Need help selecting a Processor

A forum for discussing FAH-related hardware choices and info on actual products (not speculation).

Moderator: Site Moderators

Forum rules
Please read the forum rules before posting.
Neil-B
Posts: 2027
Joined: Sun Mar 22, 2020 5:52 pm
Hardware configuration: 1: 2x Xeon E5-2697v3@2.60GHz, 512GB DDR4 LRDIMM, SSD Raid, Win10 Ent 20H2, Quadro K420 1GB, FAH 7.6.21
2: Xeon E3-1505Mv5@2.80GHz, 32GB DDR4, NVME, Win10 Pro 20H2, Quadro M1000M 2GB, FAH 7.6.21 (actually have two of these)
3: i7-960@3.20GHz, 12GB DDR3, SSD, Win10 Pro 20H2, GTX 750Ti 2GB, GTX 1080Ti 11GB, FAH 7.6.21
Location: UK

Re: Need help selecting a Processor

Post by Neil-B »

FaH uses minimal bandwidth so issues with streaming probably less due to network load but the fact that FaH is maxing out your CPU and causing issues that way ... You would need to be on a really slow connection to have issues with network load contention between machines used for FaH ... FaH only uses bandwidth during download and upload of WUs/Cores - If your streaming issues are happening most of the time and not just when thelog shows upload or download is happening then it isn't FaH overloading your network bandwidth
Last edited by Neil-B on Thu Feb 18, 2021 11:40 am, edited 1 time in total.
2x Xeon E5-2697v3, 512GB DDR4 LRDIMM, SSD Raid, W10-Ent, Quadro K420
Xeon E3-1505Mv5, 32GB DDR4, NVME, W10-Pro, Quadro M1000M
i7-960, 12GB DDR3, SSD, W10-Pro, GTX1080Ti
i9-10850K, 64GB DDR4, NVME, W11-Pro, RTX3070

(Green/Bold = Active)
Jupis_folder
Posts: 27
Joined: Sun Aug 02, 2020 2:58 pm

Re: Need help selecting a Processor

Post by Jupis_folder »

inOr wrote:So, if you want more power than a one-processor machine then a GPU is the best way to go?
Yes. Just compare these lists:
https://folding.lar.systems/gpu_ppd/overall_ranks
and
https://folding.lar.systems/cpu_ppd/overall_ranks
v00d00
Posts: 396
Joined: Sun Dec 02, 2007 4:53 am
Hardware configuration: FX8320e (6 cores enabled) @ stock,
- 16GB DDR3,
- Zotac GTX 1050Ti @ Stock.
- Gigabyte GTX 970 @ Stock
Debian 9.

Running GPU since it came out, CPU since client version 3.
Folding since Folding began (~2000) and ran Genome@Home for a while too.
Ran Seti@Home prior to that.
Location: UK
Contact:

Re: Need help selecting a Processor

Post by v00d00 »

inOr wrote:Besides, I couldn't stream "Tenet" on my notebook machine without experiencing interruptions when the F@H was running a simulation. I have only one cable modem. I had to stop F@H before I could stream without interruption. How am I going to use 4 machines dedicated to F@H at one time? Won't they bog each other down?
More than likely graphics lag and not related to network issues. Sometimes you get lag while running gpu folding. I've seen it a number of times on PC's over the years that fold. Thats why I use onboard graphics on my systems for day to day usage and keep the Nvidia GPU's for dedicated folding (ie no montors connected to them). On a notebook it probably doesnt work that way unless you have an Optimus enabled notebook, in which case, switch the primary gpu to the onboard Intel card and leave the Nvidia card to fold.
Image
bruce
Posts: 20910
Joined: Thu Nov 29, 2007 10:13 pm
Location: So. Cal.

Re: Need help selecting a Processor

Post by bruce »

While the interruptions are potentially bad, the fact is that network speed is much, much slower that RAM to RAM data transfers so the cluster is terribly inefficient over the time required to complete a WU.

Adding the time to transfer a WU across your LAN once per every step makes it orders of magnitude slower. It all depends on your perspective of what is "fast" and what is "slow."
Post Reply