Folding@Home has gone through a number of different folding "clients", (programs), and it can be confusing. Finally, they've put together a unified client with the new V7 client, that eliminates a lot of the complexity.
V7 is still "beta", but FAH tends to keep things in beta status for a year, at least. There are still a few bugs, but for the most part, it's a working program - and about friggin' time.
Utility programs (free), that monitor FAH's progress, are now being adapted to work with the V7 client.
Although the Sony Playstation and high end (CUDA enabled), GPU's are both good folders, the cpu's have recently passed them back up (it's a leapfrog process). Right now, the 2000k Intel cpu, which readily overclocks (note the k though!), is almost three times more productive per watt, than the most efficient GPU's. This has always been a fluid issue, and will remain so.
There was a time that the PSP had to be arbitrarily lowered in it's points, simply because it was so powerful that all the computer folding donors were incensed, with a number ready to quit the project entirely! We had the same thing happen when the first CUDA enabled folding client arrived. This time, Stanford handled it better, but still there was a backlash, and some folders did leave the project.
Now Vijay (Pande, our fearless folding@home leader at Stanford), has decided that all folding points will be given based upon three factors:
1) The amount of science the client can provide
2) The amount of donor resources and time needed to fold the work unit
3) A certain political "fudge factor", so new clients don't make older clients, immediately obsolete.
It's great to see the folding clients all come together - whether classic (one processor only), multi-processor, or GPU, and in a graphics based program, for every type of popular OS: Windows, Linux, or OSX. It's not all worked out, but it is released in beta, and is a big step up for the most common complaint for Folding@Home folders.
