F@H VS. World Community Grid

**darkertint** · October 15th, 2009, 06:09 PM

I noticed a lot of people here run folding at home instead of World Community Grid. It seems like they are basically the same, but I was wondering what makes people chose F@H over WCG? I've never used F@H, but WCG has a lot of features that I like, from a good range of projects to select from, to a good application that gives a lot of options for running the grid.

**KarmaKiller** · October 15th, 2009, 07:07 PM

Well I'm not sure on the WCG thing. I've never ran that tbh.
But I am a folder. I basically run that because of what it's trying to accomplish. I have had many members effected by the diseases that folding is trying to cure, so that's why I fold.
Also, last time I checked, folding had more clients out to support some of the newer hardware. (mainly GPU's) I'm pretty sure WCG has updated since I checked, but that was one of the main reasons I got into it.
(Plus I ran seti@home before this, and this just seemed like it was for a better cause)

Sorry for the kind of bias answer, but I'm just not up to date on WCG like I am folding.

EDIT:
Also should mention TechIMO's small but mighty folding team could always use a few more team members. We're not heavy on people, or points really for that matter. But we're one of those teams that have a good time folding, and any of us would reach out and help any other team member without thinking twice. That's what makes our team so much better then all the other teams.

**darkertint** · October 15th, 2009, 07:39 PM

Originally Posted by KarmaKiller

Well I'm not sure on the WCG thing. I've never ran that tbh.
But I am a folder. I basically run that because of what it's trying to accomplish. I have had many members effected by the diseases that folding is trying to cure, so that's why I fold.
Also, last time I checked, folding had more clients out to support some of the newer hardware. (mainly GPU's) I'm pretty sure WCG has updated since I checked, but that was one of the main reasons I got into it.
(Plus I ran seti@home before this, and this just seemed like it was for a better cause)

Sorry for the kind of bias answer, but I'm just not up to date on WCG like I am folding.

EDIT:
Also should mention TechIMO's small but mighty folding team could always use a few more team members. We're not heavy on people, or points really for that matter. But we're one of those teams that have a good time folding, and any of us would reach out and help any other team member without thinking twice. That's what makes our team so much better then all the other teams.

You're right, WCG doesn't have GPU support, but they make it really easy for you to select which diseases/causes you would like to fold, does f@h do that? BTW the I7 in my sig is my cruncher that is set to 100% 24/7... if I got something that utilizes GPU I might add a second or third 9800GT.. or just get a better card (do they have dual core GPU's now?)

**KarmaKiller** · October 15th, 2009, 07:49 PM

Ah nice.
And no, you don't get to pick which specific disease your crunching for. And tbh, most of us folders could probably care less. As long as it's helping, that's all we care about.

Also, maybe the project being ran by Stanford University has something else to do with it? I honestly don't know.

**Aaron_8015** · October 15th, 2009, 07:51 PM

Well mabye you can run F@H on your gpu's if WCG does not make use of them......

**darkertint** · October 15th, 2009, 07:53 PM

Originally Posted by Aaron_8015

Well mabye you can run F@H on your gpu's if WCG does not make use of them......

Is that possible, does F@H have a setting to only use GPU power and none of the CPU?

**Aaron_8015** · October 15th, 2009, 07:55 PM

Oh yes, you need different clients for cpu and gpu's......

Folding@home - DownloadWinOther

Depending on if you want to use the system tray or the client version. You can try it out.... (we are team 111 by the way).

**RamonGTP** · October 15th, 2009, 08:59 PM

The GPU client still uses CPU cycles just not nearly as much.

**Aaron_8015** · October 15th, 2009, 09:03 PM

Well I when I have two gpu clients running cpu is at 4-6% load....

**KarmaKiller** · October 15th, 2009, 09:29 PM

That's with 2 GPU clients going, and steam, in Windows 7.

(Also my pic kind of fails, but there is only 9% load on 1 core of my quad)

if I got something that utilizes GPU I might add a second or third 9800GT.. or just get a better card (do they have dual core GPU's now?)

