A few questions, CPU usage and points on same ID?

[timberwolf]

Hi everyone,
First off I'd like to say that I'm a first time user to this software and have a few questions.
Firstly - I'm running this on a mac mini with a core i7-3720QM. From what I've been able to read, documentation says light mode should use around 50 to 60 percent of your CPU.
Seeing as how I'm a blind user, I actually can't see the slider to change this to an even lower percentage. Is there an alternative way to do this, be it command line or otherwise? The only reason I ask is the fan gets a little too wild, and I sleep in the same room as this machine.
Secondly, I registered for a passkey. Will putting the ID I selected along with this passkey on multiple machines increase my points in general or will it simply be each machine is separate? If the latter, how can I make my point total increase using multiple computers?
And finally, does the GPU part of this support intel hd graphics? I only see ATI and Nvidia, but most of mine are intel - has this been slipped in as a hidden update or maybe the documentation is a few years old?
Sorry for all the questions, and I really hope I put this in the right place.
I love the idea of this and want to help where I can.
Thanks!

[jrweiss]

You may want to buy a quieter fan (or auxiliary cooler plate for a laptop) rather than slow down the Folding any more. Bonus points are significantly reduced with longer ETAs.

You can use the same User ID / Team number / Passkey combination on as many computers as you wish. That will maximize the point credit to your account.

Integrated graphics on the CPU are not supported. Most mainstream ATI and nVidia GPUs are supported, though the cheapest ones may not be fast enough to meet deadlines. An nVidia GTX-750ti would make an excellent entry-level GPU for Folding.

[timberwolf]

Hi,
I've tried the cooling pad before with this particular machine and it doesn't seem to make much difference.
I don't mind having CPU usage maxed on most machines including this one, however when I'm sleeping, I was wondering if there was a way to bring it down, even temporarily while I slept apart from pausing it.
In terms of graphics card, the only discrete I have an ATI Radeon R5 230/HD 6450. Would this be enough to have a go at GPU calculations? All my other ones are intel, or older dedicated AMD cards that would probably never stand a chance anyway.
One more question. How exactly are daily points calculated? This particular machine is hovering around 13000 or so, but every once in a while dips down to 10000. Is this because of other things using the CPU temporarily? Does it calculate it the instant you click on the web gui from the system tray, or just get a daily average?
thanks
PS: Are there any specific teams on this forum? Or how do you pick a team number?

[Rel25917]

Points per day as reported from the client software is an estimate based on the last few frames of the currently running work units on the machine. Using the machine for other stuff will bring the numbers down for a while. Work from different projects can have different ppd too. I'm not an AMD guy so can't comment on the R5 card.

[7im]

The forum is agnostic. No commercial links, no expressed preferences for hardware or software, and no team promotions permitted to keep the forum fair for everyone.

You may look at the Team stats to see if there is a group that you are familiar with. The list is also searchable. And better to find a team with like interests. AMD donors may find an NVidia based team a little awkward.

[timberwolf]

Hi,
Thanks for both of those replies.
So no way to get CPU usage below 60 percent than apart from the slider?
Will sure take a look at those teams.
thanks!

[Joe_H]

You can set the CPU usage below what the slider will do, but it takes opening up the Configure pane of FAHControl to do so.

Your Mac Mini's i7 has 4 cores, with HT that is seen as 8. The Light setting uses half the available cores, or 4. The only other slider settings are Medium which uses one less CPU core than the maximum available, and Full which uses all available cores.

To go lower, on the configure pane the thread count setting would have to be changed from a -1 which leaves the setting to the slider, and set to a value between 1 and the maximum number of cores you have. A setting of 2 or 3 should use less power and run the cooling fan at a slower speed.

Possibly the number could be set through the command line, FAHClient will accept commands through a telnet port into it. Some users have posted scripts in the past to do things such as pause the client, restart it, and the like. I just have not seen this particular usage, and have not tested this out myself.

On you GPU folding question, your Radeon GPU should be able to fold on a Windows or Linux system. However I don't know how that ranks for computing power, so it might be marginal for folding current GPU WU's. Perhaps someone who has used one for folding will comment on this.

[bruce]

With a hyper- threaded Quad CPU, reducing the number of threads that FAH runs from 8 to 4 doesn't really reduce the throughput or heat very much. Further reducing it to 3 would have a much more profound effect on your fan noise (but you have to make that change using the Advanced Control program, not the slider). This is not a recommendation; you'll need to decide for yourself.

I think Intel graphics only comes as an integrated graphics adapter. (Correct me if I'm wrong.) Inasmuch as their integrated graphics adapters depend on the same hardware for Floating Point Arithmetic as the CPU uses, there's no reason to support both. Folding with an Intel CPU is just as productive as folding on their iGPU so adding support for them would be a wasted effort.

[jrweiss]

In terms of graphics card, the only discrete I have an ATI Radeon R5 230/HD 6450. Would this be enough to have a go at GPU calculations?

How exactly are daily points calculated? This particular machine is hovering around 13000 or so, but every once in a while dips down to 10000. Is this because of other things using the CPU temporarily? Does it calculate it the instant you click on the web gui from the system tray, or just get a daily average?

PS: Are there any specific teams on this forum? Or how do you pick a team number?

The HD6450 is technically supported; but it is at the low end, so you would have to try it and see if it will meet deadlines in your rig.

Point count estimate will vary widely at the beginning of a WU, but stabilize as the WU gets closer to finishing. It is a dynamic estimate, so current usage will have an effect. You're better off to look up your ID on one of the statistics servers, like the Extreme OC link at the top of the page. They have all kinds of charts you can look at.

