Legit Reviews

So you want to use your Nvidia GPU to Fold for Team 38296? Below is a quick guide that should assist you in the installation process.

First, you'll need to make sure your video card is compatible with CUDA. What is CUDA? "NVIDIA CUDA™ technology is the only C language environment that unlocks the processing power of GPUs to solve the most complex compute-intensive challenges."

For a list of compatible cards, http://www.nvidia.com/object/cuda_learn_products.html .

Next, you will need to obtain drivers for these cards, http://www.nvidia.com/object/cuda_get.html Version 180.60 appears to be the newest CUDA 2.1 BETA version for both Windows XP 32-bit and Windows Vista 32-bit. CUDA 2.0 versions vary for different operating systems. Please be sure to select the correct OS for your system to get the correct drivers. I have used older drivers (174.74 and 177.35) with mixed results in performance and stability. Always try to use the newest drivers, and only roll back to older drivers if necessary for stability purposes.

Once you have your CUDA compatible video card up and running with the latest stable drivers, you will need to obtain the Folding@Home Client. The newest version of the client is Folding@Home Client Version 6.23 Windows Console GPU Edition, released on November 26, 2008, available for download at:

V6 GPU2 http://www.stanford.edu/group/pandegrou ... ay-623.msi

NV Viewer http://www.stanford.edu/group/pandegrou ... ay-623.msi

If you are running an older version, 6.12 b6 or b8 for example, it is recommended to uninstall it before installing this beta 8.

Once the client is downloaded, just double click to start the installation. Click Next to agree that you are installing the client. Next you will be asked to agree to the License Agreement, Click I Agree, and Next, and Next again to Confirm Installation. After a few minutes you will see the Installation Complete screen. Click Close. Once you have worked through the installation, you will have a Program Group in your Start Menu. Navigate to the Folding@home-gpu group and launch the program by clicking on Folding@Home.



You will have an icon appear in your systray (by the clock) and a configuration menu will pop up.



On the Folding@Home Control Panel, enter your User name:, Team Number: 38296, and your Passkey.



If you don't have a passkey, you can obtain one by going to the following page and registering your Folding User Name:

http://fah-web.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/getpasskey.py

Just enter your User Name and email address and a passkey will be sent to the email address. This passkey is used for all subsequent installations with your User Name, so keep it handy if you have more than one machine. I didn't change any of the other settings in the configuration, just left them as is. So, once you enter the passkey, click OK and you're done.

In the systray, you will see your F@H icon. Right clicking accesses the menu.



Forums: takes you to http://foldingforum.org/

About: normal about stuff. who, what, which version, etc.

Status: This is where you will find all your folding stats at easy access. There is also the quick way to the log file to keep an eye on things if you aren't using a monitor such as FahMon.

Pause Work: Just as it says. Once you have Folded 1% or more of a work unit, clicking this will immediately pause the Folding Client. To resume folding, right click, resume work.

Pause When Done: This will complete the current WU, send the results, and stop the client. To start the client working again, right click the icon, uncheck pause when done.

Configure: This gets you back to the configuration menu you filled out during the installation. Use this if you feel you need to change the user name to DaIceMan

***Display*** I use the asterisks on this one so you don't skim over and miss the info. At this time, the display is VERY buggy and can cause system crashes or at least the Folding Client to crash. From what I read, they are working to get the display working properly in future releases, but after the first time (you know you're gonna look, no sense ignoring the urge), don't use the display until they have fixed it.

One thing I've noticed while running the client... running unnecessary programs when you aren't at your machine can cause a slow down in the Folding times. If you leave your rig unattended to Fold, say while you are sleeping, try to shut down as many programs as possible to give the Folding Client all the processor cycles it wants, without email clients, browsers, and other programs stealing them. I noticed an increase in points per day by shutting down the unnecessary stuff, so I recommend it if you can do the same.

This is a quicky run through of the install process. This reference was for my machines, using WinXP and Nvidia video cards. Things are probably different for Vista and maybe for ATi, but I can't say in what ways. If you need help with a Vista install, post up and I'm sure someone will jump in and get you going.

Try to put up some screenshots and then I'll sticky this

Updated.

Updated... new drivers 9.25.2008.

When I installed the first set of drivers....178.08 for CUDA cards I was able to run both the CPU and GPU F@H programs then I upgraded to the newest drivers and everytime I tried to open both they would pop up and tell me that the F@H core is already running and close it back out. Not sure why this happened but I'm going to roll back my drivers again and see if that fixes the problem.

Nope that didnt solve the problem either. It throws this error about Process 3152 already running or something like that but then when I tried it again it opened it with no problems?

thought i should post this, as it is vital to getting SLI working, I've used it every time I've installed windows

http://www.hardforum.com/showpost.php?p ... ostcount=5

Yeah Skier... I use that as well. Hope to be using it this weekend if time allows to get my SLI machine running again.

if you use 7, i'd give this thread a look over, the guide posted above isn't good for showing how to extend displays in 7 which took me a while to figure out, that post also summarizes what was written at [H] as well(and i think i wrote it out simpler, could be wrong)

bah humbug it's about time they got this programe working right with crossfire/sli enabled so much friggin round just to get it running on two video cards its a load of bollocks

Athlonite wrote:bah humbug it's about time they got this programe working right with crossfire/sli enabled so much friggin round just to get it running on two video cards its a load of bollocks

I sense a bit of Scrooge in you...disabling SLI/Crossfire and enabling the 2nd(or clone) monitor isn't too much work

InspectahACE wrote:

Athlonite wrote:bah humbug it's about time they got this programe working right with crossfire/sli enabled so much friggin round just to get it running on two video cards its a load of bollocks

I sense a bit of Scrooge in you...disabling SLI/Crossfire and enabling the 2nd(or clone) monitor isn't too much work

i leave it out of SLI and just go extend/show only 1 when i change between Folding or gaming

The explanation leads me to believe that this only works on nVidia cards?
Also, does anyone know if this works on Laptop nVidia chipsets? 9800M GTS For example?

shamrok3 wrote:The explanation leads me to believe that this only works on nVidia cards?
Also, does anyone know if this works on Laptop nVidia chipsets? 9800M GTS For example?

it would work, but it would burn out the GPU pretty fast as there is very poor cooling in laptops -Not Recommended

Meh, 17" gives plenty of airflow, and it doesn't run nearly as hot as my desktop. (MUCH slower CPU) And I put my hands on it to type, so I think it's ok.