Folding Forum

I'm trying out this software on my brand new gaming rig, just to see how well it works, and I am noticing FAH doesn't stress the GPU's out nearly as hard as games do. Is this normal?

CPU: Intel i7-3820 3.6 ghz
Video: EVGA NVidia GTX 680 2gig, x2 in SLI
RAM: 16 gig (4 x 4gig)
Mobo: Asus P9X79 LGA-2011
Disk: Crucual 256gb SSD
OS: Windows 7 Pro 64-bit

FAH client: fah-installer_7.1.52_x86
Default install method

With just Grand Theft Auto IV update 7, I am able to set it to 1600x1200 with all settings maxed out and the cards handle it without a stutter, but meanwhile the heat is blasting out of the cards like running a hair dryer, to the point that the computer case is so hot I can barely touch it.

With just FAH running, it is doing ... something... with the cards. But the case doesn't get warm at all. So it apparently isn't using the cards to their full extent?

According to EVGA's GPU monitoring tool Precision X, apparently the cards are running at full rated clock speed (1050mhz) when FAH is processing and 300mhz when idle at the desktop.

,

Also on a side note, using the client itself to monitor status seems to be a pointless exercise, because the client progress meters aren't granular enough and don't update frequently enough.

After running for hours and hours, both GPU's still show 0.00% completed, while the four CPU cores are up to 50% done with their project. Are the GPU's actually doing something? Unknown.

After running for hours and hours, both GPU's still show 0.00% completed, while the four CPU cores are up to 50% done with their project. Are the GPU's actually doing something?

No.

The client does not yet automatically recognize these new cards.

See this post for instructions (I don't have the cards so haven't tried it myself)

http://folding.typepad.com/news/2012/04 ... lient.html

Javik wrote:After running for hours and hours, both GPU's still show 0.00% completed

GTX680, 7612 project - http://savepic.net/2703120.png
GTX680, 8023 project - http://savepic.net/2592487.png (V6 Client with -forcegpu nvidia_fermi and -betateam)

UPD:

viewtopic.php?p=160064 wrote:Gpu type=3 species=20. -> "Gpu type=3" indicates a Fermi GPU; "species=20" means compute capability 2.0 is available.

Hm...

Javik wrote:With just Grand Theft Auto IV update 7, I am able to set it to 1600x1200 with all settings maxed out and the cards handle it without a stutter, but meanwhile the heat is blasting out of the cards like running a hair dryer, to the point that the computer case is so hot I can barely touch it.

With just FAH running, it is doing ... something... with the cards. But the case doesn't get warm at all. So it apparently isn't using the cards to their full extent?

As was already said, FAH needs some additional development -- and I suspect that new drivers will be released soon by NV which may also be required.

It should be noted that for a GPU, FAH is not the same as gaming. Screen resolution, stutter, frame rates, etc. are important to your game, but the really mean nothing if you're just folding. Some components of the GPU are used extensively (for 3D calculations) and some are not (for high throughput video) so it's hard to predict how much difference in power/heat will be involved when the video components are idle and FAH is working correctly.