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techfreak85

macrumors 68040
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Jan 13, 2008
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When configuring the Folding@Home client, many people see the passkey field, read that it is optional, and then forget about it. But using a passkey in Folding@Home has some pretty great benefits! Aside from Stanford being able to verify that you are the only one folding under your name, using a passkey can get you *bonus points*!

That's right, using a passkey can help you get more points per work unit! The faster you process and return the unit, the more bonus points you will receive. This works especially well if you are configured to run -advmethods or -bigadv WUs on a fast computer, but these are not for everybody.

Using a passkey on a fast Mac Pro, i7 PC or Hackintosh has the potential of turning a special 8,955 point work unit into a 70,000 point work unit! (Note: This is an extreme example. Most computers can not run that large of a work unit. Your mileage will vary.)

So, if you fold for our team, would you please consider using a passkey? It would be great if you could help us increase our team's point output. (Even though the most important reason to fold is for medical research, higher points are always good :D)


To get a passkey, enter your Folding@Home username and your email address at this link:
http://fah-web.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/getpasskey.py
They will email your passkey to you, which you will then copy and paste into your client configuration as seen here.
8aFf

Or in the console version
8aFy

After you configure this, you will need to return 10 work units, and also keep up a return rate of at least 80% of work units to receive bonus points.

As always, make sure you have the latest client installed.

If you have any questions regarding passkeys, bonus points, or client configuration, just ask here in this sub-forum.

What is Folding@Home?: http://folding.stanford.edu/
Passkey FAQ: http://folding.stanford.edu/English/FAQ-passkey
Some more info on Bonus points: http://folding.stanford.edu/English/FAQ-Points#ntoc15
A Dashboard widget to help keep tack of your progress: http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/status/fhwudget.html
 

Dreadnought

macrumors 68020
Jul 22, 2002
2,058
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Almere, The Netherlands
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how do you get a 8000+ workunit?? I only get 921 points at the most, have a passkey and finish them on time, but don't get any extra points!
 

techfreak85

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Original poster
Jan 13, 2008
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Dreadnought said:
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how do you get a 8000+ workunit?? I only get 921 points at the most, have a passkey and finish them on time, but don't get any extra points!

It's the -bigadv flag. You need a computer with 8 or more physical or hyperthreaded cores.
Have you completed 10 units WITH the passkey?
 

Dreadnought

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Jul 22, 2002
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thanks, will put the extra flag in tonight. And yes, more then 10 WU completed with the passkey and I have the 2010 i7 iMac.

But do you only get extra points with the Bigadv units or with every WU finished on time??
 

Dreadnought

macrumors 68020
Jul 22, 2002
2,058
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Almere, The Netherlands
Copied the following extra flags from another thread into the F@H system preference pane: -smp 8 -bigadv - local -verbose 9
and also typed in my passkey again because it wasn't in the pref pane anymore (but was saying in our widget that I have a passkey), and I immediately gotten a p2684 worth 8955 points... Let's see if I can get it done on time.

Also are the extra flags correct since I copied it from another thread? Seems to me that between - and local their shouldn't be a space, but I'm just a noob. Can someone start a separate thread about all the (extra) flags that exist and what they mean. Couldn't find them on the FAQ of Stanford.
Could we do the same with the Terminal commands for folding? Start, Stop, Pause, Resume and what was the one to see the progress/ your last couple of steps? It was a long time ago that I used the Terminal Folding app. This was still in the days that someone from MacRumors made it, I believe it was Shemp (2003 or before... I'm getting old...).
 

twoodcc

macrumors P6
Feb 3, 2005
15,307
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Copied the following extra flags from another thread into the F@H system preference pane: -smp 8 -bigadv - local -verbose 9
and also typed in my passkey again because it wasn't in the pref pane anymore (but was saying in our widget that I have a passkey), and I immediately gotten a p2684 worth 8955 points... Let's see if I can get it done on time.

Also are the extra flags correct since I copied it from another thread? Seems to me that between - and local their shouldn't be a space, but I'm just a noob. Can someone start a separate thread about all the (extra) flags that exist and what they mean. Couldn't find them on the FAQ of Stanford.
Could we do the same with the Terminal commands for folding? Start, Stop, Pause, Resume and what was the one to see the progress/ your last couple of steps? It was a long time ago that I used the Terminal Folding app. This was still in the days that someone from MacRumors made it, I believe it was Shemp (2003 or before... I'm getting old...).

for -bigadv units:

Code:
fah -smp 8 -bigadv -verbosity 9 -local

you can change the 8 to however many cores you want to fold with.

if you don't want to do -bigadv, then just change it with -advmethods, and you'll still get a bonus, but the units are smaller.

btw, can you tell us how your iMac is doing with -bigadv units? like how long it takes to complete 1% (time per frame)?
 

techfreak85

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Jan 13, 2008
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Always copy and paste your passkey. You may have to do 10 more units. Smp 8 is for 8 core cpus. use smp 4 if it's the iMac. You may not complete it before the bonus deadline anyway. You may want to switch to advmethods for a while. You will get the 10 done faster.
 

