PS3 Folding, anyone?

[zelmo]

I still have to look into power consumption a bit more, but I'm thinking about adding my new PS3 to my Folding farm.
Has anyone done this yet, and/or have you seen any RW performance measurements?

[ReanimationLP]

It's good to see someone using all the power of the machine. Sounds like a good idea to me.

I'm so tired of seeing them at my store though. We keep getting them returned, apparently people buy em, go home, see they arent going for insane amounts and return them. >.>'

You know its bad when you've sold the same PS3 7 times over. :-p

Its a really nice machine too. :( Poor mr. PS3.

I love your icon too. :D Much less creepier than that Marilyn Manson. Though my brother-in-law loves Marilyn Manson.

[zelmo]

I love your icon too. :D Much less creepier than that Marilyn Manson. Though my brother-in-law loves Marilyn Manson.

hehe, the creepster Manson is back.

Son was sick all weekend, so my PS3 sits in the box waiting for me to set it up. I hope to have it Folding by the weekend.

[cantthinkofone]

I didn't think the folding was out for the ps3 yet? Thats what i heard from a friend of mine who owns a ps3 and can recite the manual work for word :rolleyes:

[darkwing]

I didn't think the folding was out for the ps3 yet? Thats what i heard from a friend of mine who owns a ps3 and can recite the manual work for word :rolleyes:

Actually Sony themselves worked with the folding team to bring it to the PS3.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/fun.games/09/18/playstation.folding/index.html

[thestaton]

I bought a PS3 had it for 24 hours and took it back.

did not like the controller, was actually the reason I took it back.
and the fact the graphics looked no better than my 360 and it was not any faster at loading, AND I hated the UI with a passion :)

[MacRumorUser]

what's folding ? :confused:

[wootman]

what's folding ? :confused:

when a task that would take a supercomputer allot of time to compute is divided into smaller chunks and sent to PC's to process with their spare power.

Also, ps3 folding sounds like a good idea. would be keen to compare its speed to a gaming PC. I remember hearing sony saying they were going to be making it avalable for download or something.

[compuwar]

what's folding ? :confused:

Folding proteins. See http://folding.stanford.edu

It's a project to advance bioscience to help find cures for things like Alzheimer's and Cancer.

[dllavaneras]

Wow, 100.000 PS3s would be 50 times what they have today? Is the PS3 really that powerful? I see a bunch of PS3 farms right now :rolleyes:

[gkarris]

I'd be willing to put one on my XBox 360...

[zelmo]

We'll be able to put the PS3 power to work very soon:

http://www.engadget.com/2007/03/15/ps3-folding-home-launches-this-month/

[MacRumorUser]

Will this eat up your internet connection ?

If so - for as wonderful an idea it is in 'theory'... In practice I dont see it being adopted widly other than on an intital 'curiosity' basis.

[zelmo]

Will this eat up your internet connection ?

If so - for as wonderful an idea it is in 'theory'... In practice I dont see it being adopted widly other than on an intital 'curiosity' basis.

Folding only connects to the internet to upload completed work units and dl new ones. Very small amounts of data at a time.

[zelmo]

Dang it. Finally have the Folding client for PS3 and now the Stanford network is down.:mad: :rolleyes:

[zelmo]

Back up now. holy mother of god...this thing is freaking fast.
Working on a 3136 now [287 pts] and should be done in <9 hours total time. Similar WUs usually take a good 36-48 hours on a decent XP box.:eek:

[SilentPanda]

My PS3 will be folding full time once I get home. I might get my Mac Pro cooking tonight too. They can have a fold off!

[zelmo]

9 hours on the PS3 for a 287pt WU, in contrast to my iMac G4/800 that is currently working on a 186pt WU and should finish it in roughly 145 hours.:eek: A PS3 could produce <750 ppd.

[zelmo]

Now this is impressive...

EDIT: updated numbers from today show a 300&#37; increase in PS3 Folding CPUs.
CPUs: 12,394 PS3 vs 158,987 WIN
TFLOPS: 304 PS3 vs 151 WIN


dammmmmmmnnnnnnn.

[pseudobrit]

This is snowballing quickly. I wonder where the ceiling is.

70817

[Dreadnought]

How could those PS3 have such high numbers. They only have 3.2 Ghz Cell processor in them. 3.2 is pretty fast, but it is a Cell proc. Did someone forget to divide it through a 1000?!?

[pseudobrit]

How could those PS3 have such high numbers. They only have 3.2 Ghz Cell processor in them. 3.2 is pretty fast, but it is a Cell proc. Did someone forget to divide it through a 1000?!?

Maybe because it's got 7 cores crunching the numbers. The PS3 is very well suited for applications like folding.

