Folding wasn't working out :(

[Yellow Dog]

I tried for a while, but It slowed my computer and kept shutting out my programs. Sorry, but I had to uninstall... :(

[skunkstripe]

Well that does not make sense since the folding program only runs when NOTHING else is running. :confused:

[Taeric]

The graphical version of the program has some compatibility issues with programs (mostly games) that use OpenGL for the graphics. The console version takes care of that issue.

While the program does not use any CPU cycles when other programs are active, it does tie up some RAM, which can slow down systems that are light on memory. The way around that is to shut down the folding application when doing other intensive things (it would be idle anyway) and then resume folding when the computer is more available.

[Yellow Dog]

The graphical version of the program has some compatibility issues with programs (mostly games) that use OpenGL for the graphics. The console version takes care of that issue.

While the program does not use any CPU cycles when other programs are active, it does tie up some RAM, which can slow down systems that are light on memory. The way around that is to shut down the folding application when doing other intensive things (it would be idle anyway) and then resume folding when the computer is more available.

It mainly happens when I am playing computer games...

[Taeric]

Yup, that's the OpenGL issue. In a nutshell, games render their graphics using either OpenGL or DirectX. You can get oodles of info on both of those online, but for the sake of keeping things like, the important thing to know is that these technologies are used to do graphics. The graphical version of the folding client uses OpenGL, and it has some strange conflicts with games that use OpenGL also. You can play DirectX games all day without a problem. The main effect is generally OpenGL games minimizing right when they load. You can most often hit ALT-TAB or click on the task bar to get the game back.

The easy way around this conflict is to either use the graphical version but close it before gaming or to use the console version, which does not used any graphics and therefore does not conflict with games.

This is a pretty old problem, but since our folding community here is still pretty new, it's the first time that it's come up here. Folding generally is very very easy, but there are a ton of little issues that can creep up. I've seen a lot of them in the two years I've been folding (I'll break 1 million points on the OCN folding team this week), and what I haven't yet seen, there are others who can help.

[puplove911]

Wow! You know a lot about folding Taeric!
Yup, that's the OpenGL issue. In a nutshell, games render their graphics using either OpenGL or DirectX. You can get oodles of info on both of those online, but for the sake of keeping things like, the important thing to know is that these technologies are used to do graphics. The graphical version of the folding client uses OpenGL, and it has some strange conflicts with games that use OpenGL also. You can play DirectX games all day without a problem. The main effect is generally OpenGL games minimizing right when they load. You can most often hit ALT-TAB or click on the task bar to get the game back.

The easy way around this conflict is to either use the graphical version but close it before gaming or to use the console version, which does not used any graphics and therefore does not conflict with games.

This is a pretty old problem, but since our folding community here is still pretty new, it's the first time that it's come up here. Folding generally is very very easy, but there are a ton of little issues that can creep up. I've seen a lot of them in the two years I've been folding (I'll break 1 million points on the OCN folding team this week), and what I haven't yet seen, there are others who can help.

[Taeric]

Wow! You know a lot about folding Taeric!
The other team I manage is 32nd in the world, so there's a lot of action in our folding forum plus I've done a fair amount of it myself. :)

[Yellow Dog]

The other team I manage is 32nd in the world, so there's a lot of action in our folding forum plus I've done a fair amount of it myself. :)

"Other" team? :wtf: What other team? :p

[Taeric]

DogForum.org has several "sister" sites owned and managed by the same person. The first and largest site is overclock.net (often abbreviated as OCN). There is also carforum.net, pvrs.net, and macforum.net. I originally became involved with OCN over two years ago and started folding for them in July of '05. I started working on their folding forum when I was promoted to FD in December '05 and have maintained that involvement after my next promotion. We currently have about 330 active folders producing about 130,000 points per day. Most of my folding efforts go towards that team. I currently have two dual core systems, and quad core system, and two older systems folding for them. I should get up around 8000 points per day once I get the quad core system optimized.

I feel strongly about the folding cause, and I wanted to give the members here an opportunity to contribute to the project. While our team is still small, I was very happy when we broke into double digits for the number of folders on the team. We should soon be in the top 5% of all of the folding teams, and I have no doubts that our team will continue to grow.

[Yellow Dog]

DogForum.org has several "sister" sites owned and managed by the same person. The first and largest site is overclock.net (often abbreviated as OCN). There is also carforum.net, pvrs.net, and macforum.net. I originally became involved with OCN over two years ago and started folding for them in July of '05. I started working on their folding forum when I was promoted to FD in December '05 and have maintained that involvement after my next promotion. We currently have about 330 active folders producing about 130,000 points per day. Most of my folding efforts go towards that team. I currently have two dual core systems, and quad core system, and two older systems folding for them. I should get up around 8000 points per day once I get the quad core system optimized.

I feel strongly about the folding cause, and I wanted to give the members here an opportunity to contribute to the project. While our team is still small, I was very happy when we broke into double digits for the number of folders on the team. We should soon be in the top 5% of all of the folding teams, and I have no doubts that our team will continue to grow.


