How many instances of F@H can you run on a Dual-CPU, HT box?

[GLeeM]

@kamper
"On a machine with two logical processors and one full on task that would be correct, no? One cpu graph will be on the ceiling and one on the floor, the average being 50."

That one task will use ALL of the processor.

If you run a task with HT enabled it will finish in same time (or very close) if you disable HT in BIOS.

But yeah it should give an idea of how it's going. If you had a task you knew how long it takes to complete you could run that also to find advantage.

 

[MDE]

My HT P4 shows 50% total if I run one instance of F@H, and 100% running two. HT may not actually give a task only half of the CPU but it has to report half in the event that you're doing two things so each gets equal CPU time.

 

[MichaelD]

Allright. The rig is up and running.

Final OC'd speed is 2.40GHz. That's a 50% (800MHz) overclock over the stock 1.60GHz, and it's stable like as a rock.

Help me load up four instances of the Big Wu's!!!

I downloaded the 5.02 Console version...I just have no idea what to do with it.

 

[GLeeM]

Hey MichaelD

Most of what you need to know is in this thread above.

Start by copying the .exe into four folders.

If it has never been run before in that folder, it will enter configuration when you start it.

 

[MichaelD]

Originally posted by: GLeeM
Hey MichaelD

Most of what you need to know is in this thread above.

Start by copying the .exe into four folders.

If it has never been run before in that folder, it will enter configuration when you start it.

OK, thanks.

I guess I can create four new folders, copy the .exe and rename the .exe "Folding1, Folding2, etc"?

Also, how do I stick the flags in there? Do I create a shortcut to each .exe, then right click on the shortcut and put the flags I need after the target? Which flags?

Thanks much.

 

[ProviaFan]

Originally posted by: MichaelD
OK, thanks.

I guess I can create four new folders, copy the .exe and rename the .exe "Folding1, Folding2, etc"?

Yes

Also, how do I stick the flags in there? Do I create a shortcut to each .exe, then right click on the shortcut and put the flags I need after the target?

Yes

Which flags?

-local after each CLI to keep them from interfering with each other, and also -advmethods if you also want to enable >5MB WUs in the advanced preferences (in that case you'll need a GB of RAM to dedicate just to F@H with 4 clients), and perhaps -verbosity 9 if you'd like more details written to FAHLog.txt for troubleshooting purposes (it tells you the IPs of the servers it's trying to communicate with, which is nice so you can check if the server really is down or not).

Hope this helps.

 

[GLeeM]

Hey MichaelD

How's it going? Do you need more direction?

I do four BigWUs, but I don't heavily use my dually. Try it and see, you can always change it to three BigWUs or two if need be.

 

[MichaelD]

Thanks ProviaFan and GLeeM,

I just got home from work. *sigh* Gotta pay the bills so I can buy toys. Anyway.

I'll toy with it tonight. I DO use this rig daily, so I guess Big WUs are out. I only have 1GB of memory; I don't want to start getting into page file usage b/c that slows down system responsiveness dramatically.

I'll report back.

 

[GLeeM]

When I said I don't heavily use this computer I meant I don't compress video while playing graphics intensive games while burning DVDs while etc, etc. I use it every day and have yet to notice any effect from running four BigWUs, and I am used to a P4 @ 3.3
If I did anything that F@H affected, I would just shut down one instance while doing it.

Double points when you can get them, BigWUs that is.
Instead of 400 points per day (ppd), imagine 800 ppd! Actually they are getting harder to get, so you probably would only have one or two out of four anyway.

 

[ProviaFan]

From my personal experience, running one BigWU client eats up about a third of my 512MB of RAM, which makes my machine slower not only in Photoshop but also just in general office-style multitasking. I put up with it for the points, but most people wouldn't tolerate such sluggishness, and I'm afraid it would be even worse with four BigWUs on 1GB.

 

[lobadobadingdong]

Originally posted by: ProviaFan
From my personal experience, running one BigWU client eats up about a third of my 512MB of RAM, which makes my machine slower not only in Photoshop but also just in general office-style multitasking. I put up with it for the points, but most people wouldn't tolerate such sluggishness, and I'm afraid it would be even worse with four BigWUs on 1GB.

