News Folding@Home Now More Powerful Than World's Top 7 Supercomputers, Combined

[Admin]

The fight against coronavirus goes nuclear.

Folding@Home Now More Powerful Than World's Top 7 Supercomputers, Combined : Read more

 

[penn919]

I just enlisted my testbench setup which I installed spare parts onto. I hope my Athlon II x2 coupled with an UBER powerful GTX 460 1GB can sway the tide...well, maybe not.

When I first tried, the GPU would not queue any work. Eventually, I got an error message complaining about not finding opencl.dll. I found a publicly available file and placed it in the client's appdata folder. That seems to have solved the issue.

 

[PaulAlcorn]

I just enlisted my testbench setup which I installed spare parts onto. I hope my Athlon II x2 coupled with an UBER powerful GTX 460 1GB can sway the tide...well, maybe not.

When I first tried, the GPU would not queue any work. Eventually, I got an error message complaining about not finding opencl.dll. I found a publicly available file and placed it in the client's appdata folder. That seems to have solved the issue.

Thanks for the effort! Don't worry, every cycle counts!

 

[SkyBill40]

I belong to a close knit gaming community and we created a team in order to participate as well. Any efforts are certainly better than none.

 

[bit_user]

It really needs GPUs, the faster the better.

I'll see if I can get my Radeon VII working, in a few days. This will be a good chance to "break it in".

First, I have to do something about the fan curves, as I'm now sitting in the same room with it all day.

 

[nammi-namm]

I just enlisted my testbench setup which I installed spare parts onto. I hope my Athlon II x2 coupled with an UBER powerful GTX 460 1GB can sway the tide...well, maybe not.

When I first tried, the GPU would not queue any work. Eventually, I got an error message complaining about not finding opencl.dll. I found a publicly available file and placed it in the client's appdata folder. That seems to have solved the issue.

It really needs GPUs, the faster the better.

I'll see if I can get my Radeon VII working, in a few days. This will be a good chance to "break it in".

First, I have to do something about the fan curves, as I'm now sitting in the same room with it all day.

According to https://apps.foldingathome.org/project?p=14328 Coronavirus is a CPU only project. So beefy GPU's are really only helping with non-Coronavirus related projects.

 

[derekullo]

According to https://apps.foldingathome.org/project?p=14328 Coronavirus is a CPU only project. So beefy GPU's are really only helping with non-Coronavirus related projects.

"These projects are CPU projects to simulate the main protease of the COVID-19, a possible drug target. These supplement high-priority GPU projects of the main protease as well as the COVID-19 receptor binding domains."

Both the CPU and the GPU are valuable for Folding@Home COVID-19 research.

The CPU test is focused only on simulating the main protease of COVID-19.

The GPU test is focused on simulating the main protease of COVID-19 as well as understanding which receptor binding domains to target.

A protease is an enzyme that catalyzes (increases the rate of) the breakdown of proteins into smaller polypeptides or single amino acids.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protease

Receptor binding domains are the areas that the virus binds to on a cell to begin infecting that cell.

The Receptor Binding Domain of the New Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus Maps to a 231-Residue Region in the Spike Protein That Efficiently Elicits Neutralizing Antibodies

The spike (S) protein of the recently emerged human Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) mediates infection by binding to the cellular receptor dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP4). Here we mapped the receptor binding domain in the S protein ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

The above link is for the another epidemic back in 2012 but it was also a coronavirus, MERS-CoV.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_East_respiratory_syndrome-related_coronavirus

 

[derekullo]

Let's hope Folding@Home is more successful than Seti@Home,

 

[Zizo007]

It really needs GPUs, the faster the better.

I'll see if I can get my Radeon VII working, in a few days. This will be a good chance to "break it in".

First, I have to do something about the fan curves, as I'm now sitting in the same room with it all day.

Radeon VII is a beast in computing, I am sure its faster than 2080Ti in compute.

 

[egearbox]

This is seriously amazing. I'm glad to see that humans really are capable of working together.

 

[Tigerhawk30]

I've only just now heard of F@H, and only through this article...it appears it's been around for quite a while. How did I miss this for so long...???

