F@H on Vista...

[Hurricane Andrew]

Well, I'm taking the plunge both at home and work, and am now dual booting Vista 5728 on my main home rig and main work rig. I'm running 5.02 and it seems to be working just fine in Vista, though performance is certainly taking a hit---about a 20-30% hit. FAHlog indicates that while each 5000 "steps" on this WU in XP were taking about 65 minutes, under Vista that's been bumped to about 84 minutes. Of course, some of the additional time was due to the fact that I'm still installing and configuring some programs and tweaking some settings along the way, so that certainly takes away from the client CPU time. I'll see how things go overnight and update this thread tomorrow with some more comparable numbers.

Anyone else fiddling around with Vista yet? I'd be curious to hear others' observations.

 

[Philippart]

I run boinc on vista 5728 too. For me it's a small performance increase compared to xp.

 

[Hurricane Andrew]

After comparing the performance overnight last night with Vista compared to the previous night with XP, I actually did see a very slight performance gain. Only a couple minutes for each set of steps, but it was quite clear and consistent.

Now if only Nero would get a Vista-compatible version out there...

 

[GLeeM]

Originally posted by: Hurricane Andrew
... I actually did see a very slight performance gain. Only a couple minutes for each set of steps, but it was quite clear and consistent.

Good news

Thanks Hurricane Andrew!

 

[BobDaMenkey]

Originally posted by: GLeeM

Originally posted by: Hurricane Andrew
... I actually did see a very slight performance gain. Only a couple minutes for each set of steps, but it was quite clear and consistent.

Good news

Thanks Hurricane Andrew!

Yeah, that's interesting.

Does linux provide better crunch times for WUs though? Something like a command line install of Ubuntu, or Slackware? The problem obviously is that without a GUI you can only run one client, so it's not a good comparison on dual core machines.

I might just have to test this out myself when I get home and start dual booting my gaming rig just to see.

 

[teriba]

You can run two clients without a GUI, just background them or service install them (chkconfig or whatever you like).

 

[Hurricane Andrew]

Originally posted by: GLeeM

Originally posted by: Hurricane Andrew
... I actually did see a very slight performance gain. Only a couple minutes for each set of steps, but it was quite clear and consistent.

Good news

Thanks Hurricane Andrew!

You're quite welcome! Someone's got to be the guinea pig, and who better than me?

BTW, I see the same very slight boost on my other Vista installation as well. Again, only a minute or two per "stage", but it beats a performance dropoff anyday. Plus, the WU's are accepted and credited without any issues.

You know, I'm finding myself liking Vista more and more. Of course, you have to hack the heck out of it to get it to feel "right". Disabling UAC, strange hacks to be able to use my MSFT Internet Keyboard, but now that I've got it set up properly on two PC's (including one on a corporate domain), it's starting to grow on me.

And I can always use a bit of a F@H boost

 

[Rattledagger]

Originally posted by: Hurricane Andrew
Anyone else fiddling around with Vista yet? I'd be curious to hear others' observations.

Well, I've only tried the 64-bit-version of Vista...

Beta-2 did install after a couple of crashes during installation, but even after installation it kept crashing so removed it again. Also, the few things did try, was actually a little surprised didn't get a popup-message like: "Are you sure you want to move the mouse? Yes/No". :evil: Well, it atleast felt like you got popup for everything else so...

RC-1, both 5600 and 5728 on the other hand, hanged indefinitely near the end of "Finishing installation"...

So clearly, Vista doesn't like my computer...

 

[teriba]

Don't install the 64-bit version. It's disgustingly incompatible with pretty much everything.

 

[ProviaFan]

Originally posted by: teriba
Don't install the 64-bit version. It's disgustingly incompatible with pretty much everything.

I'm using Vista RC1 (5600) x64 edition as my everyday OS. It's compatible with Office, the Adobe Creative Suite, and everything else I need for my day-to-day work (including F@H of course). There are certain things that don't work right (Nero for example, but it seems that Nero has trouble with everything Vista-related), but it's not as terrible as Paul Thurrot (sp?) and others have said.

 

[InlineFive]

Originally posted by: ProviaFan

Originally posted by: teriba
Don't install the 64-bit version. It's disgustingly incompatible with pretty much everything.

I'm using Vista RC1 (5600) x64 edition as my everyday OS. It's compatible with Office, the Adobe Creative Suite, and everything else I need for my day-to-day work (including F@H of course). There are certain things that don't work right (Nero for example, but it seems that Nero has trouble with everything Vista-related), but it's not as terrible as Paul Thurrot (sp?) and others have said.

Ditto, I'm running the x64 and aside from poor sound driver support I haven't had issues with anything.

 

[sswingle]

Only issues I've had was sound drivers as well. Stupid creative....

 

[Philippart]

the only thing that doesn't work with my 5728 x64 vista is my HP printer
HP doesn't provide 64bit drivers

 

[InlineFive]

Originally posted by: Philippart
the only thing that doesn't work with my 5728 x64 vista is my HP printer
HP doesn't provide 64bit drivers

However it does have a complete set of 32-bit drivers for all sorts of printers, which have worked fine for me. Have you tried these?

 

[jimbob200521]

I've got Vista RC1 running as my main and only OS on my home PC. Aside from a few small quirks, it run's great.

 

[Kougar]

I've run several Vista's, current one was Vista x64 RC1. I simply copied both F@H client folders over and dropped them into the "Program Files x86" folder and they started right back up where they left off just fine.

 

[Icepick]

I'm running Vista RC1 5728. I just downloaded Folding@Home and am running the v.5.02 console version. Does anyone know how to get the GUI version working in Vista? It might not even be possible yet but, I thought I'd ask anyway. It appears that the ATI GPU version works in Vista but, I don't have an ATI video card so I can't get it to fire up on mine.