Best Processor for Crunching DF ???

[Insidious]

I'm sure this question has been asked and answered more than once, but I didn't have any luck with a search.

What type of processor performs best for DF crunching.

Brand, model?

also, best results usually come from higher FSB (lower multiplier) or lower FSB (higher multiplier and more aggressive RAM settings)?


We got any serious tweakers out here?

Thanks in advance, Sid

[pointwood]

If you are thinking mostly in regular PC's then I think the fastest is an Athlon XP using the -rt switch.

The P4 doesn't get as big a performance boost from the -rt switch as the Athlon, although it does get a nice performance boost too.

[MAD-ness]

For the fastest 'off-the-shelf' processor you probably want to go with an Athlon XP processor (thoroughbred obviously being acceptale as well) with DDR.

The P4 performs pretty well in DF, since it is primarily a matter of clock frequency. The newest P4s (2.8ghz I think) might be the fastest processors in terms of absolute performance, but I haven't seen any benchmarks on these.

With the new "-rt" option, the P4 does not derive as large of a benefit from the additional RAM as other processors do. I haven't heard any official explanation for this.

The fastest processor in terms of performance per clock cycle is the Alpha, according to the official Distributed Folding literature.

The AthlonXP should also be the best price/performance processor as well.

The DF client DOES show improved results with a higher FSB, but I haven't seen any benchmarks that indicate that memory timings have a significant impact one way or the other. My guess is that they DO, but I can't back that up with any evidence of any sort, it is mostly a (barely) educated guess.