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The Death of the General Purpose CPU


road-runner

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Well, like some of the commenters said, the GPU and PS3 folding clients can only process certain WUs, so we NEED the general purpose CPU folders to do the rest of the science! Thats what its all about!

 

In other news, do you guys think I could calculate the amount of electricity I am donating to the F@H project and use it as a tax write off???

Been tried, and discussed.

 

My rig right now is consuming about 200 watts right now running the smp client.

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According to the replies on Stanford's web page, They will never move away from CPU folding and here's why.

 

Basicly the CPU is way more flexible of a platform. So sure there is a limited number of problems that a GPU or PS3 can handle much better then a CPU, but there are just things they CAN NOT do, and those will continue to be run on the CPU.

 

In all instances there is a trade off between speed and flexibility, so the ranks are like this

Most flexible

CPU > PS3 >GPU

Most FLOPS

GPU > PS3 >CPU

 

so saying one is faster then the other is like saying a machine gun is faster then a ballistic missile, sure you get more shots out but try leveling that town with a hand gun...

 

In all regards the PS3 and GPU additions to folding, are jsut liek more weapons in the arsenal, so more folding can be done because WU's can be sent to the type of chip that processes it the fastest and therefor both chips get more work done this way.

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Been tried, and discussed.

 

My rig right now is consuming about 200 watts right now running the smp client.

did you actually measure that? that seems awfully low

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did you actually measure that? that seems awfully low

yup,

 

Pic.

 

This is without folding:

Picture_004.jpg

 

This is with folding:

Picture_005.jpg

 

I bought this little toy for this exact reason.

Too bad I can't use my 8800 GTS - I'd add that to my small farm!

No kidding. I'd like to do the same with my 7900 series.

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Wow - that's amazing info. And here I was all jacked that I have 3 SMP folding machines ... and all the while a PS3 could match that output with one rig.

 

Is the GPU only available on certain cards?

 

The argument that is made is about as appropriate as the "Station Wagon is Dead" when the SUV surge occurred 10 years ago. Last I checked most SUV's are starting to look more like Station Wagons.

 

Cheers!

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This is with folding:

post-3337-1175145630_thumb.jpg

what voltage and speed are you running your rig? mine uses 236W (AC) just idling lol, and 378W (AC) full load cpu... 536W (AC) when i'm using SLi

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what voltage and speed are you running your rig? mine uses 236W (AC) just idling lol, and 378W (AC) full load cpu... 536W (AC) when i'm using SLi

 

with my 8800GTS and CPU at full load, I don't even break 400 watts, and thats with a 3.5ghz Core 2 e6600 and 8800GTS.

 

Idle=276watts

Max load (tested with 3dmark06 average)=~360watts

 

Inj, that wouldn't happen to be a core 2 would it?

Edited by The Unforgivin

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yup,

 

Pic.

 

This is without folding:

post-3337-1175145599_thumb.jpg

 

This is with folding:

post-3337-1175145630_thumb.jpg

 

I bought this little toy for this exact reason.

 

No kidding. I'd like to do the same with my 7900 series.

 

Hey where do I have to go to get one of those toys?

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