The MacRumors Folding@home team has contributed over two billion points to the distributed computing medical research project, reaching this milestone on November 12. It took 11.5 years for the MacRumors team to accumulate its first billion points, but the team completed its second billion points in only 12.5 months, thanks in large part to today's faster GPUs, as well as Quick Return Bonus Points and users running the client software with optimized configuations. The team has risen from #55 to #45 among the over 225,000 folding teams.

We're proud that our supporters and forum members are contributing to medical research by participating in Folding@home, and MacRumors encourages you to join our team as well. Folding@home participants receive work units as computation assignments and completed work units are assigned points based on their value to the project's scientific purposes. Client software is available for OS X, Windows, and Linux, and users should feel free to ask questions in our Distributed Computing forum.

The MacRumors Folding@home team was formed in May 2002 by MacRumors owner Arnold Kim. The team currently averages over 78 million points per month, almost 40 times its rate a year ago. Over 2000 users have contributed to the MacRumors team effort, with 5 team members (rwh202, twoodcc, Louis_Wu, ChristianFAH, and whiterabbit) each having contributed over 100 million points. Additional team statistics and graphs can be viewed at Extreme Overclocking.


Folding@home, run by Stanford University since October 2000, uses otherwise-idle computers to run protein folding simulation software, helping researchers search for cures for Alzheimer's disease, Huntington's disease, Parkinson's disease, AIDS, influenza, and many forms of cancer. The software simulates how proteins, RNA, and nanoscale synthetic polymers fold, both to gain understanding of how proteins fold into their three-dimensional structure and to study the causes of the abnormal folding that leads to disease.

Top Rated Comments

Doctor Q Avatar
139 months ago
Congratulations to the MacRumors folding team

Here's our team's elegant certificate. Clearly worth framing!

Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
tevion5 Avatar
139 months ago
Glad to see that some of us can do more than complain :)
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
dXTC Avatar
139 months ago
Alright, I'm in! Luckily enough for me, dXTC was still available as an identity.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Mad-B-One Avatar
139 months ago
...after a long pause,

I actually joined back. I had a crash of my HW a while back and stopped contributing. Now, I reinstalled the screen saver and it runs at "medium" of my system. That means it runs 8 cores at 74.6% if they are not used. Now, there is only a x86 version for Windows machines. Too bad since the AMD FX 8350 really shines in x64. Well, at least the Radeon R9 270X runs unhindered.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Louis Wu Avatar
139 months ago

again, way to go team! here's to the next billion!

Hey -- I was going to take at least a day for patting ourselves on the back before gearing up for the charge to 3 billion :p

Seriously though, congrats to everyone who's contributed over the years!

Louis
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Godzirra Avatar
139 months ago
As many computer as you like (and have the authority to install the FAH software). I run constantly a dedicated Linux hardware and a virtual instance. Sometimes adding a testbench and a MacMini or iMac or even an Amazon cloud spot-instance

You just need to make sure to enter the same donor ID and passkey in the config to combine the resulting points.

Thanks for joining team #3446

That's excellent news, as i have a few macs at home, and they can be doing something useful while i'm not using them.

Thank you.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

iPhone 17 Pro in Hand Feature Lowgo

iPhone 17 Pro Coming Soon With These 14 New Features

Friday July 4, 2025 1:05 pm PDT by
Apple's next-generation iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are just over two months away, and there are plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models. Latest Rumors These rumors surfaced in June and July:Apple logo repositioned: Apple's logo may have a lower position on the back of the iPhone 17 Pro models, compared to previous...
iphone 16 pro models 1

Here's How the iPhone 17 Pro Max Will Compare to the iPhone 17 Pro

Saturday July 5, 2025 1:00 pm PDT by
Apple should unveil the iPhone 17 series in September, and there might be one bigger difference between the Pro and Pro Max models this year. As always, the Pro Max model will be larger than the Pro model:iPhone 17 Pro: 6.3-inch display iPhone 17 Pro Max: 6.9-inch displayGiven the Pro Max is physically larger than the Pro, it has more internal space, allowing for a larger battery and...
airpods pro 2

AirPods Pro 3 to Help Maintain Apple's Place in Earbud Market Amid Increasing Low-Cost Competition

Thursday July 3, 2025 7:25 am PDT by
Apple's position as the dominant force in the global true wireless stereo (TWS) earbud market is expected to continue through 2025, according to Counterpoint Research. The forecast outlines a 3% year-over-year increase in global TWS unit shipments for 2025, signaling a transition from rapid growth to a more mature phase for the category. While Apple is set to remain the leading brand by...
iPhone 17 Pro in Hand Feature Lowgo

iPhone 17 Pro Max Battery Capacity Leaked

Thursday July 3, 2025 5:40 am PDT by
The iPhone 17 Pro Max will feature the biggest ever battery in an iPhone, according to the Weibo leaker known as "Instant Digital." In a new post, the leaker listed the battery capacities of the iPhone 11 Pro Max through to the iPhone 16 Pro Max, and added that the iPhone 17 Pro Max will feature a battery capacity of 5,000mAh: iPhone 11 Pro Max: 3,969mAh iPhone 12 Pro Max: 3,687mAh...
Apple Watch Ultra Night Mode Screen

Apple Watch Ultra 3 Launching Later This Year With Two Key Upgrades

Wednesday July 2, 2025 1:13 pm PDT by
The long wait for an Apple Watch Ultra 3 appears to be nearly over, and it is rumored to feature both satellite connectivity and 5G support. Apple Watch Ultra's existing Night Mode In his latest Power On newsletter, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said that the Apple Watch Ultra 3 is on track to launch this year with "significant" new features, including satellite connectivity, which would let you...
apple silicon mac lineup 2024 feature purple m5

Apple's Upcoming Macs Listed in New Report

Thursday July 3, 2025 9:09 am PDT by
AppleInsider's Marko Zivkovic today shared a list of alleged identifiers for future Mac models, which should roll out over the next year or so. The report does not reveal anything too surprising, but it does serve as further evidence that Apple is seemingly working on new models of every Mac, including the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, iMac, Mac mini, Mac Studio, and Mac Pro. Apple is...
Future M5 Chip Devices

M5 Chip Rumored to Debut in These Five Apple Products Later This Year

Friday July 4, 2025 9:14 am PDT by
Apple's next-generation M5 chip is expected to debut in five new products later this year, including the iPad Pro, Vision Pro, MacBook Pro, Mac mini, and iMac. M5 chips will reportedly be manufactured with TSMC's latest third-generation 3nm process, which should result in slight performance and power efficiency improvements over M4 chips fabricated with its second-generation 3nm process. ...