Folding@Home Coronavirus Race, AnandTech vs. Tom’s Hardware: Two Week Check-In
by Ryan Smith on April 3, 2020 1:00 PM EST
As many of us are stuck at home these days and are slowly quickly going mad, a couple of weeks ago we kicked off a race of sorts with our loyal opposition, Tom’s Hardware. Challenging each other to put an end to the very thing that’s keeping us at home – the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 – we have been racing to see which team can contribute the most work towards the Folding@Home project’s coronavirus distributed computing research efforts. The popular project has already passed an exaFLOP per second in compute performance thanks to Team AnandTech, Tom’s Hardware, and numerous other contributors over the world, and there is still much work to be done for its important research tasks.
Meanwhile, as we’re now at just past the half-way point in our four-week race, I wanted to stop and take stock of things. To see how the humble Team Anandech was faring against the boastful brutes that are the Tom’s Hardware team. And after two weeks, it looks like things are coming up great for Team AnandTech.
Since the race started on March 18th, Team AnandTech has generated 2.45 billion points in work for the Folding@Home project. In the same time period, the Tom’s Hardware team has generated a sizable, but not quite as massive 2 billion points of work. This has put Team AnandTech 445 million points ahead of Tom’s Hardware, or to put this in terms of the ongoing rate, Team AnandTech has been turning in 1.2 points’ worth of work for every point that Tom’s Hardware turns in. Which in the big picture, is actually a rather close race.
As such, with two weeks to go, this race is far from over. Our loyal competition could still turn things around, and so Team AnandTech cannot rest on its laurels. That means we still need you! Both to help Team AnandTech cross the finish line, and to hopefully get out of our homes just that much sooner.
So please stop by the AnandTech Distributed Computing forum to see how you can download the Folding@Home client and join Team AnandTech.
Ultimately this race is for fun, but it’s also for a good cause. The SARS-CoV-2 virus is a world-changing event, and, along with the immediate medical risks of the virus, the containment measures it requires are intense. The Folding@Home project is working on several simulations to improve humanity’s understanding of the virus and the disease it causes, with a goal of jump-starting new treatments and to bring the virus under control. It’s a worthy cause, as a result I’d like to encourage everyone to take part in what’s left of our race over the next two weeks.
Carousel Image Courtesy of: CDC/Alissa Eckert, MS
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blckgrffn - Friday, April 3, 2020 - link
The Admin of the CPU sub-forum, Mark, is the anchor for the team making over 10% of the points in his personal vendetta against Cancer. Stop in and check out his arsenal!only1jv - Friday, April 3, 2020 - link
I started folding both because of Anandtech's call to arms as well as the pandemic. Happy to report I'm now incorporating several of my company's old machines to add more resources toward both causes. 5,775,084 points as of this post in 2 weeks!blckgrffn - Friday, April 3, 2020 - link
Woo! Thank you! If you haven't already, stop into the forums to claim some kudos from the group :)Brazos - Friday, April 3, 2020 - link
I've got 3 cpu's and 2 gpu contributing. My Nvidia 2070 is a monster. My 1060 in my laptop isn't bad. Btw, if you're folding on a laptop you may consider elevating it a bit along the edges so the vents are wide open. I use small strips of wood 1/2" high.Iridium130m - Friday, April 3, 2020 - link
Cooling pad under my laptop and I've underclocked the GPU and disabled the CPU slot. Want to help but don't want to fry my laptop.cfbcfb - Friday, April 3, 2020 - link
My trick for stuff like this is an inverted aluminum half sheet pan, and put the laptop right in the middle. Its pretty amazing how much heat radiates from the bottom of a laptop, and this gives some space for the vents as well. I can take a thermal heat gun and see I'm getting about 90F on the pan right next to the laptop, and that dissipates to room temp (70) as you move away from it. Stays nice and cool.I also have a cool little aluminum cookie sheet, basically a piece of aluminum with one edge lifted to ~40 degrees, about the size of a 17" laptop. I use that when actually using the laptop in my lap. Same thing, vents are kept clear and the cookie sheet draws heat away, allowing me to still have children in the future.
ipkh - Friday, April 3, 2020 - link
There are a few tweaks to get more work from folding at home.But I'll keep my existing team priorities thank you very much. 2 billion total point and counting.
Markfw900 - Friday, April 3, 2020 - link
Yup, I have 5 2080TI cards, 2 1080TI FTW3 cards, 3 2060's, one 2060 super, and a 1070TI. If I had enough electricity, I have one more 1070TI, but every outlet in the house blows the circuit breaker if I plud in one more machine. I have over 500 cpu cores also working on the cure in Rosetta@home and WCG, including 3 EPYC machines, of note, one 7742 64 core, a dual 7601 64 core total, and 2 7751 machines.Markfw900 - Friday, April 3, 2020 - link
2 EPYC 7551, typo.alufan - Saturday, April 4, 2020 - link
I have to ask this and please dont misunderstand my admiration for all those who are contributing, but has all this worldwide computing power actually made a difference?I dabbled with Folding many years ago but gave up because of the lack of feedback about what the project actually achieved in the grand scheme, it would be good if folks could see what has changed with all the effort being expended or perhaps I have missed it and someone could point it out for me?