TPU's WCG/BOINC Team

[KieX]

What kind of effect does overclocking the gpus have on the wcg gpu wus? Is it mostly shaders, or does the core speed help out as well?

I would imagine shaders make the biggest difference, but I'm going off my old F@H experience. Not seen much besides runtime information for these WU's so far.

 

[[Ion]]

I would imagine shaders make the biggest difference, but I'm going off my old F@H experience. Not seen much besides runtime information for these WU's so far.

I'd agree, I'd say probably core and shaders. I intend to test this out once I'm sufficiently convinced that the new GTX470 is stable alongside the old one

The problem is that WU completion time is more variable than in FAH--I've seen some WUs take a good thirty seconds longer than others on the GTX470s, which is, with ~3 minute completion times, a lot. We don't have the useful TPF info that is present for FAH.

 

[BUCK NASTY]

Got my new GTX470 and I have it installed:
http://i.imgur.com/L4e4C.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/AiHBF.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/vQTt3.jpg
Unsurprisingly, particularly the first card is running a bit warm; however, it has a much lower voltage (.91V vs 1.06V), so it isn't as bad as it could be.

Apparently the PNY card won't do 750MHz with the second card installed, so I've had to down-clock them. Both are running at 650MHz for now, and I'll OC them a bit later to see what I can get. I'm overall quite satisfied:
http://img.techpowerup.org/121018/gpus.png

The WUs seem to be running a bit slower, but I've yet to determine how much of that is the lower clocks and how much is statistical variation.

That 120mm fan at the bottom of the case looks familiar. How many rigs you got and how big is that dorm room?

 

[KieX]

I'd agree, I'd say probably core and shaders. I intend to test this out once I'm sufficiently convinced that the new GTX470 is stable alongside the old one

The problem is that WU completion time is more variable than in FAH--I've seen some WUs take a good thirty seconds longer than others on the GTX470s, which is, with ~3 minute completion times, a lot. We don't have the useful TPF info that is present for FAH.

CPU has a big impact on the completion times. These WU seem to be CPU+GPU+CPU in terms of runtime. So I'd imagine those (relatively) small differences may be down to how many other tasks are running on the assigned CPU. After all, it runs in low priority mode. The GPU time seems more stable.

Will be great to see those numbers, definitely help to point in the right direction.

 

[[Ion]]

That 120mm fan at the bottom of the case looks familiar. How many rigs you got and how big is that dorm room?

That one is actually from Norton
I'm going to put two of the fans from you as an intake on the front of the case--at this point, I have two 120mm fans as exhaust (+ the two GPUs with their fans @ 75%) and one 120mm as an intake (and it's on the bottom, so it probably isn't that efficient).

At this point, I have three desktops and three laptops. Two of the laptops are old and damaged (C2Ds) and I have them stashed behind the LCD. The i7-860 and AMD X2 are stacked next to the desk (the room is oddly shaped, so I have an open space between a cabinet and my desk just wider than a computer) and then the 2700k on one end of my desk. I'd say the dorm is probably about 10x14 or so.

The bigger issue is cooling, not space--during the day, it's still ~70F or so, which would be lovely if I didn't have a constant ~1000w getting dumped into the room. At night I open the windows, but during the day I actually have to put a box fan in front of the AC to spread the air around and keep the temperature manageable.

CPU has a big impact on the completion times. These WU seem to be CPU+GPU+CPU in terms of runtime. So I'd imagine those (relatively) small differences may be down to how many other tasks are running on the assigned CPU. After all, it runs in low priority mode. The GPU time seems more stable.

Will be great to see those numbers, definitely help to point in the right direction.

That's possible. Since the CPU WUs I'm running now are relatively long, that shouldn't be too much of an issue, but I'm not completely sure.

Something I have noticed is that with the GTX470s @ 650MHz core the time/WU seems to be on average about 10-15 seconds longer than at 750MHz (~3:20 vs ~3:05)

EDIT: I have someone coming to look at my AMD X2 5k+ tomorrow--with luck, it will be sold by this time tomorrow. It will cost me about 1k PPD, but it will provide valuable funds to purchase the parts for another dual-core (which I'll then in-turn sell in a little while) and eventually some GPUs.

