Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Task performance with F@H running

wrldwzrd89

wrldwzrd89

macrumors G5
Original poster
Jun 6, 2003
12,110
77
Solon, OH
Has anyone else noticed what I have - namely that on a Mac, running Folding@Home doesn't have a significant impact on the speed of any other tasks you might be running; on Windows, there's a noticable slowdown on other things running alongside F@H.

As an example, I'll use converting a file to WAV in iTunes.
Mac, without F@H: 55x
Mac, with F@H: 55x
Windows, without F@H: 63x
Windows, with F@H: 43x

I believe the reason this occurs is due to differences in the design of the priority system on Mac OS X compared to the same system in Windows.

Can anyone back this up with further evidence?
 
daveL

daveL

macrumors 68020
Jun 18, 2003
2,425
0
Montana
I'm stating common knowledge, but Windows has always suffered terribly at multi-tasking, compared to Unix variants, but that's also why Windows does better as a gaming platform. You *can* tweak the foreground/background priority on Windows; on Unix variants, you don't have to (although you can, as well). Windows is a dime store OS, whadayawant?

Edit: I meant to add, newer Linux kernels tend to do better at Folding than Panther, by a couple of percent.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom