I actually have no screensaver selected on any of my boxes, but after reading this thread over at Einstein, a question occurred to me: Regardless of whether one has a screensaver in use, are the project apps still wasting cycles by making "calculations" for the graphics? If so, is there a way to avoid that? Any help/suggestions would be appreciated.

Depends on the project. If it actually is the case that some project is still doing some calculation for the graphics, there isn't anything a user can do about it anyway. Other than changing the science app's sourcecode (where available) to be more efficient by not doing anything graphics-related if graphics aren't in use. But that's the project developer's job, not yours.

I think the fact that on BOINC 6 graphics are on a separate program will help avoid doing graphics-related code when not in use.

Good to know - thanks for the info. Sounds like Einstein has included it as a project option in their latest beta. Would be nice to have the ability to cut out the screensaver stuff altogether, efficiency-wise!

Some people are motivated to join and crunch by the cool screensavers, so they're not necessarily wasted, particularly if the computer's in a public place.

On cpdn the graphics can use a high or low % of the CPU cycles, depending on the computer. This is because the visible globe shows what is being calculated on the computer. So the graphics also have to be constantly recalculated. On my ancient computer the graphics take about 40% of CPU, but far far less on the new dual-core. In your Task Manager Processes list you can see the % - the climate model and the graphics are listed as separate processes.

On cpdn we advise everybody to disable the screensaver (ie the picture on the desktop) to speed up the crunching of very long simulations, save electricity in many cases, and reduce the probability of graphics-related crashes. The same globe can still be opened up when the member has time to study it using the View graphics button in boinc manager. The cpdn graphics are in fact well worth watching; they're both sophisticated and informative.

Setting the screensaver to 'None' only takes a moment.

But if a project just has an interesting picture, albeit a moving one, as a screensaver, if no new calculations are required to keep it going it must hardly use any CPU cycles, as PovAddict says.

To disable the screensaver you right-click on the desktop, select Properties, then in the Screensaver tab choose None or a static image eg an interesting photo.

You missed the point of the original post: science apps still doing some graphics-related calculation even when graphics aren't being shown.

I'm not saying screensavers are a waste - just that I don't use them. So using any CPU power to run them, for me, is a waste.

Right. My question had nothing to do with how to disable screensavers. I think you may have misread. All I really wanted to know was whether or not there's a way to minimize cycles wasted on screensaver graphics (a la E@H's latest beta) for those of us who aren't using the graphics.

Some apps don’t support screensavers, and are completely missing code for it. However, those with graphics for screensavers do use some CPU all the time, but more when the screensaver is actually running. This is because it has to keep track of where it is in the WU so when the screensaver is engaged, it know where to start, also it has to periodically check to see if it should be displaying anything or not. Case n point - chicken's and crunch3r's optimized SETI apps. They have some WITH screensavers and some w/o. Those w/o run faster than the ones with, even if the system is set to never use the screensaver.