Official TBCS Folding Team

[SXRguyinMA]

I may have to toss my spare 4870 in with my 6870 and have it fold too....seeing how it's just collecting dust

[dr.walrus]

Scrap any and all folding clients that you're currently using (you MIGHT want to let them finish any part-done WU's first if you don't want to waste the time spent so far, then download FAH GPU Tracker v2. When installed, this will automatically re-download the CPU, SMP, GPU2 and GPU3 folding software, and will present you with a single interface for all of them - you can then have the program auto-detect GPU's and it SHOULD then pick them up and configure them (as GPU3 with Nvidia Fermi).

The GPU3 client gets the most points but it DOES use a chunk of CPU ability too - as a result you might want to do the following.

When you get back to the main screen, you simply click on Start All Clients and it'll go - it should (almost) immediately show you the clients it is running. Personally, I'd try going GPU only for an hour, then GPU and CPU to see what gets you the better results. I have a Q6700, Radeon 4870 and Nividia GTS250 in my main system and I've found that running CPU folding actually slows down the GPU folding by enough that the points I get from the CPU are less than the points I lose from the GPU, so now I only fold on the two GPUs and don't CPU fold at all.

Different systems may well produce different results but my own experience with my system (which I appreciate is substantially less powerful than yours) has resulted my setup.

I now get roughly 11k ppd on this one computer whereas it was around 9.6k when CPU was enabled...

That tracker is AWESOME.

It looks like my GPU setup is incompatible (unsurprisingly), but I'm getting 12,000 on the SMP alone...

[SXRguyinMA]

whats your GPU walrus? my 6 series ATi card wasn't auto-detected, but Is et it to use ATi R800 and it works perfectly

[dr.walrus]

one 4870x2 and one 4850 - i think it's the odd combination that's confusing it

[SXRguyinMA]

Can't be any more odd than Colin's 4870 and GTS250 lol

[farlo]

gpuz shows my 6850 at 97% load XD @ 48.5*c

heres my stats from starting last night at about 1am: here

[slaveofconvention]

That tracker is AWESOME.

It looks like my GPU setup is incompatible (unsurprisingly), but I'm getting 12,000 on the SMP alone...

In the tracker, click on Setup, then Configure - in the new window which pops up, make sure GPU0 and GPU1 are ticked, then change the Force GPU Selection to ATI R800 - At this point GPU3 should tick itself. Click apply and Close. In the first main window, click on stop all clients, then start all clients and leave it for a few minutes - you should, pretty quickly, get a yellow PPD figure on the GPU's - then just do the math - see how much the CPU ppd goes down, and how much you're getting from the GPU's and make your own call on what to run or not to run to get the maximum ppd overall.

My 4870 picks up 511 point WU's and gets just under 3k per day - I'd imagine you'd be looking at around 3k on the 4780x2 (apparently it can't utilise the second core) and maybe slightly less, around 2500 on the 4850.

As for my setup being weird, I admit I changed a GPU out - I did have a 4350 in there so I was all Radeon before - I bought the GTS250 purely for folding heh

[dr.walrus]

In the tracker, click on Setup, then Configure - in the new window which pops up, make sure GPU0 and GPU1 are ticked, then change the Force GPU Selection to ATI R800 - At this point GPU3 should tick itself. Click apply and Close. In the first main window, click on stop all clients, then start all clients and leave it for a few minutes - you should, pretty quickly, get a yellow PPD figure on the GPU's - then just do the math - see how much the CPU ppd goes down, and how much you're getting from the GPU's and make your own call on what to run or not to run to get the maximum ppd overall.

My 4870 picks up 511 point WU's and gets just under 3k per day - I'd imagine you'd be looking at around 3k on the 4780x2 (apparently it can't utilise the second core) and maybe slightly less, around 2500 on the 4850.

As for my setup being weird, I admit I changed a GPU out - I did have a 4350 in there so I was all Radeon before - I bought the GTS250 purely for folding heh

The thing is, it actually crashes the client with an error message, no matter what settings are being used....

[16:36:16] Run: exception thrown during GuardedRun
[16:36:16] Run: exception thrown in GuardedRun -- Gromacs cannot continue further.

[slaveofconvention]

Hmm - no idea - I don't have the hardware to try to replicate it - the only thing that springs to mind is to disable GPU0 and enable just GPU1 - assuming the x2 is in your first PCIe slot, it may then attempt just to use the 4850 - on the off chance that it IS picking up the two cores of the 4870 as seperate GPU's, you might have to play with GPU2 as well... - trial and error and process of elimination and all that etc....

[dr.walrus]

Done, done and done. No dice. Not even just the 4850.