New ATI core (v1.22) released

[friedrim]

A new ATI core (v1.22) has been released. It includes optimizations made by AMD (Mike Houston) on both the CPU and GPU side. Several bug fixes are also included.

Edit by Mod:
Note: This new core requires that you update your 6.20 client to 6.23 (or greater) from the High Performance download page.
-b

[toTOW]

It should also help with the VPU recover issue on low end GPUs.

[Bfghost]

Woooah, I just replied about this in another thread You couldn't have been faster
I will try it out, maybe leave it running over-night to see if there are any PPD changes to speak about.

[Ivoshiee]

A new ATI core (v1.22) has been released. It includes optimizations made by AMD (Mike Houston) on both the CPU and GPU side. Several bug fixes are also included.

What bugs were addressed?

[_r2w_ben]

What version of the .dll files does it use?

[Ivoshiee]

What version of the .dll files does it use?

Core files do not bundle any .dll.

[_r2w_ben]

What version of the .dll files does it use?

Core files do not bundle any .dll.

I know, but is the core dependent on 1.2.1 or 1.3.0? Is this the core that is supposed to be faster with 1.3.0?

[Bfghost]

I can confirm that core v1.22 is faster than previous one, at least on my system.
Getting 3100-3150PPD on 384p units, I only had 2500PPD before.
I hope I can get one of those bigger WUs now.
Viewer also looks smoother, don't know if it's because of the core but it happened today.
Maybe the core is efficient enough for me to start folding 24/7 now, if I can sleep with my NZXT Tempest buzzing

My system:

Athlon 64 X2 6000+ @ 3.12GHz
ATi Radeon HD 4870 512MB @ 790/1010
3GB DDR2

[slavas]

my experience on PPD with HD3850 ( like bench machine, just with crappy ram @ 700 MHz instead of 830) XP SP3:
600 atoms, those are rare now so cant say for sure, but ~2400 PPD, no gain compared to old core with CAL >= 1.2.1, but prior CAL 1.2.1 it was really CPU bound
900 atoms WU~25% gain ~2100 PPD
1400 atoms no gain ~1550 PPD
core still uses 100% CPU although PPD practically dont change form running CnQ CPU at 1,2 GHz or full speed 2,4 GHz. Running at idle with SMP saw GPU client PPD drop, although I runned it for short time so maybe mistake...

It would be interesting to know PPD from HD4**** series as I thinking buying 4830 or 4850, but because I game not much nowadays I would buy it if PPD incearese would be substential

EUE maybe one launcing old game, but I hadnt much problems earlier too

[Bfghost]

my experience on PPD with HD3850 ( like bench machine, just with crappy ram @ 700 MHz instead of 830) XP SP3:
600 atoms, those are rare now so cant say for sure, but ~2400 PPD, no gain compared to old core with CAL >= 1.2.1, but prior CAL 1.2.1 it was really CPU bound
900 atoms WU~25% gain ~2100 PPDhttp://foldingforum.org/posting.php? ... 51&p=74079
1400 atoms no gain ~1550 PPD
core still uses 100% CPU although PPD practically dont change form running CnQ CPU at 1,2 GHz or full speed 2,4 GHz. Running at idle with SMP saw GPU client PPD drop, although I runned it for short time so maybe mistake...

It would be interesting to know PPD from HD4**** series as I thinking buying 4830 or 4850, but because I game not much nowadays I would buy it if PPD incearese would be substential

EUE maybe one launcing old game, but I hadnt much problems earlier too

I will let my computer fold over the night and I'll let you know my PPD on different WUs tomorrow. As you can see I'm running an HD 4870.
If I was in your position, I'd buy the 4850, offers almost identical performance as the 4870, but at 2/3 of the price. The 4830 is also good, but as the prices aren't that low, you lose too many shaders for it to be worth it, in my opinion.

[GHAS]

How can anyone download the new core?

[slavas]

seems new core isnt forced, so to get new version:
1. stop client
2. delete FahCore_11.exe (but in case better move somewhere or make copy)
3. start again client, it should download new version and continue folding

edit: better wording

[mhouston]

Technically you can still use the older CAL dlls, since the ABI is the same, but this core has some optimizations designed to work along with the 1.2.1 dlls (the ones included in the client) and later dlls. We don't want people to jump just yet to the 1.3 dlls (included in Catalyst 8.12) just yet until we do a little more testing. We haven't found a config which fails, but we don't like to make sudden jumps. When cores optimized to use the 1.3+ dlls we'll post about it.

There are some flags people can play with until we can set these automatically. In your environment, you can set FLUSH_INTERVAL to a value between 2 and 1024. This flag sets the maximum command packet size sent to the GPU. The default in the core is 16 which seems to solve the lag problems for most people, but at some added CPU overhead. People with higher-end boards can manually adjust this value until we deprecate this flag in later cores. The higher the value this flag is, the less driver overhead and lower CPU usage you will have, but there is still CPU optimization work going into later CAL releases and F@H cores. Setting this value to high will cause UI lag and potentially VPU recover and is designed more for advanced users. The lower the value, the smaller the command packet which translates into other graphics apps being able to play nice.

[jrweiss]

I just checked, and my 3850 is still running the 1.18 core. How long ago should it have found the 1.21 or 1.22? The last WU download was a half hour ago...

[Tohya]

Swithed cores in the middle of a WU.
Saphire 4870 X2 oc 832/900, Cat 8.12, Win XP x64, single 6.23 client

Project: 5741 (Run 2, Clone 8, Gen 58) core 1.18 - 3284 PPD
Project: 5741 (Run 2, Clone 8, Gen 58) core 1.22 - 3770 PPD

If you want to try the new core, quit FaH and move or delete the current core. The client will download the new core when you start it again.