Are the 'default' F@H settings optimal for CPU+GPU?

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dreiter
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Are the 'default' F@H settings optimal for CPU+GPU?

Post by dreiter »

While I'm not technically new to the folding world, I have been out of the game for a while. I have recently downloaded the newest Windows client. My question is if the client automatically selects the best number of CPU threads or if I should set a custom value. I have a 6600K (4 cores, 4 threads) and an AMD HD 7950.

By default the client selects 2 CPU cores in addition to the GPU. My understanding was that only 1 core was needed for the GPU to run optimally? Would I get better performance by selecting 3 cores instead of just the 2?

Thank you!
Joe_H
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Re: Are the 'default' F@H settings optimal for CPU+GPU?

Post by Joe_H »

The default settings for the client use the Medium setting for desktops and Light for laptops. The Medium setting reserves one core for your own computer usage, you can move the slider to Full if you want to have it be used for folding.
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bruce
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Re: Are the 'default' F@H settings optimal for CPU+GPU?

Post by bruce »

That depends. There are a multitude of different system configurations. For relatively common configurarions, the default setting together with the slider give you good choices. For more complex systems. some additional tweaking can take more factors into consideration so you may be able to improve things. The public beta version of the client has resolved one important factor that often results in no CPU assignments if you're running the V7.4.4 released version.

In other words, the default settings are reasonable for a system like yours.
(...but you still have a simple choice.)
dreiter wrote:By default the client selects 2 CPU cores in addition to the GPU. My understanding was that only 1 core was needed for the GPU to run optimally? Would I get better performance by selecting 3 cores instead of just the 2?
Yes. ... and "Medium" will give you 2 and "Full" will give you 3 (more electricity, more heat, and more performance.)
dreiter
Posts: 19
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Location: CA, USA

Re: Are the 'default' F@H settings optimal for CPU+GPU?

Post by dreiter »

Joe_H wrote:The default settings for the client use the Medium setting for desktops and Light for laptops. The Medium setting reserves one core for your own computer usage, you can move the slider to Full if you want to have it be used for folding.
bruce wrote:That depends. There are a multitude of different system configurations. For relatively common configurarions, the default setting together with the slider give you good choices. For more complex systems. some additional tweaking can take more factors into consideration so you may be able to improve things. The public beta version of the client has resolved one important factor that often results in no CPU assignments if you're running the V7.4.4 released version.

In other words, the default settings are reasonable for a system like yours .
Thank you both; that's all I needed to know!
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