A Word on Priorities.

We all know that Fah runs at the lowest priority.
we all know (admit is not the right word) that folding sometimes can make things less than smooth.

My Solution : ( works so far)

taskman>Processes>Explorer.exe>right click>set priority>high
(speeds up/smoothes out nearly everything while folding)

taskman>Processes>firefox.exe (and/or) Iexplore.exe>right click>set priority> above normal OR high. (speeds up/smoothes out browser while folding)

try it with whatever else, for example a game?

(realtime will bite you, dont go there, ever!)
Edit: in most cases...

right now i am folding at full load, and things run smoother and faster with these settings than with NO fah.

thats right, for me, these tweaks while folding alow me to run even faster and smoother than if i were not folding at all.
should be especially helpful fo laptops and "minimal" rigs.
ive heard there is a tweak to make such things permanent, but i forgot it.

anyone whom feels inclined, give it a shot and let us know.

If you have a shortcut to the program you want to start in higher or lower priority, do as in this link (great explanation):

http://www.sawtoothdistortion.com/Articles/RunTasksinLowPriority.html

for the lazy, the important part from the link (start adobe photoshop in belownormal priority for example, but you can change the application and priority to suit of course):

# Change "C:\Program Files\Adobe\Photoshop 6.0\Photoshp.exe" (with quotes) to C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe /c start "Adobe Photoshop" /belownormal "C:\Program Files\Adobe\Photoshop 6.0\Photoshp.exe" (with quotes, note there is not quote at the beginning)

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edit: not sure how to set explorer shell to run default higher priority, but their must be a way.

more fun with priorities: http://users.accesscomm.ca/gbraun/wxp/priority.htm
i allso think there was something more clear on Tweak XP...
in any event, ive been running like this for a few hours now, and no problems yet.

explorer.exe is the biggest help. thats your desktop, startmenu, browsing files...

i dont even notice i am folding anymore, and ive got 2 QMD's!!!

anyone else have input/experiences yet?

more info: http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/start.mspx
if you like high pressure sales, the easy way can be bought: http://www.prioritymaster.com/search1.htm

I'll try this out and report back, although I have no probs as is, I'm willing to try anything to gain performance

Chances are though, if you built your pc you have plenty of cooling and shouldn't have any issues. Factory HPs, Dells, stuff are probably what need this.

Steveo989 said:

Chances are though, if you built your pc you have plenty of cooling and shouldn't have any issues. Factory HPs, Dells, stuff are probably what need this.

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Where are you getting at heat as being the issue here? This has nothing to do with heat related issues, therefore this will fix nothing related to heat. I don't see where you are coming from with that statement. For one thing, factory machines may run a little hotter, but they are by no means overheating, or they wouldn't sell them. This is all OS/software based, hardware is not the issue.

Have you tried Ven0m's little app?
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=368035

I've just finished "FAH Manager" - it's a program that starts and stops FAH Services depending on current processes' demand for CPU power.

How does it work:
Once a while it checks current processes CPU usage, if there's one that has more CPU usage than set threshold for some time, it stops FAH services. When CPU usage of most demanding application is below set limit, it starts FAH services - pretty simple. Additionally, you can set start / stop thresholds in ranges of 0 - 1000 (1/1000s of CPU power) and define how often to check CPU usage and how long low / high CPUusage has to last to do something. You can also define more than 1 Service to start / stop.

Click to expand...

JDXNC said:

we all know (admit is not the right word) that folding sometimes can make things less than smooth.
Where are you getting at heat as being the issue here? This has nothing to do with heat related issues, therefore this will fix nothing related to heat. I don't see where you are coming from with that statement. For one thing, factory machines may run a little hotter, but they are by no means overheating, or they wouldn't sell them. This is all OS/software based, hardware is not the issue.

Click to expand...

When a pc gets too hot on my HP folding runs less than smooth that's why. I add a fan and it runs smooth as can be.

well, Ven0m's fah manager helps, and so does keeping the heat down and having a generally stable rig, but it seems thas is that extra step that (so far for me) makes all the difference.
its generally a "smoother" feel for me, as in- i dont think to myself "okay, come on- okay whats the deal, ah, there it goes"

but it needs a bit more reasearch and testing before we say "this tweak is a must for folding", because i dont yet know enough about it to say that it is a must for everyone in all cases... so far something to look at and see...

Three things that need cooling that keeps it a rock solid folder are the GPU, MOSFETs, and the ram southbridge helps too. Those along with good cpu cooling will keep F@H kicking 24/7.

orionlion82 said:

well, Ven0m's fah manager helps, and so does keeping the heat down and having a generally stable rig, but it seems thas is that extra step that (so far for me) makes all the difference.
its generally a "smoother" feel for me, as in- i dont think to myself "okay, come on- okay whats the deal, ah, there it goes"

but it needs a bit more reasearch and testing before we say "this tweak is a must for folding", because i dont yet know enough about it to say that it is a must for everyone in all cases... so far something to look at and see...

Click to expand...

FAH manager? Could you tell me more about this as I've never heard of it? Does it help keep CPU temps down a bit?

I currently run CPUIdle Extreme which keeps temps between 8-12C cooler for a small folding performance hit. If there's somethign else available I'd certainly like to try it.

umm, it was in Ven0m's sig last i checked, note that its not an "oh" but a "zero"
he put alot of work into it, and i have gotten mixed results.

i tried out CPUidle and had bad luck with it myself, but others swear by it.

i cant say the priority tweaks do anything for tempeartures, and i havnt used FAH manager in quite a long time, so it may have been improved recently.

I might have to give it a go sometime I think.....

Bump. because its friday the thirteenth
...and its been more than a year with no one really reporting back results/opnions.

I thought F@H only used the idle cycles? the ones that wernt being used, and it gives up all its cycels to a program that needs them.

hitbyaprkedcar7 said:

I thought F@H only used the idle cycles? the ones that wernt being used, and it gives up all its cycels to a program that needs them.

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in theory - absolutely.

but im not sure if youve ever met a QMD.

this was more or less the target of this article, but there will allways be some pretty demanding WU's out there. the FAH minimum i believe is 5% and not to mention even when it "steps out of the way" there are still resources being tied up somewhat if not actually being used so as to be kept at the ready for if demand goes down as far as i understand...
does not mix well with other demanding stuff.

see: ven0m's fah manager