3 out of 4 cores

[LovIT487]

I was wondering why F@H was only using 3 cores on my cpu instead of all 4 of them? And the cpu load is only at 95% when iam folding. F@H is set at 100% cpu usage and folding core priority is set at slightly higher. ZPU-Z can find all 4 cores and i get temperature readings from all 4cores, so it cant be a hardware problem.
I have an Intel Core i5 4670K 3.4 GHz (Haswell).

[bruce]

Welcome to foldingforum.org, LovIT487

The default setting for any new installation on a system with a supported GPU is to allocate (N-1) cores to the CPU slot, leaving one to support the GPU.

You can adjust that setting but you're responsible for deciding if it's an improvement or not. There's no guarantee. Four cores can be slower than three and 100% CPU can be slower than 95%, depending on a number of factors. YMMV. This has been discussed in a number of different topics where you can find additional help if you need it.

[ChristianVirtual]

Welcome to F@H

What graphic adapter do you have ? for example nvidia cards require one core for each card. So the default setting might consider that. If you don't fold with GPU you could increase the CPU to 4; but keep it on default is a good idea. Keeps you also some resources for the rest of the system.

Could you share the first 100 lines of you log file, would tell us more details about your system and config.

[LovIT487]

Thanks so much =) I'll see if I can find any thread and see what others have come up with the Radeon R9 200/x =D

Code: Select all

*********************** Log Started 2014-03-20T08:40:57Z ***********************
08:40:57:************************* Folding@home Client *************************
08:40:57:      Website: http://folding.stanford.edu/
08:40:57:    Copyright: (c) 2009-2013 Stanford University
08:40:57:       Author: Joseph Coffland <[email protected]>
08:40:57:         Args: 
08:40:57:       Config: C:/ProgramData/FAHClient/config.xml
08:40:57:******************************** Build ********************************
08:40:57:      Version: 7.3.6
08:40:57:         Date: Feb 18 2013
08:40:57:         Time: 15:25:17
08:40:57:      SVN Rev: 3923
08:40:57:       Branch: fah/trunk/client
08:40:57:     Compiler: Intel(R) C++ MSVC 1500 mode 1200
08:40:57:      Options: /TP /nologo /EHa /Qdiag-disable:4297,4103,1786,279 /Ox -arch:SSE
08:40:57:               /QaxSSE2,SSE3,SSSE3,SSE4.1,SSE4.2 /Qopenmp /Qrestrict /MT /Qmkl
08:40:57:     Platform: win32 XP
08:40:57:         Bits: 32
08:40:57:         Mode: Release
08:40:57:******************************* System ********************************
08:40:57:          CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4670K CPU @ 3.40GHz
08:40:57:       CPU ID: GenuineIntel Family 6 Model 60 Stepping 3
08:40:57:         CPUs: 4
08:40:57:       Memory: 7.95GiB
08:40:57:  Free Memory: 6.66GiB
08:40:57:      Threads: WINDOWS_THREADS
08:40:57:  Has Battery: false
08:40:57:   On Battery: false
08:40:57:   UTC offset: 1
08:40:57:          PID: 3628
08:40:57:          CWD: C:/ProgramData/FAHClient
08:40:57:           OS: Windows 7 Home Premium
08:40:57:      OS Arch: AMD64
08:40:57:         GPUs: 1
08:40:57:        GPU 0: ATI:5 Hawaii [Radeon R9 200 Series]
08:40:57:         CUDA: Not detected
08:40:57:Win32 Service: false
08:40:57:***********************************************************************
08:40:57:<config>
08:40:57:  <!-- Folding Core -->
08:40:57:  <core-priority v='low'/>
08:40:57:
08:40:57:  <!-- Folding Slot Configuration -->
08:40:57:  <power v='full'/>
08:40:57:
08:40:57:  <!-- Network -->
08:40:57:  <proxy v=':8080'/>
08:40:57:
08:40:57:  <!-- User Information -->
08:40:57:  <passkey v='********************************'/>
08:40:57:  <team v='37451'/>
08:40:57:  <user v='LovIT487'/>
08:40:57:
08:40:57:  <!-- Folding Slots -->
08:40:57:  <slot id='0' type='GPU'/>
08:40:57:  <slot id='1' type='CPU'/>
08:40:57:</config>

[PinHead]

So why do you think that it is only using 3 cores?

At 95% it seems you are using all 4 cores for CPU folding, plus the cpu cycles needed to drive the GPU folding, plus run the operating system. The GPU folding and the operating system will interrupt the CPU folding when something needs to be done and thus show a non 100% usage.

Windows typically will show 25%ish on a 4 core if folding with one core, 50%ish if fold with 2 cores, 75%ish if folding on 3 cores and slightly less than 100% if folding on all cores because of Operating System needs. Add a GPU folding to the mix and 95% doesn't sound too bad for folding on 4 cores and a GPU.

[LovIT487]

Because fah showed only 3 cores... but now that you mention it,so is 95% more than 75%. As it should have been if fah only used three cores XP I became concerned when fah did not use 100% of the CPU as it did with my old setup.

[bruce]

If you're using 75% for 3 cores and 20% for something else, changing from CPU:3 to CPU:4 will REDUCE your performance, not increase it. The SMP client really likes dedicated cores and abhors an extra core that only has a small percentage of processor available. It tends to process at the speed of the SLOWEST thread.