Does folding at home use idle cycles or does it increase power consumption?

[Infohawk]

Do distributed computing programs use idle/wasted cycles or do they take more processing power which would increase energy consumption?

 

[djdave404]

I belive the correct answer is yes to both Questions 🙂

How much power is used depends on your CPU and it's power wattage needs. Overclocking adds to the power usage for all but the most modest overclock.

If you choose to also use your GPU, then it's power needs would have to added in also.

Just like the rest of life, nothing is realy free.😛

Hope this helps.

 

[zzuupp]

I'll 2nd that reply.

1. Yes, the DC application will work when nothing else is going on.

2. Yes, instead of idling your CPU/GPU will be throttled up & therefore not sleeping or hibernating.

Also, you will discover the fan noise of all combined

 

[biodoc]

Also, you will discover the fan noise of all combined

Music to my ears! 🙂

 

[somethingsketchy]

You can limit (as far as some projects are concerned) how much % of CPU usage the project can take up, so you can reduce your power usage slightly. I limit my current project (F@H) to only 50% of the processor, so I can keep the heat and electrical costs down, while still contributing to the cause.

 

[VirtualLarry]

The answer is yes to both questions.

Yes, it uses idle cycles. Back in the bad old days, processors had no real power-saving mechanisms. So they were drawing maximum power all of the time. However, modern desktops (C2D era and newer) have extensive power-management features, that throttle back the CPU speed and lower the voltage when they aren't being used. However, in many cases, overclocking requires that you disable the power-saving features anyways. So if you are going to overclock, you might as well do DC to suck up the unused cycles.

 

[Assimilator1]

I believe Athlon64 & S754 Smeprons have power saving/down clocking abilities too.

Plus what they said about the ops question 🙂.