I'm kind of fuzzy on what's needed, what kind of resources are being used in the background, etc since I can't seem to find anything that boils it all down and rather seems more interested in the hardware vs the processing sides. Even the site itself is extremely sparse for information on what resources the program actually uses, just that it runs in the background, and otherwise the info I've found only seems to be geared towards people who've been doing it for a side "profession", as it were.

Essentially, my very basic dummy question is (and I hope I'm not sounding "greedy/selfish" here)...if I'm gaming using my 2700X/RX 580 8GB combo, does allowing F@H to run in the background affect anything? Or, maybe in the interest of the reverse, does gaming affect the processing of F@H? How much in the way of resources would I be taking away from F@H processes when I use it for my own purposes? What about when Win10 wants to install updates then reboot to apply them?

I'd have no problem letting my system run 24/7 if it'd help. Just curious what kind of slowdown it would cause on both ends when running games, both single player and MMO.

Thanks in advance!

 

[bit_user]

Radeon VII is a beast in computing, I am sure its faster than 2080Ti in compute.

Certainly, if they need fp64 compute power.

 

[bit_user]

Let's hope Folding@Home is more successful than Seti@Home,

Well... Seti@Home is predicated on aliens emitting signals that we can receive. An interesting thought experiment is to look at minimum transmitter energy level vs. distance, and think about what it would mean to be in the vicinity of such a powerful emitter (i.e. how far can you transmit, before the required transmitter output would exceed the energy output of a small star).

Meanwhile, aliens could be communicating by a far more efficient means, like maybe quantum entanglement, which gives off no residual signal for us to detect.

So, SETI is not necessarily a project that can succeed. That's not to say it's not worth trying, and I assume it has also made contributions in other ways.

 

[bit_user]

if I'm gaming using my 2700X/RX 580 8GB combo, does allowing F@H to run in the background affect anything? Or, maybe in the interest of the reverse, does gaming affect the processing of F@H? How much in the way of resources would I be taking away from F@H processes when I use it for my own purposes?

You won't want to run it while you're gaming. However, you can just pause it at those times, and let it run the rest of the time.

Not that I've actually tried it... so you could certainly experiment with that.

What about when Win10 wants to install updates then reboot to apply them?

The work units are small enough that rebooting up to a couple times/day shouldn't have a major impact.

You can also monitor it, and potentially time your reboots to happen right after it finishes a work unit.

 

[willie_t]

Well, I have been doing F@H for over 12 years, and have more than a Billion folding points. It takes some serious dedication to do folding. What the writers at Toms Hardware are NOT telling you is that your system's temperature will rise - especially if you use more than a single Video card! Your electricity bill will definitely be higher!... In addition to all that, you must remember that most Universities in the USA (yes, that's where Stamford is located) ... well, they are CLOSED due to the virus scare! That means that it takes longer to get Folding Work Units downloaded to you. WHY? They are understaffed during this time, and their servers are way over-taxed because of this contest that was started by Tom's and Anandtech. If you really REALLY want to help - GREAT. But remember, the more people trying to get Work Units, the more taxing it is on Stamford's system.
Oh, and their hype about the Corona Virus folding??? The truth is, that there's ONLY SIX Corona Virus Work Units as of Yesterday (they didn't research that). So, you may NEVER see a corona virus job running on your system - because there's tens of thousands of other jobs that are sitting on their server!!!

Good Luck!!!

 

[Tigerhawk30]

Well, I have been doing F@H for over 12 years, and have more than a Billion folding points.

Today is the first day I've had F@H on the computer and there are two jobs going already as I type this...one GPU, one CPU. I'm assuming the CPU job is of COVID-19 bound since the aforementioned quote said it was a CPU-only project. It may not be that, but it's neat to think about either way.

And, what do folding points do?

 

[Unolocogringo]

Another long time folder here. Since 2004.
Willie_t speaks some truth here.
Most folders now will not get CV-19 work units yet.
They are still considered Advanced units and not ready for general folders. So unless you have flags set, you will probably not get many if any CV-19 work units.
But it does allow me to set my computers to run beta/experimental units, since so many are running regular units.
My average folding is down by about 1/3 what I normally get, but our folding team had 38 active folders 3 weeks ago. As of today we have 1594.

