Low CPU PPD - is this normal?

[ET3D]

I've been doing GPU folding on my severely underclocked Radeon 5850 for a while. I get around 4000 PPD that way (with the new client). In anticipation of getting the Phenom X6 I decided to start folding on my Phenom X3, so I added a 2 core SMP slot.

The first unit I got was an A3 one, which took over a day, never gave me a PPD estimate, but looking at the extremeoverclocking table it gave me 481 points. Now I got an A4 unit and its PPD estimate is around 400.

Is this normal? At 10th the points I'm getting from the GPU it's pretty much not worth doing. How would this scale to the X6 (3 times as many cores folding, higher clock)? If it's linear then it will still be very low. Or are the bonus points what makes the difference?

Edit: I did some research, and it looks like points don't scale linearly, and that bonus points are where it's at. Found this bonus points calculator (http://www.linuxforge.net/bonuscalc2.php) and it says that with bonus points I can expect over 1100 PPD instead of 400 on the A4 unit. Should be a lot better with the Phenom X6. I guess I'll just have to plough through until I qualify for bonus points.

[James86]

Ya bonus points are where the points add up.
Yesterday I ran 1 SMP WU for 481 points but with the bonus points added it came to 3180 points total
This is running on a AMD X4 @3.7 only took about 10 hours

[Joshua_Mahr]

Yes the bonus points are where its at. BTW that 5850 if you oc should get you 5600ppd also when you get your 6 core try just SMP folding no gpu. The HD's take a core themselves to run the F@H-gpu client. Let me know if you wanna trade that 5850 or sell it. I have one that I want to crossfire and the egg is out of 5850.

[ET3D]

I already had the 5850 doing 6000PPD underclocked. It's really underclocked now, to keep it relatively cool when the outside temperature is around 30C. If I overclocked it I'd probably get 8000PPD or more.

As for selling the 5850, I'm not planning to upgrade it soon, but if I win another card, I'll think of you. I missed my chance to get a 6950 from Bjorn3D a couple of months back, but there's always hope. :)

Actually, since the Gigabyte 560 GTX is a prize this month and I took a look at it, that's something (kind of the minimum) I'd be willing to trade my 5850 for. It's around the same performance and a little higher power draw, but it's smaller (good for my case), cooler, quieter, and will give me more PPD.

[Joshua_Mahr]

Bummer I have a GTX460 I would trade. Wont have a 560 till I win this months contest. ;)

[Blacksmith1]

Dang it, I knew I forgot to do something while I was up there. I was gonna shift your Rigs to my config...

the SMP needs a minimum of 3 cores to do the job. they recomend 4 or more. you can run it on all 3 cores without affecting system performance. the smp will scale back automaticly when you do anything that has a higher priority.
stop the smp and set the one unit flag. when this unit ends then reset to use all cores. if you do it in the middle of the WU it can, and may, bork the unit.
Wish I had an ati to trade you james, but I don't have any of those at all.

[ET3D]

Ya bonus points are where the points add up.
Yesterday I ran 1 SMP WU for 481 points but with the bonus points added it came to 3180 points total
This is running on a AMD X4 @3.7 only took about 10 hours
You're using twice as many cores at a higher speed, so I think the 10 hours vs. my 24+ sounds reasonable.

Blacksmith1, how do I use all the cores. The client 7 UI only lets me select an even number of cores. Besides, one core is already used for GPU folding, so using it for SMP will probably not work well.

Joshua, unfortunately the GTX460 will be somewhat of downgrade compared to the 5850.

[Blacksmith1]

having watched my cpu usage I can tell you the gpu lightly touches the core for a split second every couple mins. the rest of the time that core sits waiting. this is the time the smp will use. I was running 4 gpu clients and one smp on my rig, and will again when I get my M/B back.
as for using all cores. there should be a selection for that, or just let run at default settings. I'd have to reload the v7 to see what it has. I've got the tracker on this system......
ok never mind. I just went over the guide at stanford, apparently odd #'s don't work with it for some reason. when you get the six core let it run on all cores. then back it off to 4 to see what I mean about system performance. you MAY find something which will make a liar out of me, but since the smp runs at idle priority and pretty much any other app you will use runs at normal or above, I don't expect that will happen.

[ET3D]

For me the CPU usage of the GPU client takes a full core most of the time. Perhaps you're running an NVIDIA card and the client works differently.

As for the SMP slowing down the system, it would do that to an extent, since it will have all cores active all the time, which prevents the "turbo core" feature from kicking in and raising the frequency (which happens only if 3 cores or less are active). I don't know how much of an effect this will have in practice. Initially I will certainly play with the six cores and settings and see what I get, as well as try to see where I can get with an easy overclock (i.e., just raising the multiplier).

[Saryn]

I'm running a uniprocessor client for my AMD X2, and really don't think its worth the 100 so points every day and a half. My ps3 and GPU pump out my points.

[ET3D]

I think I'll stop CPU folding for now. When hooking my new monitor I noticed the huge amount of hot air coming out, and the room is significantly hotter than others. I should probably wait until winter. (Of course, I will still try folding with the Phenom II X6, I just don't know how long I'll keep it up if it becomes as hot as the Phenom II X3.)