how do i get most ppd

[apeman556]

Hello
I would like to know what settings to apply in the advanced folding control panel to get maximum points per day.
My system is a i7 4770, and a nvidia gtx 770.
Currently I'm getting around 56,000 PPD, is this about right? I thought I should be getting more, around 80,000.
I have changed the cpu preferences to use 6 cores and set the gpu to advanced. this increased my ppd from around 40,000 to 56,000. Don't know if that was luck or not though.
I would like to know what settings would give me the most pdd. My rig folds 24 hours a day.
Your advice would be most welcome.

Thankyou

Ian

[billford]

Someone else will have to comment on your cpu setting (I don't know about Core i7's) but short of overclocking (which may or may not be a good idea) I don't think there's much you can do- the client will process WU's as fast as it's able to.

Setting the GPU to advanced won't make any difference except insofar as it gives access to a wider range of projects; some of which run faster than others, some slower and some vary markedly depending on the WU. In particular, on my GTX 780Ti I've seen P9102 WU's with PPDs ranging from ~190K to ~240K! You probably just got lucky

More important (for cpu folding) is to make sure you don't have anything running unnecessarily, screen savers especially can be a PPD-killer.

You don't say which OS you're using and I'm not going to get into an OS-war, I'll just observe that I've got two (more or less) identical PCs, the one running Vista returns a PPD (from the cpu) about 30% lower than the one running Linux...

[7im]

What nv driver are you using to fold on the GPU?

[apeman556]

Hello and thanks for the replies..

My operating system is windows 8.1 and I am currently using the latest NVidia drivers which are 337.88, all I do is allow the GeForce experience to update whenever it's ready.

190k to 240k PPD from a 780Ti, wow, that's like 5 times as many PPD as my GTX 770 which on its own only gets around 40,000 PPD. There must be a way to get more out of mine, or is that about its limit?

[davidcoton]

Try the nVidia 327.xx drivers. Later drivers fold badly on all but the GK110 series cards. Earlier drivers require a reboot every 36 hours.

David

[apeman556]

ok I will give that a try, what about the settings in control panel, should I leave them at default or keep them at the cpu preferences to use 6 cores and set the gpu to advanced? I what to get the most efficient setting possible.

[davidcoton]

GPU advanced will give access to a greater variety of WUs, but will not affect points. See billford's reply above. Advanced projects are nominally higher risk of instability, so make sure your rig is stable with all the other settings you want to try before applying advanced.

Default settings are usually pretty good, you may need to experiment with the number of CPU cores but NV drivers running Core17 usually need a free CPU core to feed the GPU. Assuming you have 8 cores, CPU:7 can cause problems with some projects, so you may see it mapped to use 6 cores sometimes. CPU:8 will almost certainly not give any gain and may clobber the GPU severely. CPU:6 will be safe but may be slightly below CPU:7 in overall performance.

David

EDIT: Typo!

[apeman556]

ok thanks for the feedback, it looks like I'll have to try various settings to see which yields greater average PPD.

Thanks again

[kbless551]

I was researching my own PPD performance as compared to others and I am shocked and baffled. On a good day I get 3-5K PPD and on other days I get right around 1K. Then I start reading about 80K - 130K from some. WTH??? My system is a few years old but being an IT guy I built it out right. An AMD Phenom II x6 @ 3.2 Ghz per core. 16GB ram and an nVidia GT 730 video card. I did default install of v 7.4.4 then reconfigured to use 2 CPU slots and no GPU because system became draggy with it running. Thinking of adding it back in and seeing if any way to tweak it so system could be used while it is running. I fold 24/7. Any ideas? I have been OCD about this for a week.

[Nathan_P]

Welcome to the forum.

Its simple, people are using a powerful NVidia or AMD gpu to fold 24/7, a NVidia 970 will get around 270k-300k PPD, a new GTX 1070 will get 600k PPD, lower down the chain a 750ti will get 50-80k PPD and a 960 around 130-160k PPD. CPU folding just isn't as points friendly at the moment, you can get 80k cpu folding but you need a lot of cores to do it.

Given that you have a 1090T I would set the cpu to use 3 or 4 cores and leave the rest for you to use - that should get you around the 3-5k mark, but that's only an estimate as its been a couple of years since I last used an x6 for folding - More PPD would require investment

[bollix47]

Also, make sure you have a qualified passkey in order to receive any available bonus points:

http://folding.stanford.edu/home/faq/faq-passkey/

[foldy]

For AMD Phenom ll x6 I would recommand only one cpu slot with 6 cores.

[Nathan_P]

For AMD Phenom ll x6 I would recommand only one cpu slot with 6 cores.

Since he was complaining about lag, I would not run all 6 cores - especially since we do not know what type of work he is doing on the rig.

Having owned an x6 myself I used to pause folding when running anything on it - lag drives me mad

[kbless551]

WOW, thanks for all the quick responses guys. Well if I just set it to Light when working, the GPU shuts down until I crank it back up. I guess I'll have to get some new hardware at some point and put Linux on this old box

[bruce]

You'll find that the screen-lag comes from using the GT 730 video card to fold. First, while it's adequate to drive your screen, it's a pretty slow performer when it's hitched to the type of calculations that FAH demands. GPUs have no priority system and whatever block of work is being processed cannot be interrupted.

CPU interrupts and task priority have been a stable component of any OS for many, many years. When FAH is running on the CPU, it runs at the lowest possible priority, so foreground tasks have essentially free reign to do anything they want and FAH uses whatever is left over. Thus allocating all 8 CPUs to FAH won't cause sluggish behavior except maybe with the most demanding games.

In the other hand, if you have a second slot where you can install a second GPU, it's pretty easy to allocate one to FAH and retain the full performance of the other one for your Mouse/Keyboard/Screen. (Unless you want to upgrade to a top-of-the-line GPU which has the resources to respond quickly even under a full load from FAH.)