I used to fold on my CPU and PS3 in 2009-2012, and I think i used bigadv. Now that graphics folding is completely ruling, and I finally have a card that is supported, I figured I could give it a shot. I am however still using Windows XP (with service pack 3) and there are supposedly limitations when running XP.
The Windows install guide says this about driver requirements:
This is contradicting. The latest driver for 5850 on Windows XP is version 14.4, so that should mean that FAHCore_18 and FAHCore_21 is not working, leaving only FAHCore_17. However the latest driver that supports OpenCL, and thus folding, is 11.12, which would mean no driver no longer work for graphics folding on Windows XP, and thus graphics folding on XP is no longer possible. Is that so?ATI/AMD
(GPU3 – OpenCL – FAHCore_17)
OpenCL compatible GPU, 5xxx series or newer*, see full list
13.6 AMD device driver or newer (14.4+ improves speed)
(GPU3 – OpenCL – FAHCore_18)
OpenCL compatible GPU, 5xxx series or newer*, see full list
14.9 AMD device driver or newer
(GPU3 – OpenCL – FAHCore_21)
OpenCL compatible GPU, 5xxx series or newer*, see full list
15.1 AMD device driver or newer
...
The v11.12 AMD device driver is the last version to support OpenCL on Windows XP.
I also just heard here that GPU-folding is now possible on Linux. Is 5850 supported on Linux, what distribution would be preferred, and is that better than Windows XP?