Folding Forum

I PC is getting really hot while running FAH and it's really annoying now that this is summer here and I live in a hot climate.
There is no option to control PGU usage and the option to limit the CPU usage isn't realiable at all.

Sorry you feel this way; the GPU issue is one that FAH cannot do anything about as it is a limitation of your OS and the card manufacturer's drivers. The exact same problem occurs when you play a game where the game will push the card as hard as it can.

Depending on your card manufacturer - Nvidia or AMD - there are programs that can be used to limit the power usage in order to control temperatures and noise. Look for MSI Afterburner and try adjusting the power limit downwards.

As for the CPU, the "Folding Power" setting does affect how much of your cpu is used. You can also change the number of cores used.

Ultimately, many computers simply are not built for full-time 100% load especially in hot areas. That's not a problem limited to FAH.

HaloJones wrote:
As for the CPU, the "Folding Power" setting does affect how much of your CPU is used. You can also change the number of cores used.

Ultimately, many computers simply are not built for full-time 100% load especially in hot areas. That's not a problem limited to FAH.

Well, yeah, I did that and it worked but the next time I started FAH it was still configured but in task manager, it was using all 6 cores and had 100% utilization.

OK, I just found out that my CPU drops to 67% utilization if I don't run my GPU and back to 100% if I unpause.
Why is that?

I reduced core usage from 3 to 1 and ETA didin't change yet utilization did.

GPU requires at least one cpu thread (high end GPUs may need more) to serve it so that can fold .. This will be why your CPU utilisation drops when you pause GPU folding.

ETA figures can take some time (a number of competed %age points) to update.

You can force your cpu slot to use as many cores as you want. By default it sets the number of cores to -1 i.e. 5 in your case. The GPU then uses the other core.

If you configure the cpu slot to use 1 instead of -1 it will only ever use one core. Or two or three. Whatever.

I don't know what cpu or gpu you have but I'd look at the points per day for each and decide where to generate heat. If you're struggling with the overall PC in your particular climate, I'd focus on just the gpu probably and look at additional case cooling to keep the gpu as cool as possible.

glad1us wrote:I reduced core usage from 3 to 1 and ETA didin't change yet utilization did.

The ESTIMATED time of completion does not change instantaneously. It's based on a recent average performance over a period of time. Wait until the new configuration has been running a while.

HaloJones wrote:Sorry you feel this way; the GPU issue is one that FAH cannot do anything about as it is a limitation of your OS and the card manufacturer's drivers. The exact same problem occurs when you play a game where the game will push the card as hard as it can.

Depending on your card manufacturer - Nvidia or AMD - there are programs that can be used to limit the power usage in order to control temperatures and noise. Look for MSI Afterburner and try adjusting the power limit downwards.

As for the CPU, the "Folding Power" setting does affect how much of your cpu is used. You can also change the number of cores used.

Ultimately, many computers simply are not built for full-time 100% load especially in hot areas. That's not a problem limited to FAH.

Hey i don't care anymore, community said this over and over, but no one cares so...

Funny thing is: Nvidia says the exact opposite! Seems like both sides blaming each other and no one wants to do anything... But it won't happen, Nvidia is greedy corporation caring only about how to make more money... Funny how they mentioned FAH and how graphics changed the world, yet they not gonna add gpu usage limit? Science isn't making any money, so they won't do anything! It is all about smartphones yay For example: they created new technology - Nvidia reflex, to be integrated by the game engine - to reduce in-game latency. They could make easily as something to work with FAH, to adjust gpu usage. But it doesn't make money so... They are billion company, they could done something for sure in time of need!

I heard FAH tried the approach: to send data in bursts. But they found gpu heating up and cooling down quickly - reduces its lifespan! I don't know why they gave up. So? Add some gpu stress test, which will keep gpu working at maximum frequency and therefore higher and more stable temp at all time... For example: when FAH doesn't have anything to do, stress test could be ran based on GPU usage and TEMP to not cause fps drops, when people watch TV, or play games. And keep temp stable. And in case there is already decent load, not to be run - based on gpu utilization,frequency and temp. I mean: how hard this can be? Even during gaming gpu usage will fluctuate a lot, but frequency will be maxed and temp will be somewhat stable. From what i understand it is problem only: when there is 0% gpu usage and than 99%. So it literally heats up and cool down afterwards back to like 35 from 79C e.g.

Also unfortunately Nvidia is locking BIOS on new gpus - previously you could disable power saving and run gpu at max frequency at all times! So this problem wouldn't exist! They said due: to prevent trading fake gpus in body of better gpus. But i don't know, it is huge f to overclocking community and they did it arbitrarily. More likely to force people to buy new gpus, which need just couple more fps, there were models able to overclock even about 500mhz on core, which was like 7 years ago... I mean it is your fault, if you buy that from god knows where and get scammed by this...

