Folding Forum

I like XP because it seems lighter than Windows 7. In fact I may go more more step back. I think XP Nvidia drivers will work with 2K right? Would there be any benefit to running an older system, or does the older code not handle the processing as well?

There would be a number of problems with running an older version of Windows. At this point Win 2K is not supported at all for folding, I don't even know if you can get all of the necessary libraries and .NET version that are needed for the current client. See the Requirements - http://folding.stanford.edu/home/guide/ ... ide/#ntoc4.

Win XP folders are already reporting issues with some of the newer GPU folding cores. They require newer versions of the video drivers, and both nVidia and AMD-ATI have announced ending of some support for Win XP in terms of OpenCL in their video drivers.

If you are only doing CPU folding, Win XP is less of an issue for now. But that may change in the future if the work on a new CPU folding core that Dr. Pande has mentioned leads to a new CPU core being released.

The version of Windows has very little to do with folding performance. The PC just has to meet the minimum specifications for folding. XP SP3 or newer.

Windows XP folds at the same speed as Windows 10. All the work is done inside the FAHCore. The Folding@home software uses almost nothing of the Windows code for processing CPU work units. Only for monitoring the client, and sending work units back and forth to Stanford. GPU work units are little more involved, but only with the Vendor's drivers, not the Operating System's drivers, etc.

O.K. I'll stick with windows 7! Thank you all!

You could always go lighter with Linux if thats an option for you. I run that for extra folding PCs with Win7 for my desktop.

mmonnin wrote:You could always go lighter with Linux if thats an option for you. I run that for extra folding PCs with Win7 for my desktop.

That's true. You can also maintain an extra PPD with this OS over against Windows 7/8/8.1. But currently FAQs about GPU folding on Linux seem difficult to me, as soon as I gather my forces I will try one

Duce H_K_ wrote:

mmonnin wrote:You could always go lighter with Linux if thats an option for you. I run that for extra folding PCs with Win7 for my desktop.

That's true. You can also maintain an extra PPD with this OS over against Windows 7/8/8.1. But currently FAQs about GPU folding no Linux seem difficult to me, as soon as I gather my forces I will try one

Its not as difficult as it sounds.

Download a distro of Linux - I currently use Zorin 9 for gpu folding.
Install distro of Linux
Install gpu drivers - this is the hardest bit - but there are guides on a couple of the team sites that make it very easy, like 3 commands easy
install v7 client and set up name, team and passkey

Fold.

Yeah, hardest bit is just getting rid of the default drivers and it not being a single click of the .exe file.

Linux is a totally differetmt OS than Windows, so your caution make sense. Fortunately you're suggesting that you won't be using it for anything except FAH and getting it installed and running is pretty straightforward ... and you can get help if you need it, especially to get the. GPU drivers installed.

The V7 FAHControl for Linux and for Windows are almost identical, so if you're already doing that on Windows, it's a piece of cake. If you've already used the remote clients in the left column of FAHClient, you won't even need to log on to a system that seems strange to you. You may need help setting up remote clients unless you're already familiar with it.

Then you can learn Linux little-by-little if you're so inclined -- or not.

Linux mint (and Ubuntu to my knowlegde) has a great tool called "Hardware Drivers" where you just select the new GPU driver and click install. Then logout and start folding again.