Einstein@Home GPU/APU Application for AMD/ATI Graphics Cards: discussion thread

peeticek_LubosKrutek
peeticek_LubosKrutek
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RE: Hi guys, its a double

Quote:

Hi guys, its a double precision vga needed?

im owner of 6850 :)

thx

p.

I got first results
- 7.0.28 + latest CATALYSTs

8h15m is my time :-/
- i got 500points

2nd task is in progres // 80% after 6,5h :-(

First numbers looked good, i got 25% in 20min - so i expected that whole task will finish in 80min, which means cca 9000points/24h. But later something went wrong probably and i got these times :(

Is somebody with 6850 out there? - if yes, post the results pls..

i dont know where the problem is.. :-/

Bikeman (Heinz-Bernd Eggenstein)
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RE: RE: Hi guys, its a

Quote:
Quote:

Hi guys, its a double precision vga needed?

im owner of 6850 :)

thx

p.

I got first results
- 7.0.28 + latest CATALYSTs

8h15m is my time :-/
- i got 500points

2nd task is in progres // 80% after 6,5h :-(

First numbers looked good, i got 25% in 20min - so i expected that whole task will finish in 80min, which means cca 9000points/24h. But later something went wrong probably and i got these times :(

Is somebody with 6850 out there? - if yes, post the results pls..

i dont know where the problem is.. :-/

Indeed, I would expect the performance of this card to be higher by a factor of 4 at least.

Did you consider the advise in the message just before your's?: http://einsteinathome.org/node/196325&nowrap=true#117629.

The AMD drivers seem to like having a CPU core for their own, even tho the OpenCL BRP4 app will be run by BOINC at a higher OS priority than the pure-CPU tasks.

Cheers
HB

gtg302v
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Hello there, I'm

Hello there,

I'm successfully running the BRP tasks on a single 6550 (the integrated GPU in the A8 series of AMD processors). Everything works great, run times per work unit are about 4 hours with CPU usage throttled at 75%. It makes me all giddy just thinking about it.

My issue is that sometimes, not all the time but sometimes, the BRP tasks ignore computing preferences settings in the BIONIC manager. My computer is scheduled to run @home projects from midnight to 8 am, but i if i'm casually using the machine and won't need any real processing power, i'll change my settings to let tasks run while computer is in use. If i do start something that requires processing power and change my settings to keep tasks from running, the BRP tasks carry on like they were British. I can even change the preferences to use 0 cores, and 0 CPU time and the tasks are indefatigable in the face of adversity. The status says it's suspended because the computer is in use, but the cheeky devil just keeps crunching away.

Not really a serious problem for me, and it won't prevent me from using it, but it can be a bit annoying if i actually need my GPU. Any advice?

Best,
Jonathan

Petrion
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RE: RE: Hi guys, its a

Quote:
Quote:

Hi guys, its a double precision vga needed?

im owner of 6850 :)

thx

p.

I got first results
- 7.0.28 + latest CATALYSTs

8h15m is my time :-/
- i got 500points

2nd task is in progres // 80% after 6,5h :-(

First numbers looked good, i got 25% in 20min - so i expected that whole task will finish in 80min, which means cca 9000points/24h. But later something went wrong probably and i got these times :(

Is somebody with 6850 out there? - if yes, post the results pls..

i dont know where the problem is.. :-/

You must have missed my post earlier in this thread http://einsteinathome.org/node/196325&nowrap=true#117571

I have a 6850 and crunch on average at 1h.05m.

What other hardware do you have? CPU, PCIe 1.1 or 2.0?

I did notice one other thing the other day when my times started to slip to 1h.45m after playing some games and doing some graphics work; a simple reboot seemed to clear things up. I had gone about 2 days without a reboot to flush garbage out of memory.

Let me know,

Jason

Jord
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RE: Is somebody with 6850

Quote:
Is somebody with 6850 out there? - if yes, post the results pls..


