Just to update the forum, there is a small but hardy group of us that continue to contribute to the folding@home project under the Macrumors.com team (team number 3446). We're currently in the 123rd spot for all teams, but will likely move up a few places in the coming months, assuming that our production levels hold. If you have any computer cycles to spare, would love to have you join us. BTW, I'm folding using the version 8 Beta, which runs natively on Apple Silicon.
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Macrumors Folding Team Update
- Thread starter lssmit02
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iAssimilated
Contributor
Not intended to hijack this thread, but I am curious if anyone is running folding@home on Apple Silicon and what is your experience? I'm interested in your Mac model, folding intensity, and CPU temperatures (and if you find you need to manually adjust the CPU fan speeds).
iAssimilated
Contributor
We will pass Team Mac OS X in the next couple of days... can we do it faster 🤟
MacCheetah3
macrumors 68030
After a hiatus, I’m back.
— By default, Folding@Home only assigns enough threads and opts for the performance cores. For the M4 Pro with 14-core CPU and 20-core GPU, that’s 10 cores/threads.
Temps:
~ 100 - 105 ºC on the performance cores
~ 74 - 79 ºC on the efficiency cores
~ 96 ºC average core temperature
~ 3150 RPM max fan speed (automatic
— I don’t see a need to increase/max fan speed. I’ve done fairly extensive performance testing, which also equates to numerous hours of ‘punishing’ workloads already. And all seems fine yet.
Mac mini (2024) - M4 Pro
— By default, Folding@Home only assigns enough threads and opts for the performance cores. For the M4 Pro with 14-core CPU and 20-core GPU, that’s 10 cores/threads.
Temps:
~ 100 - 105 ºC on the performance cores
~ 74 - 79 ºC on the efficiency cores
~ 96 ºC average core temperature
~ 3150 RPM max fan speed (automatic
— I don’t see a need to increase/max fan speed. I’ve done fairly extensive performance testing, which also equates to numerous hours of ‘punishing’ workloads already. And all seems fine yet.
iAssimilated
Contributor
Macrumors, we can do better! AS allows us to do more with less... time to contribute! Don't let your cycles go to waste.
Black_Mage
macrumors 6502
I was wandering around in the forums and found this section. My experience with Folding@home on a M2 Pro Mac Mini was disappointing. Folding@home was not able to use the GPU cores so most of the potential of my Mac was wasted.
MacCheetah3
macrumors 68030
Agreed.
From what I’ve read, there are a few technical walls to overcome, though supposedly possible. To compound the problem, the project does not seem to have abundant software development resources, and redirecting whatever they could is not a priority. Actually, it’s something of a paradox. M-series GPUs have not been a priority; therefore, the amount of work contributed by Macs has been a small percentage of the project. Because the Mac tackles a small percentage of WUs, it remains a lower ROI.
One example discussion:
Macrumors Folding Team Update
I was wandering around in the forums and found this section. My experience with Folding@home on a M2 Pro Mac Mini was disappointing. Folding@home was not able to use the GPU cores so most of the potential of my Mac was wasted.
forums.macrumors.com
For anyone who needs an analogy… It’s a requirement of needing job experience to get hired, but you cannot get experience unless you’re hired for a job.