Folding Forum

Hi, I'm running a Windows PC with a GeForce RTX 3080 Ti.

I normally run it on 'Light' mode, but if I leave the PC alone and the screensaver turns on it seems to crank up processing to max and my UPS can't cope with the power draw and starts beeping. How do I constrain the processing power so this doesn't happen please?

Your UPS should not sound an alarm when plugged in and turned on, except for possibly some short beeps when first turned on during the self test. If it does it usually indicates some type of fault, often a battery that is no longer charging properly. You can check out the specific alarm functions by looking up your specific make and model of UPS. If it's a small UPS it might be possible that it sounds an alarm when your power draw is greater than the UPS could supply for rated time, but in most cases that doesn't happen.

As for limiting power use, with the CPU you have to limit the number of threads it folds on. For GPU you have to use a program that will limit power use. MSI Afterburner is a free program that will handle power limits and adjustments. There are other options as well.

I will also suggest setting up your fan curves and power limits so there is no need to pause unless you were doing hardcore gaming or something. For most other uses you can continue to fold while you are doing other work. Though it will slightly slow the folding, it is not a great deal and is much more productive than pausing the folding.

Light mode defaults to pausing WU processing on GPUs while you are actively using keyboard and mouse. Otherwise known as fold on idle. There are GPU utilities you can use to limit how much power your GPU draws at max utilization, the folding client does not provide that function.

However if your UPS is beeping it sounds like your system is drawing more power than it is rated for. Or the electrical circuit your PC is plugged into is overloaded and the voltage drops when the RTX 3080 Ti starts drawing near its max power of 350 W.

@capejohn31

Some useful information I received from Foxter about achieving nearly 100% folding performance from NVIDIAS GPUs at set to run at <100% power. This might help your power supply to cope.

: Too big units, comparing to just finished ones

Post by Foxter » Tue Jul 05, 2022 9:38 pm
@appepi

I am part of a team that has more that 10 Nvidia folding graphic cards.

What I noticed is that older generation GTX 1xxxx and RTX 20x0 (but not RTX 2080 TI) can fold at the minimum Power limit available that can be set in MSI Afterburner.

For a 1660 TI I got around 100.000.000 points at around 75W (43% MSI Afterburner power limit)

For RTX 2060/2060 Super/2070 /2070 Super and 2080/2080 Super I set the power limit to minimum and got around 125W power consumption.

However for RTX 2080 TI I needed to leave it to at least 70% power limit, otherwise the PPD dropped a lot. As a general rule for all generations, the top cards x080/x090 need at least 70-75 power limit the rest can in some cases work at the minimum power limit or around 50-60 power limit.

CapeJohn31 wrote: ↑Sun Sep 29, 2024 7:39 am Hi, I'm running a Windows PC with a GeForce RTX 3080 Ti.

I normally run it on 'Light' mode, but if I leave the PC alone and the screensaver turns on it seems to crank up processing to max and my UPS can't cope with the power draw and starts beeping. How do I constrain the processing power so this doesn't happen please?

Your UPS is not fitted for your setup, replace it with one that has enough capacity to supply your setup.