Folding@Home Strikes Back: Tom's Vs Anand Part 2 (March 12th)

[StefanR5R]

suddenly, the gpu utilization i read in msi afterburner is around 80-85% instead of 99% like it was on the test run.

You can't get full GPU utilization on Windows, at least not on GPUs as large as the 1070. 99 % must have been an extraordinary WU, or only a short-term reading. For average utilization to go above 90 % on large GPUs, Linux is needed. (That's due to some differences in the driver stacks, and it applies to Folding@Home and several but AFAIK not all other GPU-based distributed computing applications.)

That said, I don't know what PPD and what utilization-% to expect for 1070 and 970.

Ok, got F@H installed and running on my Ryzen R5 1600 rig (stock CPU clocks) with GTX1070ti Gaming (X?) (stock clocks).

It defaulted to 10 CPU threads, should I reduce that to 5? How well does Ryzen's SMT fare with F@H?

I can only speak theoretically, as I don't have comparable hardware: Zen's SMT generally scales pretty well with independent computing threads/ processes. But I wonder about how good Windows' kernel is in keeping unwanted SMT load off of the core which runs the GPU feeder process. Only way to find out is to watch PPD and GPU utilization over multiple WUs.

But frankly, CPU slots smaller than 24 threads are hardly worthwhile (due to low quick-return bonus and due to receiving too many low-scoring WUs of the 0xa4 type, compared with the better scoring 0xa7 type), unless it's about an entire rack full of such hosts, and electricity is cheap at the place in question.

 

[ao_ika_red]

But frankly, CPU slots smaller than 24 threads are hardly worthwhile (due to low quick-return bonus and due to receiving too many low-scoring WUs of the 0xa4 type, compared with the better scoring 0xa7 type), unless it's about an entire rack full of such hosts, and electricity is cheap at the place in question.

Even though you said so, I will be the stubborn kid this time and throw my cpu into action as it's basically a sprint-class challenge so I believe each point counts.

 

[StefanR5R]

You are right of course — sprints are special, and for a Folding competition, this is a sprint indeed.

 

[Markfw]

Well, with 3 hours to go to the start, last 24 hours for Toms is 24.3m, and 44m for TEAM. And you can't bunker F@H, so this is going to be a massacre unless they double their output, and fast.

 

[petrusbroder]

... which may be possible. Then the question occurs: how probable is it that Tom's double their output?
I really would liken them to do that - that would be good for Folding@Home, for them and for us ... more competition, more output.

 

[Storm Vanguard]

it's tom's fault. their benchmark graphs aren't as fancy as anandtech's. same for the site layout. of course they are going to lose.

 

[StefanR5R]

Remember, there are datacenters run by Curecoin members which on their own make tens of Millions points a day. Last year, Brony@Home recruited a datacenter guy a few months before our December−January race. Maybe Tom's recruit one tomorrow... (Or maybe we do.)

 

[Markfw]

OK, for the first update, (2 hours of the three during the race) we made 8 million, and they went DOWN to 3.4 million.

 

[IEC]

Is it time for some (friendly) smack talk yet?

Just put the 1050 Ti on the job. Now all my graphics cards are happily folding away.

 

[TennesseeTony]

Time for pity, actually. Tom's appears...................................noncompetitive. But hey! At least the TeAm got some front page coverage again!

advertisement of a sort:
There are tonnes of projects to run after this race! Science, math, health, math, engineering, math, physics, math, cosmology, math, astronomy, and math! Heck, they even have math projects! So join the TeAm and stick around after this slaughter (errrr, competition)!

We are REALLY going to need your help when the BOINC Pentathlon comes around! Check the calendar, and setup a reminder for yourselves!

 

[iwajabitw]

Sorry I'm not in this one. I'm out of town and decided to just leave boinc running.

