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testing the same work unit on different configurations to see how fast it will run

Posted: Wed Sep 06, 2023 12:18 pm
by whocrazy
Hi there.
I'm due to get a computer with 16 cores in the next few weeks, and I have always been curious as to if there is a way to run the same work unit on different machines, simply to see how fast it will go.
For example I am running project 16977, run 5, clone 1022, gen 508, and I think it will take a little under a day for the work unit to finish, on my 13 year old AMD phenom processor
If we were able to try this work unit on a machine with 16 CPU cores, like this.
CPU
Intel - BX8071513700F
Intel Core i7 13700F (Base: 2.1GHz, Turbo: 5.2GHz / 30MB / LGA1700 / 16 Core / 24 Thread / 65 W / Raptor Lake)
Can you tell me how long this would take?
Thanks.

Re: testing the same work unit on different configurations to see how fast it will run

Posted: Fri Nov 24, 2023 9:24 pm
by JimboPalmer
Folding@Home itself never runs the same Work Unit to completion more than once.

FAHBench is the official benchmark for F@H.

https://fahbench.github.io/

Re: testing the same work unit on different configurations to see how fast it will run

Posted: Fri Nov 24, 2023 11:34 pm
by muziqaz
Yes, there is a way to do it, but there are more fun ways to compare performance of different PCs ;)
If you want a boring way:
Start folding on one CPU. Pause after work unit has been downloaded. Navigate to fahdata folder, work subdirectory. It should contain at least one folder named 01. Inside of it you might have a logfile_01.txt. Double click to make sure that this folder contains CPU work unit. Once confirmed, copy wudata_01.dat to more convenient folder, like Desktop\fahtest. This wudata_01.dat is your work unit you downloaded with fahclient. This can be tested on multiple computers many times. Please do not use this method to duplicate work, etc, it will not work, server and fahclient does not allow that (but for testing purposes we are not gonna use fahclient, or send results back)
Inside of fahtest, create empty folder named 00 alongside your wudata_01.dat
Go to cores\cores.foldingathome.org\win\64bit-avx2-256\a8-0.0.12\Core_a8.fah within your fahdata folder, and copy 3 files from there into fahtest. One of those 3 files is fahcore, which runs things. It might not support your phenom processor, but if lucky, it might fall back to SSE support and still run on phenom. If not, then, hey I wasted all this time typing these instructions :D
Launch cmd from within fahtest folder, or navigate to it through normal means, if you launch cmd window through start.
Once your cmd window is pointing to fahtest folder, type in:
FahCore_a8.exe -dir 00 -suffix 01 -version 706 -checkpoint 15 -np 16 --log-date=true --log-time=true <----for intel system
FahCore_a8.exe -dir 00 -suffix 01 -version 706 -checkpoint 15 -np 2 --log-date=true --log-time=true <---for phenom
Both times wait for few frames to be finished (you can monitor them by opening and closing logfile_01.txt, as cmd window does not show progress(I cannot remember if that is actually true)).
Once you have time per frame for both systems, compare them

This above is provided as is, and no further sssitance will be given :D :D best of luck. If you are still reading this, I'm sure you think you should have tried Jimbo's advice and ran fahbench :D :D