Folding Forum

Hi! I used to fold several years ago and am just returning with a new pc. I am running an AMD FX 8320 8 core and I also have an nvidia GT620 attached. It has been several years since I had an FAh client, to the v7 is quite new to me.

I see the slider for how much resources I want to give.
At Lite, it auto selects 4/8 cpus and only idle GPU.
At Medium, it auto selects 7/8 cpu and only idle GPU.
At Full, it auto selects 8/8 cpu and actively runs on the GPU.

4-7-8 - is there a way to select 6/8 cores? and turn on the GPU instead of waiting for idle?

If I leave the setting at Lite and run off to work for the day, will it still only run 4 cores, but will GPU be running full out, since it is otherwise waiting for idle?

I saw the % CPU usage in the advanced control. Is there no way of limiting the GPU like that? Is it always 100% when it is running on GPU?

You can define in the config for the CPU slot to "only" use six cores. Standard is -1 for automatic selection. Then set the slider to "Full" to get the GPU running.

There is a Configuration FAQ with pictures for how to change slot options here: http://folding.stanford.edu/English/FAQ ... ure#ntoc11

Note that the % CPU usage slider only ever worked properly on uniprocessor cores and does not work as you might think on the current SMP core. In the past there were attempts to lower GPU usage, but the farthest they got was a duty cycle solution that would hurt it more than just running it full-blast, as it harms computer chips more to constantly cycle between high and low temperatures than to stay at a constant high temperature. The major issue is that there isn't advanced scheduling for GPUs like there is for CPUs, because there aren't many cases where a GPU is hard-hit by multiple processes and it isn't seen as a priority.

Zagen30 wrote:The major issue is that there isn't advanced scheduling for GPUs like there is for CPUs, because there aren't many cases where a GPU is hard-hit by multiple processes and it isn't seen as a priority.

The GPU scheduling that's available is designed to prevent the GPU from introducing "screen lag" and making your computer less responsive when you want to use it for something other than FAH. The GPU that drives the screen gets paused when the computer is active (like it would if it FAH were like a screensaver) and it resumes GPU folding when your mouse and keyboard are inactive. That setting is applied when the slider is anywhere EXCEPT full.

It seems like a great idea to avoid slowing down the screen updates, but we get more questions about the status of "Paused:waiting for idle" than almost any of the other new client features.

@7im - thanks for the link - a picture is worth a thousand words!
Everyone - thanks for the info - Interesting to see how much things change in a few years!

7im wrote:There is a Configuration FAQ with pictures for how to change slot options here: http://folding.stanford.edu/English/FAQ ... ure#ntoc11

It looks like the link has changed: I found the information here: http://folding.stanford.edu/home/guide/ ... ion-guide/