I have nothing but respect for long-time folders that got their points the hard way. From what I’ve read, the reason GPUs are capable of such a high Points-Per-Day is not only that modern GPUs are quite powerful, but also because the GPU work units are different. The GPU work is considered more valuable by Stanford, so they bumped up the points to encourage people to do GPU folding. The same is true of the Playstation 3 work, but I believe they actually lowered the points for that work (they arbitrarily chose 1000 PPD) because otherwise the casual PS3 folders would crush everyone else. Even now I think most of the FLOPS come from PS3 users.
By the way, if anyone has a Facebook account, there’s an application that lets you track your points on your profile. I just joined and I’m the only team member right now:
http://apps.facebook.com/proteam/showteam.php?team_id=36120
Not to take away from general purpose CPUs. There are certain calculations that cannot be done by GPUs that tie the entire project together. Both are needed to advance science.
I also suspect that if Stanford could convince Sony to change the PS3 to that it ran F@H in the background 24/7 that Stanford would leap for joy. Imagine the FLOPs if 3,000,000 PS3's joined the project. Wow.
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Just joined the Facebook page.
I’d like to hear more about your system. In 6-7 days you have more points than my 3 years of folding.