app_config.xml

Beyond
Beyond
Joined: 28 Feb 05
Posts: 117
Credit: 1567420742
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RE: Beyond wrote:Looking at

Quote:
Beyond wrote:
Looking at your results today I'd say this is not working well at all:
http://einsteinathome.org/host/6983575/tasks&offset=0&show_names=1&state=5&appid=0

@Gandalf_the_Grey
Try these app_config settings

WCGs hcc1 file...

hcc1

4
0.25
0.75


I use this for WCG:

hcc1
8

0.25
0.27

I'm running 2 x HD 5850 on that box and at least on a Phenom X6 .27 GPU is enough to allow the GPUs (8 WCG WUs) to run at above 95% and still run 4 CPU projects. The reason I use .27 is that for some reason .25 would now and then allow 5 CPU WU to run and slow down the GPUs.

On a similar machine running one HD 5850 on Einstein and the other on WCG I use the App_config below and also set "On multiprocessor systems, use at most: 90% of the processors" in BOINC preferences (could also set the cpu_usage line to something like 0.55 and forget the BOINC 90% setting). There does seem to be some heightened contention for CPU resources when running both Einstein and WCG.

hcc1
4

0.25
0.35

Quote:

E@Hs einsteinbinary_BRP4 file...

einsteinbinary_BRP4

2
0.5
0.5


Why not just use: "GPU utilization factor of BRP apps = 0.5" in the Einstein project preferences to run 2 WUs with .5 CPU reservation for each?

Gandalf_the_Grey
Gandalf_the_Grey
Joined: 6 Apr 13
Posts: 41
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UPS willing, this week, I

UPS willing, this week, I will be receiving a fourth computer. A i7-3930. My intent is to donate 100% of its runtime to E@H. However, I am not sure how to set up the E@H Account so that it can distinguish the i7-3930 from this i7-975 computer.

The Default setting and the HOME (this i7-975 computer) setting is the same.

Excerpt from the E@H Account:
______________________________________________________________________________

Resource share
Determines the proportion of your computer's resources allocated to this project. Example: if you participate in two BOINC projects with resource shares of 100 and 200, the first will get 1/3 of your resources and the second will get 2/3. 50

Use CPU
Enforced by version 6.10+ no

Use ATI GPU
Enforced by version 6.10+ yes

Use NVIDIA GPU
Enforced by version 6.10+ no

Is it OK for Einstein@Home and your team (if any) to email you? yes
Should Einstein@Home show your computers on its web site? yes
Default computer location home

Graphics setting: frames per second (FPS)
Warning: affects CPU consumption! Default value: 20 20

Graphics setting: render quality
Warning: requires hardware 3D acceleration! Default value: low low

Graphics setting: window width (pixels)
Default value: 800 800

Graphics setting: window height (pixels)
Default value: 600 600

Run only the selected applications Binary Radio Pulsar Search (Arecibo): yes
Binary Radio Pulsar Search (Perseus Arm Survey): no
Gravitational Wave S6 LineVeto search (extended): no
Gamma-ray pulsar search #2: no
Run CPU versions of applications for which GPU versions are available yes

GPU utilization factor of BRP apps
DANGEROUS! Only touch this if you are absolutely sure of what you are doing!
Wrong setting might even damage your computer! Use solely on your own risk!
Min: 0.0 / Max: 1.0 / Default: 1.0 0.5
_______________________________________________________________________________

If I load the motherboard, it will have three ATI AMD7770 and one NVIDIA GTX680.
If I start having heating issues, I'll yank one of the GPUs.

Thanks for the assist.
Gandalf

Alex
Alex
Joined: 1 Mar 05
Posts: 451
Credit: 500101245
RAC: 215801

You can setup different

You can setup different settings for default, home, work aso.

When you select the 'computers on this account' tab, you see all pc's assigned to your account. In the 'Details' tab you can assign a 'special' setting for this particular pc.
So all in all you can use 4 different settings without any need of any kind of .xml - file.

Pollux_P3D
Pollux_P3D
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Beyond wrote:Why not just

Beyond wrote:
Why not just use: "GPU utilization factor of BRP apps = 0.5" in the Einstein project preferences to run 2 WUs with .5 CPU reservation for each?


You are right with one pc and one app.
The following applications will soon run on Einstein:
Gamma-ray pulsar search #2 (opencl)
Binary Radio Pulsar Search (Perseus Arm Survey) (opencl, cuda).
There it gets no longer go without app_config.