31/05/2012 09:48:08 | | Processor: 4 GenuineIntel Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2500K CPU @ 3.30GHz [Family 6 Model 42 Stepping 7]
31/05/2012 09:48:08 | | OS: Microsoft Windows 7: Ultimate x64 Edition, Service Pack 1, (06.01.7601.00)
31/05/2012 09:48:08 | | ATI GPU 0: Barts (CAL version 1.4.1720, 2048MB, 2015MB available, 2976 GFLOPS peak)
31/05/2012 09:48:08 | | OpenCL: ATI GPU 0: Barts (driver version CAL 1.4.1720 (VM), device version OpenCL 1.2 AMD-APP (923.1), 2048MB, 2015MB available)

My HD6850 runs only Einstein tasks. Neither the GPU nor the CPU are overclocked. I've instructed BOINC to run with "On multiprocessors, use at most 75% of the processors", leaving one core free to cater for the GPU. If I don't do that, tasks take 10 hours or more. Now the BRP4 v1.24s take on average ~4,300 seconds. Link to my results.

Rohan CR
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I have this rig:

I have this rig: http://einsteinathome.org/account/20458/computers
The preferences are use 5 processors, 80% of CPU time, I am new to crunching. I know enough to get myself into trouble and get myself out of it only from time to time ;)

My problem is with the time taken to process GPU tasks. Boinc reports a nominal task time of 2:04:05 for all downloaded GPU tasks. So far the first 2 tasks are at 10:57:00 for 80% completion, using 0.5 CPU & ati GPU (Device(0)and(1)).

Could having the GPU's in crossfire have an effect? If so does reverting back to single GPU's help? I chickened out of reverting in case the tasks became corrupted or such. As to the GPU's - before anyone points out the obvious - they aren't high end, 2 for the price of 1! (no free steak knives though). They work quite well for other things I've used them for! So as to configuring my option or preferences to speed things up...thoughts anyone?

Outside of Boinc the computer is used now mainly for publisher, word docs & spreadsheets - very little load really. My concern is the GPU tasks downloaded to crunch can't be completed by due date at this rate.

Bikeman (Heinz-Bernd Eggenstein)
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RE: I have this rig:

Quote:

I have this rig: http://einsteinathome.org/account/20458/computers
The preferences are use 5 processors, 80% of CPU time, I am new to crunching. I know enough to get myself into trouble and get myself out of it only from time to time ;)

My problem is with the time taken to process GPU tasks. Boinc reports a nominal task time of 2:04:05 for all downloaded GPU tasks. So far the first 2 tasks are at 10:57:00 for 80% completion, using 0.5 CPU & ati GPU (Device(0)and(1)).

Could having the GPU's in crossfire have an effect? If so does reverting back to single GPU's help? I chickened out of reverting in case the tasks became corrupted or such. As to the GPU's - before anyone points out the obvious - they aren't high end, 2 for the price of 1! (no free steak knives though). They work quite well for other things I've used them for! So as to configuring my option or preferences to speed things up...thoughts anyone?

Outside of Boinc the computer is used now mainly for publisher, word docs & spreadsheets - very little load really. My concern is the GPU tasks downloaded to crunch can't be completed by due date at this rate.

Hi,

It would be interesting to see if crossfire has an impact here. However in general, I suspect that your gfx cards have so few shaders that they might not even be able to outperform the CPU when running BRP4 jobs :-(

I plan to make some evaluation of runtime by GPU type based on the statistics in the E@H database next week, after that there should be some overview which type of cards should better not be used atm.

Cheers
HBE

P.S.: In general, I would also recommend not to use the "xxx % of CPU time" throttling setting in the preferences. For multi-core CPUs as yours, it's better to use the "xxx % of cores" setting instead which overall has quite the same effect.

Rohan CR
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Thanks HBE, duly noted and I

Thanks HBE, duly noted and I tweaked the preferences.

I took a gamble re Crossfire. Anyone please feel free to comment...or tell me to politely go soak my head because I "zen"-ed this solution :) So this is how it went:

Checked card & driver set-up. ATI Catalyst is 12.4. FYI, it seems actual driver version is 8.961.0.0. First suspended all work & exited Boinc every time I changed settings - don't want corruptions of data. (seemed like a good idea?)

