Pause on exclusive Applications

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Rassi
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Feb 02, 2019 7:46 pm

Pause on exclusive Applications

Post by Rassi »

Hi there,

first of all:
@admins: At Forum Registration your capcha Picture is not shown ( only a link) its very hard to get registered to the forum this way.


My Problem:
I want to run f@h only on my gpu and i want it to fold while i use my pc. I want it on light setting, so i can still watch Streams etc.
I managed to remove the cpu Slot and only got the GPU slot left. But it is always waiting for idle.

Also i want the folding to pause when i run some applications like games etc.

Is it possible to make this settings happen?

I run the Desktop client version 7.5.1 on Windows 10 .

Any help would be highly appreciated.

Kind Regards
Rassi
bruce
Posts: 20910
Joined: Thu Nov 29, 2007 10:13 pm
Location: So. Cal.

Re: Pause on exclusive Applications

Post by bruce »

You can fold only on your GPU provided you use FAHControl to manage your slots. It's not something you can do with the slider-bar.

Your CPU(s) are managed by your operating system and tasks are managed by priority can be interrupted, making way for higher prioirty tasks. CPU folding does run at the lowest priority setting, so it gives you the impression that everything you're doing runs at full speed and FAH can use even brief idle prriods of resource availability.

The GPU is always either processing or not processing -- it does not have the capability to be modulated. There are no priority settings and tasks cannot be interrupted until whatever they're doing releases the resources needed by the next assignment. You can disable it or enable it. This may or may not cause "screen-lag" (Even Windows must wait its turn.)

If running your GPU continuously gives acceptable performance for other things, then by all means, enable it. If it does interfere with whatever else you're using your system for, then there is a 3rd setting: Run only when idle. It's about like a screen saver. When you use your mouse or keyboard, GPU processing is suspended and will be re-enabled once your system is idle. (i.e.- it will process only when you're not using your computer, including anything you'd like to put on a list of preferred applications.)

A list of preferred applications is on the developmental "want-list" but I don't expect to see that feature any time soon. Fundamentally, CPU processing while your playing your games isn't likely to cause enough interference to matter (there may be exceptions) and you probably want to set GPU to run-on-idle, even for other applications when a screen-saver would become active if your particular OS and GPU are weak enough to cause noticeable screen-lag.

Others have "solved" this problem by locating the settings to use the CPU for screen rasterization instead of using the GPU. This can be set in the OS, in the video player, and in many other applications but that's a lot of settings. It's not sufficient for most serious games, but for FAH + desktop updates, it's a good idea.

Microsoft assumes that the GPU is mostly idle, so waiting for it is never a problem as it's faster once you get the GPU's attention. Oh the other hand, the same function can be computed by a CPU thread (e.g.- for those systems which don't have a GPU) and although the CPU takes more time than the GPU, the sysem's priority scheduling process will get the attention of the CPU with negligible waiting so it's often faster, particularly when updating the desktop. (i.e. find and change that setting in Windows, though not necessarily in other apps.)
ProDigit
Posts: 242
Joined: Sun Dec 09, 2018 10:23 pm

Re: Pause on exclusive Applications

Post by ProDigit »

From FAHControl, you can manually pause work units, when you're about to start a game, either individually (by right clicking the graphics card), or pause everything in case you have multiple graphics cards.

I'm not with my server right now to verify, but I think that right clicking on a work unit (either graphics card, or CPU slot), should also give you the 'idle' option.
That way you can select either one or both to idle when you're in need for resources, and they start working when you're not needing them.
If not, you can always pause them like that as well.
This is good if you have multiple graphics cards, and only want eg: the main card to be paused, but you want any additional cards to continue folding.
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