Beyond wrote:


I use this for WCG:

hcc1
8

0.25
0.27

hcc1
4

0.25
0.35


The selected low cpu support surprised , because the hcc1 are very cpu intensive.
The gpu utilization is secondary, if it is also effective.

On an ATI 79xx running (with 8 core cpu) following app_config

hcc1
10

0.1
0.7

Gandalf_the_Grey
Gandalf_the_Grey
Joined: 6 Apr 13
Posts: 41
Credit: 1454417
RAC: 0

RE: You can setup different

Quote:

You can setup different settings for default, home, work aso.

When you select the 'computers on this account' tab, you see all pc's assigned to your account. In the 'Details' tab you can assign a 'special' setting for this particular pc.
So all in all you can use 4 different settings without any need of any kind of .xml - file.


Alex - Thanks to you, today I have received my new computer, from UPS. It took all day to download all the drivers and upgrades for the Win7 Pro. I put one ATI GPU and two NV GPUs into it. Do to your advice, I am now up and running. I left the project preference open to all comers. Now it's just a matter of watching the credits accumulate.

If you have any addition suggestions as to how to improve the thruput, please let me know.

Gandalf

P.S. - I'm running the GPUs at 0.5C + 0.5GPU. I don't know of any way to assign one set of perimeters to the NVIDIA GPUs and another set to the ATI GPU short of putting them in different computers.

mikey
mikey
Joined: 22 Jan 05
Posts: 11888
Credit: 1828041866
RAC: 206858

RE: RE: You can setup

Quote:
Quote:

You can setup different settings for default, home, work aso.

When you select the 'computers on this account' tab, you see all pc's assigned to your account. In the 'Details' tab you can assign a 'special' setting for this particular pc.
So all in all you can use 4 different settings without any need of any kind of .xml - file.


Alex - Thanks to you, today I have received my new computer, from UPS. It took all day to download all the drivers and upgrades for the Win7 Pro. I put one ATI GPU and two NV GPUs into it. Do to your advice, I am now up and running. I left the project preference open to all comers. Now it's just a matter of watching the credits accumulate.

If you have any addition suggestions as to how to improve the thruput, please let me know.

Gandalf

P.S. - I'm running the GPUs at 0.5C + 0.5GPU. I don't know of any way to assign one set of perimeters to the NVIDIA GPUs and another set to the ATI GPU short of putting them in different computers.

Now that you have a new pc you should check for the latest drivers...I get a couple of pc magazines and each recommends a different program, one recommends SlimDriver while the other recommends Secunia. Use each carefully but since they are both free you can use them to check what is 'out there' as far as newer drivers are concerned, and then upgrade what you wish. My brand new Dell laptop had LOTS of old drivers even after updating thru Dell and Windows Update over half a dozen times.

SlimDriver-- https://www.slimwareutilities.com/slimdrivers.php

Secunia--- http://download.cnet.com/Secunia-Personal-Software-Inspector/3000-2162_4-10717855.html

Beyond
Beyond
Joined: 28 Feb 05
Posts: 117
Credit: 1567420742
RAC: 6395034

RE: The selected low cpu

Quote:

The selected low cpu support surprised , because the hcc1 are very cpu intensive.
The gpu utilization is secondary, if it is also effective.

On an ATI 79xx running (with 8 core cpu) following app_config

hcc1
10

0.1
0.7


I retested my setup yesterday with various settings due to your post. If I reserve a 3rd CPU core my WCG throughput goes up slightly but of course I lose a CPU job. Pretty much a toss up in this case. I also tried reserving 4 cores and 6 cores but that didn't help much at all. Also tried running 5x WUs on each GPU, same average time as 4x but got more of those pesky 233 errors that WCG loves to include. You say you're running on an 8 core, is that AMD or virtual i7 (if an i7, which one)? All your machines listed here have X6s. Either way the CPU throughput/core is most likely less than the X6 which is faster for almost any project than the AMD 8 cores. With Intel it depends greatly on the i7 version of course.

Gandalf_the_Grey
Gandalf_the_Grey
Joined: 6 Apr 13
Posts: 41
Credit: 1454417
RAC: 0

RE: Now that you have a new

Quote:

Now that you have a new pc you should check for the latest drivers...I get a couple of pc magazines and each recommends a different program, one recommends SlimDriver while the other recommends Secunia. Use each carefully but since they are both free you can use them to check what is 'out there' as far as newer drivers are concerned, and then upgrade what you wish. My brand new Dell laptop had LOTS of old drivers even after updating thru Dell and Windows Update over half a dozen times.