Folding points are just numbers you get for Folding.
In the beginning it was 1 point for 1 work unit. To get more faster CPU/GPU folders they started awarding more points for various work units. Now we have quick return bonus points as well.
So if it takes you 3 days to complete a work unit you might get 10,000 points for it. If you complete it in a couple hours you receive 100,000 points for the same work unit.
An incentive to run faster hardware.

 

[James C. Owens]

Note that there is a project called Rosetta@home (http://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/) that operates using the BOINC framework (https://boinc.berkeley.edu/) as a BOINC project and is also contributing significantly to COVID-19 research.

https://www.ipd.uw.edu/2020/02/rosettas-role-in-fighting-coronavirus/

This project is a CPU only project and Rosetta focuses on folding end-states rather than the folding process as most of Folding@home does, so they are complementary and use each other's research.

Note that both Folding@home and Rosetta@home have associated cryptocurrencies which allow you to offset your power bill somewhat while contributing to this very important initiative. Rosetta is awarded by Gridcoin, and Folding@home is rewarded by FoldingCoin and CureCoin .

Please see View: https://www.reddit.com/r/gridcoin/comments/fkim6z/conversation_with_dr_david_baker_and_ian_haydon/
to understand the ongoing research.

and
https://gridcoin.us/
https://foldingcoin.net/
https://curecoin.net/

Note that it is encouraging to see that many people are finding out about these projects and contributing their processing power. It is even more encouraging that some large crypto mining entities have redirected their mining operations from useless hashing to something that is contributing to save us all.

Note that there is a rich universe of distributed computing projects out there that need contributions besides COVID-19. See the whitelist of Gridcoin as a good starting place for the ones that are associated with BOINC.

https://gridcoin.ddns.net/pages/project-list.php

Note that I am a core developer on Gridcoin, and a long time distributed computing contributor. See https://stats.free-dc.org/stats.php?page=userbycpid&cpid=bc0621a4ac4610ffa400a0d298c02e23.

 

[bit_user]

What the writers at Toms Hardware are NOT telling you is that your system's temperature will rise - especially if you use more than a single Video card!

Anyone running multiple GPUs already knows what they're in for.

Your electricity bill will definitely be higher!...

That, in addition to temperatures and noise can be mitigated by cutting your GPU clocks a bit, without greatly impacting your throughput.

In addition to all that, you must remember that most Universities in the USA (yes, that's where Stamford is located) ... well, they are CLOSED due to the virus scare!

It's run out of Stanford University, in California. There are probably others, but a popular Stamford is a suburb of NYC, in Connecticut.

That means that it takes longer to get Folding Work Units downloaded to you. WHY?

The article addressed that, and said they were adding capacity to deal with it.

their servers are way over-taxed because of this contest that was started by Tom's and Anandtech.

That's utter BS. Maybe because of the COVID-19 part, but Tom's and Anandtech don't account for even a sizeable minority of their throughput.

If you really REALLY want to help - GREAT. But remember, the more people trying to get Work Units, the more taxing it is on Stamford's system.

Really, dude, if you believe in the cause, then why all the FUD? I hope you're not just visiting from the Anandtech team to troll and demoralize us. That'd be quite pathetic. Anandtech always wins these contests, but people should chip in for a good cause, regardless.

Oh, and their hype about the Corona Virus folding??? The truth is, that there's ONLY SIX Corona Virus Work Units as of Yesterday (they didn't research that). So, you may NEVER see a corona virus job running on your system - because there's tens of thousands of other jobs that are sitting on their server!!!

And how do you know that? Can you post a link, please?

Even if you're correct about that, every job on their system is worthy and deserving, and new COVID-19 jobs could arrive at any time.

Good Luck!!!

I want to believe you're sincere about that, but I'll have to wait for your reply to know for sure.

 

[shorttack]

Essentially, my very basic dummy question is (and I hope I'm not sounding "greedy/selfish" here)...if I'm gaming using my 2700X/RX 580 8GB combo, does allowing F@H to run in the background affect anything? Or, maybe in the interest of the reverse, does gaming affect the processing of F@H? How much in the way of resources would I be taking away from F@H processes when I use it for my own purposes? What about when Win10 wants to install updates then reboot to apply them?

I'd have no problem letting my system run 24/7 if it'd help. Just curious what kind of slowdown it would cause on both ends when running games, both single player and MMO.

Thanks in advance!