twoodcc

macrumors P6
Feb 3, 2005
15,307
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Right side of wrong
Always copy and paste your passkey. You may have to do 10 more units. Smp 8 is for 8 core cpus. use smp 4 if it's the iMac. You may not complete it before the bonus deadline anyway. You may want to switch to advmethods for a while. You will get the 10 done faster.

the i7 iMac has 4 physical cores, plus hyperthreading, so 8 logical cores. now since it's only running at stock speed, you might have trouble making the deadline if you get a 2684. but other than that, you should be able to make the deadline. you can always try and see
 

Dreadnought

macrumors 68020
Jul 22, 2002
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Almere, The Netherlands
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I started yesterday at 10 pm and this morning at 8 am it had done 8%. So per hour 0.8%. Our widget says that it was going 1.3x the speed, so should be able to meet the deadline. But probably will go back to smaller units with the -advmethods flag. Thanks guys!
 

techfreak85

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Jan 13, 2008
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the i7 iMac has 4 physical cores, plus hyperthreading, so 8 logical cores. now since it's only running at stock speed, you might have trouble making the deadline if you get a 2684. but other than that, you should be able to make the deadline. you can always try and see

Real Macs have hyperthreading? I didn't think so. Or do the new I7s and Xeons? My older Intel Macs don't.
 
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twoodcc

macrumors P6
Feb 3, 2005
15,307
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I started yesterday at 10 pm and this morning at 8 am it had done 8%. So per hour 0.8%. Our widget says that it was going 1.3x the speed, so should be able to meet the deadline. But probably will go back to smaller units with the -advmethods flag. Thanks guys!

can you post the times and percentages? just a few.

Real Macs have hyperthreading? I didn't think so. Or do the new I7s and Xeons? My older Intel Macs don't.

Dreadnought, you will make the deadline, but not the bonus point deadline.

i didn't say "real macs". but yes, new macs have hyperthreading. it was never anything to do with a computer being a mac or not, but the processor that was in it. he should make the bonus deadline for 6900 units
 

SciFrog

macrumors 6502
Jul 31, 2008
308
0
Tks techfreak85

I thought everyone had a passkey to get the bonus, looks like this is not the case. And please post the exact time between frames (1%) for your iMac if you can. Tks

My 2007 8 cores 3Ghz does a 6900 frame in 41mins.
 

Dreadnought

macrumors 68020
Jul 22, 2002
2,058
15
Almere, The Netherlands
Have left the -bigadv ones behind me. Back on -advmethods. Finished one and thought I would get bonuspoints, but probably don't have a return rate yet of 80%. Was fooling around with my girlfriends computer with the passkey. So I got a couple of new WU and WU's where broken off. So there goes my trackrecord...

Does anyone know if your return rate is calculated for the computers that have your passkey or also on all of your systems? It make sense if this is only with computers that are folding with a passkey.

The Bigadv unit P2684 on my i7 2.93 iMac was doing an hour and 6 minutes per frame, so it would finish it in a little over 4.5 days folding 24/7. Unfortunately with an iMac you can't get the screen to go to sleep properly, the screen will wake up instantly. Still have to figure that out. Disabled everything, wifi, bluetooth, all usb devices, but still the screen wakes up after a couple of seconds. Also heat is lower when the backlight is all the way down or the screen is into sleep mode; the temperature is almost the same, but the fans aren't spinning as much.

BTW other Advmethods units:
P6702 is doing 11 minutes and 5 seconds per frame (over 4200 points bonus)
P6062 and P6069 is doing about 4 minutes 52 seconds per frame (over 2900 points bonus)
 
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twoodcc

macrumors P6
Feb 3, 2005
15,307
26
Right side of wrong
Have left the -bigadv ones behind me. Back on -advmethods. Finished one and thought I would get bonuspoints, but probably don't have a return rate yet of 80%. Was fooling around with my girlfriends computer with the passkey. So I got a couple of new WU and WU's where broken off. So there goes my trackrecord...

Does anyone know if your return rate is calculated for the computers that have your passkey or also on all of your systems? It make sense if this is only with computers that are folding with a passkey.

The Bigadv unit P2684 on my i7 2.93 iMac was doing an hour and 6 minutes per frame, so it would finish it in a little over 4.5 days folding 24/7. Unfortunately with an iMac you can't get the screen to go to sleep properly, the screen will wake up instantly. Still have to figure that out. Disabled everything, wifi, bluetooth, all usb devices, but still the screen wakes up after a couple of seconds. Also heat is lower when the backlight is all the way down or the screen is into sleep mode; the temperature is almost the same, but the fans aren't spinning as much.

BTW other Advmethods units:
P6702 is doing 11 minutes and 5 seconds per frame (over 4200 points bonus)
P6062 is doing 4 minutes 52 seconds per frame (over 2400 points bonus)

remember that P2684 are the hardest units to fold. but if you get some 6900 units, the time frames should be below 50 minutes.

what temps are you getting with the iMac?
 

