So is folding more dependent on memory bandwith or CPU clock cycles/IPC.

[ol' man]

I am going to start folding and I want to know so I can tweak in those specific areas for now.

[Dunga Bee]

Clock cycles for sure. Better / faster memory helps a little, but CPU speed is the main factor.

[ol' man]

Originally posted by Dunga Bee
Clock cycles for sure. Better / faster memory helps a little, but CPU speed is the main factor.

I guess I got plenty of that:D

[Mr B]

OK, Dunga Bee, let me put a couple of combo's out for example, and you tell me which would be likely the best for Folding...

All would be running on an Abit SH6 (i815 Solano chipset). I've had all of these setups stable, at one time or another....

a) P/// 600E at 954MHz (159FSB) w/ 256 MB PC133
b) P/// 600E at 936MHz (156FSB) w/ 512 MB PC133
c) P/// 700E at 968MHz (138FSB) w/ 256 MB PC133
d) P/// 700E at 933MHz (133FSB) w 512 MB PC133

Just curious.... I thought that memory bandwidth was the key to faster Folding? If it's the CPU speed, which would be better, higher MHz or FSB?

I think that "b" would have been the choice...but if it's one of the others, I'll throw the 700E back in again, and/or yank half the SDRAM out... :rolleyes:

TIA!

Mr B

[Dunga Bee]

Yoi ! Those are all really similar ;) .


a) P/// 600E at 954MHz (159FSB) w/ 256 MB PC133
b) P/// 600E at 936MHz (156FSB) w/ 512 MB PC133
c) P/// 700E at 968MHz (138FSB) w/ 256 MB PC133
d) P/// 700E at 933MHz (133FSB) w 512 MB PC133


My money would be on 'a' because it is so close to the overall MHz lead but with a huge advantage in FSB. Unless you are doing other things on that PC while it folds, 256 vs. 512 MB of memory is a moot point as either are plenty.

And, the gain, even if small, of the higher FSB would most likely even out the 12 MHz difference between 'a' and 'c'. I'd say on 1 fold, 'c' might be the fastest, but over the long haul, the bonus of the faster talking between the memory and the CPU for 'a' would equalize that MHz advantage and eventually surpass it in overall speed.

My criteria for folding speed:
1) Intel or AMD - AMD if you are building from scratch, Intel if that's what you've already got.
2) Overall MHz speed - Higher speed is always better
3) FSB speed - If overall speeds are close then opt for a little better FSB (like in your example) and the reduced speed (not sure where the cutoff is for the tradeoff, perhaps 50 MHz or so)
4) Amount of RAM (assuming you have a minimum of 128MB) - Additional RAM can't hurt, esp. if you have background apps loaded along with FAH (like Internet Servers or other memory resident apps).

Disk speed and other components are really a moot point. Maybe over the course of 100 years of folding, SCSI would be faster than IDE, but let's not split hairs... :)

The only exception to all I have stated above is if the PC is equiped with YATTA, then all bets are off and it will most likely outfold anything on the planet :D .

Those are my hypothesis / observations.

[Mr B]

Thanks for the reply, DB... I've just set up the "A" config above....lets see how that works out.

:)

BTW.... both rigs are "YATTA!" equipped....lol.

(Although the XP rig yields more YATTA FPS than the P///.... :p :burn: )

[Ebola]

I thought folding speed was based on yatta.

totally mhz. a celly will same as a p3 at equal mhz.

[JetMech]

Originally posted by Dunga Bee
Clock cycles for sure. Better / faster memory helps a little, but CPU speed is the main factor. Agreed. My 1.4 Tbird flies with SDram. My 700@933 Crawls with same ram. Get the fastest cpu you can afford and in the words of Mr. A Fiction "Fold until your fingers bleed."