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Folding on WIndows 11 ARM (Snapdragon X plus/elite)
Posted: Sun Aug 17, 2025 8:59 pm
by Ncard00
Just tried folding@Home on my new Snapdragon x plus WIndows 11 ARM laptop, and even though I've enabled all 8 CPU cores, I'm only seeing 50% CPU utilization.
Does anybody have a solution to this?
Also, the tasks are x64, not native ARM64, when will native support be added?
Re: Folding on WIndows 11 ARM (Snapdragon X plus/elite)
Posted: Sun Aug 17, 2025 9:06 pm
by calxalot
Not soon.
You might try the arm Linux tarball in WSL.
Re: Folding on WIndows 11 ARM (Snapdragon X plus/elite)
Posted: Sun Aug 17, 2025 9:08 pm
by calxalot
Re: Folding on WIndows 11 ARM (Snapdragon X plus/elite)
Posted: Sun Aug 17, 2025 9:42 pm
by Joe_H
There are no folding cores compiled for Windows ARM, so the suggestion of trying the Linux installation under WSL is the only way to have native cores running.
Re: Folding on WIndows 11 ARM (Snapdragon X plus/elite)
Posted: Sun Aug 17, 2025 9:53 pm
by calxalot
I suggested the tarball because I assume the systemd install won’t work in WSL.
Re: Folding on WIndows 11 ARM (Snapdragon X plus/elite)
Posted: Sun Aug 17, 2025 10:23 pm
by calxalot
Re: Folding on WIndows 11 ARM (Snapdragon X plus/elite)
Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2025 1:31 pm
by Ncard00
Now I'm not getting any work on my snapdragon x plus laptop, hope somebody can help me out
Re: Folding on WIndows 11 ARM (Snapdragon X plus/elite)
Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2025 10:05 pm
by Ncard00
Ncard00 wrote: ↑Sat Aug 23, 2025 1:31 pm
Now I'm not getting any work on my snapdragon x plus laptop, hope somebody can help me out
Update, now getting work, but only 50% CPU utilization, why? ALl cores are enabled in settings.
Re: Folding on WIndows 11 ARM (Snapdragon X plus/elite)
Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2025 10:31 pm
by calxalot
Did you switch to the Linux arm build?
Re: Folding on WIndows 11 ARM (Snapdragon X plus/elite)
Posted: Thu Sep 25, 2025 10:33 am
by Ncard00
calxalot wrote: ↑Sun Aug 24, 2025 10:31 pm
Did you switch to the Linux arm build?
I could, but I want this to be plug and play easy to use, otherwise It's not worth it.
Re: Folding on WIndows 11 ARM (Snapdragon X plus/elite)
Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2026 9:47 am
by Ncard00
Important update!
I can see that on my x plus Snapdragon laptop, even with all my 8 cores enabled for FAH, the default WIndows Task Manager is the lowest "low" priority, and setting it to normal doesn't fix this.
You have to set the priority to "Above Normal" and you'll get 100% utilization that way.
Since FAH doesn't have the advanced option anymore with the "minimal, normal, full" slider or whatever, please fix this issue, so the default priority for FAH on WIndows 11 ARM is "above normal", and if users want lower utilization, they just lower the amount of cores they wanna use.
Re: Folding on WIndows 11 ARM (Snapdragon X plus/elite)
Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2026 9:52 am
by muziqaz
Ncard00 wrote: ↑Thu Jan 22, 2026 9:47 am
Important update!
I can see that on my x plus Snapdragon laptop, even with all my 8 cores enabled for FAH, the default WIndows Task Manager is the lowest "low" priority, and setting it to normal doesn't fix this.
You have to set the priority to "Above Normal" and you'll get 100% utilization that way.
Since FAH doesn't have the advanced option anymore with the "minimal, normal, full" slider or whatever, please fix this issue, so the default priority for FAH on WIndows 11 ARM is "above normal", and if users want lower utilization, they just lower the amount of cores they wanna use.
I really really really don't think this is a fahclient issue. FAH does not develop windows scheduler.
Giving fahcores above normal priority is bad idea, as computer will become unresponsive. Whatever is messed up on ARM windows, is ARM windows issue, and not FAH issue
Re: Folding on WIndows 11 ARM (Snapdragon X plus/elite)
Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2026 10:34 am
by Ncard00
muziqaz wrote: ↑Thu Jan 22, 2026 9:52 am
Ncard00 wrote: ↑Thu Jan 22, 2026 9:47 am
Important update!
I can see that on my x plus Snapdragon laptop, even with all my 8 cores enabled for FAH, the default WIndows Task Manager is the lowest "low" priority, and setting it to normal doesn't fix this.
You have to set the priority to "Above Normal" and you'll get 100% utilization that way.
Since FAH doesn't have the advanced option anymore with the "minimal, normal, full" slider or whatever, please fix this issue, so the default priority for FAH on WIndows 11 ARM is "above normal", and if users want lower utilization, they just lower the amount of cores they wanna use.
I really really really don't think this is a fahclient issue. FAH does not develop windows scheduler.
Giving fahcores above normal priority is bad idea, as computer will become unresponsive. Whatever is messed up on ARM windows, is ARM windows issue, and not FAH issue
Fair, but my computer is not unresponsive at all, for doing basic daily tasks while FAH is running at 100% CPU utilization, and for 24/7 folding, you're not using it for the 8 hours you're sleeping anyway.
Re: Folding on WIndows 11 ARM (Snapdragon X plus/elite)
Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2026 10:39 am
by Ncard00
I've now finished testing FAH PPD with this fix.
Before I got 35.000 PPD, now I peaked at 111.720 PPD.
That's a performance increase of more than 300%!
Also, below are some performance increase estimates for other Snapdragon chips:
X1 Elite (84-100) up from 55.000 to 165.000 PPD
And then the upcoming X2 Elite Extreme, up from 90.000 to an insane 450.000+ PPD, for the highest TDP variant!
Re: Folding on WIndows 11 ARM (Snapdragon X plus/elite)
Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2026 11:12 am
by muziqaz
Your computer is doing fine because windows on arm scheduler is so messed up, that it sets priority wrong.
In normal windows if you set FAHCore to anything other than normal, things just start to go to hell