[Dreadnought]

That would explain a lot! Didn't know that. But with folding (at least in the past) every core needed a different WU. A core can't share or help with the WU of a different core because the outcome of one step determines the raw data for the next step. So a PS3 is doing 7 WU's at once?!?!

[SilentPanda]

My PS3 was folding from Thursday through Saturday morning... well... at some point it froze, my PS3 bricked and now I have a new PS3.

I'm kinda scared to start it going again although I hear many people have left theirs on longer. I really want to fold (and the PS3 can fold well!) but I don't want to have to get a new PS3 every few days to do it...

[pseudobrit]

That would explain a lot! Didn't know that. But with folding (at least in the past) every core needed a different WU. A core can't share or help with the WU of a different core because the outcome of one step determines the raw data for the next step. So a PS3 is doing 7 WU's at once?!?!

The newer SMP clients will spread the workload to all available cores. The Intel Mac clients do the same thing.

[atszyman]

Dang, the PS3 is a good folding powerhouse... makes it tempting to buy one purely for folding. My production has tanked the last few months and I'm not sure what happened. Used to be going pretty good then all of a sudden it seemed like my numbers dropped by about a third sometime over the summer. I've got all 7 of my processors going currently, I wonder if one got hung up somewhere for awhile... I seem to be coming back slowly.

Of course I don't think my wife would look to kindly on a $600 gaming console that I never play (or only play my PS1/PS2 games on).

[Nicolasdec]

I Have it on my ps3, I dont use it thou. i dont think it work so i dont leave my ps3 folding.

[risc]

Just fired folding@home up on my PS3. It may as well do something while I'm at work. Is there a MacRumors folding group to join?

[Dreadnought]

Ofcourse we have our own folding group. Our teamnumber is 3446. Welcome and happy folding! At this rate our folding figures will go up and our team is back!!:cool:

[Nicolasdec]

Dose any one leave it on the hole night? I whould but i dont know if its good for the ps3.

[Nicolasdec]

Hope one for the xbox 360 comes out, it whould be soo good....

[Dreadnought]

Dose any one leave it on the hole night? I whould but i dont know if its good for the ps3. It's good for the electric companies! 280 - 380 Watts for 24/7, I would leave it on only if you make your own energy (windmill, solar, nuclear) and plenty of it.

[Nicolasdec]

It's good for the electric companies! 280 - 380 Watts for 24/7, I would leave it on only if you make your own energy (windmill, solar, nuclear) and plenty of it.

Cool, im just going to go out and buy a nuclear power plant :). I joined the macrumors folding team.

[daveL]

My PS3 was folding from Thursday through Saturday morning... well... at some point it froze, my PS3 bricked and now I have a new PS3.

I'm kinda scared to start it going again although I hear many people have left theirs on longer. I really want to fold (and the PS3 can fold well!) but I don't want to have to get a new PS3 every few days to do it...

Consider it a burn in test. If it can fold for a week, it will probably last years.

[zelmo]

Consider it a burn in test. If it can fold for a week, it will probably last years.

:p Mine has been Folding 24/7 since I dl'd the PS3 update and Folding client last Thursday. So far so good. Probably won't make too much of a visible [to the wife;)] impact on our electric bill this month since we turned off the heat and aren't running AC yet.

In the meantime, my production has gone from 850 [using 11 processors] to 1,600ppd.

[Cooknn]

It's good for the electric companies! 280 - 380 Watts for 24/7, I would leave it on only if you make your own energy (windmill, solar, nuclear) and plenty of it.There's a chart over at IGN breaking down cost per kilowatt hour by state.

The Cost of Folding: Find out how much it'll cost you to cure cancer (http://ps3.ign.com/articles/776/776347p1.html)

I guess I'm being selfish here - but I'm afraid it will kill my PS3. I had a bad experience with an Xbox 360 continually locking up. I've been knocking on wood with my PS3 :o

[SilentPanda]

Consider it a burn in test. If it can fold for a week, it will probably last years.

Well my PS3 is less than a month old and I don't use it for anything so I'll just keep trying them until the warranty is up... :P

[4JNA]

quick question for you ps3'ers. read the faq at stanford, but couldn't find an answer. can the F@H client be set to start automatically when the unit powers on (remote server room, no monitor/screen) or do you need to manually start the client from the menu?

anyone using any additional cooling (snap on fan thing) or just stock console?

like the idea of folding on this due to simplicity and speed. at current ebay rates, this is also cheaper than a couple of the systems i have running. sell the dual xeon, get more work units done, and save some energy. bonus!

