[10068]

Yo,

How can I ensure that Folding at Home is actually using both cores properly? I have an old P4 w/HyperThreading at home so it's not a big deal, but on my new PC it is an AMD Dual Core so if it has two physical cores i'd like to make sure i'm maximizing it's F@H-ness!

There are FAQs on their site but most are not very helpful to me.... They ramble without just using plain english :-/

 

[iriverdude]

Open task manager and look at CPU usage graphs

 

[10068]

Quote:

Originally Posted by iriverdude /img/forum/go_quote.gif Open task manager and look at CPU usage graphs

Yeah thanks

I've never gotten it to use more than 50% (1 CPU affinity) this way and F@H won't let you open a second instance, so...

 

[mark2410]

im sure there used to be an option to set the number of cpus in use cant remember where as i uninstalled it years ago

 

[10068]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mark2410 /img/forum/go_quote.gif im sure there used to be an option to set the number of cpus in use cant remember where as i uninstalled it years ago

Oh I see how it is, you want people to die of Huntington's and Cancer?

 

[mark2410]

i just disliked changes that happened cant remember exactly what it was that bothered me but first it got removed from laptops then when reinstalling desktop one time i just never reinstalled it and never have since

 

[Arainach]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sduibek /img/forum/go_quote.gif Yeah thanks I've never gotten it to use more than 50% (1 CPU affinity) this way and F@H won't let you open a second instance, so...

Actually, you NEED to open a separate instance for each core/processor. They just have to be in different directories and have their own unique IDs.

 

[10068]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arainach /img/forum/go_quote.gif Actually, you NEED to open a separate instance for each core/processor. They just have to be in different directories and have their own unique IDs.

Oooh!! Goodness. I didn't see that on the FAH site, but then maybe it's burried somewhere in the pages of randomness

Thanks dude!

 

[10068]

Okay, well i've got my P4 w/HT at home setup like this, basically i've got Program Files/Folding@Home and Program Files/FaH_cpu2 (within this i also renamed the subfolder to F@H2)

I have the drop-down under Settings -> far-right tab (don't remember name) set to Machine ID 1 and Machine ID 2 respectively. Both set to 100% CPU usage on the slider bar(s).

Only thing i'm unsure of, is the "Do NOT lock cores to specific CPU" check mark(s). Since i'm actually using both (virtual) CPU cores now, should I have these boxes checked or unchecked?

Thanks

 

[KONAKONA]

For it to use two cores you have to have some special version that I can't seem to remember the name of, but it's not the standard version... SMP that's what it's called.

When I was folding I used two linux virtual machines each using two cores and 1gb or so of ram with an SMP. They have SMP for windows as well.

 

[craiglester]

or just get the GPU version, it kills the cpu version in speed.

 

[KONAKONA]

Quote:

Originally Posted by craiglester /img/forum/go_quote.gif or just get the GPU version, it kills the cpu version in speed.

Seeing as his computer is a P4 he might not have a graphics card new enough to use it. Not to mention the best thing to do is to use both the cpu and gpu version.

(Although personally I had a lot more lag issues with GPU2 than twin SMPs....)

 

[10068]

Quote:

Originally Posted by KONAKONA /img/forum/go_quote.gif Seeing as his computer is a P4 he might not have a graphics card new enough to use it.

Bingo.