By setting a STRIDE different from 1, you change how frequently an action is calculated. In the case of actions such as PRINT, this just means how frequently you dump some quantity on the disk. Notice that variables are only computed when necessary. Thus, if a variable is only appearing as the argument of a PRINT statement with STRIDE=10, it will be computed every 10 steps.

In a similar fashion, the STRIDE keyword can be used in a bias potential so as to apply the bias potential every few steps. In this case, forces from this bias potential are scaled up by a factor equal to STRIDE.

This technique can allow your simulation to run faster if you need the apply a bias potential on some very expensive collective variable. Consider the following input:

c1: COM ATOMS=1-1000
c2: COM ATOMS=1001-2000
d:  DISTANCE ATOMS=c1,c2
METAD ARG=d HEIGHT=1 SIGMA=0.1 BIASFACTOR=5 PACE=500

This performs a METAD simulation biasing the distance between two centers of mass. Since computing these centers requires a lot of atoms to be imported from the MD engine, it could slow down significantly the simulation. Notice that whereas the bias is changed every PACE=500 steps, it is applied every STRIDE step, where STRIDE=1 by default. The following input could lead to a significantly faster simulation at the price of a negligible systematic error

c1: COM ATOMS=1-1000
c2: COM ATOMS=1001-2000
d:  DISTANCE ATOMS=c1,c2
METAD ARG=d HEIGHT=1 SIGMA=0.1 BIASFACTOR=5 PACE=500 STRIDE=2

Similarly, the STRIDE keyword can be used with other biases (e.g. RESTRAINT).

The technique is discussed in details here [21]. See also EFFECTIVE_ENERGY_DRIFT.