question about 2 gpus

mdawson
mdawson
Joined: 23 Feb 05
Posts: 77
Credit: 6,575,069
RAC: 0
Topic 194673

I recently installed a monster of a video card with an NVidia chip. All is well. I thought, what the heck, why not put in the old video card too. It also has an NVidia chip.

So.... under the TASKS tab, the STATUS column indicates a change. Instead of reporting 0.1 CPUs + 1.00 NVIDIA GPUS, it now says 0.22 CPUS + 1 NVidia GPUS.

I don't have a monitor connected to the 2nd card. How can I be sure both gpus are crunching.

Gundolf Jahn
Gundolf Jahn
Joined: 1 Mar 05
Posts: 1,079
Credit: 341,280
RAC: 0

question about 2 gpus

Both your computers show only one CUDA device each, but I don't know how accurate those host details are. So, you should check your Messages tab after a restart of the BOINC client if both GPUs are shown.

Did you create a cc_config.xml file with the line
1
in it (among others)? If not, look at Ageless's CUDA FAQ for further instructions.

Gruß,
Gundolf

Computer sind nicht alles im Leben. (Kleiner Scherz)

mdawson
mdawson
Joined: 23 Feb 05
Posts: 77
Credit: 6,575,069
RAC: 0

RE: Both your computers

Message 95934 in response to message 95933

Quote:

Both your computers show only one CUDA device each, but I don't know how accurate those host details are. So, you should check your Messages tab after a restart of the BOINC client if both GPUs are shown.

Did you create a cc_config.xml file with the line
1
in it (among others)? If not, look at Ageless's CUDA FAQ for further instructions.

Gruß,
Gundolf

Gundolf,

Those are both the same machine. One is when I had XP loaded, and the other is the same machine now with Win 7. I'll combine them soon enough.

I read through the faqs you pointed out and have created a cc_config.xml file with 1 as the only option parameter. Do I need to have all that other code as mentioned in the faqs? I have restarted BOINC and have also forced a read on the config file. Nothing seems to have changed. My messages still only indicate one GPU being used.

Question - is it possible that the two gpus are linked and are running as one? I thought I saw an option for that in the app that came with the video card. Is there an advantage to running both as one, or would I get more work done if they were made separate gpus?

Gundolf Jahn
Gundolf Jahn
Joined: 1 Mar 05
Posts: 1,079
Credit: 341,280
RAC: 0

RE: Question - is it

Message 95935 in response to message 95934

Quote:
Question - is it possible that the two gpus are linked and are running as one? I thought I saw an option for that in the app that came with the video card. Is there an advantage to running both as one, or would I get more work done if they were made separate gpus?


I think you are referring to SLI mode. As far as I know (I don't have a CUDA device) it's only an advantage for gaming, not for application processing, but the newer drivers should take care of that automatically.

About your problem: did you see the paragraph about a second monitor or dummy plug in Jord's FAQ?

Quote:
OK, so now I disabled SLI and BOINC only recognizes one video card. What is up with that then?
Some people report that in order to have both video cards recognized and be able to use them, you can try to extend your desktop over all your videocards; if that doesn't work you need to have a monitor attached to each video card, or add a VGA dummy (requires soldering) to the VGA outlet of the other video card(s). This how-to needs no soldering.


I didn't copy the links into this quote; you'll have to read the original for that :-)

Gruß,
Gundolf

Computer sind nicht alles im Leben. (Kleiner Scherz)

Jord
Joined: 26 Jan 05
Posts: 2,952
Credit: 5,890,188
RAC: 4,142

RE: I think you are

Message 95936 in response to message 95935

Quote:
I think you are referring to SLI mode.


SLI only works if you have two identical GPUs, e.g. both are a GTX 275.
It won't work if they are different models, e.g. a GTX 275 and a 9400 GT.

mdawson
mdawson
Joined: 23 Feb 05
Posts: 77
Credit: 6,575,069
RAC: 0

RE: RE: About your

Message 95937 in response to message 95935

Quote:
Quote:
About your problem: did you see the paragraph about a second monitor or dummy plug in Jord's FAQ?
Quote:


Some people report that in order to have both video cards recognized and be able to use them, you can try to extend your desktop over all your videocards;

Gruß,
Gundolf

Ok, now we're getting somewhere. Hooking up a monitor is what did it. I took the VGA port of the 2nd card and plugged it into the VGA port on one of my 2 monitors. (They're getting DVI feeds from the new card.) It was recognized instantly. I then messed with nVidia's control applet, stopped BOINC and then restarted. Both gpus are now recognized. Wow! My new one is waaaay faster than the old one.

Now it's kerchunking. Two WU entries say "RUNNING (0.22 CPUs + 1.00 NVIDIA GPUs(device 0 or 1))

Thanks for the advice.

