SMP Affinity Changer

[KWSN_Dagger]

1.04 isn't on that DL page, still points to 1.03.

[rilian]

We have some database problems and rolled our site back on 1 day. sorry, it iwll be updated back soon

[uncle_fungus]

FAH Affinity Changer has now been open-sourced, bringing the rather sordid discussion here viewtopic.php?f=14&t=489 to a close.

Hopefully this will alleviate anyone's doubt about the nature of the program, and restore some trust in the developer nik4eva, and rilian.

The source can be accessed via google code here: http://code.google.com/p/fah-smp-affini ... ger/source

[ThunderRd]

Rillian;

What are some possible reasons why I can't install 1.0.4 x64 on my Q6600? I get an dialog saying my processor isn't supported, but it's 64-bit. I thought this version was to add support for 64 bit cpus; or is this version for 64-bit OS?

The other version seems to work, though. (1.0.4)

-TR

[uncle_fungus]

Rillian;

What are some possible reasons why I can't install 1.0.4 x64 on my Q6600? I get an dialog saying my processor isn't supported, but it's 64-bit. I thought this version was to add support for 64 bit cpus; or is this version for 64-bit OS?

The other version seems to work, though. (1.0.4)

-TR

Its for the OS, not the CPU.

1.0.4 x64 is for 64bit Windows.
1.0.4 is for 32bit Windows (whether you have a 64bit CPU or not doesn't matter)

[ThunderRd]

New version 1.0.4 released with 64-bit cpu support and it starts automatically after install (so not reboot/service start needed)

Next version is about to be released very soon with single-threaded client support

DOWNLOAD

OK, Uncle... I saw this and tought something different

@Rillian:
Perhaps the error message should be changed to: "This version does not support your OS; you need a 64-bit OS to use it." Right now it's a bit confusing
In any case, seems to work for me, thanks for the development and Happy New Year.

[uncle fuzzy]

I thought I'd give it a try, but through the first 20% of a P2653 on an AMD64 X2 6000+ my frame times are about 45 seconds slower- from 18:25 to 19:10. I'll keep running it for awhile to see if it's just this WU.

[rilian]

As far as i know AMD processors have different cpu-bus architecture and affinity changer does not work very well for them

[uncle fuzzy]

Bummer. The only Intel I have is a quad I'm still OCing. I might try it there later. I guess I'd better uninstall it on the AMD and get my other 68 PPD back.

[Jeannie]

As far as i know AMD processors have different cpu-bus architecture and affinity changer does not work very well for them

I've tried the various versions of the affinity changer on my AMD 5000 a few times, and every time it has lowered my PPD by as much as 300, so it doesn't seem to work for me. In the 'old' forum, I only remember one other person posting results with an AMD and that person did get more points, so I'm glad to see some confirmation that it's not that I've been doing something wrong!

[ArVee]

I'm wondering why I seem to be the only person who's a little irked at this guy for not stating the facts upfront instead of an eventual "Oh btw, this is actually a detriment to AMD systems, don't waste your time." I mean c'mon, there ARE a bunch of us around and the world doesn't revolve exclusively around Intel and its users. Yeesh! Here's MY oh btw: It takes a complete power down after uninstalling this thing before you get system performance back. Didn't take me five pages to get to it either.

[uncle_fungus]

I'm wondering why I seem to be the only person who's a little irked at this guy for not stating the facts upfront instead of an eventual "Oh btw, this is actually a detriment to AMD systems, don't waste your time." I mean c'mon, there ARE a bunch of us around and the world doesn't revolve exclusively around Intel and its users. Yeesh! Here's MY oh btw: It takes a complete power down after uninstalling this thing before you get system performance back. Didn't take me five pages to get to it either.

Well, it would have been useful to know from the outset, yes.

I've just confirmed this on my X2 4400+. Affinity changer knocks off about 15PPD compared to no affinity set.

With regard to uninstalling, did you actually reset your affinities in task manager after uninstalling? That way you wouldn't have to reboot.

[uncle fuzzy]

rilian, I think a statement on the download page would be nice.

I brought up the question, and I seem to be the least upset. It's a tool, we tried it, it didn't work, put it away and continue folding. If it trashed my system I'd be pi$$ed. This is just a minor annoyance.

edit- Now I'm getting cranky. When I uninstalled, it took half of my SMP folder with it. I had to download and reinstall SMP to get my fah.exe back. It only took 5 minutes, but it worried me. The WU was at 55%. It worked, so I'm calmer. I did not maually stop the service before uninstalling. Would that make a difference?

[Jeannie]

If I remember correctly, on the old forum, there were only two of us who reported trying it with AMD processors - I reported it made things perform worse, and the other person said it gave them more PPD. I didn't ask whether it was supposed to work for AMD processors, I just reported my result. So I can't blame Rillian for not asking the author of the tool about it then. Now, a few weeks later, Uncle Fuzzy reported it made things worse on his AMD processor, and Rillian has responded with information that the it's not designed to work with the AMD architecture. So I can't be angry at Rillian. (But, I agree that the home page for the tool should mention it isn't designed for AMD processors so it might not work with them-YMMV)

The times I've tried the tool, I manually stopped the service, setting it to 'disabled', then stopped and restarted my SMP client and uninstalled the tool - no problems trashing anything. I've done that at least three different times with no problem.

[noorman]

If the software only runs its detection process once every 10 minutes, I don't think it's going to be acceptable. If I start watching a video, I won't be happy if the first 5 or 10 minutes are choppy before FAH yields enough CPU time. This may be an excellent tool for a machine that's dedicated to folding but it's not possible to make it as dynamic as the process scheduler in the OS, which is what people are going to want.

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I don't think that the affinity changing process has anything to do with FaH 'yielding' processor cycles when you need them for something else !

Affinity only links a process to a processor core; FaH still works as before and still will only use 'free' cycles, I believe !


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