Why does CPU fan run slower when folding ?

[PFM]

I have noticed a strange behavior of the cpu fan on my Lenovo SL410 Win 10 laptop. It has a P9600 cpu and is folding on a v7.4.4 client in full power mode. I run it plugged in on a 'max performance' power plan. I have folded many WUs and my uninterrupted bonus PPD averages ~3000. CPU-Z does indicate it pushes the clock multiplier and frequency to the max possible. Task Manager shows both cores continous at 94%.

After few years of use of this laptop I can tell in what conditions how much the cpu fan speeds up, the loudness, the airflow from the vent and the temperature of the airflow. As expected it spools up to high speed when a cpu intensive task is happening. What I noticed when running folding is that it does not speed up much. It spools up a little bit from idle, just low fan noise, and the airflow coming out of the side vent is not hot, in fact sometimes its barely warm which means cpu is really not heating up.

I always had the impression that folding is very cpu intensive and hard on the system so I was expecting the fan to work much harder than other cpu intensive tasks that push the fan speed higher. but this is sort of opposite. Continous folding does not push the fan to higher speeds that it sometimes does when doing other regular things (virus scan or loading multiple programs, etc.).
Why does it do that ? How could you possibly explain this ?

[Duce H_K_]

Perfect. Now you can sleep near your laptop while it folds. Mine cooler does not allow the same though system gets ~7KPPD

How could you possibly explain this ?

Low CPU core voltage->Low CPU Temp.->Low fan speed depended on temperature setting (in BIOS).
To my experience, fahcore_A4 is still not as intensive task as gaming or FPU stress-test.

[bruce]

The FAH installation normally leaves one idle CPU to support a GPU. It probably shouldn't do that if you're not folding on a GPU but I think it does. A FPU stress test will load all the FPUs; Folding may not be.

How many CPU cores does you hardware have and how many are being used? You may need to manually increase the number of CPU-cores being used to increase your throughput.

[PFM]

This is CPU only install, no gpu. Gpu is an old intel which is not supported anyway.
This cpu has 2 cores and both are being used. I did try manually setting the cores to '2' instead of '-1' in the slot options and it made no difference.

[bruce]

Please see "How to post a log file" in viewtopic.php?f=24&t=26036

[PFM]

Here you go...

