# More Efficient SMP Folding



## Supreme0verlord (Apr 8, 2009)

I found this guide on the EVGA forums and I thought you guys would want to give this a try.
Rather than copy all of this guys work, I am just going to give you the link.

https://www.evga.com/forums/tm.asp?m=100498063


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## infrared (Apr 8, 2009)

Hmm, i'll give this a try later on. Thanks Overlord.


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## Supreme0verlord (Apr 8, 2009)

No prob. 
I will also give this a try later on as I just got up.


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## bogmali (Apr 9, 2009)

Damn good find. Will have to give this a go when I get back to WA.


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## infrared (Apr 9, 2009)

I'm gettin around 3300ppd on my e8400 @ 4.4ghz. It's strange, it doesn't use 100% of the cpu (70-80% ish) according to the task manager but generates about the same heat has the windows smp.

Left it running overnight and woke to find it had stopped working, restarted the VM and it's resumed at 38%.

EDIT:

f'kn thing froze up again. Any ideas?


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## El Fiendo (Apr 9, 2009)

I assume your BIOS is the most recent Infra. Try dropping your overclock back to stock and then running the VM. It may be that its a stable overclock until you started up the Virtual Machine. I'm afraid I don't know too much about this, but it would start isolating the issue. Just noticed the 'out of memory'. What's the memory usage when it freezes? See if you can catch, I don't know of any reporting programs that would record memory usage.

Also, I'll see about setting this up in Vista x64.


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## Disparia (Apr 9, 2009)

Is it due to linux clients being better? Or do two clients (2 x 2 core) get more done than a single client (4 core)? Or both?

Just wondering about some hardware I have laying around here that could be used for dedicated folding. If two dual-core clients better utilize the hardware, then perhaps use ESXi to partition the host into a couple linux VMs.


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## Supreme0verlord (Apr 10, 2009)

Here's my PPD for only 3.2Ghz 





This works ALOT faster then the regular SMP client


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## El Fiendo (Apr 14, 2009)

Infrared, I believe I have the answer to your problem.

Open the ***.vmx file with your favorite text editor and make the following change:
- change the line:
memsize = "640"
to
memsize = "1152" <------- 1.125GB RAM (the A2 core has a tendency to stall out at the end of WUs if you run less than this)



The A2 core is what makes this work so much faster. It's basically a Linux only (atm Windows and Mac don't use it) streamlined core.



Everyone should make this change btw, it will affect anyone doing this. Those of you with Quad Core rigs, you can run 2 VMWare instances and those with i7 rigs should be able to run 4 instances due to hyper - threading. Source for all of this post can be found here. Basically the same but more in depth.


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## bogmali (Apr 15, 2009)

Finally got an SMP to work


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## Kursah (Apr 15, 2009)

How does this compare to running 2 SMP clients in windows using affinity changer? I've been contemplating doing more work with the Q6600, but it generally get's around 2-2.6kppd currently. I remember I could get a healthy chunk more but it took a lot longer for WU's to be completed, heat output was higher due to more stress and I couldn't multitask quite as well (gaming and folding generally).

I might have to give this a shot, but it seems like a lot of work if the results are similar. I don't recall what I used to get when I had my first q6600 and using affinity change + 2 SMP clients....I may try that first for comparison.


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## El Fiendo (Apr 15, 2009)

It should still be faster due to using the revised A2 core that Linux is able to tap into that folds faster than the A1 core. Especially seeming you can run 2 SMP VMWares as well because of your quad core. Basically this is comparable to 1 SMP client itself and acts in exactly the same way. This has been the greatest seller for me to consider going Core i7. 8 cores (virtual and physical) = 4 VMWare clients. As my link I posted shows, the guy was averaging around 9000PPD with his i7. That's monstrous for CPU folding.

As for the A2 core folding temperatures, I'm still waiting on catching my CPU client just as its ending a work unit. That should be tonight. I'll try to remember to make a note of temperatures before and after.


