Folding Forum

Fairly sure at least one of the large institutional contributors (mentioned by HaloJones above) is I believe purely CPU which makes their throughput and points all the more astounding … As to whether CPU Projects are important - the researchers wouldn't put them up if they weren't … Yes, I know GPUs get higher points and complete science faster - and I am not going to get into the top 25,000 contributors just CPU folding as I do, but CPU are still important and relevant - and I chose to ignore the people who voice otherwise !!

… and I like bruce have no formal affiliation with the FAH Consortium - I'm just a regular folder who tries to help occasionally - so this doesn't count as someone officially stating it, sorry.

Then again, if you fold long enough, even doing just CPU folding can get your rank up. Almost all of the points I have earned have been through CPU folding. The GTX 1060 in my Hackintosh only gets a workout rarely when I boot up into Ubuntu, and none in the last 6 months.

bruce wrote:

JimboPalmer wrote:Until the servers can keep up with the current volunteers, I feel adding more frustrated volunteers is misguided.

As I said in my previous post, I see really important science being done by the CPU client.

JimboPalmer wrote:Until the servers can keep up with the current volunteers, I feel adding more frustrated volunteers is misguided.

Let's consider Endgame's post as agreeing with JimboPalmer. I fully understand the frustration.

I wonder if there's a way to bias the Assignment logic so that the "little guy" running a CPU slot gets an assignment even if it adds a slight delay to one of the corporate GPUs.

To be fair, my Ryzen 2700X never had problems getting WUs for 15 threads worth of work, and I imagine if I switched it back to F@H I would pickup WUs almost immediately. The question is, between Folding at Home, Rosetta at Home, and World Community Grid, which project will my CPUs provide the "Best, most valuable" science for Covid research?

...and that is the wholly unanswerable question

Each of these efforts will be added to the knowledge, each will be adding value, but measuring the value of science is nigh impossible, and then comparing different values is atad bit harder than that.

Contributing - wherever - is as far as I am concerned the important part … Choosing whichever is a personal choice - go where you feel comfortable - yes, go where you feel appreciated and feel you are treated fairly - The fact there are choices of what to support is a good thing

Endgame124 wrote:...If it is in fact important work, can someone official maybe state that?..

It is stated in various areas:
Blog:

...we have created an update to the Folding@home software that allows you to prioritize COVID-19 projects. We encourage you to upgrade as the new software includes important bug fixes and security updates...

https://foldingathome.org/2020/04/17/ne ... -projects/

Topics:

...Nucleoprotein RNA binding domain of SARS1 (2003 outbreak)...

viewtopic.php?f=24&t=34992

Project descriptions:

...Modeling the protein helps us better understand the role that its structural dynamics play in performing these functions...

https://stats.foldingathome.org/project?p=16413

Considering that the authors of these topics are researchers in various labs, it can be a bit difficult for someone without sufficient background knowledge to understand it or know where to start looking. Maybe this can be improved but IMO, I rather allow the researchers to do their research and I try to understand those terminologies via the Internet and occasionally posting here in the correct Forum for any clarification: viewforum.php?f=17 If there are volunteers who have the technical background to rewrite the information in a less technical manner, I am sure they would be welcomed.

Endgame124 wrote:...Ideally this statement would come with a revisit to CPU PPD, but I get that messing with points right now is probably low on the priority list.

It seems that you might be understanding that in F@H, higher points means more importance. However, that isn't the case. The points are based on the scientific contribution for F@H. It has been that way from day one, still is, but the future is full of unknown possibilities

Yeah I don't think I've ever seen anyone remotely official say on this forum that CPU work isn't important so I'd love to see sources on that one. In response to the huge increase in Covid-related folders, it was explicitly stated that the team was not going to add 'useless' work units simply to fulfill demand, so I don't know why people would assume that this entire branch of work would be useless at the same time.

Neil-B wrote:...and that is the wholly unanswerable question

Each of these efforts will be added to the knowledge, each will be adding value, but measuring the value of science is nigh impossible, and then comparing different values is atad bit harder than that.

Contributing - wherever - is as far as I am concerned the important part … Choosing whichever is a personal choice - go where you feel comfortable - yes, go where you feel appreciated and feel you are treated fairly - The fact there are choices of what to support is a good thing

I have all my GPUs (well, not all - my integrated GPUs are not folding) on F@H, even though they require some maintenance to keep running. The logic is that since F@H gives really high point rewards for GPU work and much lower for CPU, the GPU work must be very important to them. Since most of the other projects don’t / can’t use GPU, it seemed wise to shift the CPUs to the other projects, especially since F@H is pretty overwhelmed with users right now. If tomorrow F@H said it is critical that we get as many CPUs for reason X, I would switch back right away.

Endgame124 wrote:...The question is, between Folding at Home, Rosetta at Home, and World Community Grid, which project will my CPUs provide the "Best, most valuable" science for Covid research?

My approach would be to understand what the 3 Projects are doing and which one I can resonate with the strongest. I would pick that one assuming that everything else is equal.

If all three feels exactly the same to me, then I would rotate on a weekly basis them them. A week would be a long enough time to, IMO, meaningfully contribute 24/7 and I can perform the switchover on Sunday so there's little overhead. Also, if project X has issues (server issues, no more projects, etc.) I can swap that week out and revisit it 2 weeks later once the issues are resolve (new servers, more projects).

Points are awarded (note not rewarded) for scientific throughput with bonus points for speedy returns - this is not in any way a measure of importance !! … whatever anyone might tell you … the CPU WUs I am seeing and processing 24/7 are mostly (if not all) Covid-19 related - which to my mind makes them important to me.

But please keep donating where and as you see fit - I am sure all 3 projects are doing great stuff and making a difference in their own specific ways.

Pleased to see that the stats on EOC are showing active users appearing to stabilise around 130,000.

They peaked over 180,000 with a starting point of a little over 20,000.

There's still a lot of churn - 10,000 a week, but to be honest, I expected a much shorter retention of new folders given the problems experienced.

Hopefully this can be maintained as a new baseline for as long as possible.

rwh202 wrote:Pleased to see that the stats on EOC are showing active users appearing to stabilise around 130,000.

They peaked over 180,000 with a starting point of a little over 20,000.

There's still a lot of churn - 10,000 a week, but to be honest, I expected a much shorter retention of new folders given the problems experienced.

Hopefully this can be maintained as a new baseline for as long as possible.

So, we're far better off than at the beginning of the crisis. I hope we've made progress on other projects as well as the Coronavirus units. I'd still rather the Pandemic had never happened! I'll be curious to see what all the extra folders have accomplished when this is over. I hope it has generated a lot of papers, and perhaps a Nobel Prize. If we find a treatment for COVID-19, or something that leads to a vaccine, perhaps more people will join as folders. (I can dream, can't I?)