Anandtech vs Tom's Hardware Folding@Home Coronavirus Race thread

[borandi]

That link for the contest 2 years ago is http://tastats.atspace.cc/ta-th-18/

 

[JC]

Crunching for the TeAm again after 15 years idle!

Need a little help with the Folding client, I set it up with my i5, shows slot ID 00 4 cores, fine. I added a GT640, it's recognized in System Info, but no additional slots from it. Is the card inadequate to crunch WUs? And, does Folding just run one WU with all 4 cores? BOINC client shows different WUs running on each core.

Also, I'm running BOINC as well (Rosetta, LHC), the manager shows 4 threads running, but no additional threads when I installed the GT640. Again, card not good enough? I also have an i7 box with a 1050, it is definitely using the GPU.

Wish I had an i7 back when I was crunching RC5

Thanks.
JC

 

[StefanR5R]

How do you know you're getting Covid-19 work and not something else ?

See #18 and #10 early in the thread. :-)

 

[Markfw]

Crunching for the TeAm again after 15 years idle!

Need a little help with the Folding client, I set it up with my i5, shows slot ID 00 4 cores, fine. I added a GT640, it's recognized in System Info, but no additional slots from it. Is the card inadequate to crunch WUs? And, does Folding just run one WU with all 4 cores? BOINC client shows different WUs running on each core.

Also, I'm running BOINC as well (Rosetta, LHC), the manager shows 4 threads running, but no additional threads when I installed the GT640. Again, card not good enough? I also have an i7 box with a 1050, it is definitely using the GPU.

Wish I had an i7 back when I was crunching RC5

Thanks.
JC

Is this linux or windows ? In linux you have to do this to get the GPU to be recognized:

cd /var/lib/fahclient

sudo wget http://fah-web.stanford.edu/file-releases/public/GPUs.txt


I think windows does that automatically.

 

[Markfw]

We had a power surge, or a quick blackout or something. I had to restart half my boxed, but it killed one. 3900x+RTX 2060. I am working on it now.

 

[JC]

Is this linux or windows ? In linux you have to do this to get the GPU to be recognized:

cd /var/lib/fahclient

sudo wget http://fah-web.stanford.edu/file-releases/public/GPUs.txt


I think windows does that automatically.

Oh sorry, forgot about OS....Win 10 on both boxes.

 

[StefanR5R]

Need a little help with the Folding client, I set it up with my i5, shows slot ID 00 4 cores, fine. I added a GT640, it's recognized in System Info, but no additional slots from it. Is the card inadequate to crunch WUs?

Not sure if there is more to it, but GeForce GT 640 is definitely whitelisted. (Looking at the file GPU.txt in the client's data directory, to which Mark referred to.)

If you first set up F@h and then installed the GPU, you will need to use FAHControl to add a GPU slot. (Configure -> Slots...)

And, does Folding just run one WU with all 4 cores? BOINC client shows different WUs running on each core.

Yes, the science application for folding on CPUs, fahcore_a7, is multithreaded. (There are also some multithreaded applications in the BOINC world, e.g. LHC's ATLAS subproject.)

It is possible to configure more than one CPU slot on the same machine, and to give them a fraction of the total of available processor threads each. But this would give fewer PPD in total than a single CPU slot which takes all processor threads, due to the Quick Return Bonus effect.

If you have one or more GPUs, reduce the CPU slot to fewer processor threads, since the GPU application occupies a processor thread too. But with just four cores in a CPU, just pause or remove the CPU slot altogether; it's performance is two magnitudes below a typical GPU, and a busy CPU folding slot may even degrade performance of the GPU folding slot more than the small amount of PPD it adds.

 

[monkeydelmagico]

@Markfw, link fixed.

I was just reading an article in Wired, an interview with the science consultant for the movie Contagion, that I'd like to quote from:



That's what we're working on here.

We have utilized this in long term care settings for a while now. Influenza cases spur prophylactic Tamiflu use for non-symptomatic residents as well as symptomatic ones. Cannot speak to the efficacy as we don't host those types of studies at our facilities.

Currently getting folding work for both GPU and all CPU cores. Log shows completions and uploads over course of the day. Every little bit helps.

 

[JC]

It is possible to configure more than one CPU slot on the same machine, and to give them a fraction of the total of available processor threads each. But this would give fewer PPD in total than a single CPU slot which takes all processor threads, due to the Quick Return Bonus effect.

If you have one or more GPUs, reduce the CPU slot to fewer processor threads, since the GPU application occupies a processor thread too. But with just four cores in a CPU, just pause or remove the CPU slot altogether; it's performance is two magnitudes below a typical GPU, and a busy CPU folding slot may even degrade performance of the GPU folding slot more than the small amount of PPD it adds.

Not sure on this....you mean reduce the CPU threads to say, 2, and set gpu-index to 0?

 

[monkeydelmagico]

Good article here: https://www.statnews.com/2020/03/17...e-are-making-decisions-without-reliable-data/

This happens to be penned by another Stanford luminary. I believe FAH originated at Stanford.....

 

[Zorba]

Does any one else have a problem looking at the stats page? I get a "Bad Gateway" error every time I try to look at it.

 

[alfredska]

Does any one else have a problem looking at the stats page? I get a "Bad Gateway" error every time I try to look at it.

