Folding Forum

Hi to all,

Here it is the question.

Is FAHClient running better at Linux server (ubuntu, for example) or in Desktop one?

Has a significant performance? A little bit more performance?

Thanks a lot in advance

With Linux server, do you mean headless?
The underlying architecture (the cores) are identical.
The only thing a desktop has, is a GUI, which uses a little bit of RAM. There is probably a minute performance difference between headless and with a GUI, however the cons don't outweigh the benefits.
Being able to visually see what's going on, adjust parameters with the click of a mouse, has some great benefits!
The setup and configuration using headless is a bit of a pain, but possible.
If you have Nvidia GPUs, it might be difficult to set fanspeeds, or overclock in terminal, since most of that goes through Nvidia-Xserver, which needs a GUI to run.

I try running on server with less overhead as possible from any UI ... a bit is needed for the customer driver for Nvidia. If you run CPU only then sure server variant of OS only.
Remote administration is enough.
My ¥2

So with only CPU with linux server has better performance?

Currently, folding on CPU (or even GPU) has a better performance on Linux. However, future versions of FahCore or software updates can easily change that. Thus, what works well now, may not be the most efficient setup in the future.

Ok, I got it but.

My question is about if it is on linux, which is better? Desktop or server talking about performance.

Thank you very much

Do you mean: "I want to install a Linux distribution and they provide both a server and a desktop package; which one shall I choose?"

Usually the server package contains a subset of the desktop package. It will be perfectly sufficient for running FAHClient over SSH. If you want a graphical desktop, you can usually install it later on. I prefer this mode of installation because it gives for a more lightweight system, and also I might choose a non-mainstream desktop environment (not the one that might be included in the desktop package).

If you know that you want to use the computer as a desktop, go for the desktop package. The base is all the same.

OR do you mean: "Which Linux distribution shall I choose?" - that's a wide question that you will find many answers on the Internet. They have different upgrade cycles and sometimes cater to different levels of expertise. I'd go for a very mainstream distribution where FAHClient is likely to have many users, like Ubuntu, Debian, OpenSUSE or Fedora.

F@H officially supports 64-bit versions of these Linux distributions: Centos, Debian, Fedora, Mint, Redhat, Ubuntu

Keep in mind that currently, FAHControl has python 2 dependency issues with some newest ones but they are manageable if you know your way around Linux.

My question is:

If I have a Desktop linux the performance will be better even I am running a FAHClient and only that one? or the performance is affected by the desktop environment?

Thanks a lot for your answers.

There should be no noticeable speed difference - when the computer is exclusively dedicated to running Folding@Home

If you don't want to install a Desktop Environment, a Window Manger is another choice. Openbox is great for beginners to WM's

pr0ti3n wrote:If you don't want to install a Desktop Environment, a Window Manger is another choice. Openbox is great for beginners to WM's

Just I'm trying to know If affected or not by the desktop environment. By the answers I'm getting seems not when the pc is dedicated to FAH.

Using a computer which is also folding will have some effect but it depends on what the user is doing. Running a graphically intensive game will clash with gpu folding. Doing heavy cpu compute tasks will impact cpu folding.

But folding is supposed to use whatever spare capacity you allow rather than being the primary purpose of a system.

HaloJones wrote:Using a computer which is also folding will have some effect but it depends on what the user is doing. Running a graphically intensive game will clash with gpu folding. Doing heavy cpu compute tasks will impact cpu folding.

But folding is supposed to use whatever spare capacity you allow rather than being the primary purpose of a system.

In this case, I'm talking of only CPU and dedicate it ot it but with a desktop environment installed.

The question is with or without? What setting has the best performance?

Thanks