Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

You are here: MacNN Forums > Community > Team MacNN > Folding: Call to arms!

Folding: Call to arms! (Page 2)
Thread Tools
Scotttheking
Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: College Park, MD
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Apr 12, 2007, 06:26 PM
 
*ponders*
My website
Help me pay for college. Click for more info.
     
SciFrog
Dedicated MacNNer
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: NY
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Apr 13, 2007, 08:13 AM
 
Originally Posted by zombie67 View Post
I have to challenge that. On my Windows machines, they run at 100% CPU usage. Same thing when I dual booted one of my boxes with Linux.

So it seems hard to believe that they would design only the mac client to run at less than 100% intentionally.
Actually you are right it wasn't intentional, and actually one unit was doing 100% a while ago. But they seem to be happy with the 90% limit. As for running only two clients, don't shoot the messenger, I probably would also. They mentionned though that there might be bonus units only released to the fastest machine with very tight deadline to speed up the client. By running 3 units, you lower your potential performance fraction.
Please join Team MacNN BOINC and Folding teams!
No more wasted CPU cycles!
     
zombie67  (op)
Senior User
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Dublin, CA
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Apr 13, 2007, 10:35 AM
 
Interesting. If/when they start doing that, I'll reconsider. For now, the point advantage is to run 3, for both me and the team.
     
SciFrog
Dedicated MacNNer
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: NY
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Apr 13, 2007, 01:56 PM
 
Do you run two clients on a 4 cores machine then? Or even on a 2 cores?
Please join Team MacNN BOINC and Folding teams!
No more wasted CPU cycles!
     
zombie67  (op)
Senior User
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Dublin, CA
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Apr 13, 2007, 02:10 PM
 
Originally Posted by SciFrog View Post
Do you run two clients on a 4 cores machine then? Or even on a 2 cores?
Nope. Running on a dual core (especially my slower Pentium D machines) can take just over two days. Some of the projects have a deadline of 3 days. So running double the number of clients would put some of my machines late. Also, I haven't tested it, but it seems reasonable to assume that you would get 2x the points, with 2x the run time. So what is gained really?

However, for my Windows dual-quad, and on my Mac dual-quad (both are significantly faster), adding a third client just increases the run time by a percentage, not doubling. But it is still well within the deadlines. And for the Mac, running 2 clients leaves 20% of the processing power idle. Might as well take advantage of it.
     
macdude22
Forum Regular
Join Date: Nov 2001
Location: Iowa
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Apr 17, 2007, 03:03 PM
 
Ok, I've been having an issue with the SMP client for Mac OS X. I go into the sytem pane and disable folding. And it disables for a while but then it starts the crunchers back up on its own. Not sure what that's all about. Bug?
"Don't try to be a great man, just be a man."
     
zombie67  (op)
Senior User
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Dublin, CA
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Apr 17, 2007, 06:53 PM
 
Dunno. I use the CLI + InCrease as a GUI front end.
     
zombie67  (op)
Senior User
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Dublin, CA
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
May 3, 2007, 02:48 AM
 
Folks, we need more. Someone apparently tipped off the team just ahead of us (Mac Folders @ Macresource.com):

Kakao Stats - Production History - Mac Folders @ Macresource.com

Almost to the day of my "Call to Arms", their ramp up in daily production started. And by the end of this year, we will have dropped 8 notches. See for yourself:

Kakao Stats - Radar Scope - Team MacNN

I will be adding my Quad G5, even though it adds only the equivalent of a AMD X2. It would be far more productive crunching S@H with alexkan's app. But this challenge is more important, as is the cause (to me).

So, who will step up with me?
     
ChillyWilly5280
Junior Member
Join Date: Jun 2006
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
May 11, 2007, 07:25 AM
 
A buddy gave me an 800 MHz G4 Sonnet Encore/Zif card which will be installed just as soon as I find a recipient. I'm wondering if it would be worth it to put this machine on Folding, or should I just add it to my BOINC farm.

Is PPC Folding well optimized? Would the contribution to the team be even noticeable?

Chris

Edit: The 800 MHz G4 card has 1 MB backside cache for what it's worth.
     
zombie67  (op)
Senior User
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Dublin, CA
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
May 11, 2007, 10:12 AM
 
I have my two G4s (1.25 PowerBook and 1.33 iBook) crunching BOINC. Points on folding are almost not noticeable.
     
ChillyWilly5280
Junior Member
Join Date: Jun 2006
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
May 12, 2007, 12:19 AM
 
Somehow that's what I figured.

Just for future reference, is it possible to run Folding as a start-up item instead of as a log-in item?
     
ChillyWilly5280
Junior Member
Join Date: Jun 2006
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
May 13, 2007, 01:13 PM
 
     
DrBoar
Senior User
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Stockholm Sweden
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
May 22, 2007, 07:39 AM
 
Folding as a start up item
InCrease Home
For Windows there is the "Folding@Home Windows Service Installer". This one is easy to schedule also if you want to run f@h only at night time or other periods.
Team Mac OS X - Folding@home

I use both of them for my folding effort that have now brought me up to 4th place in the team With Zombie67 steamrolling everyone in front of him I soon will be taken down a peg but I plan to regain my position
( Last edited by DrBoar; May 24, 2007 at 09:36 AM. Reason: speling error)
     
macdude22
Forum Regular
Join Date: Nov 2001
Location: Iowa
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
May 24, 2007, 09:19 AM
 
I've brought on a MacPro for the time being.
"Don't try to be a great man, just be a man."
     
DrBoar
Senior User
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Stockholm Sweden
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
May 24, 2007, 09:56 AM
 
I use my really low end for World Community Grid - Home that can use a paltry 133 MHz CPU. This is the retirement home for a beige G3/233 two B&W G3s, a G4/400 and some pentium II as well as the "low end" PIII. I might throw in a bunch of P III 733-800 MHz that currently do F@H, to get much more power in that effort

Now we have several dual core AMD and Intels coming in, how to get my sticky and on them, hmmm.....
     
 
Thread Tools
 
Forum Links
Forum Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Top
Privacy Policy
All times are GMT -4. The time now is 01:32 AM.
All contents of these forums © 1995-2017 MacNN. All rights reserved.
Branding + Design: www.gesamtbild.com
vBulletin v.3.8.8 © 2000-2017, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.,