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## El Fiendo (Apr 16, 2009)

I did this last night, and I'm pulling 3350 ish on an e8500 overclocked to a nice 3.8 GHz. I was getting ~1700-1800 beforehand. 

I'm not sure if I'll keep up with this though as it does look like its cutting into my GPU PPD. I'll leave it a few days and look at the average afterwards. I set the GPU clients in task manager to high and the VMWare player to low which seemed to correct most of it. However when I woke up one of the GPU clients was set to 'low' again with the VMWare client set to normal. I don't know how or why, but I don't like that. Does anyone know of any programs that can lock priority and not just affinity?

Also, if anyone is doing this install and comes across the VMWare Player spitting out 'network errors', ask for help as I had and solved this problem.


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## infrared (Apr 16, 2009)

El Fiendo said:


> Infrared, I believe I have the answer to your problem.
> 
> Open the ***.vmx file with your favorite text editor and make the following change:
> - change the line:
> ...



Thanks, I was ready to give up but I might give it another try now. 

Also, am I doing something wrong here? The virtual machine doesn't use 100% CPU.


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## El Fiendo (Apr 17, 2009)

I put my SMP client back up. It kills me because I was getting 3300-3400 PPD off my OC'd e8500. I mean thats almost fully double.

Unfortunately it cuts into my GPU PPD by about 3-4k because each work unit restarts the priority back to low (as per the client settings) and 'low' is as low as you can set the VMWare Player. As a result it starves the GPU the processor cycles required, and because I can't figure out how to auto set the priority of the GPU clients to always be higher, its almost always cutting into the GPU PPD. 

Damn shame. If anyone can shed some light on this, I promise to think lewd thoughts about them. Or promise not to, whatever you wish.


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## Supreme0verlord (Apr 17, 2009)

I think I found what your looking for, try this. 

Here is an example of what you should type into command prompt - cmd/c start/ high C:\F@H\GPU\Folding@home-Win32-GPU

And when you press enter you'll have to configure the client again but that's a small price to pay i guess, and I'm sure you could just create a batch file to automate this so it's much easier.

Hope that helps


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## El Fiendo (Apr 17, 2009)

I'll try it but it doesn't look like there is anything to stop it from resetting priority with the start of each new Work Unit.

I'm not sure why I didn't find this last night, but this looks promising and may well solve my issues. If it does, perhaps I'll write up all this (along with my Network issues I had to overcome) and see if I can get Buck to sticky the new post as well. Only problem is don't want to have too many stickies at the top of each forum.


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## Disparia (Apr 18, 2009)

Changed one box over...




And then the second one!





3K -> 8K, decent jump I'd say 

I have two more SMP clients here at home to switch over in about 20hrs.


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## El Fiendo (Apr 19, 2009)

Well, initially a giant failure today. The 'Prio' thing I linked to in my last post does pretty much squat as the console client still overwrites the task manager and runs at 'low' which is whats set in the initial FaH setup of the console. You can still boost the priority to above normal once you catch it, but I'm not around to baby sit my rig. I'm trying an actual program at the moment, and I have high hopes for it. Once one of my WUs finishes up, I'll be able to see if its successful or not.


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## Supreme0verlord (Apr 19, 2009)

Ok, I found a program that allows you to change the priority of any specific program, here it is. < Nevermind that program does not work.
If that doesn't work there are a whole bunch of programs that manage application priority on this page.


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## El Fiendo (Apr 20, 2009)

I've found one! Yes! It's made by the same guy who does the Get and Set Affinity, and actually you can set affinity in this program as well. It's called PriFinity and can be found here. I've been testing it and its worked like a charm for the past 24 hours. I'm now pulling 13k-15k in PPD. That's astounding considering the 13k is with 511 pointers. 

I can't wait to get my Quad core up and OC'd. 2 GPU clients, 2 VMWares running. I'm going to be up challenging Mmaakk.


