Folding Forum

I have two machines that are identical except for the OS. These machines have the FX-6300 (6 core AMD chip) running on full mode (cpu slot set to 5) . Only difference is the Linux machine has a nvidia 750ti and the windows machine has a R7 260x, both folding full time. Ubuntu install is about 1.5 years old and runs MythTV, and various other services. Windows is a fresh install (one month), only FAH and Steam.

The Linux machine has consistently produced around 15% more PPD. I know with different GPUs they will be different, but the cpu production is quite different even on the same WU. The Linux cpu slot produces around 11k while the windows cpu slot produces around 8k. Any ideas, is this normal? I've got plenty of logs, but didn't want to crowd the space with unneeded info.

I think it generally excepted that Linux produce a bit higher PPD. A bit less overhead on OS level and task management gives more cycles for the applications.

Entirely normal, Linux is all round more efficient at allocating cpu cycles and not wasting them

ATI cards work in Linux now? If so, I might make that system a dual boot setup. It's only windows for the very rare occasion that I actually have time to game.

Kebast wrote:ATI cards work in Linux now?

Yes, folding with ATI cards was made possible in Linux with the introduction of Core_17 and also works with Core_18 & Core_21. You'll find the minimum GPUs in the install guides and AFAIK your 260x should qualify ... if it works in Windows and uses the above listed cores it probably works in Linux. You may need to install the drivers from AMD/ATI as you will need OpenCL and some drivers from other sources have been lacking.

Thanks!! I'd much prefer to fold in linux. I'll give that a shot then.

bollix47 wrote:

Kebast wrote:ATI cards work in Linux now?

Yes, folding with ATI cards was made possible in Linux with the introduction of Core_17 and also works with Core_18 & Core_21. You'll find the minimum GPUs in the install guides and AFAIK your 260x should qualify ... if it works in Windows and uses the above listed cores it probably works in Linux. You may need to install the drivers from AMD/ATI as you will need OpenCL and some drivers from other sources have been lacking.

In regards to SMP folding performance, the idea that less overhead is the source of the increased performance in Linux is a complete and unproven myth.

Linux simply has better developed SMP software than Windows and therefore performs faster.

I do not discount the larger windows overhead, however in folding, the difference is nearly immeasurable. Not so for other applications. Don't make the over-generalization mistake and assume it applies to FAH as well.

Back when Windows and Linux ran on the exact same CPU FahCore_78, their performance were identical. I personally tested and confirmed with this. The only thing that has changed since then is the move to an SMP core.

That's good info, thanks! I've got a couple old xeon machines that are folding in Win7. I might switch one to ubuntu and see if that improves production.

Yes, it should fold a little faster in Linux.