Is there a GPU version of the app in the works?

John Clark
John Clark
Joined: 4 May 07
Posts: 1087
Credit: 3143193
RAC: 0

Yes, Paul. From what I

Yes, Paul. From what I see/read the ATI cludge from Cluster P works well, with some MW server side issues of keeping the GPU(s) fed all the time. I am sure Cluster P will overcome this (or is it from the MW server/BOINC end)?

The only problem the ATI approach gives, if the ATI card runs the rig graphics, is how how slow the box is when it refreshes.

I hope to get some ATI cards in the future for my Quads. The system graphic card, in both cases, is an NV (non CUDA) GPU. I don't have the problem of 2 ATI cards in the same system, with 2 sets of ATI drivers.

What I am looking forwards to is installing the MW crunchers in an empty PCIE 2.0 slot, not link it to the monitor and install just the ATI Catalyst display drivers only. I hope there is no connection and the GPU just gets on with the job.

Shih-Tzu are clever, cuddly, playful and rule!! Jack Russell are feisty!

Paul D. Buck
Paul D. Buck
Joined: 17 Jan 05
Posts: 754
Credit: 5385205
RAC: 0

Yeah, that is my problem

Yeah, that is my problem though I am not sure that it is a server side issue alone. I run through a stack of tasks and then have seconds to minutes with no tasks at all ... then I get a short stack and run through those ... rinse, repeat ...

I am not seeing significant issues with screen refreshes with my ATI card (4870) and I am not sure if that is because of the card being higher end, or I don't do anything but BOINC on that system.

Do I understand you correctly that you are already running NV and ATI in a system right now?

I have not tried it myself, but, all I have been able to find is that you cannot run both MFGRs cards in a system at the same time without problems ... I read notes on Vista where MS says you cannot do it at all and another where they had to use XP drivers to get the cards to work ... though there are issues with the system ...

John Clark
John Clark
Joined: 4 May 07
Posts: 1087
Credit: 3143193
RAC: 0

RE: Do I understand you

Message 87182 in response to message 87181

Quote:
Do I understand you correctly that you are already running NV and ATI in a system right now?

No, not where I have the HD38xx GPU cruncher..

I have 2 old systems - a dual P with only ISA slots, and a dual Prestonia Xeon with 1 AGP slot (just young enough). The rest of the available slots are PCI-X.

I took the old ATI card, a ATI radeon 9250, out (after uninstalling the drivers) and replaced it with a HD3850. I installed the full 8.12 Catalyst Centre, and the card GPU is crunching MW fine (except with the intermittent WU starvation you mentioned).

Clearly, the system and graphics, being less powerful than yours, gives me slow screen refreshes. But I can live with that as I crunch Einstein and Malaria (slowly). The only other thing on the box is the Email client collecting contact messages from my web sites.

Quote:
I have not tried it myself, but, all I have been able to find is that you cannot run both MFGRs cards in a system at the same time without problems ... I read notes on Vista where MS says you cannot do it at all and another where they had to use XP drivers to get the cards to work ... though there are issues with the system ...

I am speculating, as my 2 quads have 2 spare PCIE slots, and the main graphics are through an NV graphics card. That I should be able to install an ATI HD4850/4870 (single GPU) and the graphics driver only. Again, I assume that as the card is not connected to the monitor, and it uses the graphics drivers only, that I can use both cards for different purposes - NV for system graphics, and ATI for MW crunching only.

I do no gaming so an older NV driving the system graphics only needs to cope wit normal window applications traffic.

Shih-Tzu are clever, cuddly, playful and rule!! Jack Russell are feisty!

Paul D. Buck
Paul D. Buck
Joined: 17 Jan 05
Posts: 754
Credit: 5385205
RAC: 0

RE: I am speculating, as my

Message 87183 in response to message 87182

Quote:
I am speculating, as my 2 quads have 2 spare PCIE slots, and the main graphics are through an NV graphics card. That I should be able to install an ATI HD4850/4870 (single GPU) and the graphics driver only. Again, I assume that as the card is not connected to the monitor, and it uses the graphics drivers only, that I can use both cards for different purposes - NV for system graphics, and ATI for MW crunching only.


Have a fall back... my limited research to this point says that you can't do that ... sadly ... because it is what I would like to do also. Mostly from the sense of balancing work across multiple systems. In a system with 3 PCI-e slots I would go for something like a GTX 295, C1060 Tesla, and a HD4890(2) card as an "ideal" configuration as things stand AT THIS TIME ... at least in theory ...

