novice question regarding folding... how much does RAM matter?

[Turbonium]

How much does RAM amount matter for a dedicated folding machine?

I only have 1GB (2x512MB) in each of my quad-core boxes. Is that hampering their performance to an appreciable degree?

They're running Linux (Ubuntu) by the way.

 

[Rudy Toody]

While crunching, run System Monitor --- Resources tab. It will show the memory usage. And it will also show the swap file usage. If swap file has significant percentage, then more memory would help.

Note: I usually reboot before this test because the swap file usage is reset at that time.

If only a small amount of swap is used, it just means that everything will take a little longer.

 

[VirtualLarry]

How much does RAM amount matter for a dedicated folding machine?

I only have 1GB (2x512MB) in each of my quad-core boxes. Is that hampering their performance to an appreciable degree?

They're running Linux (Ubuntu) by the way.

I would probably say yes, but I'm not folding any more currently so I don't know for certain.

 

[Bubbleawsome]

Yes, I use 6-8 Gb with my i7 870 8gb ram.

 

[StitchExperimen]

In Ubuntu 12.04 LTS desktop you need 2.3 GB. 2.6 GB if Chrome has 32 tabs open.
In 2004 I ran a headless linux that booted from 3 1/2 floppy and ran in memory SETI. All that was connected was a power supply, floppy, Ethernet cable. The monitor was just to start it up and then unplugged (VGA and HDMI is hot swap-able, {I didn't have the guts to try my digital monitor and see if that works also and I still broke it in a move.} and the keyboard was pulled after start-up commands. Something back then I faintly recall we used someones computer on the internet that stored a queue of work units so we could always get some if SETI was down.

Hope that helps. It was a striped down Linux and we didn't have much memory back in 2002-3 boards that were o/c.