Low macOS GPU utilization on O2MDF task (RX580)

Justin Gregg
Justin Gregg
Joined: 18 Feb 12
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Topic 224571

I'm seeing very low GPU utilization on O2MDF tasks on macOS 10.15 (Catalina), and the tasks are taking far more CPU time than I would expect. Tasks take approximately 55min to complete on RX580 (stock clocking) and Intel Core i7-9700K (stock clocking) (https://einsteinathome.org/host/12838735).

Is there something I can do to help debug this issue?

shift
Joined: 22 May 18
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I'm running windows 10 with a

I'm running windows 10 with a RX 560 and I find a similar story. 02MDF is taking a whole core on my 4 core i5 and the gpu is only at 7% according to the windows task manager (although the radeon software says it is oscillating between 40 and 90%). I also find it confusing. Maybe we should be trying to run more jobs simultaneously on the gpu (although I had the feeling my gpu wasn't really strong enough to do such magic).

Gary Roberts
Gary Roberts
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shift wrote: I'm running

shift wrote:

I'm running windows 10 with a RX 560 and ...

Which doesn't really give us much useful information.

You need to specify a lot more details than that.  Your computers are hidden so nobody can check details about which searches you are running, how long jobs are actually taking - both CPU time and elapsed time for different types of tasks, what other projects you might be supporting, how much RAM your GPU has, etc, etc.  If you allow people to see all the non-sensitive details by changing your privacy preference settings on the website, you would be able to get some decent advice about improving performance.

I run quite a few RX 460 and RX 560 GPUs.  They are not in the same class as RX 580s but decent performers nevertheless and have no difficulty in running 2 concurrent tasks of the gamma-ray pulsar (GRP) search.  To run the O2MDF search you need a lot more memory than for GRP so that might be a factor if your card only has 2GB.

For more comprehensive advice, please consider 'un-hiding' your computers (account -> preferences -> privacy).

Cheers,
Gary.

Justin Gregg
Justin Gregg
Joined: 18 Feb 12
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Hey Gary, thanks for your

Hey Gary, thanks for your reply. My computer isn't hidden, so please let me know if there is any other information that can help debug this issue. I don't have many recent results because I moved to a different project while this bug is sorted out; I'll re-enable new work so you can see some tasks flow in.

Justin Gregg
Justin Gregg
Joined: 18 Feb 12
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It seems with the

The O2MDF tasks still sit at ~6% GPU usage as pictured above. 

LATeah300x tasks hit around 65% GPU usage. And other apps have no issue hitting 100%.

Please note that the RX580 is an 8GB card, and I'm running it on a GPU not doing any video, so available GPU-RAM should be no issue.

Keith Myers
Keith Myers
Joined: 11 Feb 11
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I know nothing about MacOS,

I know nothing about MacOS, but recently have been reading about issues with the MacOS utility called "App Nap" which idles applications if the OS thinks they aren't doing anything.

I wonder if this is what is happening in your case.

https://www.howtogeek.com/277414/what-is-app-nap-is-it-slowing-down-my-mac-apps/

 

mmonnin
mmonnin
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In other OSs, O2MDF tasks

In other OSs, O2MDF tasks need a full CPU thread. Are you giving it enough CPU processing power? Stop any BOINC task running on the CPU to see what the GPU util does.

Justin Gregg
Justin Gregg
Joined: 18 Feb 12
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I don't run any CPU BOINC

I don't run any CPU BOINC tasks. Non-BOINC CPU usage is usually ~5-10%. O2MDF tasks are taking 10-12% CPU.

shift
Joined: 22 May 18
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Thanks Gary, I have now

Thanks Gary, I have now unhidden my computers for future issues and you are right, in my case, the dedicated GPU RAM is the issue. 2GB isn't cutting it for 02MDF but I'm glad to hear I should be able to run concurrent GRPs. BTW, I originally replied to the OP as it appeared to be similar and no one had replied to the post.  

Justin Gregg
Justin Gregg
Joined: 18 Feb 12
Posts: 7
Credit: 137114432
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Is there any way to get

Is there any way to get further debug information out of the O2MDF application? Are the developers monitoring this bug-reports forum?

shift
Joined: 22 May 18
Posts: 3
Credit: 6263500
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Hi Justin,   I think

Hi Justin,

 

I think the moderators are as close as you'll get...but what would I know? 

I noticed in windows that even though the task manager was saying I was doing only a small amount of GPU stuff, it was actually telling me about how much 3D work it was doing, once I changed the display option in task manager to 'compute' instead of '3D' I could see I was using a lot more of the card than I originally thought. 

I wonder if a similar thing is happening to you using activity monitor? I hear that istat can tell you more info about GPU usage on mac. 

 

 

 

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