Page 1 of 1

So... I've been seeing some Core a8 projects hit my client.

Posted: Fri Sep 11, 2020 10:28 pm
by Crawdaddy79
Only Project 16810 so far, but it nets about 50% higher PPD than most a7 projects (130k vs ~85k, Ryzen 2700X). Nice.

Is the forum subject going to change now that a8 is apparently on Prime Time?

Re: So... I've been seeing some Core a8 projects hit my clie

Posted: Fri Sep 11, 2020 11:23 pm
by Bastiaan_NL
I've seen some good ones already, between 488k and 507k ppd on the 3950x 27 threads.
Project: 16810 (Run 31, Clone 698, Gen 9) was the best so far, 21.7k points!
Most of the units on 3 cpu's are stil A7, about 20% A8.

Re: So... I've been seeing some Core a8 projects hit my clie

Posted: Fri Sep 11, 2020 11:39 pm
by JimboPalmer
The age of your CPU will affect what kind of folding Core_a8 attempts

Prior to 2011 your CPU does SSE2, so will only have minor speed ups.

Prior to 2013 you CPU does AVX_256, so will also only do minor speed ups, as Core_a7 used these SIMD engines.

Newer CPUs may use AVX2_256 and get the big speed ups. A feature of AVX2_256 is an instruction called FMA (Fused Multiply and Add) This makes Adds 'free', they can be done at the same time as Multiplies. So the speed up approaches 60%

06:14:24:WU00:FS00:0xa8: SIMD: avx_256

I have two CPUs doing SSE2, 8 doing AVX_256, and one doing AVX2_256, as I tend to run old PCs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streaming ... r_versions

Re: So... I've been seeing some Core a8 projects hit my clie

Posted: Sat Sep 12, 2020 9:19 am
by PantherX
Crawdaddy79 wrote:...Is the forum subject going to change now that a8 is apparently on Prime Time?
Eventually it will change, assuming that there won't be any unexpected issue with the change :)

Re: So... I've been seeing some Core a8 projects hit my clie

Posted: Sun Sep 13, 2020 8:12 pm
by mwroggenbuck
Jimbo,

Does the project also decide if SSE2/AVX_256/AVX2_256? I have a brand new i9, but the work units are only using AVX_256 (not AVX2_256). Is there some flag I need to set?

Re: So... I've been seeing some Core a8 projects hit my clie

Posted: Sun Sep 13, 2020 8:41 pm
by mwroggenbuck
Never mind. I was looking at a7 cores. When I look at a8 cores, I am using AVX2_256.

My mistake. :oops:

Re: So... I've been seeing some Core a8 projects hit my clie

Posted: Sun Sep 13, 2020 9:16 pm
by JimboPalmer
mwroggenbuck wrote:When I look at a8 cores, I am using AVX2_256.:
Yes, AVX2_256 is new in Core_a8. It is nice that F@H is always trying to be faster. This seems to have been a very smooth Beta!

If your CPU does AXX2 and FMA, it should be automatic. I am unaware of any OS requirements over AVX.

Re: So... I've been seeing some Core a8 projects hit my clie

Posted: Tue Sep 15, 2020 3:44 am
by PantherX
JimboPalmer wrote:...I am unaware of any OS requirements over AVX.
64-bit OS for Linux while 32-bit and 64-bit for Windows. Having said that, I am not sure for how long we will continue to support 32-bit Windows since AMD/Nvidia no longer support 32-bit Windows.

Re: So... I've been seeing some Core a8 projects hit my clie

Posted: Thu Dec 31, 2020 1:16 pm
by toTOW
There is no more 32 bits FahCore ... So 64 bits OS is mandatory.