Folding Forum

Hi FAH,

What are the 'optimal' settings for a server running 2x Intel Xeon Silver 4114s?
Combined the CPUs have 20 cores. I am currently running 20 folding 'threads' , so 1 per core.

What would the optimal number be to get the most points per day?

Thanks.

Each Intel Xeon Silver 4114 is a 10 core 20 thread CPU, so from F@H's point of view you have 40 CPUs.
There is a good chance that you won't find WUs that scale above 32 CPUs so 2 slots, on 32 and one 8 May be best.

Should you find that you have idle CPU time, two slots each 20 may be better.

Worst case two 16 CPUs slots, and a 8 CPU slot will always find work.

The underlying GROMACS software has issues with Prime numbers of CPU bigger than 5 and multiples thereof. 5 is iffy, so combinations of 2 and 3 work best

The Quick Return Bonus is nonlinear, so 32 CPUs plus 8 should get a higher bonus than 2 20 CPU slots, but only if you find WUs that will use than may CPUs.

(Only two of my PCs have 4 CPUs, so I am not an expert)

If you want to experiment, you might try setting your BIOS to disable HyperThreading. (FAH often works more efficiently that way, but it's hard to predict.) That will give FAH only 20 cores to work with and depending on hwat else you do with the system, it may cause subtle differences with other applications. I would probably try three slot with 8 + 8 + 4 CPUs.

With any new configuration you'll need to run the run the system for many day in order to accurately compare it with other configurations.