F@H WU times

[Corsairpro]

Is it typical for a F@H WU to take 2 days to finish?

I just installed the cli version x2 on a E6600 and at about 22 hours running its completed 127,500 steps out of 250,000 or just over 50%.

 

[Insidious]

I'm not familiar with version X2.... could you check that on the download page and tell us which one of those you installed. Two days sounds too long for a conroe

-Sid

 

[GLeeM]

x2 = two console clients, I think

I'm doing stats now, someone tell him about Fahmon and about the SMP client.

 

[Insidious]

Okies!

First of all, there is a utility a lot of us use to monitor the progress of our F@H clients. It is called FahMon and you can read about it and dl it here It's nice that it keeps track so you don't have to go digging for the fahlog.txt file to calculate your time per step, ppd etc.

Next, if you are running on a multi-core processor you might want to consider using the SMP (symmetric multi-processing) client instead of two command line clients (CLI)

The upside... it is LOTS more points.
The downside.... it needs a little more babysitting and you have to set up a windows account with a password (and full admin rights.. of course) to run it.

You can read about The SMP client here.

Finally, if you are going to run the SMP client under windows, you will also want to use a utility to help windows assign core affinitiy to each thread of the client to maximize your folding effeciency (points). You can read about the folding at home SMP affinity changer here.

OK, that should keep you busy for a while.

-Sid

PS: The best way to get lots of help is to check (and respond) in your threads regularly... I hereby proclaim.... Folding @ Home is NOT a spectator sport.

 

[Insidious]

I nearly forgot

You can look for comparison of PC results for given work units here

-Sid

 

[GLeeM]

Oops, I should have said "Please"!

Thanks Sid

Stats done.

 

[scottv67]

Is it typical for a F@H WU to take 2 days to finish?

I just installed the cli version x2 on a E6600 and at about 22 hours running its completed 127,500 steps out of 250,000 or just over 50%.

Other useful info that you could include (but not limited to):

- OS
- Amount of RAM in the machine
- Clock speed of the E6600 (is it 'stock'? is it overclocked to the point where the CPU warps space-time?)
- Which project(s) you are currently crunching
- Is this machine dedicated to Folding or does it run other software?
- Any command line switches you used when you started the F@H client
- What sort of frame times do you see when running just one copy of the F@H client?

Thanks,
-Scott :beer:

 

[Corsairpro]

Originally posted by: scottv67

Is it typical for a F@H WU to take 2 days to finish?

I just installed the cli version x2 on a E6600 and at about 22 hours running its completed 127,500 steps out of 250,000 or just over 50%.

Other useful info that you could include (but not limited to):

- OS
- Amount of RAM in the machine
- Clock speed of the E6600 (is it 'stock'? is it overclocked to the point where the CPU warps space-time?)
- Which project(s) you are currently crunching
- Is this machine dedicated to Folding or does it run other software?
- Any command line switches you used when you started the F@H client
- What sort of frame times do you see when running just one copy of the F@H client?

Thanks,
-Scott :beer:

Vista
2GB
Stock
Whatever F@H runs when you install the CLI version
It is my PC, set to idle
Used all defaults using the MDE install guide
Did not try just one instance

 

[Corsairpro]

I used to run seti where you could say.... a WU take 4, 2, 1.5 hours to crunch.... based on your responses I guess thats not the case with this one.

 

[GLeeM]

Originally posted by: Corsairpro
I used to run seti where you could say.... a WU take 4, 2, 1.5 hours to crunch.... based on your responses I guess thats not the case with this one.

If you look here you will see all the different project WUs and how many points they are worth. Usually, the more points, the longer it takes to finish. They range from 44 to 2500+.

Check there to see the points of the WUs you are crunching.

With your computer, you could probably finish an SMP WU worth 1760 points in less than a day. The SMP client is a high-performance client and gets much better points per day than the regular cli client.

 

[Slider76]

with F@H each WU varies in size and they points they are worth. generally the more complex they are the longer they take to complete and the more points they are worth.
this link lets you find your WU and its Points value. http://fah-web.stanford.edu/psummary.html
Atm i'm working on a 'p2417' as you can see from the list thats worth 500 points. as this only uses 1 core its going to take me well over 2 days to complete each wu. then there are WU's that I can finish in 1 day, obviously they are worth less points the the bigger WU's.

I have a feeling that you may have both of your clients set up to use the same core, so they are competing with each other. try running task manager to see if both core are at 100% usage. It sounds like it may only be using 1 core so it will only show 50% usage.

of course the easiest way around this problem is to install 1x SMP client and not bother with the to cli versions you have installed. This will yield more Points and will take under 2 days to do a WU thats worth 1760points (if you don't do much cpu intensive stuff and leave it running 24/7)

 

[Corsairpro]

when I set up the CLI versions i made two folders and gave machine ID 1 to folder 1 and machine ID 2 to folder two. Both cores are at 100% useage. I'll have to look into this "SMP" client. I briefly read about it and saw the word "BETA" which I'm not quickly inclined to use.

 

[Slider76]

i can understand that. You must have the 500 point wu's then.
mine take 38mins a frame on an a64 x2 @ 2.2ghz. I would expect a C2D to destroy those times. it should only take ~28mins per frame I would have thought which means that you should finish a WU every ~2days or so.

 

[GLeeM]

Originally posted by: Corsairpro
I briefly read about it and saw the word "BETA" which I'm not quickly inclined to use.

Very true, like already mentioned, the SMP does need some watching and has some known problems that will soon be fixed, hopefully

What you are running is a better "set and forget" setup.