The issue seems to be that the OS guys to this point seem to think that you would not ever want to mix and match components in the GPU arena so have not made it easy or perhaps even possible to make a system like this functional. I am a long way from standing up my next system so I am not likely to try anything anytime soon so I will be able to wait to see if anyone is successful with a mixed configuration. The Gas Giant tried and the last report I recall is that he gave up after a short exercise in futility ...

On the other hand, an alternative is to have 4 windows systems with two on Nvidia and two ATI ... :)

Though, as I said, because of the ease of use and other factors I am right now "heavy" on the Nvidia side though my 4 cards are spanning the capability spectrum with the high end being two GTX 295s which I would like to get a couple more of ...

Though if the C1060s are super hot I might consider getting some of them and use the 295s for video out on systems ... fun to think about anyway ... I mean, when other projects I support come out with CUDA applications I need to up my capabilities so that I can keep GPU Grid at about its earning level ... :)

Jord
Joined: 26 Jan 05
Posts: 2952
Credit: 5893653
RAC: 4

RE: I do no gaming Too

Message 87184 in response to message 87182

Quote:
I do no gaming


Too bad, as that HD3850 blasts Oblivion around without a problem, even with everything on high, far distance. ;-)

Ed1934158
Ed1934158
Joined: 10 Nov 04
Posts: 62
Credit: 14481483
RAC: 0

I use linux 64bit, and just

I use linux 64bit, and just installed cuda without any problems, also boinc found the "coprocessor". I'm not sure that I understand, I thought that einstein@home uses CUDA, but this post said that it didn't yet:
http://einsteinathome.org/node/194121&nowrap=true#93647

So if it's using it, how do I make it to work, will it download some new units, or do I have to enable it somewhere first? Will I see 5 processes, instead 4 (I have quad core)?

Gerry Rough
Gerry Rough
Joined: 1 Mar 05
Posts: 102
Credit: 1847066
RAC: 0

RE: I use linux 64bit, and

Message 87186 in response to message 87185

Quote:

I use linux 64bit, and just installed cuda without any problems, also boinc found the "coprocessor". I'm not sure that I understand, I thought that einstein@home uses CUDA, but this post said that it didn't yet:
http://einsteinathome.org/node/194121&nowrap=true#93647

So if it's using it, how do I make it to work, will it download some new units, or do I have to enable it somewhere first? Will I see 5 processes, instead 4 (I have quad core)?

Einstein does not yet use CUDA enabled work units. It has been sort of mentioned that the first CUDA work units could be rolled out sometime in the next few weeks.


(Click for detailed stats)

Ed1934158
Ed1934158
Joined: 10 Nov 04
Posts: 62
Credit: 14481483
RAC: 0

RE: Einstein does not yet

Message 87187 in response to message 87186

Quote:
Einstein does not yet use CUDA enabled work units. It has been sort of mentioned that the first CUDA work units could be rolled out sometime in the next few weeks.


Thank you, I'll be crunch gpugrid till then. I've just installed it works fine. :)

Bikeman (Heinz-Bernd Eggenstein)
Bikeman (Heinz-...
Moderator
Joined: 28 Aug 06
Posts: 3522
Credit: 761074869
RAC: 1107945

RE: Einstein does not yet

Message 87188 in response to message 87186

Quote:

Einstein does not yet use CUDA enabled work units. It has been sort of mentioned that the first CUDA work units could be rolled out sometime in the next few weeks.

It is possible that you confuse this with the PALFA EM pulsar search. That should indeed begin "very soon". A GPU enabled app will probably come quite a bit after the PALFA search has started.

CU
Bikeman

Gerry Rough
Gerry Rough
Joined: 1 Mar 05
Posts: 102
Credit: 1847066
RAC: 0

RE: RE: Einstein does

Message 87189 in response to message 87188

Quote:
Quote:

Einstein does not yet use CUDA enabled work units. It has been sort of mentioned that the first CUDA work units could be rolled out sometime in the next few weeks.

It is possible that you confuse this with the PALFA EM pulsar search. That should indeed begin "very soon". A GPU enabled app will probably come quite a bit after the PALFA search has started.

CU
Bikeman

I think you are correct. I went back to the OpenCL thread and the context was not as soon as I thought. But the good news is that things are getting interesting, with speak of testing and parallel CUDA and OpenCL code. Nice!!


(Click for detailed stats)

Comment viewing options

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