Folding causing pc to lag?

pushVTECpushVTEC
edited October 2003 in Folding@Home
Lately it seems like my computer has been running noticeably slower. IE: takes longer for programs to be restored from the tray and comes up slower. I closed folding@home and the problem went away. Loaded it back up and the problem came back. If folding@home only uses the unused processor why is it causing my pc to slow down. I've never had this problem before.
System specs

Athlon 1700+ at 1.54 ghz, 512 ram, windows xp, 80 gig 7200 rpm hd, abit kg7-r

Also I've noticed a big decrease in my production. Are the wu's really getting that complicated?

Comments

  • EMTEMT Seattle, WA Icrontian
    edited September 2003
    It seems f@h hurts short reads & writes to the disk as it writes constantly. I tried ATTO one time with folding and was very surprised at how much it hurt. Actually maybe I should just run it on the backup drive and then it won't hurt main array operations... hmm...
  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited September 2003
    Maybe change it from Low to Idle? The priority.
  • csimoncsimon Acadiana Icrontian
    edited September 2003
    pushVTEC what is your fah priority set to?
  • a2jfreaka2jfreak Houston, TX Member
    edited September 2003
    I had F@H running on a machine that made some of the essential programs run noticeably slower. I adjusted the core to run @ 85% and everything seems fine. That's an 800MHz Athlon. Depending on your applications, speed of the CPU and amount of RAM you might need to use less CPU or might can get away using more.
  • EnverexEnverex Worcester, UK Icrontian
    edited September 2003
    It's strange that GTA3 (and Vice City) and also Max Payne run slower (very noticable) on this Rig when FAH is running (Idle mode). Very strange.

    NS
  • EMTEMT Seattle, WA Icrontian
    edited September 2003
    Really? I haven't tried it but I've tried taking the frame limiter off in the options and the framerate is tons smoother... leading me to believe that the bottleneck is the frame limiter itself (BTW, disabling it killed the HUD unfortunately so I can't use it regularly). So where does the performance go up without FAH? I think I'll try it now.
  • EnverexEnverex Worcester, UK Icrontian
    edited September 2003
    Turning the framrate limiter off allows it to go past 30fps and it loses some of the movie feel to it and ruins it quite frankly.....

    NS
  • EMTEMT Seattle, WA Icrontian
    edited September 2003
    Yeah, I know what you mean. It felt kind of cool to unlock a sweet framerate though.
    What's the performance problem with FAH running then?
  • EnverexEnverex Worcester, UK Icrontian
    edited September 2003
    It runs significantly slower, I havn't tested it, but it seems to run about 20fps(ish) rather than locked at 30. Max Payne was the same, except that wasnt normally 30 as it had no limiter.

    NS
  • res0r9lmres0r9lm Florida
    edited September 2003
    I wonder if it could be OS related? If FAH is accessing HDD that often using a ramdisk for folding should improve speed but I think it's being over aggrated.
  • EnverexEnverex Worcester, UK Icrontian
    edited September 2003
    res0r9lm said
    I wonder if it could be OS related? If FAH is accessing HDD that often using a ramdisk for folding should improve speed but I think it's being over aggrated.

    I have noticed that in Linux it doesn't have any effect at all, so I can run it 24/7 with no side affects, which is interesting.

    NS
  • Straight_ManStraight_Man Geeky, in my own way Naples, FL Icrontian
    edited October 2003
    FAH uses a LOT of FPU (Floating Point, used in all vector graphics) time slices, and one of the things that can get swapped if RAM is real tight is the GAME. Guess, in this case it is more FPU impact than game, as you ARE still gettting fair (not great but as good as some get) gaming FPS.

    Further guess, a RAM upgrade might be beneficial a TIB, but if I had to have high end gaming I would shut down FAH for an hour a day to game and limit gaming or shut down FAH when gaming -- problem is, the motion calcs involved in FAH for protein particulate and overall motion as it morphs can be and are VECTOR motion calcs.

    They ARE NOT 2D, they are 3D core and client calcs and what you see is a pseudo-3D snapshot of steps in graphical display-- rather than actual calcs which are CONSTANTLY moving to get to next sanpshot taking time (the calcs used per frame are 3D mothion calcs plus calcs of friction induced by various fluids, temp change effects on motion of molecules, and this has to be vector and is probably Vector pluc claculus whic is a lot of floating point and not ALU (or Arithmetic Logic Unit). GAMEs do same thing, you have in essence LIKE need apps fighting each other in this one scenario.

    CF Notes:
    BOTH are FPU resource hungry, game and FAH. That is what's up, 90% sure. Severely RAM strapped (starved, hungry for more) boxes can to a degree do this, but I would expect this is NOT just or mostly RAM and is rather strapping(using to max, each app starving other) of FPU resources of CPU to calc. LOOKS like display lag, not just that, is in fact CPU being asked by TWO apps to calc FPU as fast as it can, and I would expect lower priority app to lag more than higher priority one-- possibly, in this case, game. PROBABLY, to some degree, BOTH will lag some.

    K6-2 has broken and incomplete SSE2, only a subset present. K6-III is a bit better in this one regard, of handling Floating Point better. Hardware culprit, CPU, software culprit is software kind conflict, combining two FPU hungry apps at same time.

    There is NO way an effective FAH calc can be done in integer math, has to be floating point and multiply variable vector resolving problem. The Pseudo-3D CAN be an integral snapshot derived from the vector maths as pixel map, but no way all calcs can be.

    John.
  • EnverexEnverex Worcester, UK Icrontian
    edited October 2003
    Ageek said
    K6-2 has broken and incomplete SSE2, only a subset present. K6-III is a bit better in this one regard, of handling Floating Point better. Hardware culprit, CPU, software culprit is software kind conflict, combining two FPU hungry apps at same time.

    Er......... the K6-2's and III's do not have SSE, and they deffinately do not have SSE2 at all. SSE was brought in alot later with P3's and then SSE2 was brought in with P4's and AMD Hammers......

    NS
  • res0r9lmres0r9lm Florida
    edited October 2003
    NightShade737 said
    Ageek said
    K6-2 has broken and incomplete SSE2, only a subset present. K6-III is a bit better in this one regard, of handling Floating Point better. Hardware culprit, CPU, software culprit is software kind conflict, combining two FPU hungry apps at same time.

    Er......... the K6-2's and III's do not have SSE, and they deffinately do not have SSE2 at all. SSE was brought in alot later with P3's and then SSE2 was brought in with P4's and AMD Hammers......

    NS
    no wonder it's broken ;D they don't even have 3dnow pro or extended. heck they are not even considered a i486 or a i586. something in the middle.
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