I am new to rosetta@home, but have been using BOINC to crunch other projects on and off for some years. I am running WCG on my 2021 M1 iMac desktop, with no problems. I have just added rosetta as a second project, but it bumps my iMac temp up to over 90C. Is there any way to limit the number of tasks it runs at the same time? It is running four at once, which is a bit much for my iMac. I would prefer it to only run two simultaneously, but I can't see any way to do that.

iMac is 7 core model, and only has one fan, so I don't want to run the risk of overheating it. I have BOINC preferences set to use 60% of cpus and 60% of cpu time, instead of the 75% I usually have it set at - but that hasn't reduced the number of tasks its running.

Any advice gratefully received.

Many thanks!

hi, here you can find the solution

https://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/prefs.php?subset=global

replace the first 100% by 50% and it takes only 2 tasks a the same time 25% for only one

Thanks, but it didn't work. I changed it to 50% and updated from BOINC manager (the instructions said to do that to activate the change), but it is still crunching four tasks.

Just to clarify - I'm talking about tasks or work units here, not cores. I want it to only run two tasks at the same time.

(couldn't find an "edit" button on my previous post - oops, now I see it)

ok, then let the CPU at 100% but manage to download only 2 tasks at a time but even with the option, " store a least 0.01 days " you will have one task per core .. with four cores, you'll have 4 tasks running simultaneously

after made and save the options, you'll have to update the project in Boinc Manager ^^

So you are saying if I have 7 cores, rosetta will always run one task per core simultaneously?

Does that mean if I set it to only use 25% CPU - it would then only run two?

Sorry if these are dumb questions. I am used to running other projects which work quite differently, so just trying to get my head around how rosetta works.

One other thing - rosetta thinks my iMac is 8 core - when it is only 7. Any way to correct that?

So you are saying if I have 7 cores, rosetta will always run one task per core simultaneously?

Does that mean if I set it to only use 25% CPU - it would then only run two?

Sorry if these are dumb questions. I am used to running other projects which work quite differently, so just trying to get my head around how rosetta works.

Rosetta works the same as all the other BOINC projects.

One other thing - rosetta thinks my iMac is 8 core - when it is only 7. Any way to correct that?

It thinks it is 8 because it has 8 cores as reported by BOINC. And BOINC reports 8 cores because that is how many it has- 4 performance cores, 4 efficiency cores.



BOINC will use as many cores as it can, unless you limit the number available to BOINC.
As to how many are used by a particular Project at any given time depends on how many Projects you are running, your Resource Share settings (they are a ratio not a percentage), your cache settings, how many are available for BOINC to use, the size of your cache, how much time BOINC is able to process work when the system is running, how many hours in the day the system is running (although it is possible to set limits for a given project, it requires a lot of fiddling around & editing of configuration files. Just setting your Resource Share settings & keeping your cache as small as possible & letting BOINC sort itself out is a whole lot easier), and what processing debt is owed to other Projects.
If running more than one Project, no cache is best.

Store at least            0.01 days of work
Store up to an additional 0.01 days of work

If running just one Project, and you feel the need for a cache, with Rosetta set it to no more than 2.5 days (the deadline period is only 3 days).

Store at least            2.5 days of work
Store up to an additional 0.01 days of work

---

Grant
Darwin NT

Duh! I am SO stupid! I had 7 cores stuck in my head, forgetting that was GPU cores.

It thinks it is 8 because it has 8 cores as reported by BOINC. And BOINC reports 8 cores because that is how many it has- 4 performance cores, 4 efficiency cores.

Thank you for your help. I will have a play around with the settings as below.

BOINC will use as many cores as it can, unless you limit the number available to BOINC.
As to how many are used by a particular Project at any given time depends on how many Projects you are running, your Resource Share settings (they are a ratio not a percentage), your cache settings, how many are available for BOINC to use, the size of your cache, how much time BOINC is able to process work when the system is running, how many hours in the day the system is running (although it is possible to set limits for a given project, it requires a lot of fiddling around & editing of configuration files. Just setting your Resource Share settings & keeping your cache as small as possible & letting BOINC sort itself out is a whole lot easier), and what processing debt is owed to other Projects.
If running more than one Project, no cache is best.

Store at least            0.01 days of work
Store up to an additional 0.01 days of work

If running just one Project, and you feel the need for a cache, with Rosetta set it to no more than 2.5 days (the deadline period is only 3 days).

Store at least            2.5 days of work
Store up to an additional 0.01 days of work

SO

Thank you for your help. I will have a play around with the settings as below.

Keep in mind, the larger your cache, the more Projects you do, the less cores/threads available to BOINC (either through limiting what is available for BOINC to use, or the amount of non BOINC work the system is doing- eg transcoding, other CPU intensive type work), then the longer it will take for your Resource Share settings to be met.

---

Grant
Darwin NT

Yes I understand that. At the moment I'm just experimenting to find a "sweet spot" where I can go away and leave my iMac crunching, and feel confident the temps aren't going to go too high. I'm currently seeing it sitting between 75-96 C - with only BOINC running and Safari currently. I don't like the idea of it running above 80C constantly, for long periods of time.

One thing I have just noticed - I have BOINC set to not use GPU while computer is in use. GPU kicked in just before while I was not using the computer, and BOINC seemed to automatically suspend the tasks. BOINC manager event log shows"

"resuming GPU computation
Suspending computation - no recent user activity"

I'm not sure what was happening there? Does that mean BOINC started using GPU and stopped CPU computation? Seems to be it stopped computation altogether.

EDIT: never mind. Figured that out - had to enter some random large number in the "suspend GPU when no mouse/keyboard input ..." box.