Folding only with CPU?

[okay92763]

hi, just wondering if im able to only farm using a cpu. I have 3 spare pc's that could fold but I dont have any gpu apart from the intergrated ones? Would it be worth it to set them all up only using the integrated graphics? (i do plan on getting some dedicated GPU's when I have some spare cash)

The CPU's are as follows:

2x core 2 duos (decent spec one not old ones)

1x AMD phenom x4

The power billisnt an issue btw

Thanks.

[Trav_X]

Im also wondering a similar question, if Folding is heavily CPU bound, cause if I get an 8 core CPU (Xeon E5-2690) I'm wondering if I could do distributed computing with it. Sorry for posting here instead of my own thread but the topics are closely related.

[okay92763]

1 minute ago, Trav_X said:

Im also wondering a similar question, if Folding is heavily CPU bound, cause if I get an 8 core CPU (Xeon E5-2690) I'm wondering if I could do distributed computing with it. Sorry for posting here instead of my own thread but the topics are closely related.

If this topic helps 2 people out at the same time then I consider it 2x as successfull.

[Trav_X]

1 minute ago, okay92763 said:

If this topic helps 2 people out at the same time then I consider it 2x as successfull.

 

[Imakuni]

7 minutes ago, okay92763 said:

I have 3 spare pc's that could fold but I dont have any gpu apart from the intergrated ones?

None of those CPUs have iGPUs for you to fold with. And while you could fold with just the CPU part no problem, I recommend using those PCs for a BOINC project of choice instead, such as WCG. F@H offers CPU and GPU apps, but WCG only offers (at this time) CPU apps. In fact, some people even do a mismatch of crunching with their GPUs for F@H and their CPUs for WCG.

 

If you are up to it, here's a quick like to join: http://join.worldcommunitygrid.org?recruiterId=601677&teamId=0G5PP6M422

5 minutes ago, Trav_X said:

Im also wondering a similar question, if Folding is heavily CPU bound, cause if I get an 8 core CPU (Xeon E5-2690) I'm wondering if I could do distributed computing with it. Sorry for posting here instead of my own thread but the topics are closely related.

Define "heavily CPU bound". If you are using Nvidia GPUs, each GPU will require 1 thread (doesn't matter if it's a physical core or just a HT). But outside of that, it doesn't need CPU at all. Now sure, the program can make use of spare CPU power as well, but it's nowhere as efficient as using GPUs. Between getting a better CPU or a GPU, 100% go with the GPU option, if thinking exclusively for folding.

 

Though again, if you intend to do more than folding (say... the mixed BOINC option), the story changes.

 

[okay92763]

2 minutes ago, Imakuni said:

None of those CPUs have iGPUs for you to fold with. And while you could fold with just the CPU part no problem, I recommend using those PCs for a BOINC project of choice instead, such as WCG. F@H offers CPU and GPU apps, but WCG only offers (at this time) CPU apps. In fact, some people even do a mismatch of crunching with their GPUs for F@H and their CPUs for WCG.

 

If you are up to it, here's a quick like to join: http://join.worldcommunitygrid.org?recruiterId=601677&teamId=0G5PP6M422

Define "heavily CPU bound". If you are using Nvidia GPUs, each GPU will require 1 thread (doesn't matter if it's a physical core or just a HT). But outside of that, it doesn't need CPU at all. Now sure, the program can make use of spare CPU power as well, but it's nowhere as efficient as using GPUs. Between getting a better CPU or a GPU, 100% go with the GPU option, if thinking exclusively for folding.

 

Though again, if you intend to do more than folding (say... the mixed BOINC option), the story changes.

 

Sorry if im being stupid but ive only been folding for 7 hours. , So if I use WCG that will only use the CPU in the machine? and F@H is basicly fully GPU with a little bit of CPU thrown in there? Again sorry if im being dense I just want to make sure.

[Imakuni]

1 minute ago, okay92763 said:

Sorry if im being stupid but ive only been folding for 7 hours. , So if I use WCG that will only use the CPU in the machine? and F@H is basicly fully GPU with a little bit of CPU thrown in there? Again sorry if im being dense I just want to make sure.

At the current time, WCG only uses CPU - and that's not likely to change in the near future either. So yes, it would only use the CPU part.

 

As for Folding, put it this way: it's primarely a GPU thing, BUT, in order to not waste compute power, they make a much less efficient CPU app available as well. It's not that it "needs" CPUs, but that it would rather poorly use CPUs than not use them at all.

