Windows 7 and Einstein/BOINC speed...
9 Jul 2009 3:59:59 UTC
Topic 194437
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I was running the 32-bit 6.36 BOINC manager and 32-bit Windows XP on both my 32 bit older desktop PC and my more recent vintage 64-bit laptop.
Einstein@Home ran on both and the screensaver worked on both.
I've now updated the laptop to 64-bit Windows 7 RC and the 64-bit BOINC 6.36 manager. Although a little slower, the screensaver and crunching continues to work.
I updated the desktop to 32-bit Windows RC (keeping the same 32-bit BOINC manager 6.36). The screen saver graphics are fine but the text is completely garbaged. None of the screen saver text shows at all. I tried the same setup on a work PC with 32-bit Windows 7 RC and had the same screensaver malfunction there too although their BOINC manager was an older version. I noticed a significant slow-down in the process time to crunch the work units.
I've also noticed that other BOINC projects I run got very very slow after 32-bit Windows 7 RC was installed and some of those screensavers also no longer work at all.
So there is something incompatible with the 32-bit version of Windows 7 and several BOINC projects. So if you are thinking about upgrading to Windows 7 and can go to the 64-bit version you should. But I'd advise anyone not to upgrade to the 32-bit Windows 7 RC if they want Einstein and many other BOINC projects to keep functioning at their regular speeds.
It probably has to do with combinations of hardware/software/BOINC managers but every way I tried 32-bit Windows 7 it had lots of problems.
Windows 7 and Einstein/BOINC speed...
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See now I have had the opposite luck, I have only tried the 32 bit version of Windows 7, both the Beta and the RC, and it is faster with Win7 than with XP Pro. I did a clean install on all machines, new hard drive using the old one as a secondary drive now, and it is very fast. I do not crunch Einstein with it but on ABC@home it screamed. I have an AMD quad core as the base with 2 gig of ram and it runs just fine. I do not use the screensaver as it slows down processing, but if you do then it is a good test to continue. I never have so I do not know either. I have several machines crunching and the Win7 machines are right at the top, except for one dual core Intel 3.2ghz machine with HT that SCREAMS while thinking it is a quad core running Linux. I do have one big difference than you do though, I only use version 6.2.19 of Boinc on my Windows machines. I tried the newer versions and I think this one just works better, at least for me. I do not use CUDA in my crunching, as none of the projects I like have it yet. If you do CUDA crunching version 6.5.0 seems to be the best. The 6.6.? versions of Boinc have some scheduling issues and the powers that be are 'working on it'.
Einstein does run OK on mine.
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Einstein does run OK on mine. Just the screensaver doesn't work. The projects W7-32 does almost 5 times slower on are SETI and Docking and Rosetta.
Maybe the hardware it's on makes as much dofference in how it performs. My desktop is a bit dated (Pentium 4 Prescott 3GHz). It's actually a pretty fast version of the old P4 series but it can heat the room it's in within a few minutes. I have an AGP graphics card with 512M so that's a bit dated too.
Just about all I do on this PC now is BOINC so was disappointed to see many of my favarite projects sloooooow dooooooown. Einstein was the only one I noted that completely lost its ability to dispay text on the SS though it continues to run fine.
So I guess the moral to this story is mileage varies depending on optional equipment installed?
RE: Einstein does run OK on
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You might be having a driver problem. I was experiencing the same thing with my Win 7. I have 2 crossfired Radeon X1650's. The CCC drivers for Win 7 don't support the older cards. I went back to XP x64 and my display is perfect.
For Win 7, you need an x2400 or later ATI card. It is possible that the next iteration of Catalyst will correct that problem, but there is no guarantee that ATI will support the older cards.
Good luck!
Will
Man's future lies in the stars, not on Earth. It is each successive generation's responsibility to humanity to expand the knowledge and understanding of our Universe so that we may one day venture forth to meet our neighbors.
After skimming this thread,
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After skimming this thread, it seems that Win 7 and BOINC graphics don't like each other as of yet. But as below, E@h runs okay without the screen saver. So, would anyone here recommend Win 7 yet, or should we wait for the new BOINC version to come out that plays nice with W 7 across the board? That's what I'm hearing from this thread. :-/
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As was the case with Vista,
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As was the case with Vista, when it first appeared, wait for:
a) the full version.
b) for all manufacturers to release full drivers for all their hardware.