I am New to this and I have a question about CPU usage

[Shadowmeph]

I am new to folding, I downloaded the non gui version of this program ( I think that it is called core) and then set it up and it runs good .
Yesterday I downloaded and installed the FAHMon which works good, so now when I reboot the folding starts automatically which is exactly what I want this to do, this is my only pc which is a dual core E8400 running xp x64 with 8gb ram and an HIS IceQ3 HD3870 videocard, I think that this is setup to use 3.70 gb ram and 5% of my cpu, Since this PC is running 24/7 I would like to increase the cpu usage higher while I am sleeping then in the morning when I get up to turn it back down to 5% , is there a way I can do this? DO i need to download anything?

[Zagen30]

Ideally you should have F@h clients using 100% of available CPU resources. 5% is not nearly enough to meet the deadlines. The great thing about F@h clients is that they only use unused resources on your computer, and back off/run slower if you start using other tasks. If you set all of the clients to 100%, then they'll run slower if you're watching movies/internet browsing/etc., but will go back to max speed if nothing else is running.

I have noticed some lag on my computer if I try to do too many things at once with F@h running, but that may be more because of lowish/slowish RAM. Worst case scenario for me is that I close down the client until I finish whatever processor-intense task I'm doing (i.e. watching HD video with a weak GPU).

[rbgatti]

FYI...I'm runnin the tray client and full CPU speed. The machine is a i7 Core running @ 2.93 with 12GB RAM on Vista 64 and CPU usage is a solid 13% and nothing I do seems to need to lower the CPU usage. It looks like it's just fixed at 13% all the time. In task manager, it shows 8 CPUs and they all seem to be contributing to the folding.

[Shadowmeph]

well during the day I do a fair amount of editing videos and trying and messing with different distros of Linux . how do I turn up the cpu usage?

[DanGe]

FYI...I'm runnin the tray client and full CPU speed. The machine is a i7 Core running @ 2.93 with 12GB RAM on Vista 64 and CPU usage is a solid 13% and nothing I do seems to need to lower the CPU usage. It looks like it's just fixed at 13% all the time. In task manager, it shows 8 CPUs and they all seem to be contributing to the folding.

13% is the overall usage of your CPU. Each core that you set to use 100% of the CPU will use 100% of the core, but not the CPU. Hence you get one core using 13% of your CPU because 100/8 rounds to 13.

[Zagen30]

well during the day I do a fair amount of editing videos and trying and messing with different distros of Linux . how do I turn up the cpu usage?

Run the client with the "-configonly" flag on it (If you're running a Windows client, then create a shortcut if you haven't already, right click it and hit Properties, then add -configonly to the end of the target address. The dash is required, and leave a space between the end of the address and the dash. If you're running the Linux client, then enter ./fah6 -configonly into the terminal. If you're running the Mac client, I don't know what to do). When you get down to Change Advanced Options enter yes, and when you get to the question "CPU usage requested (5-100) [100]?" enter something larger than 5 (100% is recommended). Make sure to remove -configonly from the target line when you're done.

[jrweiss]

I have noticed some lag on my computer if I try to do too many things at once with F@h running, but that may be more because of lowish/slowish RAM. Worst case scenario for me is that I close down the client until I finish whatever processor-intense task I'm doing (i.e. watching HD video with a weak GPU).

Most perceivable lag issues can be resolved by simply reducing the F@H CPU usage to 95% or so (98% on really fast CPUs). That allows the foreground app to use some of the CPU in the several milliseconds it takes F@H to relinquish control.

If you are running 1 CPU client and 1 GPU client on a dual-core machine, there should be no lag problems. The GPU client might use 70% of a core, but not 100%. Therefore, part of one core will always be immediately available for a foreground app.

[Shadowmeph]

well during the day I do a fair amount of editing videos and trying and messing with different distros of Linux . how do I turn up the cpu usage?

Run the client with the "-configonly" flag on it (If you're running a Windows client, then create a shortcut if you haven't already, right click it and hit Properties, then add -configonly to the end of the target address. The dash is required, and leave a space between the end of the address and the dash. If you're running the Linux client, then enter ./fah6 -configonly into the terminal. If you're running the Mac client, I don't know what to do). When you get down to Change Advanced Options enter yes, and when you get to the question "CPU usage requested (5-100) [100]?" enter something larger than 5 (100% is recommended). Make sure to remove -configonly from the target line when you're done.

ok I am not sure of what you mean, I am running win xp x64 and when I first set this up it I set it up so there is no gui but I can see the service running in my process manager and inside the folder where the folding files are there is Fah_7c.exe,Fahcore_7c.exe and cfg file ( I am thinking its a config file) a couple of log files a folding@home-win32.exe, Myfolding.html, queue.dat unit info and a work folder. SO I am guessing that you mean that I have to right click on one of the fah exe files and adding -configonly this to the end of it the thing is I am not sure which one to do this also will this enable me to be able to ajust my cpu usage?

edit
ok I messed up some how what I did was looked at the cfg file and changed the cpu usage to 80% and rebooted I opened up my FOHMon and it says I have done 0% whne last I looked ( a couple of minutes ago ) I was at 35% , the thing mess up somehow . I guess I have to start all over again

[7im]

client.cfg is NOT a file to edit, as it is not a simple text file.

If you need helpful instructions for adding client switches, or making shortcuts in which you can add switches, do a search in the fah wiki, linked on the toolbar at the top of the page.

[Shadowmeph]

well I thought that it was a standard config file like allot of software has.

edit
its to bad that I cannot change things on the fly like I would like to all of those flags don't really do what I am looking for it to do since I am running this as a service

[Zagen30]

I always forget that I'm terrible at explaining things, especially regarding running clients as a service (I've never tried to do it). As 7im said, the wiki is probably better: http://fahwiki.net/index.php/How_tos

[Shadowmeph]

Every things seems all good now since I did that thing I wasn't supposed to do

by 7im on Wed Mar 11, 2009 6:06 pm

client.cfg is NOT a file to edit, as it is not a simple text file.

If you need helpful instructions for adding client switches, or making shortcuts in which you can add switches, do a search in the fah wiki, linked on the toolbar at the top of the page.

now my cpu averages 38% which is know biggy to me .
now my folding speed has increased signifcantly I checked the overnight logs and this is about my average speed

[15:42:40] Completed 555000 out of 1500000 steps (37%)
[15:57:10] Writing local files
[15:57:10] Completed 570000 out of 1500000 steps (38%)

[kelliegang]

The flags should work just fine, you would only have to restart the computer [or the service which can be managed through windows] for changes made through -configonly to apply... and in the configuration you can set up the service to load with whatever flags you require.