Dreadnought

macrumors 68020
Jul 22, 2002
2,058
15
Almere, The Netherlands
About 67/68 degrees celsius on the proc, GPU, memory controller and harddisk are all between 50-55 degrees celsius. But have my brightness all the way down and also use the app Shades to get the screen totally black. This helps the fans to stay quiet and the screen doesn't burn in. CPU fan is now about 1300/1400 rpm, harddrive 1300, Optical bay fan less than 1000 rpm (normal), so still pretty quiet from 80 cm from the screen. :D Hmm, just noticed that the cpu fan is now 1600 rpm and going up, because I'm checking the stats and posting this message (have the brightness up). :eek:

Still no bonuspoints and have finished 4 advmethods units already. Really messed up my returnrate... So, this is a wise lessons for all of you; first get your machine stable and up and folding, then enter your passkey. After that, no experimenting!
BTW, when do you get the bonuspoints? Instantly when you get the normal points for the WU or in a later stage?
 
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SciFrog

macrumors 6502
Jul 31, 2008
308
0
You get the bonus instantly. The 80% rate of return is per passkey, which is why you are not getting it most likely. Just keep doing some small ones, then try bigadv in a week or so. If you get some 6900, your PPD should jump a lot. As reference my Mac pro does the 2984 in about 50 mins, vs 40.5 on the 6900...
 

lozanoj83

macrumors 6502a
Mar 5, 2006
546
0
Southern California
Unfortunately with an iMac you can't get the screen to go to sleep properly, the screen will wake up instantly. Still have to figure that out. Disabled everything, wifi, bluetooth, all usb devices, but still the screen wakes up after a couple of seconds. Also heat is lower when the backlight is all the way down or the screen is into sleep mode; the temperature is almost the same, but the fans aren't spinning as much.

What I do is I just go into system preferences, expose and spaces and make a hot corner be 'put display to sleep'.

Seems to work for me.
 

Dreadnought

macrumors 68020
Jul 22, 2002
2,058
15
Almere, The Netherlands
What I do is I just go into system preferences, expose and spaces and make a hot corner be 'put display to sleep'.

Seems to work for me.

Yeah I know, read already tons of forums about this, but it keeps going out of sleep. ctrl+shift+eject does the same, put the monitor to sleep, but after a few second it goes on again. also pulled the USB plug of the mouse, so it isn't that. It's something different, maybe the 100% load of the proc that is prohibiting my iMac to go to sleep or a faulty connector somewhere. Are you also folding; is your iMac also under a 100% load when putting the screen to sleep?

Anyhow I think this is not the right thread/forum for it, will figure it out after my holiday next week. That reminds me guys, my iMac is going to rest for a week. :D And I think I just have a trackrecord of 8 WU with passkey, so let the bonuspoints begin!
 

Dreadnought

macrumors 68020
Jul 22, 2002
2,058
15
Almere, The Netherlands
Hi guys,
I was wondering about the points you'll get when finishing a WU on time with a passkey. Apparently you only get the bonuspoints, not the normal points of the WU. Is this correct? :confused: It seems odd to me, I would figure you'll get the normal WU points and, for finishing it so fast, also the bonuspoints.
 

twoodcc

macrumors P6
Feb 3, 2005
15,307
26
Right side of wrong
Hi guys,
I was wondering about the points you'll get when finishing a WU on time with a passkey. Apparently you only get the bonuspoints, not the normal points of the WU. Is this correct? :confused: It seems odd to me, I would figure you'll get the normal WU points and, for finishing it so fast, also the bonuspoints.

i was under the impression that you got both points, though i'm really not sure. but here is a calculator for bigadv bonus points
 

rwh202

macrumors regular
Nov 14, 2010
114
11
UK
im struggling! im attempting to download the Mac based guide, but it no longer exists? i tried the Linux SMP but its not working for me either.

any idea/walkthrough how to get through it?

Hi,
Are you after the console or prefpane version? I've found that that the console version to be a lot better behaved when starting/stopping, adding flags etc, so I'd go with that if you can live with having a terminal window open whilst folding.
The links from the downloads page seem to work, the ones in the guide seem to be outdated:

console: http://www.stanford.edu/group/pandegroup/folding/release/FAH6.29-OSX-Intel-Console.tgz
prefpane: http://www.stanford.edu/group/pandegroup/folding/release/Folding@home-OSX10.5-6.29.3.pkg.zip

Hope that helps
Rob
 

DoFoT9

macrumors P6
Jun 11, 2007
17,586
98
London, United Kingdom
Hi,
Are you after the console or prefpane version? I've found that that the console version to be a lot better behaved when starting/stopping, adding flags etc, so I'd go with that if you can live with having a terminal window open whilst folding.
The links from the downloads page seem to work, the ones in the guide seem to be outdated:

console: http://www.stanford.edu/group/pandegroup/folding/release/FAH6.29-OSX-Intel-Console.tgz
prefpane: http://www.stanford.edu/group/pandegroup/folding/release/Folding@home-OSX10.5-6.29.3.pkg.zip

Hope that helps
Rob

YES! that helps SO MUCH! i will be putting a few work computers on my account, maybe just a core or 2 from each for the time being. need the computing power for other needs.

thanks very much once again :)
 

SciFrog

macrumors 6502
Jul 31, 2008
308
0
At least on the Mac, closing the terminal window does not stop the client with my setup.
 
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