Come and Help With Some Folding
- Thread starter AlanH
- Start date
My Mac Pro SMP client is churning out points at a crazy rate since I installed it at the end of last month.
I've had a couple of aborted work units that returned a percentage of the results, and on Sunday my system tried a work unit three times, each time it aborted at 44% without returning any results. But even with these reductions it's performing very well. It is now folding 1440-point units, taking 20 hours each. It's successfully completed two of them so far. This suppresses my apparent daily average by about 20%, until hopefully, two complete in the same day.
Dojoboy has leapt into the top echelons of TeamCFC with his iMac, folding close to 1000 points per day.
I've had a couple of aborted work units that returned a percentage of the results, and on Sunday my system tried a work unit three times, each time it aborted at 44% without returning any results. But even with these reductions it's performing very well. It is now folding 1440-point units, taking 20 hours each. It's successfully completed two of them so far. This suppresses my apparent daily average by about 20%, until hopefully, two complete in the same day.
Dojoboy has leapt into the top echelons of TeamCFC with his iMac, folding close to 1000 points per day.
Eddie81
Chieftain
This looks like some really cool stuff. Can I switch between clients without messing up my stats? I'd like to try out both the graphical and CLI and see which I'm most comfortable with
Hello, welcome 
What sort of Mac do you have, and how much of the day do you leave it turned on?
If it's a dual core Intel Mac, and it's turned on most of the day then you'll be *much* more productive using the SMP (multiprocessing) client.
If not then you should use a single CPU client. There's really no difference between the CLI and graphical clients, they both use the same actual processing software. The graphical client is easy to install and get going, and I never felt the need to even try the CLI one, so I don't know what advantages it offers.
If you have an Intel CPU, but it's either single core or not on all day, your Mac single-CPU client will suffer a performance hit, as they haven't compiled a Universal Binary version, so it runs in Rosetta emulation mode. You *might* therefore want to try running a Linux single-CPU client in a Parallels or VMWare virtual machine, where it will be running as Intel-native code.
What sort of Mac do you have, and how much of the day do you leave it turned on?
If it's a dual core Intel Mac, and it's turned on most of the day then you'll be *much* more productive using the SMP (multiprocessing) client.
If not then you should use a single CPU client. There's really no difference between the CLI and graphical clients, they both use the same actual processing software. The graphical client is easy to install and get going, and I never felt the need to even try the CLI one, so I don't know what advantages it offers.
If you have an Intel CPU, but it's either single core or not on all day, your Mac single-CPU client will suffer a performance hit, as they haven't compiled a Universal Binary version, so it runs in Rosetta emulation mode. You *might* therefore want to try running a Linux single-CPU client in a Parallels or VMWare virtual machine, where it will be running as Intel-native code.
RFHolloway
Analyst in the UK
Eddie81
Chieftain
I WISH i had an intel mac. But no, imac G5. Runs civ well enough...
After I configured the graphical client, and opened the CLI, the CLI client seemed to pick up the settings from the first one. Pretty cool... welll, that would make sense seeing as its basically the same app.
I think I'll stick with the cli, if for no other reason than seeing a semi transparent window of green text on my desktop is cool.
You know, I never would have heard about this if not for the post. Thanks!
After I configured the graphical client, and opened the CLI, the CLI client seemed to pick up the settings from the first one. Pretty cool... welll, that would make sense seeing as its basically the same app.
I think I'll stick with the cli, if for no other reason than seeing a semi transparent window of green text on my desktop is cool.
You know, I never would have heard about this if not for the post. Thanks!
It's the same software, and both expired on 1 Feb. The will have finished the unit they were folding at the deadline, and will probably not have started another.
I run the one with an easier installer. It can be stopped and started in the System Prefs, and otherwise it behaves the same as the CLI version. Neither have a (working) GUI for status display, so the easy way to monitor them is by displaying the ~/Library/Folding@Home/FAHlog.txt file in the Console.
I run the one with an easier installer. It can be stopped and started in the System Prefs, and otherwise it behaves the same as the CLI version. Neither have a (working) GUI for status display, so the easy way to monitor them is by displaying the ~/Library/Folding@Home/FAHlog.txt file in the Console.
RFHolloway
Analyst in the UK
Has something changed on the Mac folding - You seem to be getting a bunch of 1440 point units, and poor dojoboy has hardly folded anying in the last week! are those 1440's large work units?
Yes, I wondered where Dojoboy had gone too. My system is still folding 1440 point units (projects 3024 and 3026, mostly). It does one every 20 hours if everything is stable. Unfortunately, every now and then something disrupts the flow, so my average is not up to scratch. My old Mac is still doing work as well, but it gets through 300+ point unit every 10 days or so.
RFHolloway
Analyst in the UK
I thought it might be something like not having set the large work unit flag so he wasn't getting the 1440's and was stuck with regular work units.
Dojoboy has the SMP client, so he'll get what he's given. There isn't a Large Unit option as far as I know. His Mac is a dual Core system, so he was getting the 600-750 point units when he was running.
My guess is he's stopped the client, or else he's switching his Mac off or letting it sleep too much and his client isn't returning work in time for the deadline. Another possibility is that he hasn't updated his client. The SMP client is a beta, and the one he was using expired on Feb 1.
My guess is he's stopped the client, or else he's switching his Mac off or letting it sleep too much and his client isn't returning work in time for the deadline. Another possibility is that he hasn't updated his client. The SMP client is a beta, and the one he was using expired on Feb 1.
dojoboy
Tsalagi
Unfortunately, I've had to restart my iMac a few times over the past week, due to updates and a random quit, which is likely a bug w/ the iMac. Also, we left town for a couple days and my wife shut down the eMac before I could stop her.
dojoboy
Tsalagi
Man, I dropped out. I d/l'ed and installed the latest SMP Client last night. So, hopefully I'll be folding again soon.
Just lost about 30 hours while mine tried the same work unit three times and failed at 50% each time. Finally it's back on track having given up on that unit, reloaded the core, and just completed a new 1440 pointer.
RFHolloway
Analyst in the UK
is the multi processor core still officially in beta test? thats why you are getting more failures than usual (and also why you are getting some of the extra points 
)
)
Yes, it's a beta.
I'm not getting extra points because of that, as far as I know. The points for each work unit are determined by working out how long it would take on a standard Pentium of some flavour, and giving a proportional score based on that. The work units that the SMP client runs are very big, and get a lot of points because I'm effectively running four computers in parallel.
I'm not getting extra points because of that, as far as I know. The points for each work unit are determined by working out how long it would take on a standard Pentium of some flavour, and giving a proportional score based on that. The work units that the SMP client runs are very big, and get a lot of points because I'm effectively running four computers in parallel.
RFHolloway
Analyst in the UK
and he hit 50,000 points over the weekend - go Dojo!
dojoboy
Tsalagi
w00t! w00t! 
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