Folding@Home on ATI GPU's: a major step forward

[Bio-Hazard]

INTRODUCTION
Since 2000, Folding@Home (FAH) has lead to a major jump in the capabilities of molecular simulation. By joining together hundreds of thousands of PCs throughout the world, calculations which were previously considered impossible have now become routine. FAH has targeted the study of protein folding and protein folding disease, and numerous scientific advances (http://folding.stanford.edu/papers.html) have come from the project.
Now in 2006, we are looking forward to another major advance in capabilities. This advance utilizes the new, high performance Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) from ATI (http://www.ati.com/) to achieve performance previously only possible on supercomputers. With this new technology (as well as new Cell processor in Sony’s PlayStation 3 (http://folding.stanford.edu/FAQ-PS3.html)), we will likely be able to attain performance on the 100 gigaflop scale per computer. With this new software and hardware, we will be able to push Folding@Home a major step forward. We are beta testing the ATI GPU client software internally at the moment and will likely announce an open beta in four to five weeks (end of September).
Our goal is to apply this new technology to push Folding@Home into a new level of capabilities, applying our simulations to further study of protein folding and related diseases, including Alzheimer’s Disease, Huntington's Disease, and certain forms of cancer. With these computational advances, coupled with new simulation methodologies to harness the new techniques, we will be able to address questions previously considered impossible to tackle computationally, and make even greater impacts on our knowledge of folding and folding related diseases.

http://folding.stanford.edu/FAQ-ATI.html

[Enigmachine]

Too late for this contest :D I was wondering when a card maker would come out with something like this though! I remember doing neural networks on the Amiga and using the graphics coprocessor to do half of the computations back in the days, mocking those silly CGA PCs...

It wasn't actually any faster than doing everything on the CPU, but the mocking was worth it! :)

Sounds like it will be only for the newest cards though.

[Scott Sherman]

There will be folding in next months contest.

[Bio-Hazard]

And I just happen to have a ATi card in my second A64 rig..............;)

[Gray]

Quad crossfire working all night long on folding or SETI, sounds like you will be able to transform your box into a space heater.

[Kougar]

And I just happen to have a ATi card in my second A64 rig..............;)

Ah, but do you have the right card? Here is the full brief on this:

Folding@Home for ATI R5xx Series in the near future

Tech Report reports Folding@Home will take advantage of ATI graphics processing power in the near future. Folding@Home claims performance of 100 gigaflops per computer will be achieved by taking advantage of ATI’s graphics processing power. ATI GPU support appears to only be for R5xx series of graphics processors according to the Folding@Home high performance client FAQ. The GPU powered Folding@Home client runs considerably faster on R580, Radeon X1900, X1950 series, than R520, Radeon X1800 series, most likely due to the R580’s 48 pixel shaders

NVIDIA GPUs are currently unsupported at the time as the Folding@Home project has been concentrating its efforts on ATI GPUs as the ATI GPUs perform significantly faster than current generation NVIDIA GPUs. Folding@Home also previously announced its Cure@PS3 project to take advantage of the PS3’s processing power. DailyTech awaits the day Folding@Home optimizes its client for Bigfoot Networks KillerNIC.

The ATI optimized Folding@Home client is expected to arrive towards the end of September. And, of course, if you needed another reason to stock up on ATI R5xx cards, ATI is still expected to release a driver for Triple Play. Source: Folding@Home on ATI GPUs Too (http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=3919)

Also, Folding@home will be possible on the PS3:

Folding@Home, with HDR visualizations!

Future PS3 owners rejoice as Folding@Home will be available for the PS3 console. The Cure@PS3 project puts the PS3’s Cell processor to good use by folding proteins which is somewhat in line of Sony’s overconfidence of the PS3 rendering the PC useless. Folding@Home performance from the Cell processor is expected around 100 gigaflops per PS3 console and top out one petaflop with 10,000 PS3’s.

In addition to the 100 gigaflop protein folding capabilities, Cure@PS3 will have enhanced visualization features. The enhanced visualization capabilities will take advantage of HDR and ISO surface rendering features of the NVIDIA RSX graphics processor. Molecules can also be navigated in real time using the PS3’s motion sensitive controller allowing users to view the proteins from different angles.

With the PS3’s high price pushing away developers, PS3 owners will have something to put all those unused processor cycles to use. Source: Folding@Home on the PS3 (http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=3910)

I believe R5xx means pretty much any x1000 class card, but note the bit about the pixel shaders... So I'd surmise you can gauge how well your GPU can fold solely by the pixel shaders, at least to a good degree. In comparison, nVidia's 7950GX2 only has a total of 48 shaders, same as the x1900 series except for the x1900gt that comes with 36. The 7900GTX would only have 24 pixel shaders...

[Bio-Hazard]

Quad crossfire working all night long on folding or SETI, sounds like you will be able to transform your box into a space heater.
That's what water cooling is made for..........:wink:

[GIBSON]

That's what water cooling is made for..........:wink:
it'll still heat up the room pretty nice though

[vfrex]

Solution:

Run the loops over LONG heatpipes that lie in/under the driveway. Now, the spaceheater folding box is melting the snow and ice. All bets are off in the summer!

[GIBSON]

Actually that would probably make the asfalt crack, and in the summer trucks would make deep traces in the asfalt.

[z3r0C00L]

Ah, but do you have the right card? Here is the full brief on this:

Source: Folding@Home on ATI GPUs Too (http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=3919)

Also, Folding@home will be possible on the PS3:

Source: Folding@Home on the PS3 (http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=3910)

I believe R5xx means pretty much any x1000 class card, but note the bit about the pixel shaders... So I'd surmise you can gauge how well your GPU can fold solely by the pixel shaders, at least to a good degree. In comparison, nVidia's 7950GX2 only has a total of 48 shaders, same as the x1900 series except for the x1900gt that comes with 36. The 7900GTX would only have 24 pixel shaders...


Well I should point out that it does not work on nVIDIA graphic cards. Mainly due to the missing Dedicated branch execution units.

As such it will only work on x1900/x1950 cards to start then move onto other x1x00 series from ATi.

nVIDIA is SOL unless G80 is released with the said units.

[DragonMaster]

Solution:

Run the loops over LONG heatpipes that lie in/under the driveway. Now, the spaceheater folding box is melting the snow and ice. All bets are off in the summer!

Or heat your pool in summer.

[Kougar]

Well I should point out that it does not work on nVIDIA graphic cards. Mainly due to the missing Dedicated branch execution units.

As such it will only work on x1900/x1950 cards to start then move onto other x1x00 series from ATi.

nVIDIA is SOL unless G80 is released with the said units.

Actually, nVdia chips can fold. Just not nearly as fast... and maybe not until a couple revisions to the F@H software later after the initial ATI GPU folding program release.

The FAH team is prioritizing ATI's offerings right now because they're reportedly much better folders than their Nvidia counterparts. Even ATI's own Radeon X1800 graphics cards are "considerably slower" at folding than the Radeon X1900 series, so the number of pixel shader processors must be a factor.

Now just consider how fast R600 will fold... since ALL shaders can dynamically become pixel, vertex, or the new geometry shaders. :twisted:

[DragonMaster]

since ALL shaders can dynamically become pixel, vertex, or the new geometry shaders.
... or an F@H processor!