Team AnandTech Folding@Home member Kadajawi posted a link to a thread Overclocker's Forums about optimizing the Folding@Home client. I'm posting a separate thread about this subject, since I think it is very important, and our team could get quite a boost in daily output if even only half of the active members started using these optimizations.
Anyhow, long introduction aside, the thread is here. In summary, Folding@Home clients can be told to prefer GROMACS FUs by using the "-advmethods" switch. "-forceasm" can also be used to force assembly optimizations for a little more performance; both of these options are very stressful on your computer's CPU, so if you're overclocking, you may need to back off just a bit to get a totally stable configuration. Now, you may be asking, what is GROMACS and why is it important? GROMACS is a new math core for the Folding@Home client (in addition to, but eventually replacing, the current TINKER core). The new GROMACS core allows the guys at Stanford to get much more work done in the same amount of time that it takes the TINKER core to do much less. That doesn't mean your points will go up exponentially (points are calculated based on time required to complete a FU). But if you add the "-advmethods" switch, it will not only instruct your client to prefer GROMACS FUs, but it will also enable SSE or 3DNow+ optimizations. The latter will be extremely helpful for our folders who have Pentium 4s, as it will allow their processors to be as fast as Athlon XPs (finally!); it will also increase the perfomance of Athlon XPs and Durons, but maybe not quite as much.
Edit: I should add that even though I said adding the new switches won't increase one's score exponentially, it will still increase one's score. This is because normally the core will run without optimizations. If you enable the optimizations, it will get faster, and you will get more FUs done in the same amount of time than someone who doesn't have the optimizations turned on.
Anyhow, long introduction aside, the thread is here. In summary, Folding@Home clients can be told to prefer GROMACS FUs by using the "-advmethods" switch. "-forceasm" can also be used to force assembly optimizations for a little more performance; both of these options are very stressful on your computer's CPU, so if you're overclocking, you may need to back off just a bit to get a totally stable configuration. Now, you may be asking, what is GROMACS and why is it important? GROMACS is a new math core for the Folding@Home client (in addition to, but eventually replacing, the current TINKER core). The new GROMACS core allows the guys at Stanford to get much more work done in the same amount of time that it takes the TINKER core to do much less. That doesn't mean your points will go up exponentially (points are calculated based on time required to complete a FU). But if you add the "-advmethods" switch, it will not only instruct your client to prefer GROMACS FUs, but it will also enable SSE or 3DNow+ optimizations. The latter will be extremely helpful for our folders who have Pentium 4s, as it will allow their processors to be as fast as Athlon XPs (finally!); it will also increase the perfomance of Athlon XPs and Durons, but maybe not quite as much.
Edit: I should add that even though I said adding the new switches won't increase one's score exponentially, it will still increase one's score. This is because normally the core will run without optimizations. If you enable the optimizations, it will get faster, and you will get more FUs done in the same amount of time than someone who doesn't have the optimizations turned on.
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