What is the best setup for my hardware / usage

[JayForte]

Hardware:
Intel i7 960 (Quad Core) 3.2Ghz
Nvidia GTX 570 (Overclocked)
12GB RAM
Windows 7 (64)

Usage:
I want to run F@H 24/7 and get the most PPD possible but it has to meet my usage requirements. I use my PC for work (Photoshop/Dreamweaver/internet) and occasionally for gaming. What client/setup do i need to take advantage of my multi-core CPU and GPU while not working/gaming? Since my work isn't CPU/GPU intensive, is there a way to run the client at say 80% CPU/GPU utilization? What is the best setup for when I'm gaming and I want to run F@H but not have it tax my gaming performance?

I'm new to F@H so a fairly detailed explanation of how to achieve this optimal setup is greatly appreciated. Thank you for helping me help others

[Zagen30]

Welcome to the forum, JayForte.

Though it's still in beta, the v7 client can handle all of your hardware. The guides are pretty good at explaining how to set everything up so both your CPU and GPU are running. You'll want one SMP slot and one GPU slot.

F@h was originally designed to run at the lowest possible priority, ceding processing time to everything else. SMP work is still pretty good about this, while GPU work is less so since GPUs have never been designed to multitask well.

Because of that lousy GPU multitasking, it's recommended that you not GPU fold and game at the same time, instead pausing the GPU slot before you start the game. In the past gaming and folding simultaneously has interfered with the folding process; while I don't know how common it is now, it's still easiest if you shut down GPU folding. You may have to shut down the SMP slot, but it should be a lot better at running in the background. Basically, see what the performance is like and adjust accordingly.

[alleysf16]

I have an AMD 1090T 3.2 OCd to 3.6 with an ATI 6950 2GB PCI-E. I'm running F@H but it is only using about 17% of my processing power. How do I change that? I can afford to use at least 60-70% and still do other things. I looked at the beta v7 and it looked like a huge pain in the butt. Is there an easier way?

Thanks,

Alley

[bruce]

Welcome to foldingforum.org, alleysf16.

A supported GPU, such as the 6950 does most of the heavy work on the GPU and the CPU mostly transfers data between main RAM and the GPU in the form of work packages so the CPU doesn't have to work very hard.

The X6 is ideal for FAH's SMP processing. If you want to stick with the V6 client, you will need to install a separate client which can be found by following the High Performance Beta Client link at the bottom of the download page. You'll need the V6 Beta SMP2/CPU client 6.34 found on the next page.

Although it may not seem to be true when reading the forum, most people find that the V7 client is actually simpler to use than installing two V6 client. A single V7 client can simultaneously manage folding on your 1090T and on your 6950 whereas it takes two V6 clients to do that.

In either case, the idea of limiting your CPU to 60-70% and leaving idle time do other things is probably not necessary. The operating system does a reasonably good job of using all available resources to fold whenever there's nothing else to do but gives immediate priority to the "other things" whenever they are needed.

If you find that general statement doesn't apply to the type of work that you do, you can always limit FAH. For the SMP client, the simplest way to do that is to limit the number of cores that can be used by the SMP client (V6) or slot (V7). By default, the installation will use all 6 cores. If we leave one of the 6 cores to feed data to the GPU, you have a choice of 2 or 4 cores. (Odd numbers don't work particularly well.) I recommend you configure V6 with the "-smp 4" flag or configure V7 SMP to use 4 cores. In either case, please read the installation guide.