Discussion: what is holding F@h back?

[bruce]

Connecting to other clients would be very simple if security were no concern. There are many dozens of non-FAH firewall/antivirus/security options for three OS platforms which must be breached by FAH while not exposing your computer to unexpected risks. Any expert may be able to do that for their platform but being able to do that simply for the novice on any platform is virtually impossible and beyond the scope of Folding.

[billford]

On the Teams and Stas page it says:

On this page you will find access to statistics for individuals and teams who have joined together to earn points and compete with other teams. Some of us are quite intense in our approach to folding. We have team websites, we supe up our computers...

My bold.

When I started folding I looked at those stats and they nearly put me off the idea. I'm just an ordinary Joe using spare capacity on the "domestic" computers I have available, that returns me a PPD of around 19-20K. Some people are throwing multiple GPU setups at the task and getting PPDs that are orders of magnitudes higher than anything I can hope to achieve.

That's not a criticism- good luck to them, but I simply can't compete and, looking at the third-party stats especially, nor can most people. Would it help if there were some way of splitting stats into two (or more) "leagues"- GPUs and CPUs maybe?

[ChristianVirtual]

anything I can hope to achieve.

That's not a criticism- good luck to them, but I simply can't compete and, looking at the third-party stats especially, nor can most people. Would it help if there were some way of splitting stats into two (or more) "leagues"- GPUs and CPUs maybe?

Anything you contribute and achieve is helping. Don't worry. And 19kPPD is quite good !
Though I don't think we should split up the stats; just choose a team you think fits your style and compare/compete within that group. That's what I do: In my team (not telling which one) I'm in top 10; being honest: feels good; in other teams I would be so many pages down the lines; which feels naturally less good if you do folding also as kind of sport. Just don't compare with the others team. Those high performer are really an exception. We have 280'000 folder right now; with 20kPPD your in the top of the 90% majority not folding on multiple rigs with 1000th of watts. Which makes you a top contributor, seriously.
And we need more of members like you ! Another 100'000 folder x 20kPPD are 2 billion daily points; lots science.

[ChristianVirtual]

First step is to join the beta team.

Then review: viewtopic.php?f=86&t=21367

First step: done
Second step: read, interesting.

Is it appropriate to resurrect old threads ? Then I would move over ...

[P5-133XL]

Is it appropriate to resurrect old threads ? Then I would move over ...

If the thread is still pertinent then no problem. If a thread already exists, then it is preferable to use it rather than starting a new one covering similar ground.

[billford]

Though I don't think we should split up the stats; just choose a team you think fits your style and compare/compete within that group. That's what I do: In my team (not telling which one) I'm in top 10; being honest: feels good; in other teams I would be so many pages down the lines; which feels naturally less good if you do folding also as kind of sport. Just don't compare with the others team.

That's all perfectly valid- my difficulty is that I'm most emphatically not a team animal- I compete on my own account. About the nearest I've ever come to participating in a team is having a partner at bridge

But I appreciate that's my problem, nobody else's, maybe I'll have a look at some of the teams.

We have 280'000 folder right now; with 20kPPD your in the top of the 90% majority not folding on multiple rigs with 1000th of watts. Which makes you a top contributor, seriously.
And we need more of members like you ! Another 100'000 folder x 20kPPD are 2 billion daily points; lots science.

That's all nice to know, thank you

(Strictly speaking I use multiple rigs, but there's only one decent machine (this quad-core iMac) that produces 60% of the PPD. The others are old kit, laptops etc all running with the display off, the four of them only take about 250 watts in total which isn't a problem. If nothing else, at this time of year in the British climate it's 250W that the heating doesn't have to provide )

[art_l_j_PlanetAMD64]

On the Teams and Stas page it says:

On this page you will find access to statistics for individuals and teams who have joined together to earn points and compete with other teams. Some of us are quite intense in our approach to folding. We have team websites, we supe up our computers...

My bold.

