LITTLEBLACKDOG.COM

Last edited by Akely on Thu Jul 05, 2007 3:53 am; edited 12 times in total

This thread details Folding on your graphics card (GPU). The FAH project have since September 2006 supported this.

This is what you need to do it: (as of April 19, 2007):

+ Folding is supported on X1600, X1800, and X1900/1950 class GPU's from ATI. No NVIDIA at the moment. I have no news about folding on the 2xxx family cards, yet.
+ ONLY Windows XP clients exist at this tyme. (64-bit version works fine but the Folding client is still 32-bit).
+ ATI driver Catalysts 6.5, 6.10, 6.11 and 7.2 to 7.6 works.
+ There is a "no-nonsense" console client and a graphical client. The no-nonsens one is the one you should use. Unless you're a show-off, of course.
+ You can use two graphic adapters if you have them. This is only supported in the console version.
+ Setting the client up is done just as the console version.

My experiences:
+ Folding on the x1950Pro (the card I have) is fast. I produce over 600 points per day. No, really.
+ Using the GPU to fold REQUIRES a processor (CPU) thread to run. This is a technical requirement. I have a dual core processor so I CPU-fold on one core and GPU-fold on the other. The GPU folding is so much faster that it is worth it. If you only have a single threaded CPU you would still gain points using only GPU-folding.
+ The client as of this date is very stable.
+ Important note: When the client is replaced by Stanford the old one exits before it starts folding. There is no error or warning. So if you find that the client just exits... check if there is a new client version.

Links:
+ Client download (make sure you get the console version)
+ FAQ on the Stanford FAH web pages.
+ Ati drivers.

Anything you'd like to see here? PM me!

/Akely

Posted: Fri Jan 12, 2007 12:08 am Post subject:

Update: Jan 12th, 2007:

+ Added latest ATI driver info - not working (driver v7.1)
+ Added info regarding XP 64-bit.
+ Fixed some speling errörs.

Posted: Sat Feb 03, 2007 2:08 am Post subject:

Update: Feb 3rd, 2007:

+ Important note: When the client is replaced by Stanford the old one exits before it starts folding. There is no error or warning. So if you find that the client just exits... check if there is a new client version.

Yeah... I spent some time figuring that out. Mad

The new client is 5.91 beta3.

/Akely

Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 4:45 am Post subject:

Update: Feb 22nd, 2007:

+ ATI has released version 7.2 of their drivers. These supposedly work with folding. I will try tonight when I get home. If they do not I will point it out here.

<EDIT> The 7.2 drivers DO work. </EDIT>

/Akely

Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2007 4:45 pm Post subject:

Update: Feb 22nd, 2007:

+ ATI has released version 7.3 of their drivers. These drivers work. Some users report that they Fold a little slower than 7.2. It is nothing I noticed.
+ I updated the points-per-day. FahMon version 2.2.0 now has full support for GPU Folding. It calculates that I turn in 607 points per day with the GPU. Shocked

/Akely

Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2007 10:10 am Post subject:

Update: April 19th, 2007:

+ ATI has released version 7.4 of their drivers. These drivers work.

/Akely

Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2007 10:16 am Post subject:

Update: June 6th, 2007:

+ ATI has released version 7.5 of their drivers a few days ago. These drivers work.
+ So far I have not heard about folding on the 2xxx family cards (ATI). Will dig deeper.

Posted: Thu Jul 05, 2007 3:52 am Post subject:

Update: July 5th, 2007:

+ ATI has released version 7.6 of their drivers. These drivers work.
+ Folding on the 2xxx cards is not possible at this tyme.
+ I do no longer fold with the GPU. The reason is that I've removed the ATI in favour of a nVidia 8800. Naturally I can not speak for how the client is behaving. I'll try to stay on top of news anyway.

/Akely