 

[Storm Vanguard]

unfortunately i don't think i can do this long term yet... i'm in a tough job situation and can't risk damage to my stuff. if i get unstuck tho, i still have a midtower case hanging around... i could buy a cheap ryzen 3 with a two slot mobo, migrate the current PSU and the 970 in there and have it fold 24/7. considering i'd need a new PSU for the big rig tho, and also need to invest a bit in new fans (more than half of my old ones died...) it would be a 6-800$ build tho, that's quite a bit for me unfortunately. but never say never. i thought i could keep the 970 at work and fire her up when needed for other challenges but it seems i can't really until i change the fans. had to open all the panels of my case because when both GPUs are at work i hit tmax on the 1070 and probably it's the same on the 970 since i can't tune her fans to get to 100%. i even had to dial down the overclock by almost 200mhz, that alone cost me 40.000 ppd. dang. T_T

 

[Markfw]

unfortunately i don't think i can do this long term yet... i'm in a tough job situation and can't risk damage to my stuff. if i get unstuck tho, i still have a midtower case hanging around... i could buy a cheap ryzen 3 with a two slot mobo, migrate the current PSU and the 970 in there and have it fold 24/7. considering i'd need a new PSU for the big rig tho, and also need to invest a bit in new fans (more than half of my old ones died...) it would be a 6-800$ build tho, that's quite a bit for me unfortunately. but never say never. i thought i could keep the 970 at work and fire her up when needed for other challenges but it seems i can't really until i change the fans. had to open all the panels of my case because when both GPUs are at work i hit tmax on the 1070 and probably it's the same on the 970 since i can't tune her fans to get to 100%. i even had to dial down the overclock by almost 200mhz, that alone cost me 40.000 ppd. dang. T_T

What do you need other than a video card to get up and folding ? I have some freebees for just shipping.
For example, AMD 860k quadcore CPU+motherboard+(4 or 8 gig) ram for just shipping.

 

[Storm Vanguard]

that would be amazing, i'd need to only get a decent psu to complete a folding rig. there are a couple of problems though. first, i'm in europe, not sure how much it would cost or if it's even legal to ship hardware from the US to here (as far as i know, it's not, unless i pay a sizable customs fee, at least for new stuff). second, i'd have to pull out the calculator and see how much it would cost me in terms of electricity. unfortunately i'm pretty much broke right now and every penny counts. the good part is that i'm up for a couple job opportunities this month and if one of those gets off, it wouldn't be a problem anymore. i'll keep you guys posted then.

 

[Markfw]

that would be amazing, i'd need to only get a decent psu to complete a folding rig. there are a couple of problems though. first, i'm in europe, not sure how much it would cost or if it's even legal to ship hardware from the US to here (as far as i know, it's not, unless i pay a sizable customs fee, at least for new stuff). second, i'd have to pull out the calculator and see how much it would cost me in terms of electricity. unfortunately i'm pretty much broke right now and every penny counts. the good part is that i'm up for a couple job opportunities this month and if one of those gets off, it wouldn't be a problem anymore. i'll keep you guys posted then.

Well, crap. Based on one previous experience to Sweden, including VAT it would be over $100 USD, so probably not worth it, sorry. But if you were up to it, I would.

 

[Storm Vanguard]

i'll keep an eye on prices and we'll see. if, like, buying on the cheap here would cost over 200$ anyways, it would still be worth to pay the customs unless it comes out even pricier. after all the system only needs to be in good enough condition to support the gpu.

 

[Markfw]

we are now outdoing them by 5 million points per update ! Are they even trying ?

 

[StefanR5R]

Are they even trying ?

At least their user count went up...
EOC says 37 new, +43 active. Which is quite a lot, considering how buried the race announcement is on their site.

 

[IEC]

The beatings will continue until morale improves!

 

[jsimenhoff]

Does anyone have current statistics that we can use in an article? We're trying to drum up more support on the Tom's Hardware side of things.

 

[petrusbroder]

Does anyone have current statistics that we can use in an article? We're trying to drum up more support on the Tom's Hardware side of things.

Here: http://tastats.atspace.cc/ta-th-18/

 

[ao_ika_red]

The beatings will continue until morale improves!

We've learned few things when against Brony@Home who had somebody with a whole company server behind him. Not to mention that event wasn't even announced on AT's front page.

Onwards to 65M PPD!

 

[TennesseeTony]

Does anyone have current statistics that we can use in an article? We're trying to drum up more support on the Tom's Hardware side of things.

Yes, please due stir them up a bit....and give them some freakin' appropriate forum software for crying out loud!

 

[Storm Vanguard]

good news people! opening up my case has made the trick, i've gained 20 degrees celsius on all components, this means that i can safely run the 970 24/7 past this race. can't say for cpu based workloads because i do need my CPU more than a spare GPU, but i can sneak in some hours of work at night at least. since it's only the 970 who's doing the work, it should not be too much of a problem electricity wise. time to crunch those numbers.

 

[IEC]

Daily reminder:

The beatings will continue until morale improves!