X1950XT (256 Meg) sufficient for Folding @ Home?

[pas21]

Hello,

I just ordered a X1950 XT (256 meg) and was really excited to get involved in the Folding @ Home project.

However, I checked the Folding and ATI websites and found out that they recommend the X1900 series but specifically the 512 meg versions the cards.

Will my x1950XT still be able to run Folding @ Home? Does anyone has experience with running this card on F@H?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[waffleironhead]

Dont worry about it, your xt should run just fine. I have a x1950pro 256 and it folds just fine(or it did when i used to run folding). My pro got results in in just under 8mins per chunk or whatever they call them. So 8mins per 1% chunk= 800mins per unit. Your xt should outperform my pro and will definitly be a great addition to the TeAm.

 

[Neurodog]

I get the same results as waffleironhead with my x1900xtx

 

[JHutch]

The problem with the 256 MB cards (I have one myself) is there is a "pausing" bug that manifests. Basically every 15-30 seconds, your display with pause for a fraction of a second. Very annoying.

Basically, if you want to sit down and play a game or do some serious work, you'll want to kill the Folding client or it might drive you insane.



JHutch

 

[EtherealDragon]

I have an HIS X1950XT in my rig right now, and I am getting times of 10-11 minutes per frame.... Even with it OC'd to the max, I get barely under 10 minutes... What kind of overclock did you have on that X1950PRO that it was at 8min per frame?

 

[waffleironhead]

"I have an HIS X1950XT in my rig right now, and I am getting times of 10-11 minutes per frame.... Even with it OC'd to the max, I get barely under 10 minutes... What kind of overclock did you have on that X1950PRO that it was at 8min per frame? "

I was getting those results around 2 months ago, they may have changed the simulation since and so the units frames take longer...ill fire it back up tonight and give you an update. My x1950pro is the powercolor extreme(factory overclock). left at factory speed.


edit:x1950pro running at 594/695 frames= 7mins 50 seconds {project 2725 run7,clone 106, gen 0}

 

[CupCak3]

waffleironhead: are you sure that is not an old WU?


pas21: you'll be able to run just fine. I have an x1900xt 256 meg and I don't really have any problems... though you will want to turn FAH off when you game. Let us know if you need any help w/ the setup!

 

[waffleironhead]

just to be sure i deleted my client and reinstalled and redownloaded work units.

project 2711 run 0 clone 495 gen 14>>>>frames=7mins 50 seconds

just a thought, what ati driver version are you using? i am at 7.2

 

[f4phantom2500]

don't mean to hijack the thread, but my question is on topic here i think, so here it goes. i have an x1900gt, and i have no idea how to set it up. i thought i read somewhere that the thing with ati expired in february or something (?). anyway, i followed a tutorial that allowed me to set up f@h so that it was running as a system process instead of like a user task or something, so like i never ever have to deal with it or anything, it just turns on whenever my computer does. i have a dual core processor and set it up to run one instance on each core as well. anyway, i have no idea how to go about running it on my x1900gt. do i have to run it as a third instance or is it a special client? do i have to run that same client on each core or just 1? basically is it possible to "set it and forget it" like i have it running now, only with the addition of my x1900gt, with the option of disabling it when i want to game? what would also be fine is if i ran it on 1 core all the time and then the 2nd instance runs on the 2nd core and the x1900gt (if that's how it runs) so that i can stop it. if the card gets its own instance of the program, it'd be cool to be able to leave the other 2 running all the time and just have that one so that i can disable it to game or whatever.

anyway, i hope that made sense...

 

[GLeeM]

@f4phantom2500
The first GPU beta client may have expired, they have another one now. So yes it is a separate type of client.

I am not sure about some of what you need to know, CupCak3 is our GPU (among other stuff) expert and hopefully he will post again soon.

I do know that the current GPU client needs one CPU core for itself, has something to do with DirectX and polling what the GPU is doing, (MS might change how that works in the future). So you could run one CPU and one GPU client.

Also, FYI, there is a new, still in beta testing, SMP beta client. SMP = symetric multi-processor. It runs on four core systems, but it will also meet deadlines on most dual core/CPU systems. One client uses four threads to get the work done faster. Advantage is that there is only one client to deal with and it does more science than two regular clients. It also gets better points per day. Disadvantage for me was I had to set up an Administrator password, cannot yet be run as a service and still is in early beta testing. It has run pretty well for me, but one bug is that it quits working if there is a network disruption.

 

[CupCak3]

Originally posted by: f4phantom2500
don't mean to hijack the thread, but my question is on topic here i think, so here it goes. i have an x1900gt, and i have no idea how to set it up. i thought i read somewhere that the thing with ati expired in february or something (?). anyway, i followed a tutorial that allowed me to set up f@h so that it was running as a system process instead of like a user task or something, so like i never ever have to deal with it or anything, it just turns on whenever my computer does. i have a dual core processor and set it up to run one instance on each core as well. anyway, i have no idea how to go about running it on my x1900gt. do i have to run it as a third instance or is it a special client? do i have to run that same client on each core or just 1? basically is it possible to "set it and forget it" like i have it running now, only with the addition of my x1900gt, with the option of disabling it when i want to game? what would also be fine is if i ran it on 1 core all the time and then the 2nd instance runs on the 2nd core and the x1900gt (if that's how it runs) so that i can stop it. if the card gets its own instance of the program, it'd be cool to be able to leave the other 2 running all the time and just have that one so that i can disable it to game or whatever.

anyway, i hope that made sense...

The best thing for you to do is run 1 cpu and 1 GPU client. Set the priority of the CPU client to idle. Then when you install the GPU client, set its priority to low. Make sure you set separate machine IDs for each client. You should be able to run the GPU as a service. (this feature did not used to work but is supposed to be fixed) I can't test it right now b/c my GPU box is down. I've always had mine setup to run on a script and never bothered to change when the new version came out. it is also really easy to start and stop the client for gaming. Since you've setup multiple instances of FAH before, I left out some of the intermediate steps so if you have any more questions, don't hesitate to ask!