Folding Forum

Hello fellow folders:

To my surprise, I could be able to add a GPU slot in my main machine running Mac OS X Mojave (10.14). I have a normal CPU slot running, but the GPU slot is trying to connect to not avail. I got the following lines multiple times:

0:12:39:WU01:FS01:Connecting to 65.254.110.245:8080
20:12:47:WU01:FS01:Assigned to work server 192.0.2.1
20:12:47:WU01:FS01:Requesting new work unit for slot 01: READY gpu:0:GK107 [GeForce GT 650M] from 192.0.2.1
20:12:47:WU01:FS01:Connecting to 192.0.2.1:8080
20:13:13:WARNING:WU01:FS01:WorkServer connection failed on port 8080 trying 80

Questions: GPU is now available to Mac users? Then, how I can fix the issue vexing me?....

Thanks in advance for your help!....

The Macintosh OS is not supported for GPU folding.
The Kepler Micro Architecture is not longer supported on any OS to my knowledge.
M series GPUs are often in Laptops, limiting their ability to dissipate heat.

I am not able to offer much hope. You could try dual booting to Linux or Windows, but it won't be a power house.

As mentioned, GPU folding is not supported on the Mac OS. This is also mentioned in the installation guide and the Requirementspage for Mac. You can create a GPU slot to be configured, but one will not be created by the installer, and your Mac running OS X will not be assigned any WU's for the GPU.

To correct a something mentioned by JimboPalmer, the Kepler architecture is still supported for folding. However the GT 650M is on the low end, and I can not find any indication whether it supports double precision (DP) calculations. DP is required for all currently running GPU projects. So even running your Mac using Windows or Linux the GPU might not be usable.

Thanks for the clarifications, fellow folders, I appreciate them...

Anyways, I was trying to use Parallels to run Windows in my main Mac and even then, I could not get a GPU slot to run. Odd thing is that the Folding control recognizes and "sees" the GPU.... But again, even when the GT 650M appeared in the GPU whitelist, that was a shame, because I had high hopes of using it, not matter in a virtual environment. Again, thanks for the help and success in your folding endeavours...!

I see two potential issues. [Caveat: I'm not an OS-X expert, so this is supposition which may be completely wrong]

1) I'm not technically versed in how Parallels builds their virtual environment, but I'm not convinced that 100% of the features of the virtual GPU that FAH needs are supported ... and this also depends on the drivers that happen to be involved.

2) Your system is apparently detected as OS-X so FAH is probably looking for a copy of FAHCore_xx that's complied for OS-X instead of Windows -- and no such FAHCore has ever been tested.

Building and testing a family of GPU FAHCores for native OS-X could be designated as a new FAH Development project, but IMHO it's not likely to happen. FAH's funding for development is severely limited and there are lots of things on the potential list that would be more valuable, scientifically speaking, than a big project for the relatively few Macs that have supportable GPUs.

Parallels does not pass-through the GPU hardware to the guest OS, so it will not work with the Windows guest operating system.

If you really want to use your Mac hardware you have to run Window or Linux natively.

I found out that neither Parallels or Oracle´s Virtual Box could be useful. Moreover, Parallels took too many resources and have a hefty price tag to get a license. Virtual Box is free, but did not have all the oomph to be fully useful. In the end, I was able to use the GPU in my Mac, via a Windows 10 Bootcamp installation. It was tricky, but when done right, pretty stable. The only thing I changed over the normal process, was to update the nVidia drivers, because the Bootcamp assistant gave me outdated drivers. Now I can get 20000 or more points per day, so in some way, the effort was worth it. Anyways, thanks for the pointers and the advice given...