Vista, SMP and GPU. What do I need?

BlackHawkBlackHawk Bible music connoisseurThere's no place like 127.0.0.1 Icrontian
edited January 2009 in Folding@Home
Like the title says, what software do I need? Can I fold on my quad core and on my GPU at the same time, and if so, is it worth it? Is setting up folding in Vista more difficult than in XP? Which versions of F@H would I need? Anyone have a guide?

Looks like Nvidia's soon to be released 185.20's have an included new version of F@H for their cards. Not official but for those willing to risk it, link.

:smokin:

Comments

  • SnarkasmSnarkasm Madison, WI Icrontian
    edited January 2009
    2xGPU client (if you have two GPUs), 1xSMP. If you don't have two GPUs, just one GPU client, and give the SMP three cores instead of two.

    Which version of Vista do you have? That will determine (as TBonz and I found out the other day) the best way to install the GPU client.

    Other than that, it's your standard multi-client setup (give them different machine IDs, etc) and use something like ProcessLasso to restrict GPU folding to one core and SMP to the other three.
  • mas0nmas0n howdy Icrontian
    edited January 2009
    He's running a GTX 260, so he won't have to mess with assigning SMP to only 3 cores. Should be pretty straightforward.

    I'd just run the 180.60 drivers until the 185.20s are at least official beta.

    It is definitely worth it BH, with the 180.60 drivers and newer the GPU2 client should use ~3% or less of your CPU leaving the rest for SMP.
  • BlackHawkBlackHawk Bible music connoisseur There's no place like 127.0.0.1 Icrontian
    edited January 2009
    Snarkasm wrote:
    Which version of Vista do you have? That will determine (as TBonz and I found out the other day) the best way to install the GPU client.
    I'm running Vista Ultimate 32-bit but I already did the Admin account thing in anticipation.

    What's this machine ID thing I keep hearing about?
  • mas0nmas0n howdy Icrontian
    edited January 2009
    Black Hawk wrote:
    What's this machine ID thing I keep hearing about?

    It's the machine identifier for F@H clients so that they do not interfere with each other and try to use the same FahCore-xx.exe. You shouldn't have to mess with it though because SMP installs with a default of 1 and GPU2 installs with a default of 2.
  • BlackHawkBlackHawk Bible music connoisseur There's no place like 127.0.0.1 Icrontian
    edited January 2009
    Which client do I install first? Know of any guides?
  • SnarkasmSnarkasm Madison, WI Icrontian
    edited January 2009
    No need to worry. Install either at your leisure. The only wonky thing is that for best results, you have to run the SMP's install.bat actually in the Administrator account. Then just give it the account name and password of your normal login, go back to your account, and go to town.
  • BlackHawkBlackHawk Bible music connoisseur There's no place like 127.0.0.1 Icrontian
    edited January 2009
    Is there any way to run them as a service? Wait, I still need to stop the GPU client before gaming, right?
  • SnarkasmSnarkasm Madison, WI Icrontian
    edited January 2009
    Not necessarily, on Vista. Vista's graphics performance with GPU folding running is loads better than XP's. You may still want to, and you'll want to test this with your setup specifically, but you don't need to.

    The setting up as a service business is still in the air. With the way security works, it's iffy if possible at all to set them up as a service, so I don't even bother trying - I just start them when I start up.
  • BlackHawkBlackHawk Bible music connoisseur There's no place like 127.0.0.1 Icrontian
    edited January 2009
    Snarkasm wrote:
    The only wonky thing is that for best results, you have to run the SMP's install.bat actually in the Administrator account.
    Actually, IIRC, last time I installed it I only had to run cmd as admin and execute install.bat from there. It installed ok.
    The setting up as a service business is still in the air. With the way security works, it's iffy if possible at all to set them up as a service, so I don't even bother trying - I just start them when I start up.
    I guess I'll use some kind of traying program.
  • mas0nmas0n howdy Icrontian
    edited January 2009
    Black Hawk wrote:
    I guess I'll use some kind of traying program.

    Just run the GPU2 tray client and you can use TrayIt! to place the SMP console client in the tray.

    Install the GPU2 client to it's default location, but make sure you install the SMP client to somewhere other than C:\Program Files. UAC might give you all kinds of hell otherwise, so install to C:\SMP or something similar. Also, under VIsta I've found that adding the directories of both clients to your AV scanning software's exlusion list is a good way to prevent client slowdowns and EUE errors.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited January 2009
    you can use TrayIt!
    Beautiful little program that uses almost no resources and will throw just about anything to the System Tray at your command. Easy to install and use. I've been using it for a couple years. Top 10 in my eyes.
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