really need 512mb for BP's?

kornydeftones · Jan 12, 2005

My question is whether you really need at least 512mb of memory per cpu to run a BP efficiently. Ive noticed a few people say each BP ususally takes about 100-150mb of RAM. My BP Im workin on is only taking 104. So for a completely dedicated folding box, do you really need that much or will a stick of 256 work? I want to run another dually just for folding, so can I get by or will it be ok to just run either 1x512 or 2x256? Let me know what you think.

Yuriman · Jan 12, 2005

I think 256mb would suffice, just make sure you completly strip the OS you are using.

Leviathan41 · Jan 12, 2005

Yeah the 512MB recommendation usually refers to a system you will be using as well. 256MB should do fine for a dedicated folder.

Arkaine23 · Jan 12, 2005

The current batch seem to take between 60-105MB. There were some BP projects in the past that would use closer to 160MB. Since most M$ OS's use 100+MB even when strippped of unneccesry processes, the recommendation for a daily-use machine is 512MB+. However, I have run BP on a properly-tweaked linux box with only 192MB of ram just fine, and on windows boxen with 256MB.

actong · Jan 12, 2005

Arkaine23 said:
However, I have run BP on a properly weaked linux box with only 192MB of ram just fine, and on windows boxen with 256MB.

I thought big packet WUs were only assigned to clients with 256MB (or 240MB?) or more. Or did you copy it to the 192MB machine?

Leviathan41 · Jan 12, 2005

bigpackets can be assigned to any client that has bigpackets=yes enabled in the config file, as far as I know.

Arkaine23 · Jan 12, 2005

My understanding is:

1) BP enabled in client.cfg + -advmethods flag = steady diet of BP
2) BP enabled in client.cfg + cpu with high performance quotient (stanford determines this from folding benchmark scores and by how fast you turn in wu's) = you'll get them once in awhile

Mustanley · Jan 12, 2005

512 would be plenty, since you are referring to a duallie. Memory usage on a duallie sporting 512mb of ram would give you more free space in memory than two dedicated folding boxes with single CPUs and only 256mb of ram each.

kornydeftones · Jan 12, 2005

ok great. Good to know guys. Would it be better then to get 2x256 or 1x512 keeping more bays open?

actong · Jan 12, 2005

Arkaine23 said:
Yup. stanford does not have a way to determine the amount of ram in your system built-into their folding client. The reason to avoid BP on boxes with not enough ram available is that folding will go real slow if the core process has to start being paged to HDD.

Found this and this. And yes, starting with version 5, the client does report the amount of memory in your system to the assignment server. Check your FAHlog.txt, it'll say something akin to "Will indicate memory of xxxMB".

My understanding was that the minimum requirement was 240MB when the big WUs were first released to beta and advmethods, but there was some talk about increasing it to 256MB when they were released to the general public.

RoadWarrior · Jan 15, 2005

I was looking at a laptop running XP home, and observed that after booting with a default install, there was only actually 64MB of free RAM left from 256MB. So I would say, don't BP on a rig like that. 384MB should be min for a rig running XP that is actually used. If left unattended for long periods, it should manage to do some useful folding, if it's in constant use, like for 16 hours a day, and is off when not used, then prolly 512 is gonna be the least to consider.

However, on a rig running 98SE the OS is using very little on a fresh boot, and there will be 192Mb or so free physical RAM, so 256Mb on a win 98SE machine that's used, is probably as fast as 384Mb+ on an XP machine.

muddocktor · Jan 15, 2005

I was just checking my MSI dually and with 2 consoles churning through BP work and 512 MB ram, it still has 183 MB ram free, according to Task Manager.

As an experiement when the BP work first came out, I tried running 2 consoles on a HT P4 with only 256 MB ram and it was able to run the wu's just fine, but was very slow to respond to any input, I'm sure due to paging. It didn't seem to slow the wu processing down noticeably though.

aftermath · Jan 16, 2005

example of what actong is saying

[14:30:48] - Preparing to get new work unit...
[14:30:48] - Autosending finished units...
[14:30:48] + Attempting to get work packet
[14:30:48] Trying to send all finished work units
[14:30:48] + No unsent completed units remaining.
[14:30:48] - Will indicate memory of 1535 MB.

JetMech · Jan 18, 2005

I have one machine set up for BP that only has 256MB. The only difference I can see is that there seems to be more hard drive activity. But then that is not the fastest HD. Anyway it is finishing 600 pointers and getting more so I say "no you don't need 512MB to fold BPs".

kornydeftones · Jan 18, 2005

alright....thanks everybody for replies. I guess what I'll do is take the other 512 stick from my first dually then and put it in the new one. Hopefully all goes well.

really need 512mb for BP's?

kornydeftones

Member

Yuriman

Member

Leviathan41

Member

Arkaine23

Captain Random Senior Evil

actong

Registered

Leviathan41

Member

Arkaine23

Captain Random Senior Evil

Mustanley

Member

kornydeftones

Member

actong

Registered

RoadWarrior

Senior Member

muddocktor

Retired

aftermath

Member

JetMech

Member

kornydeftones

Member

Similar threads