[SilentPanda]

quick question for you ps3'ers. read the faq at stanford, but couldn't find an answer. can the F@H client be set to start automatically when the unit powers on (remote server room, no monitor/screen) or do you need to manually start the client from the menu?

anyone using any additional cooling (snap on fan thing) or just stock console?

like the idea of folding on this due to simplicity and speed. at current ebay rates, this is also cheaper than a couple of the systems i have running. sell the dual xeon, get more work units done, and save some energy. bonus!

You can't. I would also like an option for it to power down after it completes a work unit. I'd feel a lot better having it turn off after 6-8 hours instead of having to go home to turn it off myself.

[Big-TDI-Guy]

My PS3 has been running for 3 weeks straight now, and I've saved money because of it.

Shut off my heat (it's still VERY cold out), and my room stays around 68 (I usually keep "real heat" at 62) so I'm not buring any gas, and still toasty warm - and helping a good cause, too.

My roomie just set up a mammoth gaming PC, so he's warm too.

But yeah, cranking out WU after WU, and no PS3 problems.

[zelmo]

There is an update for the PS3 Folding client, available if you attempt to launch Folding. If the completion time estimates are as accurate as they have been thus far, a usual 287 pt. WU now takes <6 hours instead of about 8 hours.:)

[pseudobrit]

quick question for you ps3'ers. read the faq at stanford, but couldn't find an answer. can the F@H client be set to start automatically when the unit powers on (remote server room, no monitor/screen) or do you need to manually start the client from the menu?

There's an options menu under the f@h icon where you can set it to auto-start after a few different periods of delay, with the shortest one being 10 minutes. So if you powered it up and did nothing, it would start up in 10 minutes.

[kuebby]

Dose any one leave it on the hole night? I whould but i dont know if its good for the ps3.

According to one of the Sony execs (I can't remember which one) it's fine to leave it on all night as far as the PS3 itself goes. And if it does somehow break it's definitely under warranty.

[4JNA]

There's an options menu under the f@h icon where you can set it to auto-start...

exactly what i needed. thanks!

...it's fine to leave it on all night as far as the PS3 itself goes.

seems solid here. been folding 24x7 for about a week. the thing just ramps up the fans a spits out work units at a insane rate. amazing!

still think i'll make some usb powered fans just to be safe.

[theheyes]

Considering the beastly innards of the ps3 in such a confined enclosure I'm surprised its as quiet as it is. Makes a nice little heater on colder days too.

Its fun watching it shred through work units in a few hours but from a purely folding perspective, there are much better machines out there in terms of ppd and efficiency.

[SimonTheSoundMa]

How could those PS3 have such high numbers. They only have 3.2 Ghz Cell processor in them. 3.2 is pretty fast, but it is a Cell proc. Did someone forget to divide it through a 1000?!?One Cell processor is more powerful than Deep Blue supercomputer which is 10 years old. These are one powerful processor.

It's all good stuff. I just wonder if it would have been better if Acorn computers carried on developing it when they had control over ARM Ltd. Development got stuck in the water for many years when Acorn closed and IBM took over.

[DiamondMac]

Bump. Got a PS3 today and began FOLDING

[Teh Don Ditty]

I procured a PS3 a few days ago and have started folding Team MR. This thing is a beast!!!

O/T: OMG Casino Royale in HD = Amazing.

[Gav]

Wow. I need to buy a PS3. The PS3 has 2 Teraflops of power, which is pretty darned good :P

EDIT: Just realised, that no - it doesn't. :P

Double EDIT: Apparently it does, the Terra Soft site just confused me :P http://www.ps3focus.com/archives/36

[DoFoT9]

Wow. I need to buy a PS3. The PS3 has 2 Teraflops of power, which is pretty darned good :P

EDIT: Just realised, that no - it doesn't. :P

Double EDIT: Apparently it does, the Terra Soft site just confused me :P http://www.ps3focus.com/archives/36

i thout it was 2 teraflops of GPU power compared 2 the 1 teraflop of the xbox360??

[Gav]

i thout it was 2 teraflops of GPU power compared 2 the 1 teraflop of the xbox360??

I'm not entirely sure, according to that article, its overall computational power. It could be wrong, I'm not sure.

On further research, the PS3 has a floating point performance of 218 GFLOPS.

And the GPU has 1.8 TFLOPS floating point performance.

Still, its pretty powerful...

Darn. I wish I was studying Computer Science right now :P

[DoFoT9]

I'm not entirely sure, according to that article, its overall computational power. It could be wrong, I'm not sure.

On further research, the PS3 has a floating point performance of 218 GFLOPS.

And the GPU has 1.8 TFLOPS floating point performance.

Still, its pretty powerful...

Darn. I wish I was studying Computer Science right now :P

o yea thats right... the GPU of the 360 has like around 1TFLOP from memory, but the 360 owns the ps3 in graphics.... something to do with threads i think

by "study" computer science u mean play games :confused: :) lol im up for that :D