When I started folding I looked at those stats and they nearly put me off the idea. I'm just an ordinary Joe using spare capacity on the "domestic" computers I have available, that returns me a PPD of around 19-20K. Some people are throwing multiple GPU setups at the task and getting PPDs that are orders of magnitudes higher than anything I can hope to achieve.

That's not a criticism- good luck to them, but I simply can't compete and, looking at the third-party stats especially, nor can most people. Would it help if there were some way of splitting stats into two (or more) "leagues"- GPUs and CPUs maybe?

I have always looked at the points awarded for completing WUs mainly as an encouragement, and less as a "competition".

But the main point of Folding, in my opinion, is to help PG/Stanford University with their biomedical research, to try to develop treatments/cures for a lot of pretty horrible diseases.

I have 2 close friends who have MS; my electrical contractor, and the contractor who is installing the granite countertops in my main kitchen. They are both very interested in my contribution to the FAH project, as it could affect them directly.

There is a whole Topic here on "Why are you folding?", at this link.

Sure, I make "a lot" of points now, but it was not always that way.

When I first joined the PlanetAMD64 team, I made about 100 PPD. It was many months, literally, before I made as many as 1000 PPD.

So, you are starting out, about 2 orders of magnitude higher than my own starting PPD.

Cheers,
Art

[billford]

But the main point of Folding, in my opinion, is to help PG/Stanford University with their biomedical research, to try to develop treatments/cures for a lot of pretty horrible diseases.

That's my main motive too, but there's still an element of competition… eg there's one donor whose PPD is very close to mine, and it irritates the hell out of me when he gets a big WU and jumps me

[art_l_j_PlanetAMD64]

But the main point of Folding, in my opinion, is to help PG/Stanford University with their biomedical research, to try to develop treatments/cures for a lot of pretty horrible diseases.

That's my main motive too, but there's still an element of competition… eg there's one donor whose PPD is very close to mine, and it irritates the hell out of me when he gets a big WU and jumps me

Yeah, I've had that situation as well.

There was one guy at PlanetAMD64, who was, to put it very bluntly, extremely rude and condescending to me personally. When I would make a post about a recent upgrade that increased my contribution to FAH, he would taunt me, saying that my efforts were pointless, and that I would never catch him, in terms of 'Total FAH Points'.

He and I were 'locked', for many months, neck-and-neck in a competition for the 'top spot' on the PlanetAMD64 team, in terms of points-per-week (PPW) gained. Rather than becoming discouraged, I decided that 'the best revenge, is to be successful'.

So I kept upgrading "The Farm", to the point that I am now #4 (among "real people", as "anonymous/Default" is not a "real person") in terms of points-per-week (PPW) gained.

For your own situation, there are a couple of recommendations that I can make, to increase your PPD values.

My BIOS settings for the "best" performance are shown here. You can make similar BIOS settings as is appropriate for your motherboard.

My Windows 'power and screensaver' configuration for the "best" performance is shown here. Other system types (eg Mac computers) may have similar settings, but I have no personal experience in that area.

These settings should apply to most CPU/Motherboard/GPU combinations, to help to increase your PPD values.

I hope this helps!

Cheers,
Art

[billford]

My "rival" doesn't seem to have posted anything that I can find so I won't name him. It's all in good fun anyway- a bit of teasing is OK, but I've been a moderator on various forums over the years and personal comments/rudeness would attract a warning followed by a ban

For your own situation, there are a couple of recommendations that I can make, to increase your PPD values.

My "farm" is 2 iMacs and 3 laptops so BIOS options are limited or not available and I can't actually turn the displays off, only the backlights, but the settings I've ended up with are broadly equivalent to the ones you suggest. With nothing else running the FAH cores use around 97-98% CPU time, so I don't think there's much else I can do without shutting down some system processes, which would probably be a little counter-productive

I may be getting a PC (3GHz Core i5) shortly to have more of a play with Linux than my old laptop can manage, I've noted your BIOS suggestions and will try them when I've decided which distro I like best and can install F@H- thanks for the tips.