Request only small units?

[skinner1215]

Apologies if this has been answered before; didn't find anything via searching the forums.

I'm using a low-powered laptop that occasionally doesn't complete folds within the allotted time. Is it possible to force FAH to only download small (short duration) units?

Thanks!

[BobWilliams757]

The hardware you have mostly dictates the assignments you get.

If you are only CPU folding, often reducing the number of threads available to F@H will result in less throughput, but also less intensive work units. The timeouts may be increased, but just as importantly the heat, power consumption, and fan noise will decrease, so you may be more inclined to leave the computer running unattended.

For GPU folding it's more based on the specific GPU, and the major factor is time. GPU's are either on or off and other than setting power limits you can't really change that.

If using less threads doesn't work for the CPU folding there isn't much more you can do if you are letting the machine run 24/7. If you aren't consider only folding when you can leave it running long enough to complete work units. Once you reach the timeout the work unit is issued to another machine, so it can cause duplicate work.


If it's only an occasional thing, that really doesn't create an issue. If it becomes frequent then you might consider not folding until you have more suitable hardware, or can run what you have more hours per day.

[Joe_H]

This gets asked a few times a year, and other than the suggestions already provided it is not possible. To do so would require the servers to maintain a large database of hardware versus project processing times. That would quickly become unwieldy and incur large amounts of server overhead for little gain.

The only "size" option available is related to the size of the data file for the WU download and upload. That was based on the need for users with slower or data restricted internet connections to have some control over how big the WU downloads and uploads would be. However there is no direct correlation between the size of the WU file and the time it will take to process.

[skinner1215]

Okay, that's kind of what I figured. Thanks for the replies!

[skinner1215]

P.S. Joe_H, I like your setup: "iMac 2.8 i7 12 GB smp8, Mac Pro 2.8 quad 12 GB smp6 MacBook Pro 2.9 i7 8 GB smp3" My main folding machine is a 2021 MacBook Pro M1, but I have a cheap PC laptop I use for a few things; that's the one that times out occasionally. I just let both of them do their thing and watch my rank slooooowly climb after not doing FAH for a few years.

[Joe_H]

Yeah, I have to update that sometime. I only use the MacBook Pro for folding occasionally now to test client software on older versions of the OS and do the occasional beta or internal tests of new CPU projects to verify if they will complete within deadlines. And the iMac is waiting on me to install a new PS, it smoked a while back. Currently folding on a Hackintosh and a Mac Studio.