1) As a 2x 5450 cards in Crossfire, I auto over-clocked via Vision Control Centre from stock 650Mhz core clock /800 Mhz memory to 840Mhz/950Mhz. ATI Work unit times blew out in the end to 36 hrs+ as well as other CPU based work unit times began to climb, with two peaking at 92 & 96 hrs. Huh?

2)Un-linked crossfire. Auto over-clocked Device 0, Device 1 ran at stock speed - was unable to access over-clocking for that card in Vision Control Centre. Bizarrely, ATI Device 1 (stock speed) began to run faster work unit times and began to catch the ATI Device 0 over-clocked card. (scratches head then meditates). However work unit prediction times for pending work dropped considerably to about 12hrs.

3) My Gigabyte MB has an on-board 4290 (forgot about that being there). So into the bios & enable on-board video. Boot up and the 4290 now runs the screen and the two 5450's are inaccessible via Vision Control Centre/AMD Overdrive etc (listed as disabled) but they are not. I'm figuring since Boinc "found" them before these changes at least Boinc knows where to access them for work under this "disabled" arrangement. They are happily crunching away. Work unit times currently down to under 8 hrs and falling. Boinc might lose a bit with memory & CPU power being diverted towards on-board graphics but I can't see a noticebale loading at this time. I now only use the machine for spreadsheets, word & publisher, so graphic performance is no biggie to me.

I don't know why fix attempt #3 appeared to work and #1 was soooo bad but if any tech-head wants free tuition in how to drive a Road-Train in Australian outback, I'll swap lessons for a explanation. Maybe Crossfire warrants a closer look under the hood?

Go Well.

Sunny129
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RE: P.S.: In general, I

Quote:
P.S.: In general, I would also recommend not to use the "xxx % of CPU time" throttling setting in the preferences. For multi-core CPUs as yours, it's better to use the "xxx % of cores" setting instead which overall has quite the same effect.


i 2nd this suggestion - w/ a multicore CPU, say a 4-core CPU for example, it is better to run 3 core 100% of the time than it is to run all 4 cores only 75% of the time.

as regards X-fire and SLI, they can be quite finicky when it comes to distributed computing. i don't really know of any DC project that will allow a single one of its WU's to be split up, distributed, and crunched on more than one GPU. in my limited experience, X-fire/SLI is generally a detriment to crunching. however, i've seen instances where X-fire/SLI doesn't hurt crunching performance, and in some rare cases i've seen X-fire/SLI help. of course it depends expressly on the project and the application being crunched, but it seems to me that folks are generally better of taking their multiple GPUs out of X-fire or SLI to crunch.

at any rate, your final solution makes the most sense - if you have an IGP, and it can be used to free up the resources of bigger, better GPUs, do it. i'm doing the same thing w/ one of my machines, where i run the display w/ my mobo's IGP (the same HD 4290 that you have), while my HD 5870 2GB and HD 6950 2GB GPUs are dedicated 24/7 crunchers.

Petrion
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RE: First suspended all

Quote:
First suspended all work & exited Boinc every time I changed settings - don't want corruptions of data. (seemed like a good idea?)


Always a good idea. Anything that helps remove any potential complications is a good thing; software of any type doesn't like it's hardware futzed with when it's running.

Quote:
2)Un-linked crossfire. Auto over-clocked Device 0, Device 1 ran at stock speed - was unable to access over-clocking for that card in Vision Control Centre. Bizarrely, ATI Device 1 (stock speed) began to run faster work unit times and began to catch the ATI Device 0 over-clocked card. (scratches head then meditates). However work unit prediction times for pending work dropped considerably to about 12hrs.

Another person on the boards here (somewhere) had a high-end over-clocked AMD card that wouldn't validate/error-ed out, but when she removed the OC it had no problems. Don't know if its an issue with Nvidia cards too but AMD cards and OpenCL don't like OCing.

And it seems like you did a good job figuring it out yourself, so bonus points to you. :)

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