Need help understanding resources and credit

whore
whore
Joined: 5 Mar 15
Posts: 7
Credit: 8508986
RAC: 0
Topic 198188

Hi everyone,

I have 2 issues:

#1

I run a total of 5 BOINC projects at any given time, including E@H.

I have my "resource share" for each of the 5 set to 20%

For the other 4 projects, that 20% must only mean "cpu" because they are "cpu-only" projects. However, my E@H is set to almost entirely "gpu" (only a very small % is still cpu, less than 5%).

So for the E@H project,

* What does that "20%" mean? Does it mean it can use up to 20% of my cpu? GPU? Something else?

* If the 20% means "cpu" regarding E@H, but my E@H really only uses 5%, then could I lower the 20% assigned to E@H?

- If I lowered it, then would that impact the credit I earn?

#2

I noticed my E@H credit claimed is usually small (around 13.50) but the credit granted is huge (around 4,400).

* Why is there such a huge difference?

Sorry if these are simple questions, but I just have difficulty understanding the issues. I greatly appreciate your clarification.

Thank you.[/b]

Gary Roberts
Gary Roberts
Moderator
Joined: 9 Feb 05
Posts: 5845
Credit: 109959663893
RAC: 31121375

Need help understanding resources and credit

Quote:
What does that "20%" mean?


Since you are not running any 'CPU only' science run here, it's irrelevant. BOINC should be trying to give your other 4 'CPU only' projects each 25% of your CPU resources. As you have only one project doing GPU tasks, it will get 100% of your GPU resources. If you happened to be doing two such projects, I think they would each get about 50% of your GPU, if BOINC could achieve that.

GPU tasks here need a bit of CPU support (the <5% you quote) but I don't believe that part is really 'counted' when BOINC works out which project next deserves some CPU time.

Quote:
If the 20% means "cpu" regarding E@H, but my E@H really only uses 5%, then could I lower the 20% assigned to E@H?


You could, but it probably wouldn't change anything. BOINC doesn't think it's giving any CPU resources to E@H. I imagine it's just like the GPU steals a bit of CPU time without BOINC noticing. BOINC just splits up what's left 4 ways so there's nothing to be gained. The resource share setting you use for E@H would only really matter if you were to add an E@H CPU science run or a GPU run at another project to the mix.

Quote:
If I lowered it, then would that impact the credit I earn?


No, not with your current mix.

Quote:
Why is there such a huge difference?


Einstein runs quite old versions of BOINC server components with (lots of) unique, project specific customisations. It has not adopted the more recent changes to the BOINC credit system. The original model was to award credit based on CPU benchmarks and CPU crunch time. With such small amounts of CPU involvement in the elapsed time of GPU tasks it's not surprising that the credit claim under the old model is so low. In any case this is irrelevant since E@H awards fixed credit based on the actual computational content of a task. The high credit award is simply a reflection of how 'computationally efficient' GPUs are when compared to CPUs. The credit claim column is of historical interest only and should be ignored for all practical purposes.

Cheers,
Gary.

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