If you don't join a team (by simply entering its number in the client setup), you will be on the "default" team.

[bruce]

It should be noted that the projected PPD is based on the current rate of progress. In essence, it assumes that as soon as you finish the current WU, you'll start working on a similar WU. The reported PPD in the stats depends on WUs that have actually finished. For example, if you complete a WU that took you two days to complete, you'll get both today's ponts and yesterday's points all at one time so there's a mountain to make up for yesterday's valley.

[Joe_H]

In my post I mentioned that probably the CPU usage setting could be set through the command line. I had some free time this afternoon to look into that and have figured out how to to that using the telnet interface to FAHClient.

I did this on OS X 10.10.5 using V7.4.4 of the folding client. First a terminal window will need to be opened using the Terminal app in the Utilities folder. At the command line prompt in Terminal, enter the following command:

Code: Select all

telnet 127.0.0.1 36330

That will open up a connection on the localhost interface using port 36330, and you should get the following response:

Code: Select all

Welcome to the Folding@home Client command server.
>

One of the commands that will be accepted is help, which returns a list of usable commands and their syntax. An example command to set the number of CPU's to be used to the value of 2 and the response is the following:

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> slot-modify 0 cpu cpus=2
PyON 1 slot-modify
{"cpus": "2"}
---
>

The '0' is for slot zero which is the default if you only have one folding slot, 'cpu' is for the type of folding slot, and 'cpus=2' sets the core count to 2. You can substitute other values for the number of cores as appropriate, or '-1' to resume to the default of following the slider setting.

To finish and exit the Folding@home Client command server, enter the command 'quit' at the prompt:

Code: Select all

> quit
Connection closed by foreign host.

These commands could be automated into scripts that you could run when you want to reduce CPU usage before sleeping, and then use to reset the values to normal during the day.

Currently there sometimes are shortages of WU's that will be assigned to a CPU setting of 1, but any value of 2 or more should be able to get work assignments. A WU that you already have been assigned should run okay, but slower, at a CPU setting of 1. You might have to watch for deadlines if the WU spends too much time processing at the lowest CPU setting.

[timberwolf]

Hi,
Thanks for all the replies, very much appreciated.
Re: The GPU. I'm seeing only 1 estimate of how much time remaining, should I be seeing two if the CPU and GPU are working independantly of each other? Or do they both work on the same project at the same time and it's simply an estimated time?
I went hunting today and forgot that I have an old mac mini early 2009 as well. I believe, though I can't be sure as it's internal hard drive isn't functioning, that it had a descrete graphics card - I want to say it was an NVIDIA GeForce 9400M.
As this is about 7 years old, would it even be worth using assuming I can get mac or windows to run on an external hard drive? Or would the GPU be well below my AMD Radion I'm currently using?
As far as telnet, would these commands you posted here work under windows's command prompt as well assuming that telnet was installed?
It appears, when clicking on statistics, I'm using a previously used ID. Can I switch ID's, or will my points be reset? Alternatively is there a way to see how many points I myself have contributed to this ID rather than the other person using it (apparently all the way back in 2012, amazing).
And finally, my last question. Got out an old HP DM3 with an AMD Neo in it. According to task manager, the F@H process was only taking0 to 60 % of the CPU, and system idle according to windows was around 40 to 50. Even though it was set to full. Is this a processor limitation or is there something else I should be aware of? As all the other machines I've run this on it lets it use all available resources. Does F@H use any hard drive or anything?
Again, thanks for all the valuable suggestions and help so far.

[bruce]

You should be seeing separate ETAs. Each slot works independently and you should see a CPU slot and a GPU slot with separate assignments.

Post a few pages of your log.

There were several variations of GeForce 9400M. Most are not supported. The ION variation is supported but only just barely. It would be less than your HD 6450.

FAH doesn't care what disk drive you have as long as it can find a place to put its files.

If you've installed the Windows Telnet, yes, it will work, but the default end-of-line character has to be altered from the Linux default or the messages will be hard to read. I thing there's a way to set that, but I don't remember how.

[Joe_H]

As far as telnet, would these commands you posted here work under windows's command prompt as well assuming that telnet was installed?

The commands should work the same on a Windows install of Folding@home. If the Windows system has more than one folding slot, you will have to identify which slot number is the CPU folding slot, it might not be slot 0.

One issue mentioned by persons who have used telnet on Windows in the past is that the version provided with Windows does not work correctly with the folding client. Third party telnet apps such as Putty can be configured to properly handle the entry of commands.

It appears, when clicking on statistics, I'm using a previously used ID. Can I switch ID's, or will my points be reset? Alternatively is there a way to see how many points I myself have contributed to this ID rather than the other person using it (apparently all the way back in 2012, amazing).

If you happened to use a user ID that was previously used, a search of the official stats where you enter both the username and your passkey will only show your points and WU totals.

The other part of your question was what happens to points if you switch ID's. They won't go away or anything, but they will stay credited the ID and team they were submitted under. The Pande Group does not move credits to new user ID's.

[bruce]

The other part of your question was what happens to points if you switch ID's. They won't go away or anything, but they will stay credited the ID and team they were submitted under. The Pande Group does not move credits to new user ID's.

Though you didn't ask, the same thing happens if you switch Passkeys. If you change EITHER your ID or your passkey, you'll have to qualify that new combination.
The points will stay credited the ID and team and passkey they were submitted under.