In the last post, I showed how environmentally unfriendly it is to run just the uniprocessor client. In this post, I’ll finish off the study about # of CPU cores vs. folding efficiency. As it turns out, you can virtually double your folding at home efficiency when you double the amount of CPU cores you are running with. Using the same Intel Q6600 as before, I told the Folding at Home client to ramp up and use three cores. Then, once I had some data, I switched it to four-core folding. With the CPU fully engaged, my computer became a bit slow to use, but that’s not a problem since what we are all about here is dedicated F@H Rigs (the only way to fold efficiently is to fold 100%). If I want to use my computer, I’ll stop the folding to do so, then start it up later.
Here are the results of the 1 through 4 core F@H PPD experiment!
As you can see, both performance (PPD) and energy efficiency (technically efficacy in PPD/Watt) scale with the # of CPU cores being used. Yes, the system does use more total electricity when more cores are engaged (169 watts vs. 142), but the amount of work being done per day has far surpassed the slight increase in power consumption. In graph form:
Intel Q6600 Folding@Home Points Per Day / Watt Graph
Intel Q6600 Folding at Home Efficiency Graph
In conclusion, it makes the most sense from a performance and efficiency standpoint to use as much of your CPU as you can. In the next post, I’ll look at a few more powerful CPU-based folding@home systems.
Green Folding@Home 