Folding Forum

FAH displays "POINTS EARNED." My question is, what is 1 point = to? Hours spent, percentage of returned results compared to...what?

Just WHAT is a point, and what is it attributed to?

Anyone?

Points are a made up system to entice people to contribute and keep track of work being done.

More official info here: https://foldingathome.org/faqs/statisti ... -is-worth/

Welcome to F@H Moonfire!

Taken from F@H FAQ:

How are points determined?
Points are determined by the performance of each contributor’s folding hardware (CPU, GPU, etc.) relative to a reference benchmark machine. Before sending out any Work Units for a new project, we benchmark one or or more Work Units from that project on a dedicated machine. We then use the results to determine the points for all of the WUs in that project. On top of these base credits, we may add bonus points, described below.

What are the qualifications for the QRB?
The bonus is applied for users who use a passkey, have successfully returned at least 10 bonus-eligible WUs, have successfully returned 80% or more of assigned WUs, and returned the unit before its Timeout (formerly Preferred Deadline). Bonus points do not apply to partial returns.

How is the QRB determined?
We have a single benchmark machine, its most important component is its processor: a Intel(R) Core(TM) i5 CPU 750 @ 2.67GHz. The machine’s OS is Linux. Here are the steps that we use to determine points for a project:
Take a WU from a project and run it on the benchmark machine until it finishes.
Measure the time it took to complete. Base credit awarded for the WU is then just a scaling factor multiplied by this time.
The timeout and deadline values are also simple functions of the time it took to complete. These are set primarily to give a donor a reasonable amount of time to finish a WU, but short enough so that any WU that gets sent out but not processed (e.g. donor quits FAH, forgets to re-start that WU, their computer dies, etc) can be retrieved and sent out again in a reasonable amount of time. Thus these values are set depending on what kind of hardware a project is being run on (uniprocessor, SMP, GPU) and how long the WU took to finish on the benchmark machine.
The k-factor, a coefficient in awarding bonus points, is currently set to a baseline value of 0.75, but may vary depending on the scientific value of a project.
The Folding@home software on your computer calculates Total Points as follows:
final_points = base_points * max(1, sqrt( k * deadline_length / elapsed_time))
Note that the max(1, …) ensures that final_points are never lower than base_points, deadline_length is the deadline aka final deadline, and elapsed _time is the length of time from when the WU was assigned, to when it was uploaded, including transit time. Deadline_length and Elapsed_time are measured in days to one decimal point.
PPD is calculated as follows:
PPD = 14.4 * base_points * max(1, sqrt( 14.4 * k * Expiration / TPF)) / TPF
Note that TPF is in minutes, in decimal form, not time format.
Note that GPU projects are now being benchmarked on the same machine, but using that machine’s CPU. By using the same hardware, we want to preserve our goal of “equal pay for equal work”. Our GPU methods have advanced to the point such that, with GPU FAHCore 17, we can run any computation that we can do on the CPU on the GPU. Therefore we’ve unified the benchmarking scheme so that both GPU and CPU projects use the same “yardstick”, which is our i5 benchmark CPU.

https://foldingathome.org/support/faq/points/

FAH starte some 20 years ago. At that time, CPUs were MUCH slower and all folding was done on CPUs. The amount of work required to process one of the smallest test proteins was assigned to be 1 point.

Since then, hardware and software have improved and the complexity of the proteins has increased radically. Keeping the original definition of one point has been difficult. Various factors have caused "points inflation" so the original definition probably no longer applies, but the goal of maintaing the original definition may or may not have been achievable, but it's still been FAH's goal.

OK, thanks. But.....what's in it for me? Recognition only (in some form/fashion), exchange for physical objects of some kind, or whaT Why bother?

The satisfaction that you are helping science progress, that's what's in it for you.

I use points to test if this configuration is better than that configuration. (for example do I set CPUs = threads or CPUs = to cores or is dual channel RAM faster than single channel RAM) If I run a couple of days, I build up an average Points Per Day of that setup.