I had have to agree, I have a gig in my main rig, and video editing and gaming is definatly faster when I shut down the client for those (I don't have any HT boxes or duallies)

 

[ProviaFan]

Originally posted by: lobadobadingdong
I had have to agree, I have a gig in my main rig, and video editing and gaming is definatly faster when I shut down the client for those (I don't have any HT boxes or duallies)

Please don't misunderstand... the client won't impact the performance of your other software, if you have enough RAM to handle both at one time. If selecting Big WUs leaves you with too little RAM, then you might be better off for F@H points selecting normal WUs and leaving the client running all the time.

 

[lobadobadingdong]

Originally posted by: ProviaFan

Originally posted by: lobadobadingdong
I had have to agree, I have a gig in my main rig, and video editing and gaming is definatly faster when I shut down the client for those (I don't have any HT boxes or duallies)

Please don't misunderstand... the client won't impact the performance of your other software, if you have enough RAM to handle both at one time. If selecting Big WUs leaves you with too little RAM, then you might be better off for F@H points selecting normal WUs and leaving the client running all the time.

that's what I meant. (sorry, I was agreeing about the big WU's taking up too much memory, when you have to use them both at the same time, and one or the other programs have to go to a swap file.) I didn't make myself very clear

 

[GLeeM]

@lobadobadingdong and ProviaFan
I have to agree with both of you. On my non-HT, non-dual computer without a gig of ram the slowness is more than just sluggish. It is wait forever for anything to happen, if it is running one BigWU.

On a dual HT rig it is a little different. I've had five BigWUs going and there is no sluggishness.

 

[MichaelD]

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to let you know that I've not dropped off the face of the earth; just been busy. I have had a lot of trouble getting setup with four instances of F@H getting to run as a service.

I've been trying to run each instance the first time with the -configonly switch to get everything setuup, then removing the configonly and putting in -service -forceasm.

It's not working for some reason, so the dual Xeon isn't crunching away yet. I still have the other three boxes up and running though.

 

[BCinSC]

First of all, the service option is -svcstart. Where are you putting these options? On the command line or in the registry? It should be the latter. Here's how my ImagePath value in HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\F@H reads:
C:\FAH5\FAHConsole.exe -svcstart -advmethods -forceasm

 

[GLeeM]

I don't (and have never) run as service, but there is an option in the config to run as a service. Doesn't that work?

I thought all you had to do was say yes to run as a service and add the flags in the registry.

 

[BCinSC]

That's true, to a point. It put the basic entries into the registry. You have to add an extra flags, like advmethods and forceasm

 

[MichaelD]

Originally posted by: BCinSC
First of all, the service option is -svcstart. Where are you putting these options? On the command line or in the registry? It should be the latter. Here's how my ImagePath value in HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\F@H reads:
C:\FAH5\FAHConsole.exe -svcstart -advmethods -forceasm

Thanks. I was following the instructions given in this thread and I created four different folders:

F@H-1
F@H-2
F@H-3
F@H-4

I created shortcuts for each .exe and altered the Properties of the shortcut with the -service -forceasm commands.

I got the -service directly from the instructions on the F@H page under "How to run the console version."

I'm going to try this again today as I'm ready; finally got my overclock stable at 2.50GHz (prime95tt tested for almost 18 hours. )

 

[YellowRose]

I would run only 2 of the big wu's and 2 of the regular wu's on a dual HT system.

 

[ProviaFan]

Originally posted by: MichaelD
I created shortcuts for each .exe and altered the Properties of the shortcut with the -service -forceasm commands.

I got the -service directly from the instructions on the F@H page under "How to run the console version."

Ok, I'm afraid that's where you went wrong, because whatever F@H page says that is wrong. It's their fault, not yours. Anyway, you need to run each client to configure it with a unique machine ID (make sure to see the advanced options, because it's under there I think). Then while in config say yes to install as a service, and (in theory) it should be good to go, if you check your FAHLog.txt's after the services have started, and see that each is working on its own WU.