FR Folding@Home Project Update - We're in the Top 190 teams (A Tribute to Ronald Reagan)

soccer_maniac ^ | soccer_maniac

[soccer_maniac]

Time for a new FreeRepublic folding@home thread.

Our FreeRepublic team of 250+ members comprised primarily of Free Republic members in good standing have banded together to donate their excess CPU cycles to a worthy cause. Via distributed computing, millions of computers around the world, contribute directly to scientific research, in the quest for a greater understanding of diseases such as Alzheimer's, Cancer, and Mad Cow (BSE).

Currently, the team is in 188th place (with 940 CPUs - 15,725 completed Work Units and 2,330,000 points)

This is an entirely voluntary program, and if you want to learn more, please see the links posted below (or read one of the previous 8 folding threads)

[soccer_maniac]

Today I talked to a friend of mine who has several CPUs under his command. He is doing an experiment on one of his systems to see what it does to his computer. If it gives him good results, he might put some more under my handle. :-)

Terrific! We only need 33 more CPUs to reach 1,000!

[soccer_maniac]

Free Republic Folders - A Tribute to Ronald Reagan

Date of last work unit	2006-03-03 17:15:34
Active CPUs within 50 days	967
Team Id	36120
Grand Score	2571793 (certificate)
Work Unit Count	16863 (certificate)
Team Ranking (incl. aggregate)	180 of 43085
Home Page	http://www.freerepublic.com

[SC Swamp Fox]

That's a 35% swing.

I was just illustrating that, as a percentage, the DUmmies have about the same level of variation. I didn't mean to imply that was our actual variation.

[RebelTex]

Friday PM bookmark

[Clara Lou]

Thanks. It finally budged: 100,000 out of 10,000,000 steps. I've never had a unit like this. I've been stuck in Tinker core units, and this G4 processor has never done a Gromac. I do believe Gromacs go faster than Tinkers.

[ahayes]

Good good. If that "extra SSE boost ok" line hasn't shown up you might try shutting down the program and opening it up again. I'm almost certain G4's do the SSE boost if all is set up correctly.

Gromacs are indeed better than Tinkers on G4's. That's just a comparatively big job.

[Malsua]

I just looked it up.

[00:20:09] Extra AltiVec boost OK.

Is the same as SSE on X86 cpus. So it's active. No worries, you just got a big steak to chew on :)

[Fire_on_High]

Finally got my issues sorted out I think...seems my install of AVG had gotten slightly corrupt and was causing conflicts, but the only obvious one was what looked like F@H and Firefox.

I started having some OTHER issues with AVG that ended up being severe enough to warrant uninstalling and reinstalling it. After that, everything seems to be playing together nicely like it should.

[Paladin2]

I think the graphical version is as fast as the console version if it is run with the window minimized. The benefit is that occasionally one can get a look at the WU/protein being modeled.

[RebelTex]

"I'm almost certain G4's do the SSE boost if all is set up correctly."

"Extra AltiVec boost OK.  Is the same as SSE on X86 cpus ..."

When you say G4s, are you talking about GeForce4 video cards?  Does the video card matter in protein folding?  I thought that the CPU idle time was all that was used.  What actual resources are used in folding?

Just trying to understand the process better (and see if FAH may have been the reason for my Nvidia GeForce4, 32MB, video card burnout.   I replaced it with an older 8MB Nvidia Riva 128  & folding has slowed down considerably (running Windows screensaver version with screensaver turned off & only tray icon).

So, any suggestions or comments?

Thanks,
RT

[ahayes]

A G4 is a Macintosh G4 processor.

I was reading the FAQ earlier regarding video cards. The rendering of the protein folding is set to minimize processor time so it uses only about 5% on the graphic version drawing the molecule. If your video card is OpenGL capable the video card takes over and processor use for drawing the protein drops to almost nothing. So folding uses very little of the video processing (none if you aren't actually making it render the protein), all of the processor, a small amount of hard drive space, and may also use a considerable amount of RAM on some intensive jobs.

It doesn't make sense to me that FAH could burn out a video card, even an older one like that. I would tend to think it is coincidence. However, it also doesn't make sense to me that using an even older card would slow down folding. Have you looked at the type and size of jobs that you've been getting to see how they compare to previous jobs? If you were working on some of the smaller Gromacs before and then got hit with a larger Tinker it could make an apparent slow-down.

[RebelTex]

Thanks for the info. I didn't know that a G4 was a Mac - don't keep up with Apple stuff.

The Tinkers didn't do too bad and the smaller gromacs were ok, too. But, these huge Gromacs are verrrry slooooow, LOL.

I think you're right about the coincidence. I''m not sure if the card actually burnt out or the on-board fan did & the card turns off when it's fan doesn't run. I'll test it out one of these days when I've got more time, LOL.

[Recovering Hermit]

Terrific! We only need 33 more CPUs to reach 1,000!

I'll be adding a few next week.

[Drango]

I'll be adding a few next week.

Welcome to the club...It seems most people start with one computer...when they see it doesn't impact their routine, they start looking to add more CPUs. It's infectious! ( I just spent 2 hours trying to configure an old PIII, but something is stopping it at my router.)

[ahayes]

I've run out of computers at four processors, sadly. I might get a Mac laptop added once we replace the motherboard.

[dfwddr]

Something for everyone to consider, if you haven't rebooted your computer in a while, you might want to do that. Case in point: this morning, I was checking LogStats, and noticed one of my boxes was running a Tinker core that normally would take it about 7:15/frame, was running at 9:34/frame. I'm running it headless, so I couldn't really see what was going on, so I just rebooted it. It is now running it at 7:08/frame. So anybody that's seen a real slowdown, and hasn't rebooted lately, I suggest giving it a shot. This has been mentioned several times in earlier threads, but some of our newcomers may not be aware of this. I hope this helps.

[Drango]

I've run out of computers at four processors,

What you say? Have you seen the low, low prices on newegg http://www.newegg.com/? Consider plastic! Have you considered forging your spouse's signature and taking out a second on your house?

[soccer_maniac]

Team Tek will be overtaken with next update.
Head-Fi Folding@Home, Shloopy and EM-DC.COM will fall today to the mighty FR team

We managed 50,644 points yesterday.

http://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/team_summary.php?s=&t=36120

[SC Swamp Fox]

I just spent 2 hours trying to configure an old PIII, but something is stopping it at my router.

Use a shorter cable. When a bit is moving that slowly, they can often die of old-age before reaching their destination. ;^)

Once you get it connected, it's first WU will probably be 2107.</chortle>

[ken in texas]

Use a shorter cable. When a bit is moving that slowly, they can often die of old-age before reaching their destination. ;^)

My goodness... some people just don't know anything about computers. The bits are not dying, they're bored -- you need to use a double-crossover cable to get them flipped around and excited again. It's kind of like a digital roller-coaster ride... they come out smiling and ready to move on. :-)