Memory usage question

[Tim]

My Abit BP6 (with twin 533 Celerons overclocked to 600) is used mostly for folding. I go on the internet with it now and then but not much.

I have 768 MB of memory in this computer, but according to Task Manager (2000 Pro OS), I rarely have less than 600 MB of memory available for other uses. I have a 1 GB paging file on the hard drive, a leftover from when this computer had "only" 256 MB in it.

So if I were to reduce the memory to 256-384 MB to use the other sticks in other computers, would folding speed be affected in this computer?

[Tim]

No one knows anything about this?

[Armo]

folding is only effected by CPU speed

[Tim]

Then why do big work units require big amounts of memory?

I'm running a test on my BP6 system right now. It had been folding for a week with 768 MB memory. From EM3 version 3.20, I wrote down a bunch of the numbers. Points per day and week, total estimated time of the current work units, etc.

Then I reduced the memory to 128 MB. I'll let it settle in and adjust until tomorrow, and see how much the numbers have changed.

The BP6 does not have the option enabled to allow large work units.

[Armo]

i have no idea, im not too familiar with the really huge WU's, prof might know more than me.

[DanG]

By having less memory in a system that is working on a large WU you will see a slowdown in general system performance (IMO, nothing major), because everytime you load something, it is required to go to the hard drive as opposed to having it buffered in memory.

[Tim]

Okay. So if a computer was turned on just for folding and was rarely used for internet access or anything else, then having a large amount of memory wouldn't be an issue?

I'm working on a test with my Abit BP6 system right now. I have the 533 Celerons running at 600, and 128 MB memory in it. After letting it run for a day so EM3 3.20 can settle into its numbers for points per day / hour / week and whatever, I'll raise the memory amount to 768 MB and see how much it changes. Then make a post about it here. A seperate topic.

[Donut]

Tim,

What type of WU's are you doing? Tinkers don't seem to need the memory of the other cores.

I'm curious to see how your experiment works out.

[Tim]

The test is being run on a 129 point Gromac and a 249 point Tinker. Each Celeron 533 @ 600 Mhz has one to do.

[mmonnin]

It will only help if you enabled large WUs and you get some of those WUs or if there is not enough memory and processes are being paged on the HDD.