Ooooooh, I understand~

[djlen]

I had to discontinue folding as well for much the same reasons as stated above. I was just slowing down my computer too much and I have lots of Ram, but it still was taking way to long at startup and when accessing things on the internet.
I shut it down to see what affect it would have and it did make a significant difference.
Sorry to let anyone down, but over all it just seems like I've made the right decision.

Len

[skunkstripe]

That's too bad, you were folding along there so well, one of our best team members. :(

[djlen]

Yes, I know and I really love this forum and the people on it. Probably because they are dog lovers and very nice.:)
But this computer is definitely running faster since I stopped folding.
Wish it could be different.
Thanks for understanding.

Len

[Taeric]

That's really odd that you experienced slowdowns with sufficient RAM (perhaps 1 GB or more). I've folded on probably 15-20 different setups over the years and never saw problems with slowdowns except on systems with below 512 MB of RAM and even then it was rare.

One thing to check is the priority assigned to the folding program. It should be left on the default, which is low. Most programs (very nearly everything) is assigned a priority of normal, and very few programs receive anything higher than normal. What that boils down to is that Windows divides up the work for all of the progams at the highest priority (again, which is usually the "normal" priority) as best as it is able. Obviously faster system with more RAM and possibly extra CPU cores (dual and quad core systems are more common now and Intel systems with HT technology simulate a second core to help with multitasking) can split up the workload better than older, slower systems. Any leftover computing power is made available to lower priority tasks.

As an example, say you have two copies of Internet Explorer, and e-mail program, and a music player open all of which should have normal priority. If they require 80% of the system resources, 20% would be left over for low priority tasks such as folding. As you close some of those programs, more resources are available for folding, and if you open something else up, it'll take resources back from folding.

The issue with low RAM is that Windows, particularly XP and Vista, requires a fair amount of RAM just to run. Once the physical RAM (the actual sticks of RAM installed on the computer) is used up, Windows will use virtual memory, which is simply a chunk of space on the hard drive. RAM is extremely fast, much faster than hard drives, which is why systems that have a small amount of RAM, particularly with a newer operating system are very slow. While folding scales back CPU usage based on the priority of tasks described above, it does not "give RAM back" for lack of a better term. Essentially that means that Windows takes its chunk as does folding, and whatever is left over goes to all of the other programs. Once the system is forced to make heavy use of it's virtual memory, performance will go down hill fast.

This is definitely more info than in needed for this situation, but I wanted to provide some additional info for those who might be interested.

The morals of the story are -
1) If you have 512 MB of RAM or less and are running Windows XP or Vista, you may see slow downs while folding. To remedy this, only run the folding application when you're not doing other things.
2) Do not fiddle with the setting for priority unless you really know what you're doing. Leaving it on "idle" in the config (which equates to "low" in Windows) will ensure that folding with not interfere with other programs except on systems that fall under case 1.
3) Not stated above, but use the console version instead of the graphical version if you notice any strange problems. The graphical version uses some additional system resources as compared to the console version, which can cause issues with programs that use some specefic resources (not all that common but it does happen).
4) Also not stated above, but ask questions whenever you're having a problem. As of now, there are nearly 133,000 people actively contributing to the folding project, so if you're having a problem, it's very likely that someone else has had the same problem. If we can't find the solution to you're problem, we can probably get you set up with someone who can.
5) While theory is great, actual experience is what matters. If a system is running slow, it's annoying regardless of what should be happening. Hopefully we can get to the bottom of any such matters.

To everyone who is contributing or has contributed to this great project, I want to reinforce my thanks. Hopefully our team will continue to grow and with it, our contribution to the larger project.

[KatzNK9]

Every problem I've had with it was minor & was solved when I finally got around to asking the right question.

I've never had any problems with it that caused me to think I should consider stopping. When playing games, I pause or quit work as one time my screen went haywire & I had to reboot but that was a simple fix. I don't notice any slowdowns whatsoever & if I did, I'd just pause/quit work for the time being.

[vagreys]

I have occasionally encountered slowdowns when I had a lot of windows and tasks going simultaneously, and I just shutdown folding until I'm not using the machine so heavily. I can't say that it doesn't slow things down, some, because it does, but overall, it hasn't been inconvenient. Incidentally, I am running a Pentium M under Windows XP sp2, with 512mb of RAM. Very soon, I will be adding a dual core processor with 4gb of RAM, at home. I can't wait!

[Taeric]

Very soon, I will be adding a dual core processor with 4gb of RAM, at home. I can't wait!
Be sure to let me know when you're going to start folding on it, so I can let you in on the secrets of really tweaking out a high end machine. Every time we think we have it optimized, we find some little trick of tweak to make things run faster. :)

[tankman12]

The other team I manage is 32nd in the world, so there's a lot of action in our folding forum plus I've done a fair amount of it myself. :)

Actually #24 now!!

Sorry to resurrect but I just had to throw that in there. Hopefully we can do some type of recruitment drive with the other 5,000+ members and get more people onboard with folding. It really is for a good cause and only takes a few minutes to set it up and let it run.:D