Which clients to run?

[deagz]

Recently got a a radeon 4830, so now I can fold w/ my gpu. I also have a dual opteron @ 2.4ghz. Whats the ideal setup for moderate PC usage while folding?

I would assume I should run the regular single core client along with the GPU2 client. This would prevent the CPU client from slowing down the GPU client, and i'd still have a few cycles off one of the cpu cores to do other things. Or does the SMP client cooperate well with the gpu client?

 

[Drsignguy]

With the Ati card and a dually, your best bet would be the video card. As it is an Ati, the drivers are not like the Nvidia just yet. With that being said, what I mean by this is, Nvidia's latest drivers work very well with the OS now and when it ( video card ) runs, it requires very little Cpu %. With the Ati, it will take up at least 1 core at 100%, and that is if you always set the Affinity to that 1 core all the time. Besides, the Smp will take a long time with the dually and Gpu together.
My E7200 does pretty well by itself but no where near like the Quad cores. I am not familiar with the Opteron but if you have less than 3mb level 2 cache, it will take a while. Smp's like cache. I did it with my E2160 with 1mb cache and I bagged it, isn't worth the time. So, personally, I would just use the GPU. Only remember, this is just an opinion...

 

[theAnimal]

What OS? GPU2 uses a lot less CPU in Vista, so then you could run GPU2 + SMP; otherwise, GPU2 + CPU.

 

[Drsignguy]

Originally posted by: theAnimal
What OS? GPU2 uses a lot less CPU in Vista, so then you could run GPU2 + SMP; otherwise, GPU2 + CPU.

Xp and Vista. The latest Nvidia drivers 180.xx in both OS use very little Cpu %. As for Ati, still takes up a bit.