The GPU folding apps utilize Nvidia GPU cores, and that's what they crunch on. IDK how much you know about GPU's, but they are MUCH faster at crunching then the standard CPU, even your I7.
And they do make dual GPU cards. That's what I'm running. Currently their are:
9800GX2 = 2x 9800gtx
GTX295 = ~2x GTX275's
GTX295 "Co-Op" same as above, but a single PCB revision. 2 Core on one PCB as opposed to the dual PCB's like the 9800. The single PCB's versions run much cooler.

**sharder8** · October 15th, 2009, 09:33 PM

I run R@H on all my CPU's and F@H on all my GPU's.

I see very little difference in my R@H when turning F@H on or off.

Pull up a chair and give the F@H GPU client a try and see what ya' think. Who knows, ya' might like team TIMO and the fun. Don't forget . . . we have contests here for your pleasure and we have a line-up of members waiting to get into the 1M points club.

Harder

**sharder8** · October 15th, 2009, 09:34 PM

I should mention that I have a bunch of my Ol' crunching buddies running WCG over at Team FADbeens.

Harder

**RamonGTP** · October 15th, 2009, 10:31 PM

Originally Posted by KarmaKiller

That's with 2 GPU clients going, and steam, in Windows 7.

(Also my pic kind of fails, but there is only 9% load on 1 core of my quad)

The GPU folding apps utilize Nvidia GPU cores, and that's what they crunch on. IDK how much you know about GPU's, but they are MUCH faster at crunching then the standard CPU, even your I7.
And they do make dual GPU cards. That's what I'm running. Currently their are:
9800GX2 = 2x 9800gtx
GTX295 = ~2x GTX275's
GTX295 "Co-Op" same as above, but a single PCB revision. 2 Core on one PCB as opposed to the dual PCB's like the 9800. The single PCB's versions run much cooler.

That must be the difference (one of the differences) between AMD folding vs nVidia folding. My ATI/AMD cards are pretty much using an entire core to keep them fed with data.

**KarmaKiller** · October 15th, 2009, 11:18 PM

I noticed that updated drivers helped with that on Nvidia cards. There were some that really killed the CPU's.
But IDK if you've read about it, they are developing the GPU3 core on OpenCL, so ATI cards are gonna haul soon.

**darkertint** · October 15th, 2009, 11:32 PM

If I try f@h, what would be a better upgrade- adding a second 9800gt in sli or sell the 9800gt and buy a new faster card to run by itself? My mobo supports sli and crossfire with 3 slots.

**Aaron_8015** · October 15th, 2009, 11:35 PM

Well that 9800 will net you say 3500-5000 PPD (depending on WU's) You wuld have to get a 275 (7000 - 9000 PPD) or above to make a single card more productive than a dual 9800 setup.....

**KarmaKiller** · October 15th, 2009, 11:38 PM

9800gt's are the same as 8800gt's, and I run a couple of those. On good WU's they'll get a hair over 5k. On average I don't expect anymore then about 4500PPD.(Point Per Day)

Something like the GTX260 can get 6k-8k depending on the WU. 275's will get slightly more then, topping around 9k or so. 285's I've seen as high as 10k a day.

ATI cards aren't the best at folding currently, but when the new GPU core client comes out, they are gonna be pretty damn fast. So it's hard to recommend ATI or Nvidia. For the time being, nvidia is the better folders.

EDIT:
I see Aaron ninja'd me.

**no1_vern** · October 16th, 2009, 01:19 AM

Originally Posted by darkertint

I noticed a lot of people here run folding at home instead of World Community Grid. It seems like they are basically the same, but I was wondering what makes people chose F@H over WCG? I've never used F@H, but WCG has a lot of features that I like, from a good range of projects to select from, to a good application that gives a lot of options for running the grid.

I DO NOT CRUNCH FOR WCG because it grew out of the old UD project - before UD was "privatized".