[Info]What is Folding@Home and how do I run it?

zodac

This is just a short summary of the Folding@Home project. There are more details available on the Stanford Folding Homepage.

Folding@Home is a Distributed Computing program run by Stanford University. "Distributed Computing" is where a large project is split up into smaller parts, and each part is run on a seperate computer. This way, the University doesn't have to build an expensive supercomputer, and we can all take part in the research being done.

The research specifically deals with protein folding. When proteins fold incorrectly ('misfold') it can lead to diseases such as Alzheimer's, Mad Cow , Huntington's, Parkinson's disease, and many Cancers. Folding@Home simulates how proteins fold, and under which conditions they misfold.


We can all take part in this project by running the Folding@Home clients on our computers. It doesn't require much; any modern CPU can Fold, as can all nVidia GPUs 8-series and up and all ATi GPUs 3-series and up. To find which client would suit you best, use this link (be sure to use 39432 as the team number, not 37726).

Solitaire

Maybe we should merge this and the guides with Anti's F@H sticky?

zodac

Hmm... it was meant as a replacement for Anti's sticky... since his is a summary of what is on Stanford's homepage, while mine is more my own view.

Plus, here are no longer 2 boards teams, and the Unicore client linked is quite inefficient now that the SMP client is stable.

Solitaire

Your guide lies! :eek: It never actually says how you can tell which is better - CPU or GPU

Not that I'll be raped sideways regardless with my current comp... :o:o

But which is better - a 3.33GHz C2D or an OCd HD4830?

zodac

Well, it's not a striaghtforward question.

I'll try and give as best a summary as I can though (from worst to best):

Single core CPUs
ATi 3 series
Low end nVidia 8/9 series (and GT220)
Dual core CPUs
ATi 4 series
High end nVidia 8/9 series (and GT240)
ATi 5 series
Triple core CPUs
Quad core CPUs (at stock)
2xx GPUs
Quad core CPUs (at 4Ghz+)
AMD X6 (SMP)
Fermi GPUs
AMD X6 (-bigadv)
i7 (SMP)
i7 (-bigadv)

Normally, Dual core CPUs will get a max of 3k PPD (at ~4Ghz), and the 4830 will top out around 2.5-3k (depending on WU).

So with a moderate OC, you could probably get 2-2.5k on the CPU, while using a lot less power than the GPU.

Solitaire

Surprised at how weak GPGPU is at this I thought I'd be able to get a better result with the HD4830

Now I really feel bad about delaying my next rig and its i5-760 goodness... :o:o

zodac

Nah, ATi is good for BOINC, but at the moment, there just isn't a proper Folding client for them. When Stanford move to their OpenMM Client for ATi, it should bring about more equality between the two brands.

And it was only at the start of the year when the CPUs stole a march on GPUs... with the bonus points system (more bonuses the faster you complete the WU), quad cores can compare with GPUs quite easily.

54kroc

Could you use an i7 860 and a Ati 4870 to fold at the same time?
If not which would be better?

zodac

Yes you could, however, the ATi would hurt the i7 PPD, and an i7 would do much better.

Solitaire

Yay! 0.0PPD! :pac:

What does HFM show what you're doing? It says I've got zero everything while F@H says I'm 2% into the current block

zodac

Are you sure HFM is directed to the right location? If the bar is grey (or sometimes red), you're in the wrong location. It normally shows PPD after 1%.

Or, perhaps it's not refreshing. Press F6 to manually refresh and see if that's the problem.

Solitaire

Wait - HFM can refresh automatically?!? :eek:

Mine doesn't!

EDIT - Just noticed in Edit > Preferences > Web Settings the Web Statistics aren't anything to do with my account :eek: Is that normal??

zodac

Yeah, that's normal. It has the creator's stats by default. You can change it to your own if you wish.

As for refreshing, in HFM go to Edit> Preferences> And change to every 1 minutes.

Solitaire

Already did that, will be a few minutes before I can see if there's any change...

zodac

Bump for epicness? I think so.

Solitaire

You should be out drinking

I was :pac:

zodac

I don't drink.

So instead I bump threads.

Solitaire

You should have said that last night so I could have drunkenly derided you!

I'm not drunk now

Why the heck isn't cherryghost drinking though? His drunkposting was the stuff of legend! :pac:

zodac

Solitaire wrote: »

You should have said that last night so I could have drunkenly derided you!

:eek:

Kinda glad I didn't.

cian1500ww

Just switched to the boards.ie team with a q6600 and GTX260

zodac

Nice; welcome to the team.

aidan_walsh

I'll see your bump and raise you a...

Ah lads minds out of the gutters, please.

ED E

NECRO.

Lads. Lads lads lads. FAH is fighting COVID19. Run a program, get a cure - maybe!

AirBiscuit

ED E wrote: »

NECRO.

Lads. Lads lads lads. FAH is fighting COVID19. Run a program, get a cure - maybe!

You son of a bitch, I'm in!

ED E

The poor FAH servers are on fire for the last 10 days.

RangeR

Seeing as this thread is resurrected, I'll say Hi.

Hi. I'm IrishTLR on the rank tables. I've been folding for over two decades [nearly three], on and off, between different projects starting with SETI RIP.

AirBiscuit

Not too shabby, breaching the top 20 after only 15 days of folding