Code: Select all

*********************** Log Started 2016-02-17T06:26:35Z ***********************
06:26:35:************************* Folding@home Client *************************
06:26:35:      Website: http://folding.stanford.edu/
06:26:35:    Copyright: (c) 2009-2014 Stanford University
06:26:35:       Author: Joseph Coffland <joseph@cauldrondevelopment.com>
06:26:35:         Args: 
06:26:35:       Config: C:/Users/SYSOP/Appdata/Roaming/FAHclient/config.xml
06:26:35:******************************** Build ********************************
06:26:35:      Version: 7.4.4
06:26:35:         Date: Mar 4 2014
06:26:35:         Time: 20:26:54
06:26:35:      SVN Rev: 4130
06:26:35:       Branch: fah/trunk/client
06:26:35:     Compiler: Intel(R) C++ MSVC 1500 mode 1200
06:26:35:      Options: /TP /nologo /EHa /Qdiag-disable:4297,4103,1786,279 /Ox -arch:SSE
06:26:35:               /QaxSSE2,SSE3,SSSE3,SSE4.1,SSE4.2 /Qopenmp /Qrestrict /MT /Qmkl
06:26:35:     Platform: win32 XP
06:26:35:         Bits: 32
06:26:35:         Mode: Release
06:26:35:******************************* System ********************************
06:26:35:          CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU P9600 @ 2.66GHz
06:26:35:       CPU ID: GenuineIntel Family 6 Model 23 Stepping 10
06:26:35:         CPUs: 2
06:26:35:       Memory: 2.84GiB
06:26:35:  Free Memory: 1.56GiB
06:26:35:      Threads: WINDOWS_THREADS
06:26:35:   OS Version: 6.2
06:26:35:  Has Battery: true
06:26:35:   On Battery: true
06:26:35:   UTC Offset: -8
06:26:35:          PID: 6244
06:26:35:          CWD: C:/Users/SYSOP/Appdata/Roaming/FAHclient
06:26:35:           OS: Windows 10 Home
06:26:35:      OS Arch: X86
06:26:35:         GPUs: 0
06:26:35:         CUDA: Not detected
06:26:35:Win32 Service: false
06:26:35:***********************************************************************
06:26:35:<config>
06:26:35:  <!-- Folding Core -->
06:26:35:  <checkpoint v='5'/>
06:26:35:  <core-priority v='low'/>
06:26:35:
06:26:35:  <!-- Folding Slot Configuration -->
06:26:35:  <client-type v='advanced'/>
06:26:35:  <max-packet-size v='big'/>
06:26:35:
06:26:35:  <!-- Network -->
06:26:35:  <proxy v=':8080'/>
06:26:35:
06:26:35:  <!-- Slot Control -->
06:26:35:  <power v='full'/>
06:26:35:
06:26:35:  <!-- User Information -->
06:26:35:  <passkey v='********************************'/>
06:26:35:  <team v='31673'/>
06:26:35:  <user v='PFM'/>
06:26:35:
06:26:35:  <!-- Work Unit Control -->
06:26:35:  <next-unit-percentage v='100'/>
06:26:35:
06:26:35:  <!-- Folding Slots -->
06:26:35:  <slot id='0' type='CPU'>
06:26:35:    <cpus v='2'/>
06:26:35:  </slot>
06:26:35:</config>
06:26:35:Trying to access database...
06:26:35:Successfully acquired database lock
06:26:35:Enabled folding slot 00: PAUSED cpu:2 (on battery)
06:26:48:WU00:FS00:Connecting to 171.67.108.45:8080
06:26:49:WU00:FS00:Assigned to work server 155.247.166.220
06:26:49:WU00:FS00:Requesting new work unit for slot 00: READY cpu:2 from 155.247.166.220
06:26:49:WU00:FS00:Connecting to 155.247.166.220:8080
06:26:50:WU00:FS00:Downloading 552.33KiB
06:26:51:WU00:FS00:Download complete
06:26:52:WU00:FS00:Received Unit: id:00 state:DOWNLOAD error:NO_ERROR project:6381 run:9 clone:42 gen:378 core:0xa4 unit:0x000001930002894c53d2628c10c19dc6
06:26:52:WU00:FS00:Starting
06:26:52:WU00:FS00:Running FahCore: "C:\Program Files\FAHClient/FAHCoreWrapper.exe" C:/Users/SYSOP/Appdata/Roaming/FAHclient/cores/web.stanford.edu/~pande/Win32/x86/Core_a4.fah/FahCore_a4.exe -dir 00 -suffix 01 -version 704 -lifeline 6244 -checkpoint 5 -np 2
06:26:52:WU00:FS00:Started FahCore on PID 6032
06:26:52:WU00:FS00:Core PID:7460
06:26:52:WU00:FS00:FahCore 0xa4 started
06:26:52:WU00:FS00:0xa4:
06:26:52:WU00:FS00:0xa4:*------------------------------*
06:26:52:WU00:FS00:0xa4:Folding@Home Gromacs GB Core
06:26:52:WU00:FS00:0xa4:Version 2.27 (Dec. 15, 2010)
06:26:52:WU00:FS00:0xa4:
06:26:52:WU00:FS00:0xa4:Preparing to commence simulation
06:26:52:WU00:FS00:0xa4:- Looking at optimizations...
06:26:52:WU00:FS00:0xa4:- Created dyn
06:26:52:WU00:FS00:0xa4:- Files status OK
06:26:52:WU00:FS00:0xa4:- Expanded 565070 -> 1381464 (decompressed 244.4 percent)
06:26:52:WU00:FS00:0xa4:Called DecompressByteArray: compressed_data_size=565070 data_size=1381464, decompressed_data_size=1381464 diff=0
06:26:52:WU00:FS00:0xa4:- Digital signature verified
06:26:52:WU00:FS00:0xa4:
06:26:52:WU00:FS00:0xa4:Project: 6381 (Run 9, Clone 42, Gen 378)
06:26:52:WU00:FS00:0xa4:
06:26:52:WU00:FS00:0xa4:Assembly optimizations on if available.
06:26:52:WU00:FS00:0xa4:Entering M.D.
06:26:58:WU00:FS00:0xa4:Mapping NT from 2 to 2 
06:26:59:WU00:FS00:0xa4:Completed 0 out of 2500000 steps  (0%)
06:49:18:WU00:FS00:0xa4:Completed 25000 out of 2500000 steps  (1%)
07:06:24:WU00:FS00:0xa4:Completed 50000 out of 2500000 steps  (2%)

[7im]

I have an i7 in a Dell box that does the same thing. CPU folding hardly changes the fans speed.

Just for comparison, finish the current work unit and then try the NaCl Fah client. That one really hits the fan profile hard in that i7.

Just not the same as when the CPU client ran on the old P4 space heaters as on the more modern chips.

[PFM]

CPU folding hardly changes the fans speed.

And does it spool up to higher speeds when performing other tasks ?
What this makes me wonder is if FAH client is utilizing the full potential of the cpu or not.

[7im]

Like I said, try the NaCl client and see how much more it spools up. If not a lot more, then yes, something is wrong. But probably not with the Fah client. It's never had any trouble using the full resources of a PC.

[PFM]

Tried NaCl, fan behavior is more or less same. Folding 9019 and 9020 averages about 40-45 minutes.