 

[ThE_MaD_ShOt]

Anyone have an issues where your rig just stopped crunching, then picked back up hours later? My 1 rig that has the 6850's in it stopped crunching for some reason around midnight last night. It started crunching again around 9am this morning. And this is without anyone touching the rig. It hasn't been used since about 11pm last night. No one has touched it at all today. It just freakn' took a nap for like 9hrs.

 

[agent00skid]

Anything in the log?

 

[[Ion]]

The AMD X2 5000+ has been sold. So I'm down two cores and ~1k PPD for now, but I think I'll be able to pick up replacement parts tomorrow. And I got $100 for it, but the parts only cost $20, so it was a pretty good deal

 

[ThE_MaD_ShOt]

Anything in the log?

I not with it right now but by Wcg it just stopped crunching about midnight and strated back up again around 9am. Rig is running fine as it has steadliy returned results today. Almost as if someone shut down wcg on that rig and restarted it later. Weird.

 

[brandonwh64]

My 2600K and 5770 have been down all morning due to me being bored at work and gaming LOLZ

 

[Norton]

Anyone have an issues where your rig just stopped crunching, then picked back up hours later? My 1 rig that has the 6850's in it stopped crunching for some reason around midnight last night. It started crunching again around 9am this morning. And this is without anyone touching the rig. It hasn't been used since about 11pm last night. No one has touched it at all today. It just freakn' took a nap for like 9hrs.

I found my remote rigs shut off when I got to the site today

It must have been a power failure and a delayed start on the generator at some point yesterday am... can't be that they were shut off by someone as I have the only key.

Both rigs restarted and are running fine but I lost about a days work on each.

 

[Mindweaver]

Hey guys I figured I'd chime in and say I'm having trouble with one of my 2500k's w/ GTX470... I don't like not being able to run BOINC as a service... I'm a little frustrated with it at the moment.. If I keep having issues.. I'll stop crunching on my GPU's, and re install as a service. Sorry guys but I have to many rigs to babysit each one of them. I'm getting ready to go to the funeral.. I'm just a little upset.. I'll figure out something after everything settles.. This part sucks...

 

[brandonwh64]

Hey guys I figured I'd chime in and say I'm having trouble with one of my 2500k's w/ GTX470... I don't like not being able to run BOINC as a service... I'm a little frustrated with it at the moment.. If I keep having issues.. I'll stop crunching on my GPU's, and re install as a service. Sorry guys but I have to many rigs to babysit each one of them. I'm getting ready to go to the funeral.. I'm just a little upset.. I'll figure out something after everything settles.. This part sucks...

Take as much time as you need MW, you have to deal with one thing at a time and I believe RL stuff is more important than being in the top20. Take time and be with the ones you love.

/ Gives hugs! /

I found my remote rigs shut off when I got to the site today

It must have been a power failure and a delayed start on the generator at some point yesterday am... can't be that they were shut off by someone as I have the only key.

Both rigs restarted and are running fine but I lost about a days work on each.

Do you have them set in the bios to AUTO START when it see's power from the PSU. I know I have my 2600K like that at work so it will start as soon as power is restored.

 

[Norton]

Hey guys I figured I'd chime in and say I'm having trouble with one of my 2500k's w/ GTX470... I don't like not being able to run BOINC as a service... I'm a little frustrated with it at the moment.. If I keep having issues.. I'll stop crunching on my GPU's, and re install as a service. Sorry guys but I have to many rigs to babysit each one of them. I'm getting ready to go to the funeral.. I'm just a little upset.. I'll figure out something after everything settles.. This part sucks...