If you want, you can 'race' team mates'. I am #4 lifetime on my team but currently #10 in PPD

I am not interested, but some teams offer rewards for work done.

Moonfire wrote:OK, thanks. But.....what's in it for me? Recognition only (in some form/fashion), exchange for physical objects of some kind, or whaT Why bother?

I think for many regular folders it is simply a scale of how much work they have done. Basic systems over time can still accumulate a lot of points, or high end systems used less can do the same. It's also a way to somewhat "benchmark" how efficient a system is as folding and compare it to costs to run and/or build if desired.

As for recognition, maybe within the folding community. I value the input of those that have been doing it for many years, an/or putting more resources into the science. They usually have a better understanding of the long term trends. And for those that build really high end stuff to accumulate points quickly, I appreciate the fact that they are willing to invest that much in hardware and electric costs to get more work done quickly.


For me personally, the recognition and respect I get from my wife is immense. As an example, if she has something on the "honey do" list she wants done quickly, I can simply point out that I've accumulated 25 million or so folding points. This buys me a few seconds before she tells me that she still wants her "honey do" task done soon.


It's just a benchmark, scale, score.... take it for what you want.

Moonfire wrote:OK, thanks. But.....what's in it for me? Recognition only (in some form/fashion), exchange for physical objects of some kind, or whaT Why bother?

As you read, in the first place you can be proud of your points but nothing else. As JimboPalmer mentioned you can see it as a game to compete with others. Using the Extreme Overclocking Stats you can monitor your progress even better.
It is called Gamification (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamification). This creates incentives to motivate ppl to contribute more or contribute at all.
Basically it is about your contribution to a general social benefit, and this should be enough

Futhermore there are ways to mine different coins with the credits you are getting, or getting bonus points wich result in some discounts when you buy new hardware.
But FAH in general has nothing to do with it. The "rewards" come from different sources.

sptn. wrote:

Moonfire wrote:OK, thanks. But.....what's in it for me? Recognition only (in some form/fashion), exchange for physical objects of some kind, or whaT Why bother?

As you read, in the first place you can be proud of your points but nothing else. As JimboPalmer mentioned you can see it as a game to compete with others. Using the Extreme Overclocking Stats you can monitor your progress even better.
It is called Gamification (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamification). This creates incentives to motivate ppl to contribute more or contribute at all.
Basically it is about your contribution to a general social benefit, and this should be enough

Futhermore there are ways to mine different coins with the credits you are getting, or getting bonus points wich result in some discounts when you buy new hardware.
But FAH in general has nothing to do with it. The "rewards" come from different sources.

That discount thing? Never heard of it before. Can you point me to the right direction,some investigation is in order.

iero wrote:

sptn. wrote:

Moonfire wrote:[...]

That discount thing? Never heard of it before. Can you point me to the right direction,some investigation is in order.

I do not know if it is allowed to link such topics here, but go check out "What is EVGA Bucks". With folding you can earn an specific amount of them and when you buy new hardware you can "change" them into a discount. On the EVGA Page it is described.

I saw a notice about EVGA Bucks a few weeks ago, that program recently ended - https://forums.evga.com/A-Statement-on- ... 14094.aspx

Joe_H wrote:I saw a notice about EVGA Bucks a few weeks ago, that program recently ended - https://forums.evga.com/A-Statement-on- ... 14094.aspx

I was about to comment that I found no mention of bucks for folding. Only contribution to their forums.

iero wrote:
I was about to comment that I found no mention of bucks for folding. Only contribution to their forums.

Since FAH has noting to do we any rewards, we don't advertise for those sites who do choose to create a path to awards.

Joe_H wrote:I saw a notice about EVGA Bucks a few weeks ago, that program recently ended - https://forums.evga.com/A-Statement-on- ... 14094.aspx

Oh okay, I did not know that. So in that case... only cryptos...