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## bogmali (Apr 20, 2009)

El Fiendo said:


> I'm going to be up challenging Mmaakk.


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## El Fiendo (Apr 20, 2009)

I'll show you! I'll show them all! Yes, they'll see. You'll all see! Laugh at me and my work?! Not when I'm standing alone on a pile of cats. Then it will be me, and only me. And Buck. Because I'd have to make like 3 of my planned rigs to smash him. And even then it would take a long time. But the rest of you? Oh you'll all see.


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## dark2099 (Apr 20, 2009)

Quick question for me, since I am using an i7 that has hyperthreading, what are you guys with quads putting in for the "SMP instance per:" option when doing the reconfigure, and do you think I should do 8 or 4 since in the eVGA thread, per instance he did 2?


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## bogmali (Apr 20, 2009)

Put 2 per so you'll have a total of 4 clients. That's what I have on both on my quads (Q6600/PII945ES).


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## El Fiendo (Apr 20, 2009)

Do 2. Turn on Hyper threading.

Do everything this man says. You can get 4 VMWare players running. That will be 9000 PPD with your i7.

Bog, you probably should only be running two as the C2Q line has only 4 possible cores due to lack of Hyperthreading.

Once you have that set up, use PriFinity (I linked it a few posts up) to set your GPU client's affinity above the VMWare player (it doesn't lock in Windows Task Manager, so you need the program). With this, you won't notice any drop in GPU PPD at all.


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## bogmali (Apr 20, 2009)

El Fiendo said:


> Bog, you probably should only be running two as the C2Q line has only 4 possible cores due to lack of Hyperthreading.
> 
> Once you have that set up, use PriFinity (I linked it a few posts up) to set your GPU client's affinity above the VMWare player (it doesn't lock in Windows Task Manager, so you need the program). With this, you won't notice any drop in GPU PPD at all.



Yeah I only have 2 per on both my Quads. I will try your link later and see how it works


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## El Fiendo (Apr 20, 2009)

Heh sorry, I misread. 

Also, don't forget to reset the memory size the VMWare client uses. This is detailed in this post. If this isn't done, your VMWare client will most likely crash randomly, as Infrared was experiencing.


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## dark2099 (Apr 20, 2009)

Ok, now I am having trouble setting up FahMon.  

"\\192.168.1.1xx\c\Users\Joe\Downloads\folding(2/3/4)\folding\" is what I put in the location and have tried with the check box for virtual machine on and off but none report.


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## El Fiendo (Apr 20, 2009)

\\192.168.1.1xx\c\etc\folding\1\

This is what I use, but I reread the XCPU link. Have you set up the multiple clients with their own static IPs?

As far as I can tell, you only need


\\192.168.1.1xx\c\etc\folding\1\
\\192.168.1.1xx\c\etc\folding\1\
\\192.168.1.1xx\c\etc\folding\1\
\\192.168.1.1xx\c\etc\folding\1\

Not all of this:

\c\Users\Joe\Downloads\folding (2/3/4)\folding\


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## dark2099 (Apr 20, 2009)

Thanks for all the help guys.  Got it all running, finding out my current OC is a little unstable, hopefully getting it closer now.  No results yet, but soon hopefully.


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## thraxed (Apr 20, 2009)

Is there anyway to pause and resume you work this way?


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## El Fiendo (Apr 20, 2009)

Just close the VMWare client. It saved my work and then resumed from that point.


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## El Fiendo (Apr 23, 2009)

I'm currently working on finding a solution to the 'attempt to access beyond end of disk' message that pops up in the VMWare player. It decreases my PPD by about 1000 each time it crops up on a WU (still 300 or so more than what it used to be). The only solution so far has been to close the app and restart it, but this is only a temporary fix. Its known about by the creator but I haven't seen a solution from him yet.


How many of you have found this error as well with the VMWare folding?


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