Number of clients able to be run on NC

Started by spmm

AsDawnBreaks Lv 1

"…instead of working on s*** like Leap and the remote control stuff"

Like in almost any game development team, I'm fairly certain they have different teams working on different things.

jflat06 Staff Lv 1

While it's entirely possible that Foldit is taking up more resources, keeping the computer cool is the job of the operating system and hardware - not of softare.

Computer processors are designed to stay stable under full load (100% CPU usage for sustained periods of time). If your computer is overheating under full load, it is due to inadequate cooling.

Programs do not know your CPU temperature, so they can't know how much CPU is going to cause your computer to overheat. Nor does it make sense for every program to try and throttle itself to prevent overheating. That is why computers are built with cooling capable of supporting the given processor under full load.

You can test overheating issues independent from Foldit with programs like superpi (http://www.superpi.net/). You can run superpi for extended periods of time to verify your system's overheating and stability issues.

Some reasons for overheating/stability issues might be dust that has built upside the computer that block the airflow. Clearing out this dust can drastically improve your computer's cooling. Some poorly designed computers just have inadequate cooling from the start (more common in laptops).

gitwut Lv 1

jflat06,

I believe most everyone knows that the OS/hardware are responsible for keeping the computer cooled properly. I would hazard a guess that most computers being marketed today weren't designed with the idea of running multiple Foldit clients efficiently. However, it is our experience that since NC, we are having overheating problems ONLY when Foldit is running AND it is happening more frequently with fewer clients running.

My desktop computer at home is complaining about overheating with only two clients running. One is 857 (handfolding) and the other is 860 (Monomer design). I used to be able to run 4 or 5 clients before getting warnings. This is a quad core i7 with 9GB RAM and a video card with dedicated memory.

I rarely run more than 2 clients on any of the four computers I use now. I run 7 clients now, whereas I used to run about 14. I start evos later (less than 2 days remaining) than I used to (as soon as one was posted) and run alternate solos to the maximum 7 clients. When it's time to start an evo, I close the poorest performing solo to keep my max at 7.

auntdeen Lv 1

Foldit IS taking up more resources, period.

All of us didn't have our computers go dusty or obsolete the day that NC was introduced ;)

And what gitwut said.

jflat06 Staff Lv 1

I'm not arguing against that. Rosetta definitely uses more resources since we merged. I'm just pointing out that we cannot control overheating issues - that is a hardware problem, not a software problem.

auntdeen Lv 1

Then all of us but the dozen or so with the top of the line, newest computers need to accept that the number of clients we can play now is the best we can do?

Sigh.

There are less of us, the logged in vet has dropped from 100-125 before NC to 65 - 85. Many of us have had to cut down by half the number of clients we can run. As a very loose estimate, let's assume that players were running an average of 4 clients before NC, so minimal 400 clients were running. Let's assume that most have had to drop down to half the number they used to run - so now there's 80 x 2 (average) = 160 clients running. Depending on the real averages, that's one third to one half the clients that used to run before NC.

IMHO, this is the single worst "bug" affecting us now. Less clients means less options, both for testing and learning now - less clients means that many solutions will be left on the table during CASP.

Unfortunately then, it seems that the devs have vastly overestimated the players resources in terms of computing power, or the finances we have to sink into foldit.

:(

frood66 Lv 1

I've just read the above. Jflat…those are about the most ignorant, self serving statements I have heard put forward by the devs to date. such a shame.

Deleted user

I expect this will become a desktop-only application. Most laptops can't run flat out all the time, and even the top of the line workstation-class ones have trouble with cooling.

MurloW Lv 1

I should have taken a breather before posting that, might have found a better choice of words.
Please excuse my language in the above post, it was uncalled for; even though I feel like scalding the devs in every single thing I post…

Aside from that, ofcourse they have different teams for different aspects of the software; that is beside the point. The point is that there are resources being spent on aspects of Foldit that are completely irrelevant for a massive majority of players. If they can afford to spend those resources anywhere, they can afford to (and should) spend them on playability.