of work units is concerned,
but if/when the servers go down, unless the servers come back on-line in time,
you lose all of your bonus points and are only credited for only the base score.

As it is, I would wager that many folks lost many bonus points yesterday, (July 28) due to server outages or non-connection issues.

[7im]

Loosing points when servers go down is not a new problem. Before the QRB, you would still loose all your points if the server didn't come back online before the final deadline on your WU expired. Same applies now.

Only the urgency to get the server fixed has changed because the bonus points ticks off for every minute the server stays offline after your WU completes.

The higher points in the bonus system that you get each and every day easily compensate for an occasional server outage. No use lamenting about it. It's just a fact of life.

[Zagen30]

is there any postings that back up that Pande is planning to implement bonuses on anything else (GPU/classic)? or is it a assumption/guess?

Assumption/guess/hope.. certainly would be useful to implement for the GPU client, it was first trialled for the bigadvanced, then for the normal SMP, so people anticipate, as it has seemed to be a success, that it will also extend on to the GPU (at least).

Yeah, I can't find any PG member posts actually commenting about bonuses for other clients. There were several suggestions by ordinary users around the time the 6701's were released to that effect, and I misremembered that as having come from a verified source.

[7im]

The standard CPU client fahcores, like fahcore_78, do not support the bonus feature. We saw the same thing with older fahcores in the SMP client. a2s supported a bonus, but the older a1s did not.

So for now, no bonus is possible on the CPU client, IMO (based on the age of the _78 and other fahcores). Not until the CPU project fahcores get an update is a bonus even possible. I assume the servers may need an upgrade also.

The answer for GPU clients is not so clear, IMO. Overall, the GPU line is updated more frequently. However, I'm guessing that OpenCL is the top priority right now, and that if bonuses are in the future for GPUs, they will either come with OCL, or after OCL, (or never?)

Like Zagen said, PG hasn't posted one way or the other. But all the same advantages explained in the SMP bonus system would seem to also apply to how the CPU and GPU clients function, so it is natural to assume the QRB will be extended to those clients at some future date.


P.S. I recommend using passkeys on all clients that suppor them (sorry PS#, maybe the next client update). It has other features... as example, it protects your points if someone should decide to create a trojan fah installer using your same user name.

And if PG decides to add a bonus at some future point, do you really want to have to go around to all your clients and add a passkey at the last minute? Easier to do sooner than later, at your convenience.