What is "folding"?

[prof_chaos]

Anybody care to explain what folding is on some ATI cards and what it does for performance?

 

[JAYDEEJOHN]

FAH, or folding at home, is put out by Stanford U. Its a program that runs exclusively on ATI cards, tho you can run it on game consoles and cpu's. Its folding proteins in simulation to find why certain diseases start. It wont improve your gfx card, but may improve the health of the human race. A worthy project. Look at the top of the CPU section for the link

 

[prof_chaos]

FAH, or folding at home, is put out by Stanford U. Its a program that runs exclusively on ATI cards, tho you can run it on game consoles and cpu's. Its folding proteins in simulation to find why certain diseases start. It wont improve your gfx card, but may improve the health of the human race. A worthy project. Look at the top of the CPU section for the link

Lol, thx. Now I feel like an idiot thinking it was gonna give me higher FPS in games or something. :lol:

It still sounds pretty interesting. I think i'll check it out.

 

[leexgx]

FAH, Its a program that runs exclusively on ATI cards

no its not

as he stated its for Running on ATI video cards he ment It Can use on an ATI x1900 or newer card to do protein folding

you can use the norm folding client that use CPU only

 

[JAYDEEJOHN]

FAH, Its a program that runs exclusively on ATI cards

no its not

as he stated its for Running on ATI video cards he ment It Can use on an ATI x1900 or newer card to do protein folding

you can use the norm folding client that use CPU only HUH?

 

[mford66215]

Folding@home - Stanford has a thing going that uses the gpu to do science. They used to be part of a larger network of software projects called BOINC. They're trying to get Microsoft to let the xbox do some work also, but it hasn't got off the ground yet. Remember the old Seti@Home stuff? This is what it's evolved into.

BOINC - Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing.

A grid computer project where your machine can be used to do science problems, you get to pick where the science is used. There are LOTS of different projects to choose from, no longer including Folding@Home - a protein modeling system. Scientists figure out what questions they need answered, submit them as a BOINC project, and people throughout the world use spare CPU time to crank out the answers.

As your computer finishes working a problem, it is assigned 'credit' showing that your not a totally worthless individual, but have some altruistic motives. You can keep these credits to yourself, or join a team of other like minded people.

TomsHardware has a team, here's the link to the forum.
http://forumz.tomshardware.com/community/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=5081&highlight=boinc

I'd be on Tom's team myself, but I had already signed up for another team, boincsynergy. Here's my stats:

http://www.boincsynergy.com/images/stats/comb-3241.jpg

 

[The_Abyss]

Anybody care to explain what folding is on some ATI cards

It's means of achieving a new sort of epenis whilst killing the planet, reducing the life of your graphics card (if using that client) and increasing your energy bills all in one go.

All because today's society is increasingly allergic to the idea that one day we will die.

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

Two kinds of Folding.

First the Traditional;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9pcoRSp9RU

Very cool to watch, easy to learn/do.

Second a new scientific type of folding, here's the link to the info on the ATi VPU client;
http://folding.stanford.edu/FAQ-ATI.html

They are also working on the HD2K series.

And despite what Abyss says, it's a worthwhile effort with no more failure rates then running a 3D desktop/screensaver. And while he may queston the benefits and consider it people trying to cheat death, if he knew more about it, or had some of the diseases involved, he'd likely appreciate that it's not about a fountain of youth so much as trying to avoid dying from some pretty horrible diseases including ALS, CJD, and Alzheimer's.

While some people may find it pointless or fruitless, it's no less so than posting on a forum like this.

BTW Abyss, you can contribute anonymously to a bigger pool which is what many people do (and I did before THG got a team when I added to their scores for a few months).

 

[jt001]

Is there an nVidia one coming anytime soon?

And The_Abyss, there's a downside to everything, you're killing the planet while you post this on the internet. As far as the energy bills go I haven't noticed an increase at all by using the CPU client.

 

[mactronix]

:trophy: :trophy: Gonna have the whole family doing that now neat trick!
Mactronix

 

[deals33ker]

Is there an nVidia one coming anytime soon?

And The_Abyss, there's a downside to everything, you're killing the planet while you post this on the internet. As far as the energy bills go I haven't noticed an increase at all by using the CPU client.

then you dont pay close attention
it is costing you more

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

then you dont pay close attention
it is costing you more

Depends on his meterage now doesn't it. Mine's a flat rate for everything under 750KW/h per month, so for me it didn't cost more when I did it except in the winter when my other activity of eating more oven cooked meals and using small heaters from time to time and using the block-heater, nudged me into the low 800s.

The difference is there for sure, but it's about the same as 1 or two lightbulbs, or even worse waste the 10 or so entertainment unit parts you (and I) have running on 'standby' drawing 5-20W.

It's not for everyone, but if your PC is on anyways (for P2P or something) then it's even less of a difference.

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

:trophy: :trophy: Gonna have the whole family doing that now neat trick!

Yeah the first time I saw it a few years back I said, "Damn, that's awesome". Funny thing is now I only wear T-shirts for skiing so I only have like 4 to do this on every coupla weeks, whereas in high school and undergrad, this would've been very handy for what was pretty much my entire wardrobe. :lol: