Folding @ Home have released a client allowing users to run the project on their ATI graphics card. The ATI X1900 class cards are reported to see a 20 - 30 times increase in production. :!:

Folding @ Home on an ATI graphics card FAQ (http://www.stanford.edu/group/pandegroup/folding/FAQ-ATI.html)

Folding @ Home on an ATI graphics card beta client (http://www.stanford.edu/group/pandegroup/folding/download.html)

This is going to be awesome.

Released and everyone is in a a state of excitement over at the Folding forums.

A lot of bugs found I believe but that because it's just been rolled out.

I think they recommend you use only a GPU client or a CPU client though IIRC.

EDIT Yeah here...

# The GPU client is not meant to be run in the background while one uses the computer for applications with heavy GPU usage -- it will greatly slow down the response of programs which make heavy use of a GPU
# Do not run multiple GPU clients simultaneously -- there will be a huge (non-linear) slow down in performance. We currently do not support multiple GPU configurations, although a second GPU can help speed up the graphics of the GUI.
# Client looks like it is using lots of CPU time: Graphics drivers must poll the GPU to see if it is done. This will look like a lot of CPU time being used, but nothing is really being done, so one can run other relatively CPU heavy code at the same time. However, we do not recommend running multiple FAH clients, as this can significantly slow down the GPU client.

...We currently do not support multiple GPU configurations, although a second GPU can help speed up the graphics of the GUI.

So does that mean they do not support Crossfire yet?

I've avoided GPUs in the past but now may be a good time to invest and learn how to OC these things!

So does that mean they do not support Crossfire yet?
No they dont and it'll slow it down.


KNOWN BUGS, COMPATIBILITY ISSUES, AND RUNNING NOTES

Please note that the Windows GPU client for Folding@Home is a beta release. While we have done lots of testing in house, there are limits to the bugs we can find in these limited tests (and hence the need for a beta test). As in the use of any beta software, please make sure to back up your hard drive, and do not run this client on any machine which cannot tolerate even the slightest instability or problems.

Thus, we expect that there will be many problems with the client that need to be resolved. Below is a list of some of the relevant known issues or bugs for beta testers of this new client.

Known Bugs

1. The GUI pause core command doesn't work
2. The GUI Client will automatically quit when running fullscreen directx apps (games), it may be a little slow at doing this though
3. In some rare situations, one needs to set the Hardware acceleration to max if the Catalyst install didn't do this. To do this, go into the Display Properties/Settings/Advanced/TroubleShoot tab and double check that the Hardware acceleration was set to "Max".

Known compatibility issues

1. One must use specific Catalyst drivers (6.5 or 6.10) and a recent DX version-- see the HOW TO above
2. The GPU core does not run under WINE in linux (nor do we have plans to support WINE)

Notes for running

1. The GUI client will slow down the scientific core (since both use the GPU heavily). We do not recommend the GUI client for long term use, unless you have two graphics cards.
2. Multiple GPUs are currently not supported (but will be supported in future releases); Crossfire is also not supported -- Crossfire will make FAH run more slowly than using a single GPU (this isn't a bug as much as a fundamental issue regarding the nature of a Crossfire/SLI type architecture).
3. The GPU client is not meant to be run in the background while one uses the computer for applications with heavy GPU usage -- it will greatly slow down the response of programs which make heavy use of a GPU
4. Do not run multiple GPU clients simultaneously -- there will be a huge (non-linear) slow down in performance. We currently do not support multiple GPU configurations, although a second GPU can help speed up the graphics of the GUI.
5. Client looks like it is using lots of CPU time: Graphics drivers must poll the GPU to see if it is done. This will look like a lot of CPU time being used, but nothing is really being done, so one can run other relatively CPU heavy code at the same time. However, we do not recommend running multiple FAH clients, as this can significantly slow down the GPU client.

Trouble shooting EUE's

1. Some Alpha testers have found an excessive number of Early Unit End's (EUE's) -- we have not reproduced that at Stanford or ATI and we need help from beta testers to help track this down. If you see many EUE's (i.e. more than 20%), please make a post in the GPU section of the forum with your system configuration (ATI driver version, DX version, OS) and hardware (card, CPU, motherboard type). With the help of beta testers, we hope to nail down what's going on.
2. If you are seeing lots of EUE's, please download the ATItool application and check that your core voltage is set to 1.4V. This has been shown to lead to problems.

Policy Notes

1. The client will stop working after 2 months (this is a limited release beta -- new clients will be available before the current version ends its test period)
2. Deadlines will be set to be much shorter than normal, as we need to get data back quickly in this beta test and we are releasing to a very specific set of hardware. This will likely change in time, as we move from a beta test and as we move towards supporting other graphics cards.


