Folding to Cure on the Edge with GPUs - Folding on the Edge
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Let's start this chapter with a warning that you should really consider.
Overclocking is the process that increases the components' clock cycle thereby speeding their processing power and causing them to work harder and faster than designed, ultimately consuming more power and producing more heat. Therefore overclocking is very dangerous and can very easily cause serious harm and damage. It also violates the warranties of products and lowers the lifespan of computer parts even if kept under ideal circumstances.
With all of this said, if you attempt to overclock you're on your own— it's your decision. This sectionr of the article is strictly for informational and educational purposes. Due to the aforementioned reasons nobody (neither I nor Developer Shed) is responsible for the severe damages that may result if you fail. Attempting to overclock therefore means that you accept the possible outcomes.
Now let's move on and discuss the real stuff. First of all, you might notice already, and it's quite self-explanatory, that folding on a GPU causes a serious load, puts a strain on your video card and increases power consumption and amount of heat produced. Overclocking your video card means, as already explained, exceeding the stock limitations and speeding up your GPU's processing speed. It will result in increased power consumption and a significantly higher amount of heat produced. Therefore make sure you have great airflow in your case and that your video card is cooled. Make a habit of cleaning your computer on a regular basis and checking your temperatures quite often. This way you can see what's happening and prevent issues.
Now on to overclocking and tweaking. Download and install ATITool (link: here) or ATI Tray Tool (link: here); you can find more information about ATITool here and ATT here. Both are great tools for enthusiasts; I'm sure you will love them—that's if you aren't already familiar with one of them.
Once you've installed ATITool/ATI Tray Tool, read the guides and tutorials, then let's move on. First we'll use the 3D clock speed instead of 2D. Only standard 2D clock speeds are used for F@H. But 2D clock specifications are always significantly lower than 3D ones. Why? Because 2D clock speeds are perfect for non-3D renders and video processing, for example the usual office work, listening to music, idling on the desktop, and so forth. While gaming or doing intensive 3D calculations, the 3D clock speeds kick in.
What we're going to do is quite obvious. We'll force the usage of 3D clock speeds all the time, since the GPU Folding client will always be running when our systems are up. Therefore we don't need 2D reduced clock cycles, we need more processing power. Your video card will be running just as intensively as it would if it were gaming on a 24/7 basis. Like I said, expect higher power usage and be very cautious of overheating.
You need to disable both of the ATI services that are always changing your clock speeds whether running 3D apps or not. Do the following to disable:
Start-> Run-> "services.msc"-> search for the processes and select Properties-> Startup Type-> Disable on each of them.
Now start up either ATT (ATI Tray Tool) or ATITool (you've just installed it) and we're going to make two profiles. Why two? It's simple: we need one for 2D and one for 3D (that will be running 24/7 by default). This is in case you want to stop folding every now and then and you don't want to stress your card by running on 3D clocks permanently. This step is optional, since if you're an extreme folder and you're planning to fold 24/7 then it might not happen that you'll need to stop folding and re-set your 2D clocks.
Anyway, before moving on back up your registry and make sure you have a sheet of paper and a pen near you. For safety purposes you'll write down the changes you're making— logging actions is very helpful later on when troubleshooting is required.
Allow ATT or ATITool to add itself within the startup applications. This is important since you've disabled your previous services and an application must set your clock speeds. ATT and ATITool are very similar; I won't cover both since the steps are almost same. If you could read and understand the article until here, I'm definitely sure that you won't have a hard time understanding and following the instructions.
Next: Folding on the Edge, continued >>
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