Several people in veteran chat have just been kind enough to specify the number of clients they used to be able to run and the change they have experienced with NC. Note these numbers are for 'normal' puzzles.
In most cases the change is a big reduction, from 7 to 3, 4 to 1 and so on. This makes it very difficult for players on lower spec machines to experiment and play.
Even folders on better spec devices have experienced overheating and higher resource consumption so are reducing the number of clients they can run.
Some of the players have stated that they feel they won't be able to complete well in CASP X, CASP 9 required a number of templates to be examined and played, combined with a fast turnaround of puzzles.
There is concern from a number of players that they are damaging their machines and are unable to experiment and contribute as much as they would like, this is frustrating.
Design puzzles especially the highly constrained ones are almost unplayable on lower spec devices and reduce the number of usable clients on other devices.
Just passing the message on as it is concern for everyone.
We all know that a better device doesn't make you a better folder, but it is becoming much more difficult for standard devices to play foldit and even high spec consumer devices are feeling the heat.
The latest devprev update has made this worse.
I've been dreading every new update for a long while.
When I first started folding, I could easily run 5~7 clients and still run some light programs (like web browsing); now, I can barely run 3 clients if I still want to use my machine for anything other than folding.
And I don't use devprev releases. So.. I'll only be able to run 1 client and a browser in a few months? I wouldn't be surprised.
I must say though, Foldit has been acting weird (hogging and absorbing more memory than it ought to) since before Newchapter. Sometime around the summer months is when my number of clients went on the decline; and NC didn't change much in this respect, wiggle has slowed down tremendously though.
There have been feedbacks before, specifically about number of clients and memory hogging. (the search function is kinda useless, I couldn't find them)
Reminds me of a peculiar fact that has been reported before, by me as well; every newly opened client requires more memory than the previous one, even when sitting idle on the exact same puzzle as other clients.
This was worse before NC; sometimes up to 100MB more, exact same puzzle, view options, undo graph, etc.
At the moment, it seems like every next client wants 20~40MB more than the one before.
I had 2 clients running overnight, and when I checked this morning my CPU fan was under 1k rpm. I opened a third client on the 853 puzzle (not a mutate which always seems to crank the fan), and now have the CPU fan over 2300 rpm.
I used to run 4 clients easily with the fan only cranking up if one was a mutate puzzle (occasionally 5) - now I can only obviously run 2 without stressing my not quite 2 years old, then top of the line mac desktop :(
I had wanted to experiment with the Auto wiggle in the DP update, but there is no way for me to do so if I can only run 2 clients without stressing my computer.
And just a note - the mutate puzzles with the filters and whatall are the worst offenders since all the conditions have been introduced - even before NC, but worse now.
For information: running all 6 clients using latest devprev.
More memory is used than before, about same CPU usage and temperature 65C or lower (as usual).
and now with 7 clients running: 1x853, 2x854, 1x855 and 3x856.
I'm thinking you are running a desktop. Auntdeen and I are running laptops. Mine is a workstation class and I have a lot of overheating issues.
Well we probably need something like these new Intel E7-8880L chips for:
'Customers who want fifteen cores running at a low clock speed and emitting less heat and a midrange price can get the E7-8880L chip.'
Which are x86 based, introduced 18 Feb 2014 - $5729 each; especially as they can address 1536 GB of physical (RAM) memory (not included in the price, nor is anything to put them in :D)
http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Xeon/Intel-Xeon%20E7-8880L%20v2.html
I set up this pc in Jan. 1013. It ran 4 clients bone silent. I could run 3 regardless of type ( mutate dimer, etc.) bone quiet. I think it was around Sept. 2013 that my fans started kicking and aften reaching full speed even with just 2 clients running. Didn't notice a slowdown, but I was clearly using way more juice. NC gives me the same fan speeds, but now I get slightly slower speeds even with 2 clients.A 3rd client and it slows considerably.
.
Something changed between June and Oct. 2013 that was never addressed or probably even acknowledged by devs that made the clients heavier to run. Newchapter probably inflated this issue into slower speeds as well, resulting in more people noticing.
How many more complaints about needing high end specs to fold do you guys need before you will try to do something about it; instead of working on s*** like Leap and the remote control stuff?
I understand that Newchapter was essential and a priority to keep up with CASP and Rosetta; but it won't help much if most players won't even be able to play the casp puzzles comfortably. We won't fare so well if veterans can only run half the clients they are used to; regardless of how accurate wiggle may be.
