Folding@home not running at 100% on full

[donal100]

So I have a laptop folding but it's only an atom so I decided to try get my desktop folding as well. It's running... just not at 100% as it's supposed to. As you can see in the attached image whenever one core starts to take on a higher load the other dips.

The program says it's running two cores and even even went in and configured the clots to be 2 threads. I don't understand why it's not at 100% even though it's set to full. AT this rate the atom will be faster. BTW my cpu is an Intel Pentium D 3.00 GHz dual core.

 

Thanks for any help in advanced,

Dónal

 

Edit: It was doing the weird spiking thing when I set the process priority to real time. If i change it to normal or higher it just stabalises on the two cores at around 60% (including OS usage etc).

[Kermit]

Folding, at least for me, tends to spike a lot in certain work units

 

I don't know why, but I just let it happen because it still works.

[donal100]

Folding, at least for me, tends to spike a lot in certain work units

 

I don't know why, but I just let it happen because it still works.

I won't be using this PC. It will just be sitting there so I want it going as fast as possible. 

[Kermit]

I won't be using this PC. It will just be sitting there so I want it going as fast as possible. 

 

I think its running as fast as it can.

 

Its normal for it to spike

[donal100]

I think its running as fast as it can.

 

Its normal for it to spike

Sorry I'm only new to this. Are you saying that some WUs only let you run at a certain speed? From my understanding you should be able to set the program to pin your cpu at 100%.

[Kermit]

Sorry I'm only new to this. Are you saying that some WUs only let you run at a certain speed? From my understanding you should be able to set the program to pin your cpu at 100%.

 

The program is running at 100%, although at certain spots in the work unit, the cpu doesnt need to work as hard, hence it slowing down and those are the spikes you see

[tobben]

Well, this is abit bizarre. You have two wu's in the

work queue in spite of only having one folding slot.

Something might have had a hiccup there. 

 

Do you run into this problem with anything other than

folding, or is it folding specific? Does for example prime

95 pin your cpu at roughly 100% and stable?

[donal100]

The program is running at 100%, although at certain spots in the work unit, the cpu doesnt need to work as hard, hence it slowing down and those are the spikes you see

Why wouldn't it just stay working at 100% and get through that easier bit rather than slowing down?

[Kermit]

Why wouldn't it just stay working at 100% and get through that easier bit rather than slowing down?

 

well, no, because the CPU works harder on the more difficult bits, and calms down to save energy + heat on the easier bits. Kinda like while playing a game, your graphics card works harder in the intense parts, and doesn't work as hard at idle.

[donal100]

Well, this is abit bizarre. You have two wu's in the

work queue in spite of only having one folding slot.

Something might have had a hiccup there. 

 

Do you run into this problem with anything other than

folding, or is it folding specific? Does for example prime

95 pin your cpu at roughly 100% and stable?

Yeah I'm running it now. CPU at 100% fine. It's running for almost 15 minutes now.

The two WUs is because I added a second CPU in slot when trying to force the program to run two threads. I removed it because I realised I did it wrong. When I had the second slot it got a second wu. I think when I removed the second slot the wu was left there for me to complete later (if this all makes sense). 

 

I stopped Prime95 and started folding and it's still at around 60%, FahCore_a4.exe process always under 50%.

[donal100]

well, no, because the CPU works harder on the more difficult bits, and calms down to save energy + heat on the easier bits. Kinda like while playing a game, your graphics card works harder in the intense parts, and doesn't work as hard at idle.

It would be better to go quickly through it rather than slow down to save energy. The difference between this and a game is that this is calculations and number crunching. It has all it needs to do it. A game varies on how taxing it is on the cpu +gpu depending on what's happening around you and being rendered. If you are standing still there are less calculations to be made for all the frames you are seeing to be rendered. If you are running through a battlefield where bullets are flying, cars are speeding around and stuff is exploding then there is a higher usage because it has more to calculate. The reason it's not as taxing in the calm situation is because it has nothing more to calculate. Folding has a whole load of calculations, it has no time to sit there when there are clock cycles not being used.

[Kermit]

It would be better to go quickly through it rather than slow down to save energy. The difference between this and a game is that this is calculations and number crunching. It has all it needs to do it. A game varies on how taxing it is on the cpu +gpu depending on what's happening around you and being rendered. If you are standing still there are less calculations to be made for all the frames you are seeing to be rendered. If you are running through a battlefield where bullets are flying, cars are speeding around and stuff is exploding then there is a higher usage because it has more to calculate. The reason it's not as taxing in the calm situation is because it has nothing more to calculate. Folding has a whole load of calculations, it has no time to sit there when there are clock cycles not being used.

 

the GPU thing was just an example.

 

All I'm saying is that in certain places, the CPU doesn't work at 100% due to there being no reason for it to. Thats it. Have you ever ran BOINC? The GPU (again, another example) goes under extreme loads at some places and at some spots it doesn't need to work as hard, so it doesn't.

 

Its just how F@H is designed. If there is nothing intense being given to the CPU, it isn't possible for it to run at 100%...

[Silverer]

Running F@H my 4770k will max out the last 4 Logic processors but have the first 2-4 fluxing, I think it might be to allow for your computer to run standard tasks that are required to keep it running smoothly, whilst when you have extra cores windows doesnt use it will just keep them maxed all the time.

http://i.imgur.com/DizEjBW.png(my processor at 100%)

 

 

Edit, my priority is on low by default of F@H for the task... try setting yours to that too and see what happens?

[donal100]

the GPU thing was just an example.

 

All I'm saying is that in certain places, the CPU doesn't work at 100% due to there being no reason for it to. Thats it. Have you ever ran BOINC? The GPU (again, another example) goes under extreme loads at some places and at some spots it doesn't need to work as hard, so it doesn't.

 

Its just how F@H is designed. If there is nothing intense being given to the CPU, it isn't possible for it to run at 100%...

Oh okay. I'll just go with it. I just think it's illogical not to run at full speed when there is speed to spare/

No I have never run boinc. What is it?

[donal100]

Running F@H my 4770k will max out the last 4 Logic processors but have the first 2-4 fluxing, I think it might be to allow for your computer to run standard tasks that are required to keep it running smoothly, whilst when you have extra cores windows doesnt use it will just keep them maxed all the time.

http://i.imgur.com/DizEjBW.png(my processor at 100%)

 

 

Edit, my priority is on low by default of F@H for the task... try setting yours to that too and see what happens?

Maybe it's because it's hyperthreaded. It just dosen't make sense to me. Are you running at full? I'll try run it at low later but I don't expect any change.

[tobben]

Yeah I'm running it now. CPU at 100% fine. It's running for almost 15 minutes now. 

The two WUs is because I added a second CPU in slot when trying to force the program to run two threads. I removed it because I realised I did it wrong. When I had the second slot it got a second wu. I think when I removed the second slot the wu was left there for me to complete later (if this all makes sense). 

 

I stopped Prime95 and started folding and it's still at around 60%, FahCore_a4.exe process always under 50%.

Well, that is wierd.. for starters, i don't think it will make a

difference. But you could try going into the FAHclient work

folder and delete the work for 01, then relaunch the client. 

[Kermit]

Oh okay. I'll just go with it. I just think it's illogical not to run at full speed when there is speed to spare/

No I have never run boinc. What is it?

 

Boinc is like folding, but being able to pick from many more subjects, so its not just protein folding.

[Whaler_99]

To note, folding on CPU you will see spikes. Also, the FAH core will always yield resources to other processes in Windows, it was designed this way.