Thats most of the FAQ for you.

Top man Drez' that helps a lot!

Radeon X1900XT 256MB Card will here by 5 OCT

Radeon X1900XT 256MB Card will here by 5 OCT

I can see it now...

1) Daddygeek receives package in post
2) quickly removes cover of nearest computer and pulls the power out
3) opens package & inserts card into computer
4) throws all games that came with card into the trash :lol:
5) boots machine and installs drivers and F@H beta client
6) then brags to all us unfortunate enough not to have an ATI GPU!

You'll probably be the first owner never to use that card for any games, best inform the Guinness book of records immediately :lol:

I can see it now...

1) Daddygeek receives package in postDONE


2) quickly removes cover of nearest computer and pulls the power outTwo nearest computers (took ram out of wifes computer)


3) opens package & inserts card into computerDone

4) throws all games that came with card into the trash :lol: No Games came with card:mad:


5) boots machine and installs drivers and F@H beta clientDone, but has crashed 5 times


6) then brags to all us unfortunate enough not to have an ATI GPU!I've used Nvidia for a long time it will take some time to work this out. I got the card for linux testing and for games not for F@H. But will test F@H for you:-D

Are they going to release a client for Nvdia GPUs?

Yes, eventually.

But nVidia works a bit different to ATI and thus is slower. (like Intel and AMD really is a comparison)

Little Bugy

Will run agin in a day or too

I just got a ATI 1900 also and plugged it up and discovered my 430 watt PS wasnt enough. I need more juice. Gotta wait until next week now to fold space. bummer.

Got any good suggestion on running this new client DaddyGeek? I have to read up on the folding faq, since I'll be new to that.

No, it's pretty straight forward.

But, the ATI software is crashing my system. When I have time i will find out why. I wish the http://forum.folding-community.org/ was on line to give me some info on running it in Vista.

Supposdely catalyst 6.10 is a bit buggy. Use 6.05 for best results so far.

WATER! I NEED WATER!!!
looks like I'll need to add water cooling to run Folding off the GPU
my new Sapphire X1900 XT 512mb is goin' melt
GPU temp at 75C:shock:
good thing i switched cases and PSU the other day

150,000 steps out 25,000,000 in 5 mins
I wonder how it compares to the other cores

hopefully the rig doesn't catch fire before it's finished its first unit:smile:

From what I read it sounds like they don't plan on supporting any current nVidia cards. Say they aren't very good at it because of the way they are designed. Maybe the G80s will be supported when they come out.

Keith

Just another month and we'll see. :)

The specs seem very impressive so far. I wonder what ATI will do.
http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=4442
http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=4441

Okay, I'll be the one that bites here.... Being basically in the dark with the whole gpu thing, what is the purpose of doing the gpu over the cpu? The cpu is designed to handle the cooling situation better. So what is being gained here other than just something being "neat" or "sweet"?????? Or is this just a drill in getting ready for the graphics on the PS3?

I think nowadays gpu's are RISC processors, and as such they have incredible raw power at what they do. At some point someone thought of using that raw power for more than just pretty graphics, so now gpu's are starting to be used for processing functions much like cpu's.
With a little of engineering the Stanford devs ported their application to be able to run on the limited instructions of the ATI gpu.
(I wonder if the gpu's can be programmed to show graphics at the same time that they're crunching...)

But anyways, gpu crunching is the new rage, because those sweet RISC processors pack an incredible power that is being wasted 99% of the time. (How much of a gpu's power do you think it's being used when you're browsing our team's forums? :lol:)

And... word has it that they even beat cpu's at their own game (crunching). :D
(I still need to see some stats comparisons on that...)

GPU's are a lot focussed on what they do. As such the GPU's are a lot better at what they do.

Converting them to work on stuff other than graphics was fairly hard but now is a bit easier. Because they are so focussed on what they do, they give more omph to the crunching. One X1900 is supposed to be worth 4 CPU's once it's all sorted out.

It completes units in 4x less time.

When F@H finally sort it all out, you'll be able to run CPU alongside the GPU client to make use of it all :) (currently it's recommended to run only the GPU client on a single core machine)

It's actually nothing to do with RISC, if it was then I'd be crunching with all my SPARC64s instead.

It's all about floating point performance and massively parallel instructions going across at 128bit and higher to do multiple streamed simple task calculations whilst RISC/CISC/EPIC/x86/x64 etc (Cell intentionally not listed) all have to do multiple chores before having a ponder and counting on their fingers (and in Intel's case, a bit of guesswork and then rounding up ;)) and so basically a CPU is limited by it's serial task handling - whether they are in order or out of order doesn't really matter as the CPU still has to serially calculate variable amounts of output per input elements.

