Folding Forum

Running F@H makes the Steam client take 10-15 minutes to start. Doesn't do this to any other application, including Steam games once Steam is launched.

If your Steam games run fine once you get the client loaded and you can take the performance hit on the games and/or the folding, I'd suggest just pause folding before you load the client. This should allow it to load at regular speed and then you can start folding again after the Steam client is loaded.

Keep in mind that pausing and resuming folding will make you lose a few points, as it has to start at the most recent checkpoint before you paused. Depending on the speed of your gear and a few other factors, it might have to essentially redo several frames of work from that last checkpoint, and that of course slows down the overall speed of the work unit return.

Do your steam games run fine once the client is loaded and you start a game?

You might also try running folding with fewer than maximum cpus (threads).
I'm guessing the Steam client runs at minimum priority to not interfere with games.