intel gpu help
Anonymous
14 Sep 2014 12:59:17 UTC
Topic 197719
(moderation:
I need clarification on the Intel GPU.
My assumption is that this is a "built in" based upon the CPU processor you are running. For example: I have one PC currently running a "GenuineIntel Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4770 CPU" and a "CAL AMD Radeon HD 7850/7870 series (Pitcairn)" GPU. The AMD is currently performing as expected.
Questions:
1. Is the I7-4770 CPU an "Intel GPU"?, i.e. does it have GPU capability?
2. It is possible to "crunch" with both physical GPUs? or is it a "one or the other" case? (I am aware of the "toggle" on my account for "use Intel")
3. If you can use "both" simultaneously to crunch data is there a "switch" within the BIOS that needs to be set, i.e., "Initiate IGPU" setting on an ASUS MB set to "Enable"?
4. Do you need to set/install a current Intel drivers to support IGPU crunching in addition to the AMD drivers installed to support the AMD card.
intel gpu help
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1) The Intel I7-4770 is not, of itself, an Intel GPU. But it contains an Intel HD 4600 graphics component, which is the iGPU we refer to.
2) BOINC will allow you to crunch with both GPUs, but there are other pre-requisites too. First, your motherboard must support using both devices at the same time. I have a Dell Optiplex which absolutely refuses to use both GPUs, and a home-build based on a Gigabyte motherboard which is perfectly happy to do so.
3) As above. There may be a BIOS setting which needs to be flipped, or there may not. It depends on the motherboard. It is also easiest to set up if you have a monitor or dummy load connected to the on-board video output (whichever device you use as your primary display output) - there are (complicated) workrounds, but try the easy way first if you can.
4) You certainly do need Intel HD graphics drivers installed to use the HD 4600 as a cruncher. Be careful with that weasel word 'current' - there's an active thread Widespread BRP4 validation errors in the Help Desk area with version numbers to watch out for: 10.18.10.3621 is looking like a good bet at the moment.
Intel's automatic driver tools sometimes claim (wrongly) that you CPU is incompatible. If that happens, I find that downloading the .zip file version of the driver, and following the manual 'have disk' procedure documented in the ReadMe file, is most likely to be successful.
RE: 1) The Intel I7-4770 is
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Wow. Frustrating. I believe my ASUS MB supports using both an AMD and Intel device based upon my reading of the MB book and their cryptic help in the BIOS. But I was not able to get it working. I had the option of setting IGPU as the primary device or PCIE as a primary device or "Auto". No matter the configuration the monitor was unusable. Yes I did download the latest INTEL driver and install it but after doing that things got so bad that I was faced with a rebuild. The installation of the Intel driver really tweaked/twerked something to the point of no recovery - at least I did not have any idea. I am wondering about the "dummy load" thing. Is it required in order for the system to recognize "the other" graphics card? I am not sure I am making any sense. I always expect the worse and was not disappointed this afternoon. :>) I seem to be backup but I am not seeing any AMD jobs even though the logs say they are being requested.
Mas tequila!!!!
There's a question we ought
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There's a question we ought to have got clear before we started this: is the host in question running Windows or Linux?
At the moment (referring to the applications page), there's only one Einstein application for Intel GPU, and it's BRP4 for Windows (available for 32-bit or 64-bit clients). Linux, nada - unless you feel like compiling it yourself?
I have one host running
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I have one host running Windows 7 which has an i3-4130 CPU and thus has on-chip 4400 graphics, and also has an NVidia GTX 750 graphics card.
I currently do not use the Intel graphics, but for several months I did process Einstein work on all three of the 750, the 4400, and CPU jobs on the CPU cores.
I never used a dummy plug, but the configuration I was running at the time had my actual monitor connected to the motherboard (and thus the 4400 graphics), not the add-on GPU card. I think it is perhaps configurations which run the monitor from the add-on card which need a dummy plug on the motherboard graphics connector in order for BOINC to see and use the on-chip Intel GPU.
The available Einstein work for Intel GPUs has a very short run time per work unit. Possibly the limits have changed since, but it was pretty easy to have a situation in which boinc would download the daily limit of work.
The general problem that BOINC has in managing task completion estimates when one runs multiple flavors of work was particularly vexing to me in this particular configuration. I suggest you consider setting your preferences for the location (aka venue) on which this host runs to very short "queue" length--far under a day, especially while getting started and running the risk of massive job failures if anything goes wrong.
While the reported CPU consumption for the BRP4 jobs which run on the Intel GPU is exceedingly small, the actual resource conflict, as measured by slowing of other work, whether on the add-on card GPU or CPU, seems much greater than those numbers suggest. You may find it a bit of a challenge to tune your configuration for maximum performance (i.e. selecting what fraction of the CPU capacity to allow in use, and what multiplicity to run on the two GPUs in question, and perhaps adjustment of process and I/O priorities using Process Lasso or such).
I am not trying to denigrate use of the Intel GPU, but rather to suggest that understanding, tuning, and managing a configuration of this type may be a bit confusing and challenging.
I am currently on summer power restriction, where I use a combination of TThrottle and configuration changes to try to reduce the power consumption incurred by my Einstein processing enough to keep my household power consumption below the maximum rate tier, by reducing power consumption about equal to the increase imposed by the motors and pumps on the evaporative coolers which cool our house. Also the host in question is primarily used by my wife, and I want it to be stable and not to require tinkering, so hit on the simple solution of turning off use of the Intel GPU, and was surprised not to lose as much RAC as I would have guessed, perhaps none at all.
Good luck
RE: There's a question we
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I'm running Linux :>( . My mistake. Should have provided that info. I should have looked a bit harder at the "applications" list.
RE: I seem to be backup but
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I am now crunching AMD WUs. I had been down this road before but had forgotten what I did to "fix it" (thanks Tom), namely run the Ubuntu distro's ati drivers and not the latest from the AMD website.
As a point of reference, the
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As a point of reference, the Intel GPU's absolutely must have a dummy plug or monitor plugged into one of the onboard video ports on the I/O panel of the motherboard, otherwise they will not be recognized and functional in BOINC.
RE: As a point of
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Not true, you can extend the desktop onto it, and not have a dummy plug, Boinc should still detect and use the Intel GP.
That is right click on the desktop, choose 'screen resolution', go 'detect', chose the display that is on your Intel GPU, you'll have to force it detect the GPU by 'try and connect anyway on: VGA', then on 'multiple displays', chose 'extend these displays', Restart Boinc.
Claggy
I know about that method, but
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I know about that method, but I have never been able to get that to work properly for me on multiple machines. Many others report the same thing, so I gave up trying to make it work. Ymmv, however.
RE: I know about that
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For the extended thing to work for me I have to have the 2nd monitor plugged in and turned on when the pc booted up, otherwise I too need a dummy plug. For me the dummy plug is easier than running cords everywhere, so I stopped fiddling with it. I use a vnc program to sit at one pc and control all the rest, most of my pc's have no keyboard, mouse or monitor hooked up to them. Getting extension cables for my monitor was easy, but dummy plugs are easier for me.