A few questions

[Jazzaboy]

So, I've been running F@H for a while now, but I want to know how to maximize my PPD.

Here's my system info:



What client should I be running and is there anything I can do to increase my PPD?

[MtM]

Tough call. That gpu will struggle allot, not enough shaders. Your cpu is on the slow side for smp currently, and having 1gb or ram isn't helping much either.

To be sure, try running each option and monitoring with hfm.net or fahmon writing down ppd and then deciding for yourself. If you want to measure accurate ppd I would try the v6 clients with the 3rd party monitors mentioned before, v7 has no support yet and the v7 control interface doesn't calculate qrb yet.

Edit: I really think 1gb is on the short side for smp currently, anyone want to confirm Never ran with less then 2gb and even then I had wu's which went over 1gb iirc, but when I check taskman I only have fahcore_a4 using 30mb That's not much at all, and I haven't really kept up with min memory requirements since I have 2gb in my htpc which is to slow for smp anyway and 4 and 8gb in my two other systems. Which is also confirming the same memory usage.

[ChasR]

It should work with 1 GB. Most a3 smp WUs use around 100K of ram. Run one SMP slot for best ppd on the cpu. The 8600 GT is known to fail regularly on some WU types so I wouldn't bother with it. In my opinion it is below the minimum to fold on.

[7im]

To answer the original question, you can improve PPD by overclocking the chip, and running an SMP slot if not doing so already. This midrange GPU probably won't score more than the SMP client. And adding a GPU slot to an existing SMP slot will probably slow down the SMP client to where the total PPD from both clients is less. If the GPU was high end instead of a midrange card, it might be a different story.

If you did want to play with a GPU slot, you would need to fix the GPU drivers. The screen shot shows "CUDA: Not detected" so a driver clean and driver update would be needed to test a GPU client in V7.

1 GB is actually a good amount of memory for XP, and a good amount for an SMP client running on 2 cores. Going to 2 GB isn't going to speed up the system, not like it would if this was Vista or Win 7. Overclock the memory as well, or run with the tightest timings that are still stable. And test for stability with more than just Prime 95 if you do OC things.

Then save your pennies for a new BD next year.

[MtM]

The 8600 isn't a midrange card, not anymore at least

ChasR just said it won't run all work units, I know from what I read here that 8400 isn't cutting it anymore but I don't think it's that unlikely that ChasR is wrong unless you can expand on why you think you?

[7im]

Welcome to the forum Jazzaboy.

[MtM]

That gpu however will struggle since it lacks shaders and those that are there are low clocked and use the narrowest/slowest memory bus with the exception of the 8400gs. That card is low end right now. As I said, run the clients, look if you can make the deadline's and monitor and compare ppd and ideally how much power you're using to obtain those results. Then you can always make up your mind if it's worth it or not.

It's important to know how many hours that machine folds. If not enough for smp you will be running classic wu's some of which with QRB some of which are not.

[7im]

Original question...

... I want to know how to maximize my PPD.
What client should I be running and is there anything I can do to increase my PPD?

The best option for your hardware is to run the SMP client only, both v6 and V7 work well. Overclocking the processor and memory is another option to bring in more PPD, if you feel comfortable tweaking hardware. And while I'm not sure how much improvement adding more memory would bring, memory is inexpensive and I feel that 2 GB would be better than 1 GB.

With your specific hardware, running both an SMP and GPU client would not increase total output.

Then save your pennies for an eventual Bulldozer upgrade.

[Racer43]

I'm running an Athlon 64 X2 5000+ (SMP) and the AMD 6570 (GPU2); I'm averaging about 2000 ppd. The GPU uses about 18 % of cpu, even with environtmental variables set (after experimentation). I would suspect a low-mid NVidia card would offer more ppd with not a lot of CPU stealing; I've never run any NVIdia card on my system do I don't know for sure.