The GPU has had no constraints with regards to architecture heritage therefore this market has been able to evolve at a much more optimized rate than the CPU industries. Tapping into all these GPU GFLOPs are the hot topic at the moment and we will see much more mention of doing this during the next few months as it all rapidly matures.

okay, but what about the heat? And if this is so cool, how long before the motherboards start coming out with plug-ins for 5 or 6 graphics cards, in addition to maybe 5 or 6 built in on-board gpu's. ?????

Are we looking at a fundamental change in the way the cpu's are going to end up? If one of those ATI's does 4x the completion rate, who needs the e6600's ???

If this is so hot, where's Compaq? Maybe they'll buy it all like they did with the Alpha, so they can kill off the competition! :) kof kof wheez, har har har cough...........


And where's distributed.net, and berkeley, and........................ :)

and, and, just think, those puppies could just put EON's servers in to the totally maxed out category in a heartbeat........

No, it's pretty straight forward.

But, the ATI software is crashing my system. When I have time i will find out why. I wish the http://forum.folding-community.org/ was on line to give me some info on running it in Vista.


So is vista the only O/S supporting this? Anything on linux?

okay, but what about the heat? And if this is so cool, how long before the motherboards start coming out with plug-ins for 5 or 6 graphics cards, in addition to maybe 5 or 6 built in on-board gpu's. ?????
pretty much right now... I don't have the link to it anymore but not long ago I saw a Quad-SLI system being announced on the net. (At an unbelievable price too... lol)

I can see the potential for DC'ing, but I can't figure why would someone buy such a beast to play games... is it more fun to play games at 200 frames per second than at 60?? :p

p.s. - About the heat... well, that and the power consumption will be something that gpu manufacturers will have to start worrying in the near future now that gpu's will also start being used for DC'ing. Currently they're at outrageous levels already... those articles about the new NVidia 8800 say that it "recommends" a 400W power supply... two of them in SLI it's 800W! :shock:

Originally Posted by Brucifer http://amdusers.com/forum/xbox360/buttons/viewpost.gif (http://amdusers.com/forum/showthread.php?p=36096#post36096)
So is vista the only O/S supporting this? Anything on linux?No XP is the only supported O/S . Vista is just one of O/S's that im testing.

We will launch with Windows XP (32 bit only) support only due to driver and compiler support issues. In time, we hope to support Linux as well. Macintosh OSX support is much further out, as the compilers and drivers we need are not supported in OSX, and thus we cannot port our code until that has been resolved.

now thats power
url here--->OS Stats (http://fah-web.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/main.py?qtype=osstats)

29 Tflops by 380+ GPU's
171 Tflops by 175,000+ CPU's

1/7 of Tflops generated by .02% of hosts
and these are early numbers
the CPU count is active hosts in the last 50 days
most GPU's joined in the last week(Oct 3rd stats 11 Tflops by 156 GPU's)

with a couple thousand GPU's they can doulbe their flops

hmmm... sucking that much juice it won't be long before crunchers will have to build a nukie power plant or two just to be able to crunch with their gpu's... :rolleyes:

now thats power
url here--->OS Stats (http://fah-web.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/main.py?qtype=osstats)

29 Tflops by 380+ GPU's
171 Tflops by 175,000+ CPU's

1/7 of Tflops generated by .02% of hosts
and these are early numbers
the CPU count is active hosts in the last 50 days
most GPU's joined in the last week(Oct 3rd stats 11 Tflops by 156 GPU's)

with a couple thousand GPU's they can doulbe their flops

The maain reason why they added it ;)

And that's why the other serious contenders in the DC project world will be doing the same. You can bet your bottom dollar that the others are watching this like a hawk.

http://www.slizone.com/object/slizone_quadsli.html


Quad SLI lets you run your favorite games at an unbelievably high resolution of 2560x1600 while maintaining silky smooth frame rates. In addition, support for a new 32x antialiasing mode and 16x anisotropic filtering enable stunning visuals.
I wonder how does our site look at 2560x1600... :lol:
And another thing... is there any real visual difference in any mode of antialiasing beyond 8x? I doubt it... :p

I checked out some of the systems already with quad-SLI... they start at 850W PSU's for the Geforce7 series... that's sucking more power than many household appliances already.
I'm even afraid to ask how much power will draw a quad-SLI system of the new Geforce8 series...

I'm starting to wish that GPU's don't get adopted for DC'ing... or else this is gonna turn into a very expensive hobby for alot of people... :lol:

If they don't get a handle on the power consumption the stuff just won't catch on with the masses. It's like ten buck a gallon gas, and a car that gets 4 miles to the gallon. It isn't going to sell except to a very few that have the financial assets to support it.