See #61, pasted below for convenience.

Last night the F@H site stats that had been just barely working stopped working. So I implemented a backup plan that gets stats for my stats graph from https://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/ which apparently gets its stats from large flat files.

I hope F@H gets the resources they need set up soon.

EDIT 2020-03-03 03:00: Looks like stats are back up: https://stats.foldingathome.org/team/198

 

[LOUISSSSS]

Folding for Team 198, Is there a scoreboard or something? Where can i get some recognition? lol

 

[sswingle]

Folding for Team 198, Is there a scoreboard or something? Where can i get some recognition? lol

Found some nice stats that work here: https://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/team_summary.php?s=&t=198

 

[Moishe]

Is it 675W, or 675VA? When talking about AC loads, the two are NOT the same. I would expect a 675VA UPS to have around 350-360W load capacity. Actual runtime dependent upon battery size. (Wattage capacity depends on inverter.)

For a "folding rig", I don't recommend anything below 1350VA or 800W actual load capacity. (High-end gaming rig too.)

Yes. VA not watts.

 

[Moishe]

How do you know you're getting Covid-19 work and not something else ?

COVID-19 FAQ said:
6. How do I know that I'm working on COVID-19 related projects ?
If you're running a project that's listed here, you're fighting COVID-19 :
CPU : 14328 - 14329 - 14530 - 14531
GPU : 11741 to 11764

 

[VirtualLarry]

Yes. VA not watts.

Yeah, you're going to need a "bigger" UPS. (Larger inverter wattage capacity. Bigger battery means longer runtime, too, they generally go hand-in-hand.)

Look at one of the consumer-oriented "pure sine" APC UPSes, that's what I've got on my PCs. On a good sale at Newegg (make SURE that they offer Free Shipping, UPSes are heavy, and you don't want to pay to ship them), you could probably get 1350VA model (roughly 780-850W actual, I think), for around $150-180, although prices seem to be slowly trending up for things, due to supply-chain disruption due to "human malware".

Edit: In the meantime, you can unplug the PC's power cord from the UPS's "Battery" outlets, and plug it into the "Surge Only" outlets (only when the PC is switched OFF), and run it that way. You'll essentially be running off of "wall power", but still more-or-less "surge protected". But if you get an extended brownout or blackout, the PC will suddenly shut down.

 

[StefanR5R]

If you have one or more GPUs, reduce the CPU slot to fewer processor threads, since the GPU application occupies a processor thread too. But with just four cores in a CPU, just pause or remove the CPU slot altogether; it's performance is two magnitudes below a typical GPU, and a busy CPU folding slot may even degrade performance of the GPU folding slot more than the small amount of PPD it adds.

Not sure on this....you mean reduce the CPU threads to say, 2, and set gpu-index to 0?

Regarding the GPU slot, leave gpu-index at the default of -1.

(Change the gpu-index only if you have a multi-GPU computer and definitely know that you need to define a mapping from individual slot to individual GPU in a manner which persists through client restarts. Note that hardware indexes may still not persist through reboots of the computer. Therefore the ability to specify GPU indices in the Folding client is of very limited utility.)

As for the CPU slot, my suggestion is:

• If you are out to try this Folding@home thing maybe for a week or so and then see whether or not to pursue it more, then don't worry and leave it at the defaults for the time being.
• If you are a generally relaxed person, you are leaving it at the defaults anyway. :-)
• If you prefer to tweak things,
  1. if you have a CPU without SMT or HT, then take the number of cores, subtract the number of GPUs, and set the thread count of the CPU slot to this number;​
  2. if you have a CPU with SMT or HT, then take the number of hardware threads, subtract twice the number of GPUs, and set the thread count of the CPU slot to this number,​
  3. on most versions of Windows, don't set he thread count per CPU slot higher than 32.​
  4. After this, observe the PPD which you get from the CPU compared to the GPU. Then decide for yourself whether it seems worthwhile to you to keep the CPU slot around, or delete it. (You can always reconsider and add it back any time.)​

To give an example to number 4, here is what I am doing: I have 9 Nvidia Pascal GPUs (12 nm), and several high-core-count Xeons (14 nm), most of the latter even in dual-processor machines which makes them quite powerful in Folding@home, comparable with older GPUs. At the same time, I am paying 0.29 €/kWh (100% renewable), and it is not entirely straightforward to expel heat from my flat. Therefore I am folding on the GPUs only for the time being, because they are so much more efficient at Folding@home than my CPUs, even though these CPUs are pretty good ones.

 

[biodoc]

According to EOC stats, we have 526 new members (increase of 517) for Team Anandtech and 638 are active (increase of 582). I've never seen anything like this.



Here's the data for Tom's Hardware. Impressive!

 

[borandi]

Looks like the stats server is up and working again, if you wanted to back to hourly updates on the graph @Ken_g6
Cancel that - the stats server seems to be going off an old file.

 

[borandi]

According to EOC (via FB and Reddit), they're working with Github and Azure for more resources in the cloud.

 

[KentState]

Started folding on my main system. Thing is pulling over 800 watts with the CPU and GPU going full bore.

 

[lane42]

Shut down Seti, so if anyone is looking for a perfect cond. 1080ti for this race
cheap, pm me.

 

[blckgrffn]

sent you a PM

 

[Markfw]

sent a pm also