12/13/2009 1:36:56 PM Running under account mdawson
12/13/2009 1:36:56 PM Processor: 4 GenuineIntel Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40GHz [Intel64 Family 6 Model 15 Stepping 11]
12/13/2009 1:36:56 PM Processor: 4.00 MB cache
12/13/2009 1:36:56 PM Processor features: fpu tsc pae nx sse sse2 pni mmx
12/13/2009 1:36:56 PM OS: Microsoft Windows 7: x64 Edition, (06.01.7600.00)
12/13/2009 1:36:56 PM Memory: 2.00 GB physical, 4.00 GB virtual
12/13/2009 1:36:56 PM Disk: 1.36 TB total, 1.26 TB free
12/13/2009 1:36:56 PM Local time is UTC -8 hours
12/13/2009 1:36:56 PM NVIDIA GPU 0: GeForce GTX 260 (driver version 19107, CUDA version 2030, compute capability 1.3, 896MB, 583 GFLOPS peak)
12/13/2009 1:36:56 PM NVIDIA GPU 1: GeForce 8600 GT (driver version 19107, CUDA version 2030, compute capability 1.1, 512MB, 38 GFLOPS peak)
12/13/2009 1:36:56 PM Not using a proxy
12/13/2009 1:36:56 PM Einstein@Home URL http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/; Computer ID 2221041; resource share 100
12/13/2009 1:36:56 PM SETI@home URL http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/; Computer ID 5214865; resource share 100
12/13/2009 1:36:56 PM Einstein@Home General prefs: from Einstein@Home (last modified 13-Dec-2009 00:07:08)
12/13/2009 1:36:56 PM Einstein@Home Computer location: home
12/13/2009 1:36:56 PM General prefs: using separate prefs for home
12/13/2009 1:36:56 PM Reading preferences override file
12/13/2009 1:36:56 PM Preferences limit memory usage when active to 2046.49MB
12/13/2009 1:36:56 PM Preferences limit memory usage when idle to 2046.49MB
12/13/2009 1:36:56 PM Preferences limit disk usage to 100.00GB
12/13/2009 1:36:56 PM Einstein@Home Restarting task h1_1007.05_S5R4__486_S5R6a_1 using einstein_S5R6 version 301
12/13/2009 1:36:57 PM Einstein@Home Restarting task h1_1007.05_S5R4__485_S5R6a_0 using einstein_S5R6 version 301
12/13/2009 1:36:58 PM Einstein@Home Restarting task h1_1007.05_S5R4__495_S5R6a_2 using einstein_S5R6 version 301
12/13/2009 1:36:58 PM Einstein@Home Restarting task h1_1007.05_S5R4__484_S5R6a_1 using einstein_S5R6 version 301

astrocrab
astrocrab
Joined: 28 Jan 08
Posts: 208
Credit: 429,202,534
RAC: 0

did you solve your problem?

did you solve your problem?

niterobin
niterobin
Joined: 24 Nov 07
Posts: 10
Credit: 301,002
RAC: 0

RE: Hooking up a monitor is

Message 95939 in response to message 95937

Quote:
Hooking up a monitor is what did it. I took the VGA port of the 2nd card and plugged it into the VGA port on one of my 2 monitors. (They're getting DVI feeds from the new card.) It was recognized instantly. I then messed with nVidia's control applet, stopped BOINC and then restarted. Both gpus are now recognized. Wow! My new one is waaaay faster than the old one.

This article may be of interest to you if you don't want to have both monitors conencted to one machine. I have not tried it, but it does seem to work.

http://www.overclock.net/overclock-net-folding-home-team/384733-30-second-dummy-plug.html

Bernd Machenschalk
Bernd Machenschalk
Moderator
Administrator
Joined: 15 Oct 04
Posts: 4,305
Credit: 249,061,551
RAC: 33,428

RE: This article may be of

Message 95940 in response to message 95939

Quote:
This article may be of interest to you if you don't want to have both monitors conencted to one machine. I have not tried it, but it does seem to work.

It does, using it on some server machines here.

BM

BM

mdawson
mdawson
Joined: 23 Feb 05
Posts: 77
Credit: 6,575,069
RAC: 0

RE: did you solve your

Message 95941 in response to message 95938

Quote:
did you solve your problem?


Oh yeah, I'm cranking right along. Thanks for everybody's help.

hotze33
hotze33
Joined: 10 Nov 04
Posts: 100
Credit: 368,387,400
RAC: 0

Hi, I got the same problem

Hi,
I got the same problem with my two 9800GX2. I have used them on the Win7 64bit beta with two monitors and everything worked fine with boinc 6.5 (all 4 gpus detected). Now I have installed Win7 64bit prof. and only 2 gpus were active. I have hooked up a third display and boinc is crunching on 3 gpus. So every gpu needs a display to be recognized (I still need a dummy to get the last one).
Also SLI did not work until I connected one display to one 9800GX2, then it was possible to enable SLI on the cards.
So there have been a major change from win7 beta to final.

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.