Fold For ROG: How To Install And Run Folding@Home on CPU and GPU

Folding@Home is a distributed computing project that donates your CPU and GPU cycles to discovering the ins and outs of protein folding (literally how they twist and shape) in the body. Protein folding is linked to disease, such as Alzheimer’s, ALS, Huntington’s, Parkinson’s disease, and many Cancers. By adding your spare CPU and GPU cycles to this project, you can join thousands of others in attempting to crack the biological code and help fight diseases.

Instead of being just a monotonous task of running a hidden program in the background, Folding@Home is a competitive adventure against many other teams, with names you’ll recognize across the tech industry. Since the ROG ethos is aspiring to win, we have our own team which we’d love you to join: #183368. Come fight against other teams to reach the top spot then join the discussion with other Team ROG members in our Folding Forum.

WARNING: Keep in mind both the CPU and GPU based programs will greatly tax your system. Please keep a close eye on your system temperatures while Folding, as the heat will build up in a poorly ventilated case. These programs are automatically configured to be run in the background without affecting performance much, but you will likely notice performance decreases while gaming, so ASUS does not recommend running these programs during gaming or other heavy-load scenarios. If you find your system becomes unstable or too hot, stop Folding immediately.

How to setup Folding@Home

1. Firstly register your unique PASSKEY: HERE
You will need this passkey when you login the control panel below.

Running Folding@Home on your GPU

2. Download the GPU2 or GPU3 Client for Windows: HERE

• If you own a NVIDIA card, it must be compatible with CUDA (DirectX 10/11), so the 8, 9, 200, (300M), 400, 500 and future series are all compatible (a list is available to check if your card is compatible, including the GeForce, Tesla and Quadro lines).
• If you own and AMD card, it must be compatible with Stream processing, so 2000, 3000, 4000, 5000, 6000 or 7000 series, or newer (eventually) will be supported. For more information see here.
• Use the GPU2 (second generation) or GPU3 (third generation) client. Try both, test your PPD.
• Grab the latest official driver from the Nvidia or AMD website. Use the latest version unless there is a compelling reason to use a different one. To update the driver, as always we suggest that you uninstall the old driver, reboot, then install the new driver (selecting ‘clean install’ where possible).
• For further general information check here. http://folding.stanford.edu/English/WinGPUGuide

How to install the GPU client and join the ASUS Republic of Gamers Folding@Home Team!

Once the file is downloaded, double click on the .msi file as you would any other program.

You will be greeted by the following screen:

Click next, agree to the terms and conditions, and so on until it is installing:

It only takes a few moments to install, once it’s complete click close to exit the install program:

You will find the program in your start menu under Programs > Folding@Home and Folding@Home-GPU. The first time you run the program, you will select a user name and the team number (the one you made in Part 1 above). This attributes all the scores to your personal profile, so you can track your progress and team ranking. Remember it’s important to type in team 183368 to join ASUS Republic of Gamers Folding Team:

When you click OK, a new icon will appear in your task manager (normally in the lower-right of your creen by the clock). You are now Folding@Home with ASUS Republic of Gamers! If you want to see a graphical representation of your work, right click on the icon and click display.

How it should look on your desktop:

The next page details how to run Folding@Home on your CPU…