TINKER??

[lucid]

Hi everyone!

I just realized that all of a sudden my folding client is using TINKER (instead of GROMACS?). The progress reports look like:

[17:10:45] Finished a frame (85)

rather than

[17:10:45] Completed 10000 out of 100000 steps (10) (or however it is GROMACS looks)

What's up here? It seems slower too.

-Joel

[Selecter]

yeah. I have been cruising the folding forums of several teams and it seems a huge number of TINKERS got released all at once. Lots of folks bitching about it all over the web.

I got 2 when I put my G5 back online a few minutes ago. Mine are good for 70.90 points each though. The lower point ones suck. I'll take the 70 pointers.

[mc68k]

if u dont want tinkers delete the work folder and queue (for each processor if applicable). do this after stopping whatever folding client(s) you are running.

eventually it should give you gromacs...i'm not sure how this is determined on stanford's end

ive been noticing a lot of tinkers DLing when i was testing my scripts

[lucid]

Alright. So it's just a type of folding that requires a different application to do? I just wanted to make sure it wasn't another version that's just slower, but does the same thing.

-Joel

[bousozoku]

There are actually three cores, but the SPG core never made it to Macintosh.

Tinker WUs require excellent floating point support and most current Macintoshes, except the G5, don't have that. Tinker WUs lag on the x86 machines as well.

[Selecter]

from lurking around the [H]ard OCP forum:

...Well, I got four P4 2.8's folding this week, replacing 3 333's and adding one boxen to the fray.
Net gain, 10.2 G. And, wouldn't you know it, in spite of -advmethods they seem fond of Tinkers!
It would be nice to be able to select servers...

so it seems like they are simply handing out Tinkers right and left. He cant get a Gromac either. I dont feel bad now. :D

EDIT: heres the reason. Trouble with the assignment servers that handle Gromacs.

heres da thread (http://forum.folding-community.org/viewtopic.php?t=6891&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0)

[bousozoku]

I seemed to get more Tinkers on machines where the floating point was better. The performance determination is still crude, though, and they know it.

[Dreadnought]

Hi all,

Just gotten my G5 this weekend and its fast!!!! But also gotten the Tinkers... Even on my G3 B&W... But they are all 70.90 points worth, so gonna keep them. But the progress is pretty slow. On my dual 1.8 it takes about 8 minutes per proc for a frame (and these Tinkers have 400 frames...)

[bousozoku]

Congratulations!

It's important to finish the Tinker WUs. Those of you with G5s should process more of them since you have the finest floating point capabilities. G4s aren't very useful with them--even the newer G3s from IBM are more powerful than the equivalent G4.

[Selecter]

1.6 days left.....arrrrrggghhhh......grind grind fold....grind.....6 hours later......1.4 days left.....arrrrrrrggghhhhhhh...grind fold fold grind......

[Dreadnought]

Are the tinker units instable or something? Yesterday I had on each proc about 60 frames completed. When I looked later it was back on 0 with both WU. Today each WU was over 160 frames (of 400) and the WU of the first processor is back at 0 after restarting.... Does anyone else have this?

[bousozoku]

Originally posted by Dreadnought
Are the tinker units instable or something? Yesterday I had on each proc about 60 frames completed. When I looked later it was back on 0 with both WU. Today each WU was over 160 frames (of 400) and the WU of the first processor is back at 0 after restarting.... Does anyone else have this?

No, they aren't unstable. That usually happens when you don't use the client to stop the core. I can tell you that, in almost two years, I've never had it happen.

[Dreadnought]

Well, it's probably because I had to restart my g5 with the powerbutton on the front, a game froze and couldn't shut it down. Too bad that it didn't saved it and went back to 0 frames completed.

[bousozoku]

When I've noticed certain games being unstable repeatedly--memory leaks, etc. in the logs, I stop folding before running the game and then, turn it on afterwards.

It's unfortunate that it's still too easy to crash Mac OS X. Hopefully, you won't lose any more data. :)

[lucid]

This is ridiculous! I'm going on three days and am only on the 169th frame of this Tinker! How big ARE these things??

-Joel

[bousozoku]

Most of them aren't as complex as the Gromacs WUs, but they are still complex.

