Question about GPU usage

[DiamondLight]

Hello everyone,

I'm just wondering if it's normal for a "fold" to take ~7 hours for my GPU to complete? Whereas it's taking roughly ~2.5 hours for my CPU to complete a different "fold".

I'm using a laptop, and my specs are as follows:

CPU: Intel i7 4710MQ @2.5GHz
GPU: AMD Radeon R9 M290X @4GB
RAM: 16GB DDR3

I'm currently running the settings on medium so I can continue to browse, watch videos, streams, etc, while it folds. If this is a normal time to complete a fold for a GPU then no problem. Just wondering if I could boost the performance up so it folds faster or if it's already doing what it's supposed to be doing. I went into my catalyst and assigned all the folding@home programs to "High Performance" so I know it's working as hard as it should.

Thanks for your help.

[bruce]

Projects (like people) come in all sizes and shapes as do GPUs and CPUs. The time to complete an arbitrary project on similar hardware can vary quite significantly, too. A couple of general rules:
* Most GPUs are significantly faster that most CPUs, hence the points per WU will be higher.
* The time to complete a specific WU should be compared with the deadlines found here (as well in the header for this page).

Your goal should be to complete all projects as quickly as possible -- and certainly by the deadline.

[JonasTheMovie]

Using the slider and auto (-1), setting it to medium, makes the GPU fold only when idling. Correct?

[bruce]

The GPU runs when idling except if the slider is set to full -- unless you make settings that override the slider's ability to control things.