[okay92763]

Okay thanks for the info, Ill try to get the systems up and running as soon as I gather the resources to.

1 minute ago, Imakuni said:

At the current time, WCG only uses CPU - and that's not likely to change in the near future either. So yes, it would only use the CPU part.

 

As for Folding, put it this way: it's primarely a GPU thing, BUT, in order to not waste compute power, they make a much less efficient CPU app available as well. It's not that it "needs" CPUs, but that it would rather poorly use CPUs than not use them at all.

 

[Trav_X]

34 minutes ago, Imakuni said:

None of those CPUs have iGPUs for you to fold with. And while you could fold with just the CPU part no problem, I recommend using those PCs for a BOINC project of choice instead, such as WCG. F@H offers CPU and GPU apps, but WCG only offers (at this time) CPU apps. In fact, some people even do a mismatch of crunching with their GPUs for F@H and their CPUs for WCG.

 

If you are up to it, here's a quick like to join: http://join.worldcommunitygrid.org?recruiterId=601677&teamId=0G5PP6M422

Define "heavily CPU bound". If you are using Nvidia GPUs, each GPU will require 1 thread (doesn't matter if it's a physical core or just a HT). But outside of that, it doesn't need CPU at all. Now sure, the program can make use of spare CPU power as well, but it's nowhere as efficient as using GPUs. Between getting a better CPU or a GPU, 100% go with the GPU option, if thinking exclusively for folding.

 

Though again, if you intend to do more than folding (say... the mixed BOINC option), the story changes.

 

My plan is to get a Xeon E5-2690 (8 cores 16 threads) and a GTX 1070. It's going to be for gameplay recording and video editing, as well as just regular gaming. In addition, I want to start contributing to distributed computing stuff. I've used BOINC in the past, for a very short amount of time, but I'm wondering how 8 cores 16 threads would fare in BOINC & F@H. I plan on doing both, so I'm just wondering if an 8 core would actually be better in distributed computing over, say, an overclocked 6700k.

[Imakuni]

3 minutes ago, Trav_X said:

My plan is to get a Xeon E5-2690 (8 cores 16 threads) and a GTX 1070. It's going to be for gameplay recording and video editing, as well as just regular gaming. In addition, I want to start contributing to distributed computing stuff. I've used BOINC in the past, for a very short amount of time, but I'm wondering how 8 cores 16 threads would fare in BOINC & F@H. I plan on doing both, so I'm just wondering if an 8 core would actually be better in distributed computing over, say, an overclocked 6700k.

For Folding, you'd be better off investing in, say, a 5820k / 6800k and using the saved money over the Xeon route on a second GPU.

 

For BOINC, that's more open ended, it depends on which specific project you watn to support; for PrimeGird, the 6700k with it's AVX 2.0 and high Speed DDR4 support would be better. For WCG, the Xeon would generally be superior... except that too many threads are bad for WCG's CEP2 subproject, as I had a 12 thread machine fail jobs because the HD wasn't keeping up with the demmand and the program would abort.

 

And that's for the specific stuff I know of. If you are looking for something other than PrimeGrid, WCG and Fodling, the best route might differ once again.

 

If I was you, though, I'd go the X99 route for the best balance between gaming, recording and distributed computing.

[Trav_X]

5 minutes ago, Imakuni said:

For Folding, you'd be better off investing in, say, a 5820k / 6800k and using the saved money over the Xeon route on a second GPU.

 

For BOINC, that's more open ended, it depends on which specific project you watn to support; for PrimeGird, the 6700k with it's AVX 2.0 and high Speed DDR4 support would be better. For WCG, the Xeon would generally be superior... except that too many threads are bad for WCG's CEP2 subproject, as I had a 12 thread machine fail jobs because the HD wasn't keeping up with the demmand and the program would abort.

 

And that's for the specific stuff I know of. If you are looking for something other than PrimeGrid, WCG and Fodling, the best route might differ once again.

 

If I was you, though, I'd go the X99 route for the best balance between gaming, recording and distributed computing.

Okay, thanks  

[Ithanul]

As stated, using the CPU for BOINC projects is better.  Of course back in the early days of bigadv, 2P and 4P systems where king of the hill in F@H, but those days are gone.  Since Kepler the GPUs started to really put out WUs faster, and especially when Maxwell came onto the scene.