Keep in mind that many of us have processed similar WUs. My G3/800 processes one in about 8 days, my dual G4/800 processes one in about 13 days per processor. When the G3/800 was a G3/400, 3 weeks was not out of the question.

[Selecter]

Damn, I guess 9 minutes af rame must be smokin then. :D Never had a Tinker before so I didnt know what to expect.

[bousozoku]

That's why we need people with G5s to not turn the Tinker WUs away. My G3/800 gets plenty of Tinkers and I would rather it process them than the G4.

It's likely that Tinkers will eventually be eliminated once those parts of the project have been finished. They aren't processed efficiently on any machine.

[jbeetz]

Originally posted by bousozoku
That's why we need people with G5s to not turn the Tinker WUs away.

They're not too bad, the 2GHz G5 is running a 694 tinker now, should take 40 hours for 71 points... but I'd hate to see the B&W get one!:mad:

[mc68k]

theyre just points...i wouldnt worry too much about it ;)

[Selecter]

Damn. All Tinkers that = 70 points must not be equal. The p638 my G5 has been suckling off of is 77% complete, and it's STILL got 12 hours to go!!!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA :eek:

[Selecter]

The tinker from Hell is GONE. Got two regular old Gromacs. :D

that 140 points will be nice come the end of the week though...but it took SO long....

[bousozoku]

Ha!

I'll switch my G3/800 back to a G3/400 and then, trade you for the G5. Then, you'll see what's really long. :D

Yes, just because they have the same point value doesn't mean that they have the same consistency or complexity. If everything was the same, we might as well be plants. ;)

[MrMacMan]

frikken tinker taking FOREVER.

EEECCCHHH.


Sooo sllooww..

too late to kill, damn.

[MrMacMan]

In 3 days... I've got through 29%.


THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE.

Its running at 90+% CPU... but taking foorreevverr.

I might have to kill it even tho I have gone so far...

So damn stupid unit, 9 days to complete?

Hell no, I'm killing.

Die stupid tinker!

ecch.

[Plutronics]

My tinker took almost 20 days ! The little #@%^$@& !! But all WU is for the Cause , as tempted as I was to STRANGLE THE LITTLE ... Calm yourself Pluts......
:D :D :D

[MrMacMan]

Originally posted by Plutronics
My tinker took almost 20 days ! The little #@%^$@& !! But all WU is for the Cause , as tempted as I was to STRANGLE THE LITTLE ... Calm yourself Pluts......
:D :D :D

Wow... I would have killed myself by then... geez.

This week in folding for me is a lost cause.

[Dreadnought]

only took me about 40 hours or so, and that was two tinkers! Just bragging here about my new dual G5 :D

[lucid]

NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

I just got another TINKER! :mad:

[bousozoku]

Originally posted by lucid
NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

I just got another TINKER! :mad:

Have some dignity and show that you're doing the right thing, not just the easy thing.

[shemp9999]

Have some dignity and show that you're doing the right thing, not just the easy thing.

heh. heh.

it is like watching paint dry sometimes. go for a weekend jaunt and when you get back, that 'ole tinker will be gone!

[lucid]

Originally posted by bousozoku
Have some dignity and show that you're doing the right thing, not just the easy thing.

Hey, I didn't say I was cancelling the job. Just depressed that it's going to take nearly 3 days to finish. :(

-Joel

[bousozoku]

Originally posted by lucid
Hey, I didn't say I was cancelling the job. Just depressed that it's going to take nearly 3 days to finish. :(

-Joel

Hey, if you think that's bad, I could go ask them to pull up some of the older ones that took extra long. :D 3 days, I laugh in your general direction! :D

(I hope it gets done soon too.)

[Vlade]

Originally posted by lucid
Hey, I didn't say I was cancelling the job. Just depressed that it's going to take nearly 3 days to finish. :(

-Joel

Yeah well I have a tinker on my G4 733MHZ now, and it will take me at least another week or 2 to finish (damn parents make me keep half of my folding points off 2/3rds of the day, otherwise I would be in the yellow)!

[MrMacMan]

Vlade -- Yeah thats what I was talking about earlier...

Take so long...

Ech, why do they keep making them tinker units?

So blindingly slow.

:(