160 point Gromacs

CoolGav · Post by **CoolGav** » Tue Mar 23, 2004 6:43 am

That's odd... All but 1 of my folders are console. The 2 x PIII-600s are in my work PC, but I don't think I use too much CPU time really. Or perhaps they were just lucky not to get the 160 point ones. My 700 at home runs GNU/Linux, so that may have some impact. And my P4 has gone and picked up something different after 2 (I think) 160's...

CoolGav · Post by **CoolGav** » Wed Mar 24, 2004 1:03 am

And now I have a PIII-600 with one, and my P4 has got another one... Glad to see that a couple of my Athlons have been given a rest and have 'normal' proteins to fold, but it looks like my output isn't going to so great for a while

bcassell · Post by **bcassell** » Wed Mar 24, 2004 11:31 pm

Hey, folding newbie here --

I just installed FAH Logstats because it seemed like my A64 3000+ was spending forever on the same WU. Apparently it's working on p858_p53dimer858, which is worth 160 points. Ok, all sounds good. Here's the catch: It's taking almost an hour per frame, with 100 frames total. That's 100 hours to finish the WU on an A64 3000+. F@H Logstats is reporting an estimated 275 PPW. After reading the posts in this thread, and how long it's taking some other machines, this seems REALLY slow. So what's the deal? When you look at quotes like these:

I finished the first of these this morning (34:22 total time on a P4 2.66B)

Another one here. 25 minutes per frame in an Athlon XP [email protected]. 41:40 hours more or less ->> 92ppd

For comparison my Barton ran at 189*11 (with browsing, email etc) and took 42'32" for a p858.
= 90ppd
= 631ppw

And many more....

So, why is my computer so slow in comparison? What gives? Any ideas?

Oh, and just for reference, I have a dual p3 933mhz in the other room. Each CPU is working on a 70.9 point tinker, taking about 16 minutes per frame (400 frames) for an estimated PPW of ~100 for each cpu. Does that sound right? It seems a little slow to me as well... Is there some secret to start folding at crazy speeds?

Bryan

haysdb · Post by **haysdb** » Thu Mar 25, 2004 12:30 am

Bryan,

You aren't the only one to report long frame times on one of the 160 pointers. ColdFlame, I believe, reported this also. You may have just got stuck with an odd one. Might be worth asking over at http://www.folding-community.org

Is FAH using 100% cpu according to Task Manager? You might try clicking the 'Performance' tab to see cpu usage graphically over time.

I am working five 160-pointers at the moment, with frame times from 23 minutes on a 3200+ to 33 minutes on an 1800+.

David

bcassell · Post by **bcassell** » Thu Mar 25, 2004 12:48 am

F@H is using 100% of the cpu, and this computer has been sitting mostly idle for the last few days. I don't have cool and quiet enabled, I don't have any other kind of power saving enabled, I don't have a screen saver enabled...

Can individual work units really vary THAT much? I mean, my A64 3000+ is taking almost TWICE as long as your XP 1800+ ? Your XP 3200+ is running almost 3 times as fast as my A64? Just because of an odd WU? If that's true, I'll just chill for the 17 hours it has left, and hope I get a faster WU next time... I can't help but think something fishy is going on though.

Thanks,

Bryan

dukla2000 · Post by **dukla2000** » Thu Mar 25, 2004 12:50 am

bcassell wrote:F@H Logstats is reporting an estimated 275 PPW.

Have you got -forceSSE option set? Wherever/however you are starting FAH you need this option on the command line (probably together with verbose and advmethods).

ps - for Athlons that have SSE you should use -forceSSE to use these instructions. For the P3s - if they have SSE you can enable it with -forceASM option.

haysdb · Post by **haysdb** » Thu Mar 25, 2004 1:26 am

Of course! We talk about this (-forceSSE) so much I forget it's not "intuitively obvious" to new folders.

Bryan, no, I would NOT expect that much variation between work units, but I have read some posts indicating that nothing much very interesting happens during most WU's, but sometimes there is an "event" that can really stretch out the frame times. Somewhere there are even some graphs showing this.

David

Kemokim · Post by **Kemokim** » Thu Mar 25, 2004 3:12 am

one of these mofos took 33min pr frame on my barton 2500@3200 so im happy i got a small 25x or something that took 7 hours total afterwards!
but damn my performance had a boost yesterday all up to 700+ points that day! my normal is arround 0 - 400

wgragg · Post by **wgragg** » Thu Mar 25, 2004 7:24 am

Bryan, this is an obvious and simplistic question, so don't be insulted by it, but are you sure you have your fsb and cpu timings correct in the bios?