I tried workaround... since 1 cpu core is still needed - to give work to gpu. So i used program to stress 1 cpu core and assigned affinity to same cpu core, which will be used by FAH. It worked even 3 hours+, i could almost finish one project!!! But than it always crashed for some reason unfortunately... And that was only on 780, one project has ETA like 6-8h on that. I didn't yet tried my 2070 super, yeah unfortunately this summer i got 2070 super, who could have known... But on like 3080, i wonder how long it would take to crunch one wu. If it was fast enough maybe it wouldn't crash! And it worked!!! I was able to moderate gpu usage, based on % of cpu usage caused by a stress test. So basically denied full 12.5% cpu used for wu. And it got like 6% e.g.

I am not computer scientist, but wouldn't it be possible to rewrite this, so it doesn't crash? It is staggering FAH gets 2 exaflops, while no one uses it yet! Imagine, if you could limit gpu usage! Or if they warned during installation about cpu overheating, because people don't understand computers. Some people get burn, by destroying their cpus, by not having appropriate cooling! So i would say: "this is not really difficult! Download stress test and monitor cpu temp, find your max temp on your manufacturer site, for more info click this link...". Simple sentence you have to confirm during install, would cause a lot of people to not give up on FAH, because they destroyed their cpu... Or if it monitored cpu usage and let you set limit! And slider doesn't work at all for adjusting usage. I think you can set cpu core count somewhere in setting, but how many people on average are gonna do that? Or if they would give pc games for free! They could have easily millions users!!! Or of they made ads on twitch. Imagine: if they paid ads on twitch, or got streamers promote this! OMG!

FAH contact MrBeast to give you shoutout in one of his video. He has 40M subs, or PewDiePie he has 80M.

glad1us wrote:I PC is getting really hot while running FAH and it's really annoying now that this is summer here and I live in a hot climate.
There is no option to control PGU usage and the option to limit the CPU usage isn't realiable at all.

You can set cpu core count somewhere in setting, since slider doesn't work.

The slider is designed for people who want simplicity. To manage the CPU, you need to use FAHControl. To limit the processing done by the CPU, allocate fewer CPU cores to the CPU slot (or don't fold with it).

In Windows, there are quite easy ways to limit the GPU usage (and thus the heat). Look at MSI Afterburner, for example:

2080S water cooled:


2070S air cooled:


But it would be crazy to try and integrate this kind of control in FAH. For one thing, FAH should do this in Windows, Linux and OSX, and no-one can, yet.

With the development of ever more performing consumers' GPUs, maybe Microsoft, Apple and some distros will implement such a control at some point, but you can't demand that from FAH. FAH is not an universal tweaking utility.

Under Windows Power Plans, you can create a new, restricted plan. Setting

Advanced power settings
Processor power management
Maximum processor state

to 99% has a dramatic effect on CPU clock speed, temperature and fan noise. It seems to disable CPU boost, basically. I've found it a more effective way of reducing temperatures than using the Folding Power slider, and it's easy enough to switch back to normal power plan if you're using the PC

ajm wrote: With the development of ever more performing consumers' GPUs, maybe Microsoft, Apple and some distros will implement such a control at some point, but you can't demand that fr

Than why FAH doesn't have option to send data in bursts? As even amateurs could make simple utility to prevent gpu from heating down and heating up! As that was the problem! We are not talking here about anything overly complicated. And problem would be solved...

News: today i got WU and i am watching tv show using madVR, which is demanding video renderer. Even on 2070 super GPU usage usually goes to like "80%"!!! But it doesn't lag surprisingly at all. So maybe fah did something. Also ETA changes from 2 hours to 2 day. So it seems it doesn't tax gpu almost at all! That's good new. I hope that's not just some random coincidence.

empleat wrote:Than why FAH doesn't have option to send data in bursts?

The client did, it did not work well and resulted in constant cycling of the GPU power, and therefore temperature. Power limits are better handled in the driver.

As for your example. how much power is going to be used will depend on the project, smaller projects use less of a higher end card like the 2070 than a large project. In addition, your rendering program probably ran at a higher priority, so it was probably keeping the CPU threads connected with sending and receiving data with the GPU from running.

Drivers can do a much better job of regulating resources. They have access to all of the OS's measurements so they can make better decisions. The FAHCore programs have limited access to most of such measurements. Would you want to operate a car with your head on the floor viewing the world around you through a hand-held mirror? FAH is not where resources should be managed.