Memory amount test report for folding.

Tim

I had the question in my head - "How much memory is REALLY needed for a folding computer?". By "folding computer", I mean one that spends 99% of its time folding, not checking email or going on the internet or anything else.

And I have such a system here.

Abit BP6, twin 533 Mhz mendocino core celerons, overclocked to 600 Mhz (8X75 fsb), 768 MB PC133 SDRAM. Windows 2000 Pro, with Sygate firewall Norton Systemworks 2003, AdAware SE, and several other antivirus programs installed. Monitoring was done by EM3 version 3.20.

Both work units were being done at the SAME time, 1 thread per processor.

These Celerons have MMX instructions, according to CPU-Z 1.26. No SSE instructions.

After changing the amount of system memory and restarting the computer each time, each test was allowed to run for at least 12 hours so EM3 could get settled into its production numbers. Folding version 5.02 console was used, large work units were NOT enabled.

The work units for the test were:
1. P2055_abeta_4mer GROMAC 129 points
2. P1112_L939_K12M_nat_min1_355k TINKER 249 points

Test 1 - 128 MB SDRAM results
************************
Work unit 1
Points per hour - 0.353
Points per day - 8.47
Points per week- 59.30

Work unit 2
Points per hour - 1.36
Points per day - 32.83
Points per week- 229.82

Total daily production - 41.30 points

Test 2 - 768 MB SDRAM results
************************

Work unit 1
Points per hour - 0.359
Points per day - 8.61
Points per week- 60.31

Work unit 2
Points per hour - 1.36
Points per day - 32.78
Points per week- 229.40

Total daily production - 41.40 points

Notes - When 768 MB memory was installed, Task Manager always showed over 600 MB available memory. When 128 MB was installed, there was 30-35 MB available memory.

*******************

Conclusion - No need to put 1 GB of memory in every folding computer you own, spend the money on buying and building more folding computers instead. Or spend it on something else. Large work units may show different results, but this is what my test showed me. My system was far from optimal, the Celerons didn't even have SSE (which I'm told is important for folding), but this is what I had to work with.

********************

I'd run this test on my main system (NF-7 V.2.0, Barton 2500+ @ 2.2 Ghz, 256 MB / 768 MB PC3200 DDR), but for some reason EM3 3.20 refuses to show the point totals for hours, days, and weeks on that computer with version 5.03 graphical.

GHoosdum

If you can run the test on your main rig, please by all means do so. I have a feeling you will possibly see some different results here, since that PC is definitely fast enough to handle the big WUs which tend to be worth more points.

Good work so far!

Tim

I wanted to run the test on my main system also, but EM3 3.20 won't show the numbers for the hours, days, and weeks. It only shows zeros.

Maybe version 5.03 graphical messes up EM3?

Garg

I don't think big WUs are enabled by default, are they? If you enabled big WUs on that 768mb rig, it might see more points. I don't have big WUs on my main rig at home though, because I might notice the slowdown from the extra memory usage.

Tim

My Barton 2500+ @ 2.2 Ghz 768 Mb computer does big work units, the BP6 does not because it only has 2 533 Mhz Celerons @ 600, which would take over a week to do a large work unit.

mmonnin

Then adding more memory will do nothing if not running large WUs.