Folding Forum

Just something I wanted to try if there is enough response.

I've seen a number of threads, from the OG crowd to the newbies, about rankings, how and why they are gaining, dropping, etc. But I've noticed a trend myself, that being that overall a fairly small percentage of folders have really shouldered much of the weight over the years. As an example having only been folding this time around for a few months, not 24/7 and on very modest hardware with built in graphics, I'm already in the top 123K of the rankings. My suspicion is that as a person climbs the increase in work becomes much greater as you go. And I just wanted to put this in a visual of some sort for others to see. This would both show some appreciation for those that really did massive amounts of work, and maybe encourage those of us with less resources in it to keep folding longer term to up the contribution.


So for anyone willing please just provide......


Total score
Total WU's
Current Rank

and optionally....

Years folding
Do you have dedicated 24/7 folding rigs?
Approximate cost per year in gear and electricity?




If there is enough input maybe I'll graph it out or something when I have time. I don't have a lot of time, so if anyone else jumps on it first no foul in my mind.

And as a last note, I know some people takes the points and competition thing more seriously than others. The idea is just to chart it out, not get anyone heated or angry, or for points fairness discussions. Some joking is ok, but let's not take it to the point of shaming a person just because they fold with an old slow rig for a short period of time. It all adds up, and in my mind if a person does a single work unit they contributed.

I would hope your take away is that I consistently helped a little bit.
Total Points 578,693,156
Total WUs 162,233
Current Rank 1,376 (sinking, I think my high point was 1,310 in March)
First WU 02.03.09
Folding rigs 7 laptops with old Intel CPU, 3 Desktops with mid range Nvidia, GTX 1060, GTX 1650 (new for COVID-19) GTX 1050 ti, all 24/7
I do not track cost.

The laptops have other uses, three are ticketing at a community theater 20 days a year, 2 are score keeping completion BBQ abut 10 days a year. (COVID-19 impacts both, this year)

https://greenwoodlittletheatre.com/
https://www.memphisbbqnetwork.com/

Total score - 3,876,861,701
Total WU's - 120,556
Current Rank - 162

The numbers in the sig are for one of the teams; I have another 200m for another team.

and optionally....

Years folding - not sure but around 15 years
Do you have dedicated 24/7 folding rigs? - yes, two dedicated plus three normally used PC
Approximate cost per year in gear and electricity? - please don't ask me to think about this!

HaloJones wrote:Years folding - not sure but around 15 years

First WU 03.03.04

JimboPalmer wrote:

HaloJones wrote:Years folding - not sure but around 15 years

First WU 03.03.04

really? I know I did Genome@Home and Distributed Folding before FAH.

I did some folding a long time ago (maybe 15 years?) with various machines, probably most single-core processors, sometimes three or four minimal Linux boxes running at a time. I can't recall. I started again in maybe April 2020, or was it late March? First did a little work on my Windows 10 box, then built and then upgraded what ended up a totally new machine and let the Windows box rest.

Donor stats (no dates given) as gooley: 11,668 WUs for 722,330 points, all but one WU for TeamUbuntu.

Current stats as markdotgooley: 954 WUs for 68,541,701 points, 923 WUs for Team Ubuntu. Rank is 10,310.

Hardware matters.

Did the thousands of old WUs amount to anything? Maybe.

Current machine is pretty much 24/7, Ryzen 5 1600 AF with an RTX 2060 and an RTX 2060 KO, I'm guessing up to 400W power use. Electricity here is around US$0.10 to 0.11 per kWh.
I think I ended up spending over US$1100 counting all the upgrades (started with old case and power supply, but ended up with everything new when I added the 2nd GPU).

I hope I can keep this up and maybe upgrade the machine by next year.

markdotgooley wrote:I did some folding a long time ago (maybe 15 years?)

First WU 05.04.07

markdotgooley wrote:I started again in maybe April 2020, or was it late March?

First WU 04.17.20

Grand Score 4,160,393
Work Unit Count 1,943
Team Ranking 12887 of 253863

New Team: 3 months folding. A very small cog in the F@H wheel.
2 iMacs and 1 laptop with NVIDIA GeForce MX150. All are 24/7 thanks to Covid-19. Occasional contributions from other family members.
Planning to add a PC once the laptop "goes back to work". Am I correct in assuming that attempts are being made to get iMac GPU's included in the F@H program?

Not actively, no. In theory it would be nice.

18 years ago when both FAH an I were much younger, we used to earn 1 point to fold a beta hairpin. Due to inflation, those early WUs are now REALLY insignificant. How is your graph going to take into account the rate of points inflation?

Sure, the hardware was a lot slower and I don't remember how many hours of computer time it took to earn that one point, but its not something your statistics will show.

markdotgooley wrote: Did the thousands of old WUs amount to anything? Maybe.

The absolutely were. All the tools and methods used today to tackle covid 19 were developed during these past 20 years.

I have folded for a few different teams including team challenges where the points and units went to a challenge name.
Started in late 2008 but problems with internet connection meant I recorded my completed first work in 2009 remember my first unit took just over 2 weeks and I watched it carefully everyday and stayed up late to watch it finish at 0200 or something, was very exciting that first one. My first dedicated folding rig had a 2nd hand Pentium single core with HT and a GT8800 GPU and was awesome at the time over 3kppd! My 2nd one had a Phenom quadcore running 2 virtual machine SMPs and had 4 x GT9800's in it and on a good day with a tail wind it could hit 20kppd and qualified me in the old 'most powerful folder' single machine category 11 years ago. I have folded in various locations around the world including places where I had to use satellite internet.
In my current team/name/passkey identity since late 2010 I rank 212th with 3,091,902,675 points and 100,549 work units.
Yes I have 2 dedicated rigs (in sig) but in past when I had more space I had more.
Power wise I am on 25% solar right now, and pay a set fee per month which I have yet to exceed (fingers crossed).

You can find a lot of this information on extremeoverclocking.com/

JimboPalmer wrote:

markdotgooley wrote:I did some folding a long time ago (maybe 15 years?)

First WU 05.04.07

markdotgooley wrote:I started again in maybe April 2020, or was it late March?

First WU 04.17.20

So more like 13 years. Thanks! didn't know where to look.

It is easy to get caught up in the F@H rankings, especially as a Newbie, and I am certainly guilty. It does seem odd, however, that after only 3 months and with limited computer resources, our team is ranked 12,858 of 253,868. I am sure that the ranking system has merit as it encourages people and teams to maximize their contributions. I also agree that it seems unfair to early users who, as kiore noted, stayed up late to watch a single unit complete in the wee hours of the morning. The concept of distributed computing has always seemed to me to perfectly capture the initial promise of the internet to make the world a better place and after reading the initial comments in this thread and giving it some thought, I have decided to forget about rankings and move to an existing, established team.