Forums | MacLife

hecksf · 2003-01-27 11:45 am

I just started folding@home and am using in the graphical mode. I is really running slow. So I wnt to process viewer and even when I bring the app to the front it is only using about 12 % of the CPU cycles and then only about 5 seconds of each minute. I was expecting something a little more effecient. Sort of like seti. I normally cran out a seti uit in 6 to 7 hours this is going to take days or weeks to do 1 unit . Am I doing something wrong? confused

hecksf · 2003-01-27 2:32 pm

OK! after a minimal amount of research I have discovered that the real process is called FahCore_65.exe and it is using quite abit of the processor power. any where from 75 to 98 perecent. But generally at about 94 %.
This one just doesn't give the visual gratification of seti :idea:

intaglio · 2003-01-27 10:16 pm

What computer are you folding on? Specs, just because I am curios? It usually takes about 3 days or more for a unit on my G4 700 FP iMac. Somewhere around that amount of time, as I haven't kept track in a while.

belloq · 2003-01-28 9:58 am

You're correct, hecksf. There isn't the "pretty-factor" that SETI has. My computers stay at 99% util all the time.

But I think that we can all agree that the potential to current human-kind is best served by the Folding (and other medically/biologically-related) distributed computer projects. SETI has had way too many people for too long quintuple-processing the same workunits.

I've got a bunch of computers running the CLI version which I'll never see and am quite happy that they don't want to display pretty graphics.

Stay low. Fold high.

hecksf · 2003-01-28 11:11 am

I am running a
G4 tower (100mhz bus)
500Mhz single processor.
256 MB SDram
40 gig HD
I was running the graphical and the screen saver together but after leaving them running all night and only getting 3 % out of 14 hours of work I am begging to think that the 2 together is counter productive. With just the graphical in the back ground during the work day I get about 1 to 1.2 percent an hour.
The thing about the cool graphics is the selling value. I found out about Seti because I saw it on a friends compuer and was impressed by it. I don't think that Folding has the same showroom appeal that could help to recruit new members.

belloq · 2003-01-28 1:23 pm

Ooh, yeah. Don't run two. Just run the app if you want pretties.

ArtemisG3 · 2003-01-28 5:19 pm

Running multiple folding apps, if done incorrectly, can cause problems by both clients working on the same unit. Even if they are not conflicting with each other, it will slow progress on a single processor machine.

belloq · 2003-01-29 8:43 am

Not that this applies to the Mac-world, but I've found that the latest (close your eyes all you sensitive people) Pentium 4 3.06 and Pentium Xeon 2.8+ processors using the Hyperthreading technology actually do make much more efficient use of the processor than before. It makes a dual-proc box look, feel and act like a quad-proc box.

I've done the testing and it turns out that adding a 2nd folding process to a single processor only reduces the original's folding speed by about 5%.

Tweak-G5 · 2003-01-30 2:26 am

I've done the testing and it turns out that adding a 2nd folding process to a single processor only reduces the original's folding speed by about 5%.

Ouch! eek (To the Mac world, that is.)

Forums | MacLife

#1 2003-01-27 11:45 am

Slow folding

#2 2003-01-27 2:32 pm

Re: Slow folding

#3 2003-01-27 10:16 pm

Re: Slow folding

#4 2003-01-28 9:58 am

Re: Slow folding

#5 2003-01-28 11:11 am

Re: Slow folding

#6 2003-01-28 1:23 pm

Re: Slow folding

#7 2003-01-28 5:19 pm

Re: Slow folding

#8 2003-01-29 8:43 am

Re: Slow folding

#9 2003-01-30 2:26 am

Re: Slow folding

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