SlimDriver-- https://www.slimwareutilities.com/slimdrivers.php

Secunia--- http://download.cnet.com/Secunia-Personal-Software-Inspector/3000-2162_4-10717855.html


Thanks, Mikey. I already use Secunia PSI. Good advise.
I also use FileHippo.com Update Checker from http://www.filehippo.com/updatechecker/.

When they first came out Driver Detective was rather bad, but it seems they have learned how to do the fetching. Also, while it's not free, a license is good for 10 computers. It saves me a lot of time hunting for drivers.

Gandalf_the_Grey
Gandalf_the_Grey
Joined: 6 Apr 13
Posts: 41
Credit: 1454417
RAC: 0

FYI - As you might have

FYI - As you might have noticed, I added a CPU-Z image to my Signature. It is the new computer that UPS was kind enough to deliver. It is all dedicated to the Einstein Project.

I do not think the GPU task programmers are making very good use of the GPU's capability. I'm a wizard, not a programmer, but WCG found that good GPU tasking can bring a successful conclusion to a project years sooner than even they realized and careful configuration of the app_config.xml file will go a long way to proving GPUs worthly of their hire.

The other thing that WCG did was offering more points (credits) to GPU tasking than non-GPU tasks. This fact encouraged many crunchers to jump on board to earn all the GPU credits they could. With the conclusion of the HCC tasking, there are many crunchers out there looking for a Project to hang their GPUs on (Hint, hint).

I'm new here, so maybe I don't understand the big picture. No offense, if I've stepped on anyone toes.

mikey
mikey
Joined: 22 Jan 05
Posts: 11888
Credit: 1828041866
RAC: 206858

RE: FYI - As you might have

Quote:

FYI - As you might have noticed, I added a CPU-Z image to my Signature. It is the new computer that UPS was kind enough to deliver. It is all dedicated to the Einstein Project.

I do not think the GPU task programmers are making very good use of the GPU's capability. I'm a wizard, not a programmer, but WCG found that good GPU tasking can bring a successful conclusion to a project years sooner than even they realized and careful configuration of the app_config.xml file will go a long way to proving GPUs worthly of their hire.

The other thing that WCG did was offering more points (credits) to GPU tasking than non-GPU tasks. This fact encouraged many crunchers to jump on board to earn all the GPU credits they could. With the conclusion of the HCC tasking, there are many crunchers out there looking for a Project to hang their GPUs on (Hint, hint).

I'm new here, so maybe I don't understand the big picture. No offense, if I've stepped on anyone toes.

Woo boy you have cracked open a can of worms there! Credits have long been a touchy subject as some people think they should be identical from project to project, while others think each project should be able to award their own amount. Each project has its own goals and aspirations as well as its own budget. Setting credits REALLY high can mean alot of people join your project and that can mean a resulting large expenditure in hardware on the projects part to support them. Lots of hardware means lots of parts to fail, and when they do all those users are then screaming bloody murder! After all they came for the credits they are no longer getting! Too low credits and you will only get those who BELIEVE in your cause, so there needs to be a happy balance between too few credits and too many credits, balanced with the needs and capabilities of the projects. WCG has the resources of IBM behind it, most projects don't have those kinds of resources available to them. Some are even run in people closets or basements, Seti is one of the largest projects yet runs out of a closet on the campus of UC Berkeley. They are down to being dark a couple days a week and restricting the number of workunits available as a result of a lack of funding.

Each project learns from the other projects and then does it their own way, some heavily modifying the Server side Boinc software, some using it 'straight out of the box'. Some projects have not upgraded in a VERY long time, while others upgrade regularly.

As far as the cpu and gpu goes each project programs their own versions of the file they use, some are very good, some not so much. But that is why we users tend to move around, we want this or that and look for it here and there. There are other variables too, such as the software used to compile the software, in some cases it can be free, but that can means not so good too. In other cases it is not free, but that can mean REAL EXPENSIVE! then the cpu and gpu makers put out their own software to 'optimize' this or that feature, making each projects software useless or less optimized! AMD and Nvidia are catering their software to gamers, crunching and gaming are NOT the same and use the gpu's differently. So they put out new software, you and I upgrade and all of a sudden the projects software is less optimized, we get less credits, and then WE scream!

A project can optimize the heck out of their software, but if it doesn't run well on YOUR pc you won't run it, so like most software it is a compromise limited by the target audience, the skills of the programmer and the software available.

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