Einstein@Home causing system chunkiness

mikey
mikey
Joined: 22 Jan 05
Posts: 11888
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RE: RE: Your clock is up

Quote:
Quote:

Your clock is up and down like a yoyo. Mine never change. They're at max as soon as the machine boots and they stay up no matter what. I allow BOINC to use the GPU when I'm using the computer and I never see any chunkiness.

Dagroth,
I changed the settings in BOINC to use the GPU while computer is in use and use GPU always and the clock does stabilize at the max rate. So I believe this is how it's supposed to work.

The way I interpret the yoyo effect is that the clock rate is reduced when the the GPU idle conserving power and reducing heat. So without a background GPU hog running the upclocks represent significant screen updates.

The problem with letting BOINC use the GPU is that display and especially video operations are impacted and frankly the user experience is more important than donating cycles to E@H (not much).

Joe

There is a setting to only crunch during non work hours, so you could only let it crunch from 5pm to 8am for instance. This would reduce your contribution but also let you use the pc without the current problems. There is also a setting that says whenever program A run stop crunching, when it stops run again, but someone else will have to help you with that. My pc's just crunch, no stopping for me.

FrankHagen
FrankHagen
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RE: There is also a setting

Quote:
There is also a setting that says whenever program A run stop crunching, when it stops run again, but someone else will have to help you with that. My pc's just crunch, no stopping for me.

well, that would be another of those options you can use in cc_config.xml:

filename.exe
BOINC will suspend computing whenever the executable is running (e.g., a game). Case is ignored in filenames. Multiple applications can be specified.

important.exe
BOINC will suspend use of GPUs whenever the executable is running.

joe areeda
joe areeda
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RE: There is a setting to

Quote:
There is a setting to only crunch during non work hours, so you could only let it crunch from 5pm to 8am for instance. This would reduce your contribution but also let you use the pc without the current problems. There is also a setting that says whenever program A run stop crunching, when it stops run again, but someone else will have to help you with that. My pc's just crunch, no stopping for me.


I think for my laptop, which is in use most of the time I'm better off setting it to use GPU while computer is in use and manually changing it when when I work with video. I had an RAC of 4000 or so that way and setting it to not use GPU when computer is in use it's down to about 1900.

I only have a couple other people using computers running CUDA and I promised them BOINC would not be noticeable in their work. Unfortunately their work day is usually long and hours variable so the only real guaranteed off hours are perhaps 12am to 5am with lots of idle time during most days. Unfortunately there is no single (or short list) of programs that need exclusive use.

I'll figure out something that works.

Joe

mikey
mikey
Joined: 22 Jan 05
Posts: 11888
Credit: 1828054366
RAC: 206410

RE: RE: There is also a

Quote:
Quote:
There is also a setting that says whenever program A run stop crunching, when it stops run again, but someone else will have to help you with that. My pc's just crunch, no stopping for me.

well, that would be another of those options you can use in cc_config.xml:

filename.exe
BOINC will suspend computing whenever the executable is running (e.g., a game). Case is ignored in filenames. Multiple applications can be specified.

important.exe
BOINC will suspend use of GPUs whenever the executable is running.

THAT'S IT!!
THANKS!!

mikey
mikey
Joined: 22 Jan 05
Posts: 11888
Credit: 1828054366
RAC: 206410

RE: Unfortunately there is

Quote:
Unfortunately there is no single (or short list) of programs that need exclusive use.
I'll figure out something that works.
Joe

The list can be several, or many, entries long, it does not have to be only one file name! Put in one name, if it works you are done, if not add another file name, it that fixes it, go back and take out the first one and see if it returns or is still okay. Thru some trial and error you should be able to find the right combination of files that let you do your work, and then when you are done the pc returns to crunching.

I forgot I do have one pc that I made it stop using the gpu while I use it, I use that pc for my retirees group emailings and it is less clunky that way. The time interval to wait for the pc to be unbusy is only 1 minute though.

Jord
Joined: 26 Jan 05
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Example of what it looks like

Example of what it looks like in my cc_config.xml file:

   
       0
       0
       1
       1 
       0
       1
       0
       0
       1
       0
       1
       1
       0
       0
       0
       0
       0
       0
       0
       0
       1
       1
       0
       0
       0
       1
       0
       1
       0
       0
       0 
       0
    
  
        1
        8
        SpybotSD.exe
        Crysis2.exe
        oblivion.exe
        falloutnv.exe
        LaunchGTAIV.exe
        GTAIV.exe
        steam.exe
        Launcher.exe
        OperationFlashpoint.exe
        NFS11.exe
        halo.exe
        steam.exe
        RelicCOH.exe
        RedRiver.exe
        RedRiverLauncher.exe
        hunted.exe
        FarCry2.exe
        0
        0
        18119200
        0 
  


As you can see, lots of programs. Mostly games, some spyware-checkers.

Cruisin'
Cruisin'
Joined: 9 Apr 11
Posts: 29
Credit: 147758
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I will try this.

I will try this.

32bit Windows XP Home
AMD Opteron 180
ASUS A8N-SLI Motherboard
Nvidia 450GTS GPU
4GB DDR 400 Memory

Cruisin'
Cruisin'
Joined: 9 Apr 11
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Credit: 147758
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Where is this CC configxml

Where is this CC configxml file at? I am having trouble locating it in BOINC directory.

32bit Windows XP Home
AMD Opteron 180
ASUS A8N-SLI Motherboard
Nvidia 450GTS GPU
4GB DDR 400 Memory

Dagorath
Dagorath
Joined: 22 Apr 06
Posts: 146
Credit: 226423
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It would be in your BOINC

It would be in your BOINC data directory. If it's not there then it's because BOINC doesn't create it for you. You must create it yourself using Notepad or some similar plain text editor. Don't use Word. Save the file in ANSI format and make sure it gets saved with the .xml extension. If you're not careful, Notepad will try and save it with the .txt extension and if that happens BOINC will ignore it.

After you've finished editing the file go to BOINC manager's advanced view, click Advanced -> Read config file to force BOINC client to read cc_config.xml. You must do that every time you edit cc_config.xml in order for the changes to be recognized. BOINC client reads cc_config.xml whenever it starts but forcing the read off of the Advanced menu is faster.

There is a wiki page on using cc_config.xml. If you can't get it to work then post the contents of your cc_config.xml file here and someone will guide you.

Jord
Joined: 26 Jan 05
Posts: 2952
Credit: 5779100
RAC: 0

RE: After you've finished

Quote:
After you've finished editing the file go to BOINC manager's advanced view, click Advanced -> Read config file to force BOINC client to read cc_config.xml. You must do that every time you edit cc_config.xml in order for the changes to be recognized. BOINC client reads cc_config.xml whenever it starts but forcing the read off of the Advanced menu is faster.


All correct info, but one point needs to be addressed. GPU decisions are only made at BOINC startup, so if you have any options added to the cc_config.xml file that have to do with a GPU, it requires that BOINC is exited completely & restarted. A simple re-read of the cc_config.xml file will in these cases not do.

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