Folding Forum

FAHClient is set to run on Medium power, on a Ubuntu 20.04 server.
CPU usage monitoring shows 100% usage on one of the cores, while the others have smaller loads.
Is this an issue, for example, by concentrating higher heat rates on one portion of the CPU (sorry if this sounds naive or even stupid, but I don't know anything about cpu architecture)
If so, is it possible to change this behavior? What should be the best situation? Having a better distribution of work load among all cores?
Below, graphs from one week monitoring (on 30 May I changed power from full to medium)


Side note: the images I post here are being cropped. Are there any rules I should follow when embedding images?

There are utilities to prioritize which cores are used when, they are not related to Folding@Home, and will specialized for your PC's Operating System.

Your slider bar has the following settings:
Light = 1/2 the number of threads your CPU(s) can provide.
Medium = All the Threads - 1
Full = All the Threads your CPU(s) can provide.

Some caveats:
If your PC has a GPU, it gets one thread BEFORE the above algorithm.
There are issues with Prime numbers larger than 3, and prime factors larger than 3. (and you thought you would never use that schooling!)
Desktop versions of Windows seem limited to 32 threads, increasingly, you can buy CPUs with more than 32 threads. Linux and MacOS do not have this issue

gadolf wrote:...Is this an issue, for example, by concentrating higher heat rates on one portion of the CPU (sorry if this sounds naive or even stupid, but I don't know anything about cpu architecture)...

It isn't an issue for CPUs as they are designed for multiple scenarios of usage. Applications using a single thread are way more common than I would have expected.

gadolf wrote:...If so, is it possible to change this behavior? What should be the best situation? Having a better distribution of work load among all cores?...

Generally speaking, the OS does the scheduling and in most cases, for an average Donor, should be fine. However, in some cases, locking the folding threads to specific threads and other applications to different threads can increase the PPD in a measurable manner. However, that would only be an option for donors who know what they are doing in terms of CPU affinity and priority.

gadolf wrote:...the images I post here are being cropped. Are there any rules I should follow when embedding images?

We tend to use small images (HD) on the forum since not all members have unlimited fast internet. Plus, most issues can be resolved using the log file so using pictures is not very common. BTW, I can't view the image posted and the link takes me to a Google sign-in so can't access that link.

Yeah, I can't access the google pic either.
I would recommend you to set the slider to full.
Then set the CPU count to the amount of cores you prefer to be running.
If you have an 8 core, and it gets too hot, you can set the active core count to 6 or even lower, in an effort to fight heat (or electric cost).
It is recommended to keep the count as high as you are comfortable the CPU running at.