Folding@Home is meant to run when you're not using your computer. It will chew up all your cpu and gpu capacity if you are running the FAH control program at "Full" (slider full right). So, the answer to your question is "huge slowdown and unplayable frame rates." However, you could sit down to game, push the slider left and over to "Light" and then FAH would only run on idle cycles. Game away. But you'd still be using RAM. Another option is to hit the Pause button before you start gaming.

My advice is to run it 24x7, especially when you aren't actively using the machine. Enjoy!

 

[Giroro]

I know Folding@Home has been around for a long time and that people like to watch numbers go up. How effective is it, though? I can't help but notice "its normal pursuits, like cancer, Alzheimer's, and Parkinson's" are not cured. ..

What diseases have they cured?

 

[Zizo007]

I know Folding@Home has been around for a long time and that people like to watch numbers go up. How effective is it, though? I can't help but notice "its normal pursuits, like cancer, Alzheimer's, and Parkinson's" are not cured. ..

What diseases have they cured?

They didn't cure but they improved their medications.

 

[synapses11]

The fight against coronavirus goes nuclear.

Folding@Home Now More Powerful Than World's Top 7 Supercomputers, Combined : Read more

Unfortunately this made my new PC build go nuclear too. I just built a Ryzen 5 3600 system with ample cooling and within 30 seconds of running the app at medium settings my PC overheated and shutdown. Gaming at max settings and everything stays a reasonable 50C but 30 seconds in with this app it hit 90C and shut down. I wish I knew why.

 

[Zizo007]

Unfortunately this made my new PC build go nuclear too. I just built a Ryzen 5 3600 system with ample cooling and within 30 seconds of running the app at medium settings my PC overheated and shutdown. Gaming at max settings and everything stays a reasonable 50C but 30 seconds in with this app it hit 90C and shut down. I wish I knew why.

What's your CPU cooler? I have a 1800X@4.1Ghz and my temp max at 50C with Freezer 33 eSports Single Fan.

 

[willie_t]

Anyone running multiple GPUs already knows what they're in for.


That, in addition to temperatures and noise can be mitigated by cutting your GPU clocks a bit, without greatly impacting your throughput.


It's run out of Stanford University, in California. There are probably others, but a popular Stamford is a suburb of NYC, in Connecticut.


The article addressed that, and said they were adding capacity to deal with it.


That's utter BS. Maybe because of the COVID-19 part, but Tom's and Anandtech don't account for even a sizeable minority of their throughput.


Really, dude, if you believe in the cause, then why all the FUD? I hope you're not just visiting from the Anandtech team to troll and demoralize us. That'd be quite pathetic. Anandtech always wins these contests, but people should chip in for a good cause, regardless.


And how do you know that? Can you post a link, please?

Even if you're correct about that, every job on their system is worthy and deserving, and new COVID-19 jobs could arrive at any time.


I want to believe you're sincere about that, but I'll have to wait for your reply to know for sure.

Dude! ... There is no FUD. I tried to post on Anand's site yesterday also, and it was almost immediately deleted. So, you're right - they don't like losing contests. I Fold for a company that pays money to their members to fold, But, the real reason is because I'm donating compute time in memory to 4 members of my family that have died with some of those diseases that are specifically mentioned on the Stamford site. Last time I checked on Stamford's site (Saturday), there were only SIX COVID-19 work Units. I am in my 70's, and if I can find it, it should be cake to you!

If I could upload a screen shot of my folding, you can definitely see just how much the COMM traffic has affected Stamford's servers. I used to do about 1.6 Million points per day. Right after this contest was announced, there were four straight days of ZERO points. I can barely make half of that nowadays

There was also another site that called attention to your contest here that tried to tell it's readers that you could get PRIORITY on the COVID jobs. I posted a nasty response to them, and they took their whole article down. With that said, this virus affecting the whole world is serious, and people trying to fold with just CPU's are taxing Stamford's system. You can prove this to yourself by simply going to your LOG tab on the application and look at the COMM messages. You can clearly see connection problems and failure to connect messages. SO - it's definitely not "utter BS" as you say!!!

What's the take-away here? DON'T Fold unless you have powerful Vid Cards - Because you're messing with peeps that have the correct resources that can really help. Screw your contest until AFTER Stamford can upgrade their system.