GPU client

From FaHWiki

General

The GPU client is the first High Performance client for Windows/x86 and it's part of the Folding@Home Petaflop Initiative (FPI). It uses a customised version of Gromacs' mdrun to run Molecular Dynamics simulations on the Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) from ATI.

The second generation of GPU clients, for ATI 2xxx/3xxx series cards, launched in April 1st, 2008.

Supported Operating Systems & Hardware

The GPU client is Windows-only due to its use of DirectX and dependency on specific ATI chipsets and specific driver versions. The client supports the ATI cards Radeon X1900 and Radeon X1950.

Also, from the official GPU FAQ:

We now support serveral classes of GPU boards, including X1600, X1800,
and X1900 class GPU's from ATI. At the launch, we supported X1900
cards only. X1800 cards do not provide the performance seen in X1900's
and so we strongly recommend X1900 class cards (although we now 
officially support X1800). X1900 and X1800 cards are actually quite 
different -- they have different processors (R520, R530 vs. the R580
(in the X1900 series)). The R580 makes a huge difference in performance
-- its 48 pixel shaders are key, as we use pixel shaders for our
computations.

The GPU2 client is Windows-only at this time due to its use of AMD CAL and dependency on specific ATI chipsets and specific driver versions.

FAQs

• GPU FAQ (Core 10): Folding@Home on ATI GPU's: a major step forward
• GPU2 FAQ (Core 11): Second generation GPU client on ATI hardware (GPU2) FAQ
• Folding@Home Petaflop Initiative (FPI)
• Folding@Home high performance client FAQ
• Folding@Home configuration FAQ
• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Cores

• 10: Gromacs GPU
• 11: Gromacs GPU

Console client (CLI)

Download

Windows/x86 (XP/Vista)

• CLI client v5.91 beta2 (with multi-GPU support)
  • Multi-GPU FAQ
  • GPU FAQ
  • GPU2 FAQ
  • License information

Install & usage

Windows

• None yet.

Howtos

• None yet.

Related FAQ items

• None yet.

Graphical client (GUI)

Download

Windows/x86 (XP/Vista)

• GUI client v5.91 beta2
  • GPU FAQ
  • GPU2 FAQ
  • License information

Install & usage

Windows

• GPU FAQ
• GPU2 FAQ

Howtos

• None yet.

Related FAQ items

• All PCI-E video boards with 256 MB of video memory are not well suited for the FAH GPU client. We've yet to hear of anyone being happy with the periodic (once about every 5 seconds) whole system pauses. Is it motherboard chipset issue? Is it a driver issue? No one can say what's causing it.

All reports have pointed out that the AGP variants of the same GPUs are not affected. At least the X1950Pro 256 MB is working just fine. http://folding-community.org/ftopic17527.html

For the time being:
Avoid GPU boards with 256 MB of VRAM or get a X1950Pro, if you intend to run the FAH GPU client.

See Also

• Clients Overview
• FAH files