The trouble with the rig is likely something minor... my rigs running gpu crunching have been running w/o issues for days. When things aren't so troubling with the funeral and such then take a little bit of quiet time and go through your setup. I'll bet you'll see the problem right away and have it back up and going no sweat

Do you have them set in the bios to AUTO START when it see's power from the PSU. I know I have my 2600K like that at work so it will start as soon as power is restored.

Probably not- I'll need to check but there's always a chance that if I let them do that and there's a power issue (phase loss for example) then I'll blow up the rigs*

*means- may be better if they just shut off until I get there....

 

[brandonwh64]

Probably not- I'll need to check but there's always a chance that if I let them do that and there's a power issue (phase loss for example) then I'll blow up the rigs*

*means- may be better if they just shut off until I get there....

I have mine set cause at work they do power cylces often so I know it will reboot and start crunching again without me being there.

 

[Norton]

I have mine set cause at work they do power cylces often so I know it will reboot and start crunching again without me being there.

The site the rigs are at has a genset that exercises under load every Tuesday and the transfer is quick/smooth enough to not cause the rigs to restart. Whatever happened yesterday must have been a larger issue... large enough to cut power to them.

This is the first time this has happened after running over a month here so I may not ever see it occur again?

 

[brandonwh64]

This is the first time this has happened after running over a month here so I may not ever see it occur again?

Ahhhh ok thats understandable. We have two power grids at our plant and the one my crunchers are on is the one they test alot HAHAH>

 

[[Ion]]

I found my remote rigs shut off when I got to the site today

It must have been a power failure and a delayed start on the generator at some point yesterday am... can't be that they were shut off by someone as I have the only key.

Both rigs restarted and are running fine but I lost about a days work on each.

Well, at least it's only a day and you got it fixed soon

Hey guys I figured I'd chime in and say I'm having trouble with one of my 2500k's w/ GTX470... I don't like not being able to run BOINC as a service... I'm a little frustrated with it at the moment.. If I keep having issues.. I'll stop crunching on my GPU's, and re install as a service. Sorry guys but I have to many rigs to babysit each one of them. I'm getting ready to go to the funeral.. I'm just a little upset.. I'll figure out something after everything settles.. This part sucks...

What's happening with the rig? And would you stop crunching on all of the GPUs?
My condolences, take as much time with your family as you need

I have mine set cause at work they do power cylces often so I know it will reboot and start crunching again without me being there.

That's what I do as well
All of my rigs are right here, but I like not having to think about it.

 

[ThE_MaD_ShOt]

My rig didn't shut down or reboot. It just stopped crunching like Casper went in and suspended Boinc for 9 hrs LOL.

 

[[Ion]]

My rig didn't shut down or reboot. It just stopped crunching like Casper went in and suspended Boinc for 9 hrs LOL.

If you check the log file at the time that it suspended (hit Ctrl+Shift+E) and resumed, what does it say?

 

[ThE_MaD_ShOt]

I'll have to check it once I get home. I was going by returned results on wcg site. It didn't return any work for 9hrs. Stopped returning work around 12 and then started returning work again at 9am. I guess the "I wanna screw with your numbers today" Fairy got ahold of it. I'll dig into it once I get home and situated. it is returning results now and I have something to do with one of the other rigs when I get home .

 

[Radical_Edward]

Back from the honeymoon. Seems I've missed a bit here at TPU while I was enjoying the beach.

 

[Norton]

Back from the honeymoon. Seems I've missed a bit here at TPU while I was enjoying the beach.

Welcome back married guy

Your right, I think its been a busy week here

 

[ThE_MaD_ShOt]

Well my numbers will be all over the place this weekend, but should settle down by Monday. I am going to reconfigure some of my rigs and take 1 or 2 down. I need to make some room for another build I have had in the works for like a year now. I am also going to rebuild one of my crunchers into a win xp box for some Sli old school gaming.


Edit: newest edition to my crunching Hardware. He runs nice a cool and that is 45 secs into the wu. Completes wu's in around 2 mins to 2 mins 20 secs.

 

[Radical_Edward]

Just got a chance to see my points for when I was gone. All I can say is DAAAAMN!