What is the optimized value of daytime and nighttime memory to be set on my laptop?
 

Hello everyone,
I am using Prime95 on my laptop now. The laptop is nearly idle all the time. The only work it runs is Prime95 now.
However, I am sorry I did not find so much information about how to config the options of Prime95. For example, I know little about the function of the `Daytime P-1/ECM stage 2 memory` as well as the corresponding nighttime one and what value should be set in the blanks. Could you please give me some advice? I am running Prime95 on Win7 and the RAM of the laptop is 8GB.
Further more is there any detailed instructions on how to choose the value of the other options in Prime95? I am sorry I did not find them on the official website.
Any help would be much appreciated!
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There's a complete explanation in [I]readme.txt[/I], which you downloaded as part of the package - you might want to refer to it for further clarification.

As a TL;DR version of it, it all depends on the type of work you intend to do: if you plan to use your laptop for prime testing (be it LL, DC, or PRP) you may safely ignore that parameter: memory usage will be quite negligible.

If otherwise you plan to go with P-1, or ECM, consider that Stage 2 of both worktypes takes advantage from as much memory you can reasonably allocate to it.

As a rule of thumb - and if you're not using that laptop otherwise, as you wrote - put (GB available - 2)*1000 in your Preferences dialog - meaning you'll be allocating up to (8-2)*1000 = 6000 MB for Stage 2, and leaving 2GB to your OS and any eventual other program you might run in the meanwhile.

Should your laptop become sluggish or unresponsive with such allocation, evaluate reducing allocated memory (i.e. 50-60% of available RAM), or move Stage 2 work during night hours. Again, Preferences dialog allows you to do so.

Windows uses more than 2 GB nowadays. I would not set it higher than 4000 MB or maybe 5000 MB on an 8 GB laptop unless you really want to do high Stage2 curves on P-1 or ECM.

As former posters say, unless you do - mostly - stage 2 of P-1, let the memory settings to low, like from 100MB to 2GB there is no difference in what your computer will do and how fast. Large amounts of memory are required only by some very specific tasks (like the mentioned Stage2 of P-1 factoring). Right now due to nice people here around who only do P-1, the front is very advanced, so if you do DC or LL at the front, then you will never need to P-1 the exponents that your P95 will reserve for LL, because they are already P-1-ed by other people. So your computer will only do LL or PRP which needs not much memory.

In general, read the readme.txt, undoc.txt and stress.txt that come in the package, and be aware of the fact they do not explain the math, only the using of the program's parameters (this is a way to politely say that the program options you ask about are clear and need no explanation if you know about computers and about the algorithms and math involved in here, TF/P-1/LL, etc :razz:)

[QUOTE=LaurV;484820]As former posters say, unless you do - mostly - stage 2 of P-1, let the memory settings to low, like from 100MB to 2GB there is no difference in what your computer will do and how fast.[/QUOTE]

Prime95 is using 212 MB for a single worker PRP Gerbicz test on my computer, so probably set it at least 500 MB to be safe.

For regular (LL & PRP) work, we just leave it at the default 8MB. It seems to work just fine.

:mike:

This conversation reminded me of...

[QUOTE=ATH;484846]Prime95 is using 212 MB for a single worker PRP Gerbicz test on my computer, so probably set it at least 500 MB to be safe.[/QUOTE]

The memory setting is for the _extra_ memory used for ECM / P-1 stage 2, over and above any memory needed for routine stuff. Leave it at 8MB, unless you plan to explicitly do ECM and/or P-1.

Thanks very much for all your help!
I have read the readme.txt packaged with Prime95. Since most of the time I do not use the laptop, I set the memory used by Prime95 to 3000MB to 4000MB. I know little about the math here, so my choice of the type of work to do is 'Whatever makes the most sense'.
I am still not sure about when the P-1 factoring would be carried out? It is arranged automatically by the PrimeNet or it would be run if only the box of 'Use hyperthreading for LL, P-1, ECM' is checked?
In the readme.txt, it says the memory will be occupied only if the laptop is doing P-1 factoring, so most of the time, the memory is free. Is that right?
The CPU of my laptop is i7-5500U, does it suitable for do the P-1 factoring? Please advise me.
Thanks in advance!
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If you are doing "Whatever makes sense", you will currently be getting first time LL's and an occasional DC. In the old days users would have to do the remaining TF and P-1 before the start of the LL test. Now, there is co-ordination going on with GPU's taking the TF and other volunteers taking care of the P-1.

[QUOTE=Uncwilly;485002]If you are doing "Whatever makes sense", you will currently be getting first time LL's and an occasional DC. In the old days users would have to do the remaining TF and P-1 before the start of the LL test. Now, there is co-ordination going on with GPU's taking the TF and other volunteers taking care of the P-1.[/QUOTE]

Thanks very much!
It sounds that usually P-1 factoring will not be assigned to my laptop as the my choice is "Whatever makes sense". So, the laptop will not need a lot of memory to do the P-1 factoring, there is no difference if the memory is set to be 8MB or 3000MB. Is that right?

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