Also, have you gone into the services and disabled unnecessary ones such as messenger and such. I disabled some of mine and gained a little speed on my barton.

bcassell · Post by **bcassell** » Thu Mar 25, 2004 9:09 am

Does -forcesse really make THAT big of a difference? I was under the impression that it was a small speed boost at best, but I'll definitely try it. And I thought -forceasm was only for if F@H crashed or something like that? But I'll definitely try it on my p3s.

one of these mofos took 33min pr frame on my barton 2500@3200...

Heh, 33 min per frame... if only my A64 was that fast!

Bryan, this is an obvious and simplistic question, so don't be insulted by it, but are you sure you have your fsb and cpu timings correct in the bios?

Also, have you gone into the services and disabled unnecessary ones such as messenger and such. I disabled some of mine and gained a little speed on my barton.

I'm quite positive my fsb and multiplier settings are correct. Before I started folding I was playing with them every other day =). Right now I'm running at the stock 10 x 200 = 2ghz.

I haven't disabled unecessary services, but I know that's not making the difference. That could maybe account for a couple percent increase in speed, but not a two-fold one.

Well, thanks for all the help. 9 more hours until this monster is done I can see if it was just the WU =)

Bryan

mas92264 · Post by **mas92264** » Thu Mar 25, 2004 9:34 am

Does -forcesse really make THAT big of a difference?

Yes indeedy. You're probably looking at a decrease in frame time of 25% to 35%.

By way of comparison, my 2000+ Palomino folds the 160 pointers in about 33 minutes per frame, with -forcesse.

Your frame times seem to be way to high, so somethin's out of whack. I would get cpu-z, run it, and see what it says.

M

Edit: 2600+ Tbred is crunching #858 in 26 minutes per frame.

bcassell · Post by **bcassell** » Thu Mar 25, 2004 9:53 am

Holy Skittles Batman! This is sweet!

I just enabled -forcesse.... my frame times went from about an hour per frame, to 22 minutes, 28 seconds for the last frame...

You're probably looking at a decrease in frame time of 25% to 35%

You forgot to multiply by two there =) (~64% decrease in frame times, yes, almost three times as fast).

Ok to all you A64 folders out there, if you want your folding to go THREE TIMES SLOWER, then don't enable -forcesse..... holy crikey that made a difference. Thanks for all the help,

Bryan

dukla2000 · Post by **dukla2000** » Thu Mar 25, 2004 9:58 am

bcassell wrote:Does -forcesse really make THAT big of a difference? ...
Well, thanks for all the help. 9 more hours until this monster is done I can see if it was just the WU =)

Yup - using SSE is more of the order of doubling your speed (compared to nothing, and 60% gain compared to 3DNow).

And you can quite happily stop folding the current WU, and restart with forcesse to benefit immediately: you dont have to wait for a new WU.

[edit] too late - you already got there

[/edit]

haysdb · Post by **haysdb** » Wed Mar 31, 2004 1:51 am

I continue to be "rewarded" with these. I am working on 8 of them at present. That's OK by me, as F@H LogStats reports they are worth a little over 700 PPW on my 3200+ Bartons.

David

dasman · Post by **dasman** » Wed Mar 31, 2004 7:56 am

haysdb wrote:I continue to be "rewarded" with these. I am working on 8 of them at present. That's OK by me, as F@H LogStats reports they are worth a little over 700 PPW on my 3200+ Bartons.

David

Me too -- I've got them on 8 out of 12 boxes -- makes the days a little inconsistent...

Dave

EDIT: Make that 9 out of 12 now
EDITagain: now 10 out of 12...

haysdb · Post by **haysdb** » Wed Mar 31, 2004 8:43 pm

I'm tied with you dasman, I have 10 of them at the moment.

David

dasman · Post by **dasman** » Wed Mar 31, 2004 8:55 pm

EOC has me down to green now after a couple of subpar, 160pt crunching days

Dave

geordie · Post by **geordie** » Thu Apr 01, 2004 4:27 am

I moved up to green after turning in 5 of them on Monday. Just missed the 1k day with 922 points. Still doubles my previous best day. And David didn't even notice ...

Can't get enough of these for my offline folder. Beats churning though the 18 pointers in a few hours then sitting idle all night 'til I can feed it more work. If only machine ID could go up to 16 instead of 8 ...

haysdb · Post by **haysdb** » Thu Apr 01, 2004 7:38 am