Can folding be done on a GPU?

BriltBrilt brooklyn
edited January 2004 in Folding@Home
I was thinking a lot of people have pretty strong graphical processing units that are impressive number crunchers. I was wondering if there is a way that you could harness this power for folding. Maybe fold with the cpu or work on a separate work unit

is this feasible or am I just shooting in the dark?

I know it would take a good deal of programming but hey I think it would give a nice boost to wu output.

if this has been posted before sorry

Comments

  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited January 2004
    I don't see how that could be possible.
  • edcentricedcentric near Milwaukee, Wisconsin Icrontian
    edited January 2004
    posted before, yess
    possible, yes
    how? I don't have a clue.

    I think that it should be possible since many problems have graphical solution methods that yield an exact answer. I wouldn't be surprised if a folding calc couldn't be done that way. It would be a compleatly different method, different software, data and everything.
  • csimoncsimon Acadiana Icrontian
    edited January 2004
    http://forum.folding-community.org/viewtopic.php?t=2135
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited January 2004
    I brought up this very same question a few months back:

    http://www.short-media.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3341&highlight=weirdness

    It was a lively discussion back in September of '03
  • Straight_ManStraight_Man Geeky, in my own way Naples, FL Icrontian
    edited January 2004
    Not yet, for real, the GPU can handle tuning vector specs, but CPU helps gen those. Processor, yes, but unless folding limited the WUs to folks with certain BRAND AND MODEL cards and gened Wus for the cards with driver-direct feeds (which still uses CPU some), no. Cards can't yet talk to programs directly, CPUs and bridges and drivers have to help.

    John.
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited January 2004
    Reading some more about this, looks like they are actively working on this very thing.

    http://brook.sf.net/
  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited January 2004
    The nvidia GPU is not quite powerful enough yet and the ATI does not support 32-bit calculations yet, only 24 bit, unlike its counterpart.
  • csimoncsimon Acadiana Icrontian
    edited January 2004
    what about quaddro and firegl ...not to mention wildcat IV and VP! :fold:
  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited January 2004
    I dont know. I know the 2 I mentioned were talked about but the latest nvidia cards are the only thing powerful enough with 32-bit graphics. 24 wont do.

    If its a possibility and stanford is going to make a client for GPUs, then my next Vid card is going to be one that can fold.
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited January 2004
    I imagine that if it were discovered that the high end 3D cards like the FireGL, Parhelia, or the Wildcat could indeed boost folding efforts, we would see a rash of new purchases... :D
  • CammanCamman NEW! England Icrontian
    edited January 2004
    seems kinda strange to me one of the responses posted in that first link was "GPUs are made to manipulate polygons, not perform mathematical calculations" I was under the impression that GPUs manipulate polygons BY WAY mathematical calculations. After all what is a frame generated in a video game, just a bunch of calculations performed so each part is constructed correcly each line goes in the right place each color in the right spot, right? I am not pretending to be an expert on any of this because I am not but computing when it comes down to it is all mathematics, so, it would seem entirely possible...I shall continue reading all these links in interest :)


    edit: oops read this a little further down in that same thread, guy was thinking exactly the same as i was...
    I'm not sure what you think manipulating polygons consists of, my friend, but it's.... wait for it... entirely math. Matrix multiplication mostly. Modern GPUs are designed to perform these types of caculations, typically many in parallel, with absolutely blinding speed. Since vectors of the type we see in the 3 dimensional simulations of molecules in folding are in almost every respect identical to the vectors we see in 3 dimensional simulations of gaming environments, these cards are perfectly suited to doing these types of calculations.

    Note that we're not talking about your standard SVGA card here, we're talking about modern mid to high end "gaming" graphics cards, Nvidia GeForce 3, ATI Radeon 8500 and higher, and the like. These cards have insane high precision fixed point math capabilities, crazy memory bandwidth, and as many as 8 parallel pipelines doing calculations all at the same time on the same data.

    8 pipelines, w00t for my 9700 pro :D
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