ATi Specific v1.24 Config

[GeordieNo1]

As of yesterday there was a new core available. Been mucking on a bit and I reckon I have a slight drop in ppd, but more importantly a massive drop in CPU usage ... we`re talking down from 50% to about 6%. This opens up room for at least another VM/Single CPU client depending on your CPU. You need to be running Cat 9.3s. Finish current WU before you start or you`ll lose progress on that WU.

What you need to do:

Go into FAH config. folder where the FahCore_11 is situated and delete it.

Scan Windows folder (64 bit OS it`s in SysWOW64 folder) and locate two dll files - aticalcl.dll and aticalrt.dll.

Copy them and rename them to amdcalc.dll and amdcalrt.dll then recopy and paste them into this same folder and also the folder where you installed Folding At Home into (usually Program Files) ... only one location is needed but I don`t know which one yet!

Next, you have to enter some environmental variables. You can find these located under System icon in Control Panel. Enter the top 3 values as in this screeny:

http://gn1.www.idnet.com/fahc.jpg

Regarding the flush interval setting. This was determined to be an optimum setting by FAH forum user ColonelCain whom I thank. The setting is for a 4870 and on reading the forum, any unstable machine errors are generally fixed by lowering this setting. You can use a setting in between 1 and 1024.

Reboot and you`re done!

It`s early days for this beta core hence the manual input but I hear that the next GPU client and finalised core will have optimum settings and GPU detection in-built ... still doesn`t give any ppd gains which is most unfortunate and I personally wish ATi would concentrate on optimising the core to bring us closer to Nvidia users.

Any newbies out there wondering what card to buy to fold with, ffs don`t buy an ATi card :D

Edit 29/3/09: Changed Flush_Interval to 192, hit EUE.
Edit 29/3/09: Added variable Cal_Pre_Flush 1
Edit 30/3/09: Removed Cal_No_Flush variable
Edit 31/3/09: Replaced v1.24 with 1.22, new core too unstable and losing too many WUs to instability.
Edit 1/4/09: Re-added Cal_Pre_Flush 1 variable and removed Cal_No_Flush variable with v1.22. Stable for 27 hours thus far, winner ;)

[Saftlad]

Nice work mate, should be a great help to the Red Team

[GeordieNo1]

It is of absolute no use to the Green Team :D :D

Hey, if nothing else, it allows an extra SMP client so in short, keep v1.22 core and add:

BROOK_YIELD 2
CAL_NO_FLUSH 1
FLUSH_INTERVAL 192

You should see a substantial drop in CPU load though I hasten to add, this is based on my rig, other rigs may vary with the FLUSH_INTERVAL setting and the idea is to start off low and build it up.

[Saftlad]

Corrected mate, for dumb stupidity. (Note to self: must have coffee before posting in morning!)

[Jonny2Bad]

Im right out of the loop after 4 fresh installs trying to get the 4890 stable and failing miserably, then sending it back twice and settling for a 4870 1gb instead and crossfired up with the 512mb, but now the folding is very unstable and in fact i would say aint even working at all lol Will get on it as soon as I get chance before i get put down too 10th or worse lol

[wuyanxu]

may i ask how did you find out such information? those tweaks seems to be way deeper than any normal enthusiastics. are you a operating system programmer or a distributed computing expert?

[GeordieNo1]

Jonny, you have to disable CF to get both cards folding properly buddy. Couple of good faqs here (http://folding.stanford.edu/English/FAQ-ATI2) and here (http://folding.stanford.edu/English/WinGPUGuide) and unlimited help of course from here (http://forum.novatech.co.uk/member.php?u=8911) :)

[Jonny2Bad]

Lol cheers G1!

[waba]

Geordie, when you write that you set the flush interval to 192, what do you mean by EUE? iv downlaoded the latest GPU2 client, im guessing the core is V1.24, do i need to change it to 1.22? and how do you do this? Got a ATi 4770, AMD Athlon X2 6000+, 2gb ram, any recommendations for optimum settings?

[GeordieNo1]

EUE - Early Unit End.

If you go to folding folder, back up Fah_Core11 (in case you want to go back to it, though I have a copy of all cores) and simply delete it from folder. Client will auto download the latest version waba lad.

Before you do anything though, run current client and start task manager. Note how much CPU use is occuring. Make the changes I suggest, d/l new core and run. See what CPU resources are then being used, should be waaay lower (<10%).

You`ll note though, I actually reverted back to core v1.22 and kept the settings I logged. Got more ppd with the lower CPU use, weird eh? :D

[waba]

cheers geordie, wierd how this program works!!

[GeordieNo1]

It`s in constant Beta too so there ain`t much documentation neither :\