Yeah I agree Brucifer. I'm close to maxed out with the power my systems are drawing off the mains. I think if I add too many more PCs I'll need to add another power circuit on the mains board. Now that won't be cheap as there doesn't seem to be any room left on the thing.

I just went through this discussion about power usage on Folding forums
you can replace my pharm of six boxes(using 700+watts)with two GPU crunchers (450 watts)
so yes there is a power savings to had

Yeah I agree Brucifer. I'm close to maxed out with the power my systems are drawing off the mains. I think if I add too many more PCs I'll need to add another power circuit on the mains board. Now that won't be cheap as there doesn't seem to be any room left on the thing.

Exactly where I'm at. To get more juice I've got to pull another, or larger underground cable to the house, plus double the service box. Not a cheap thing to do. Already had an inspector out to check things out, so no more adding here for the time being.

Well, I was planning on getting one of the new GeForce 8800 cards next month but I guess I need to hold out until next year and get one of the new ATI ones since they are the only ones that seem to able to help out with DC. :-(

Keith

One of the UK's biggest hardware superstores has just started selling wind turbines for the home.

http://www.diy.com/diy/jsp/bq/nav/nav.jsp?action=detail&fh_secondid=9330400&fh_location=%2f%2fcatalog01%2fen_GB%2fcategories%3 c8530236%2fcategories%3c9050001&fh_eds=%c3%9f&fh_refview=lister&ts=1160379515103

I wonder if they have a PCI-e power connector on them for GPUs :lol::lol::lol:

One of the UK's biggest hardware superstores has just started selling wind turbines for the home.

http://www.diy.com/diy/jsp/bq/nav/nav.jsp?action=detail&fh_secondid=9330400&fh_location=%2f%2fcatalog01%2fen_GB%2fcategories%3 c8530236%2fcategories%3c9050001&fh_eds=%c3%9f&fh_refview=lister&ts=1160379515103

I wonder if they have a PCI-e power connector on them for GPUs :lol::lol::lol:

ROTFLOL :) The only problem with that is for most of us the wind just doesn't cut it for operating 24x7.... Now solar panels would be better. Either way the cost is way up there, so might just as well keep going like at present utilizing the wall plug-in! LOL

My ATI 1900XTX hit 79 degrees centigrade :shock:

I had to turn it off cause i thought i was gonna blow it up or something. It's dropped down to about 63 degrees now.

Anyone know what the recommended temps are for ATI GPU's?

I heard on the FAH foums in was 90 ish

How is it going with your GPUs running F@H???

Seems to be running ok now that i've turned down the GPU usage to 50%. I must admit though, i kinda have to wonder what this will eventually do to my graphics card due to running it all the time. I mean sure GFX cards are designed to be run faster than i'm running it now but not for days on end.

Kinda make me want water cooling, but i'm broke cause i've got no job at the moment. Once i get a good job again i will try and do something about the cooling.

I've been toying with the idea of buying one of these for a week or so now.

http://www.sapphiretech.com/en/products/graphics_specifications.php?gpid=143

It's the Sapphire Toxic X1900 XTX watercooled ATI GPU. The water cooler takes up a slot but in doing so it also exhausts the heat out the back instead of into the case (which I like and feel that is worthy of a slot!). It's a bit pricey here in the UK but I like the idea especially as I'm a complete novice when it comes to over clocking GPUs.

It's practically the same card as i've got except mine is air cooled. Even the air cooled one takes up two slots so i'd go for it if you've got the money.

The 1900 XTX is a fantastic card. I can play HL2 with max settings and high AA and AF to give you an idea of the cards power for graphics. Oblivion runs nicely on it too.

I would like to think that running it at full load wouldn't hurt anything but I can just see them scrimping thinking that no one will use it 24/7. Hey they will replace it if it dies on you though for free. :D

Keith

After completing my first GPU WU successfully, i started another which was not checkpointing properly and losing work done.

You will need to update your core to 0.7 to fix some problems with the GPU client. It fixes reporting and checkpointing. There is a minor performance increase also.

You can download it here: http://folding.stanford.edu/release/FahCore_10.v7.zip

Half way through my 2nd WU now and all is going fine!

Out of interest, how much stress does it place on the CPU if any?

At the moment 1 core, it sorta follows the amount of GPU used. So 50% GPU would use 50% CPU. I assume this will change (it is an assumption at best)

There are still some small issues with GPU folding although it does give a 10x speed increase (it is difficult to compare CPU and GPU WU's though because they are two completely different types of work)

It's worth giving it a try if you've got a compatible GFX card. I'm using Catalyst 6.10 for the record and haven't had any EUE's yet.