http://forum.folding-community.org/fpost147375.html#147375

Posted: Yesterday at 00:18

We have been examining the GPU Core and how it runs on donor machines. After some initial core problems, it appears that the code is working well for the most part (with just some cosmetic issues, which we are working on). Donors have had success with both the 6.5 and 6.10 ATI drivers and so we suggest that if one is giving problems, to switch to the other.

The primary issue now appears to be the CPU use of the GPU core. Due to how graphics drivers work in Windows, the CPU must poll to see if the GPU has completed. This polling is very CPU intensive (as the GPU does complete its work fairly quickly). We are working on a fix to this, but it is also likely that future GPU cores may use CPU power for scientific calculations which cannot be run on the GPU.

Thus, we are asking donors who run the GPU core to leave some CPU power (~1 core) available for GPU's to use. We need to compensate donors for this additional use of resources, so the points have been increased. The very idea of a GPU core and GPU software is new, so we are still working out what's the best way to handle these issues, but in general, we will of course award points based on the hardware used -- more hardware used, more points. As we develop the GPU core, the points may need to be changed (possibly up, especially if more CPU is used, possibly down if essentially no CPU is needed).

We'd also like to thank all the beta testers who have given us great feedback. It's still very early for our GPU core, but the future is already looking very bright.

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Professor Vijay S. Pande, PhD
Director, Folding@Home Distributed Computing Project, and
Associate Professor of Chemistry and of Structural Biology, Stanford University