OK, so in preparation for the October Frankenbot event, I thought I'd start by installing the client on my laptop. I can see this is going to require a bit of tuning. The laptop runs a quad core i7 with HT and an ATI 7700M. The GPU is kind of weak for folding; but, every work unit counts, right?
I started with the default settings, and with Folding Power set to Light, which is the recommended setting for the laptop. I let it run for about half and hour then pushed it to Full, to see what would happen. Now, the GPU is active; but, the F@H client has spawned 16 threads in total, and pushed the CPU to it's thermal limits causing it to throttle. I'm generating results about 40% slower on the CPU now, compared to when it was set to Light. With the GPU running there is another work unit being processed in parallel; so, there is some advantage. Comes to about a 30% faster throughput overall.
Does this match what you all have seen? Any suggestions from the experienced guys for where I should start with the tuning (thread limits, core affinity, % cpu limits)? Or, should I just set it to Light and let the client program run the default settings? This is my primary home office machine. I would prefer the fan not be running 100% throttle 100% of the time while I'm sitting at the desk; but, for the sake of Frankbot, at night it can run.