Quick question from a beginner

[xtreme-one]

Hey guys,

I am thinking about presenting F@H for a non-profit motivational presentation. (I am assuming that it is non-profit?)

Can folding be done on a personal computer (such as a laptop that is used every day) in the background? Also is the software designed to use all the resources of the computer?

I ask because most the people I will be presenting to only have one computer that they use so if the software utilizes all the resources of the computer then they may not be inclined to use it, as the computer will be dog slow. Obviously I want them to be inspired to download F@H and fold, but it isn't going to work well if they have to go buy an extra computer to fold...

Thank you guys!
-x

[bruce]

Folding is specifically designed for personal computers and specifically designed to run in the background. It is designed to use all of the UNUSED resources of the computer.

This is very effective when the processing uses the CPU because operating systems rank processes by priority and folding uses the lowest possible priority so whatever else you use your computer for takes priority.

This may or may not be effective when processing uses the GPU since computing on GPUs is not ranked by priority. FAH's GPU processing can pause automatically (or be paused manually) when the computer is "in use" if you experience screen lag.

[JimboPalmer]

FAH is designed to run in the background at the CPUs lowest priority. Ideally it will only slow down other tasks that run at the computer's lowest priority. (Some versions of AutoCAD use the lowest priority for background tasks, ancient versions of Wordperfect did as well) CPUs have a 60 year history of assigning priorities and they are very good at it by now.

GPU tasks are much more problematic, there seems to be no priority support in either hardware or software, so FAH cannot easily get out of the way of other software. You CAN however set the CPU to run all the time and the GPU only to run when the screensaver is active. I am not aware of any software than competes with FAH when the Blank screensaver is running. (Fancy screensavers can compete)

FAH itself is a nonprofit part of Standford University, however the goal is to get treatments for various folding disorders, these drugs would be sold by for profit companies. Stanford is not hoping to compete with existing drug companies, just treat disease.