Support for (integrated) Intel GPUs (Ivy Bridge and later)

Bikeman (Heinz-Bernd Eggenstein)
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Topic 197053

Dear volunteers

We have launched an application version for the BRP4 search (Arecibo data) that supports the GPUs that are build into Intel "Ivy Bridge" and later CPUs, namely

HD 2500,
HD 4000

The following restrictions apply:

* Only Windows is supported (unlikely to change in the near future because of lack of Intel OpenCL drivers for the GPUs on other platforms)

* OpenCL 1.2 capable driver, e.g 9.18.10.3165 seems to work. (we got tons of errors with older drivers, but this might be fixable).

* A recent BOINC version is required (>= 7.0.42)

BRP4 tasks should finish in ca 30 minutes or less.

If for some reason you do not want E@H to send these tasks to your hosts, you can de-select Intel GPU work in your E@H project settings at http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/prefs.php?subset=project

Intel Drivers can be found here http://software.intel.com/en-us/vcsource/tools/opencl-sdk-2013, follow the download links.

Feel free to post feedback/questions to this thread: http://einsteinathome.org/node/197052

HBE

P.S.: We restricted the app to OpenCL 1.2 capable hosts only recently, you might see error results for hosts with OpenCL 1.1 driver from previously distributed work. New work should only go to OpenCL 1.2 capable hosts.

Sid
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Support for (integrated) Intel GPUs (Ivy Bridge and later)

Thank you! Great news!

Does it mean we can somehow use GPUs that are build into Intel CPU simultaneously with "external" GPUs in extension slots?

Bikeman (Heinz-Bernd Eggenstein)
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RE: Thank you! Great

Quote:

Thank you! Great news!

Does it mean we can somehow use GPUs that are build into Intel CPU simultaneously with "external" GPUs in extension slots?

Yes you can, e.g. I have an i3-3220 that uses it's HD2500 and a Radeon HD 7790 at the same time. But in can be a bit tedious to achieve this:

Obstacle number one is the BIOS. Quite often the default setting is to deactivate the integrated Intel GPU when also a PCIe graphics card is detected while the system boots up. See the documentation of your motherboard for instructions where in in the BIOS setup menu this can be configured to activate BOTH internal and 'external' graphics.

The second obstacle is that the internal GPU will usually still be disabled if no monitor is connected to it! There are 'dummy' plugs available that fool the PC into sensing a connected monitor, tho, if you don't want to connect a real monitor to the integrated GPU and still want to use it for crunching.

Cheers
HBE

Logforme
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RE: Does it mean we can

Quote:
Does it mean we can somehow use GPUs that are build into Intel CPU simultaneously with "external" GPUs in extension slots?

I did a quick test on my win7 box with a 4770K cpu and an amd 7970 gpu:
1. Had to enable "Multi display support" in the bios for the intel display driver to recognize the cpu
2. Boinc still don't recognize the intel gpu even though OpenCL 1.2 is installed previously with the amd card
3. Haven't dared install the intel OpenCL SDK for fear that it will break my amd gpu.

So no luck so far. Besides, the intel SDK read me contains the following not very encouraging part:
"OpenCL support in dual adapter mode, the mode where the display is connected to external graphics card rather than the Intel HD Graphics, is supported only with Windows* 8."
And since I won't downgrade my gaming experience and "upgrading" to Win8 won't happen, I guess I'm out of luck?

Edit: Guess the "dummy plug" Bikeman (so speedily :) ) wrote about could work. Have to look into that

Bernd Machenschalk
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RE: Edit: Guess the "dummy

Quote:
Edit: Guess the "dummy plug" Bikeman (so speedily :) ) wrote about could work. Have to look into that

The phrase to google for is "vga terminator" or even better "VGA Dummy Termination Plug". You could buy one for ridiculous ~$25 or roll your own for a few ct. (see e.g. http://www.pbase.com/brunobl/image/136639713)

BM

BM

Bikeman (Heinz-Bernd Eggenstein)
Bikeman (Heinz-...
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RE: Besides, the intel SDK

Quote:
Besides, the intel SDK read me contains the following not very encouraging part:
"OpenCL support in dual adapter mode, the mode where the display is connected to external graphics card rather than the Intel HD Graphics, is supported only with Windows* 8."

I would not get discouraged by that. This PC of mine http://einsteinathome.org/host/7596665 has Win 7 installed, and both Intel and AMD GPUs are not only detected by BOINC as OpenCL capable GPUs, indeed both GPUs are happily crunching for E@H. A single monitor is connected to the AMD gfx card, and the Intel GPU got the 'VGA terminator'. Works!

Here's another DIY link (at your own risk, I do not guarantee the correctness of this :-) , also for DVI ) http://www.geeks3d.com/20091230/vga-hack-how-to-make-a-vga-dummy-plug/

Cheers
HB

ExtraTerrestrial Apes
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This is really great

This is really great news!

I've been running Colatz on my HD4000s cince a few weeks. Which is better not running anything on them.. but I'm gladly switching to a more useful project like Einstein, despite getting only 1/4 - 1/5th the credits over here :)

BTW: running fine on Win 8 with the DVI connected to a GTX660Ti running POEM or GPU-Grid (Einstein only as backup) and the VGA input of the same monitor connected to the Intel.

Edit: some quick number I collected so far. Running an HD4000 at probably 1.10 V. At 1400 MHz I'm reachinig a projected RAC of 7.7k RAC running a single WU with GPU utilization of 85 - 95%. This increases to 9.5k RAC and 97 - 100% for 2 concurrent WUs. Additional power draw at the wall is 24 W including ~91% PSU efficiency.

MrS

Scanning for our furry friends since Jan 2002

Logforme
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RE: BTW: running fine on

Quote:
BTW: running fine on Win 8 with the DVI connected to a GTX660Ti running POEM or GPU-Grid (Einstein only as backup) and the VGA input of the same monitor connected to the Intel.


Thanks for that tip. After restart of boinc it downloaded and started running some opencl-intel_gpu workunits.
Only problem was that windows automatically extended my desktop to the "second" screen (same as the first). Had to disable that in the cataclyst manager. Boinc still runs the workunits, will have to monitor if that's still true after a reboot.

Edit: First opencl-intel_gpu workunit done in 10:17 minutes. Compared to around 45 minutes for the BRP4X64 cpu version (with 5 cpu jobs running at once).

zombie67 [MM]
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I have two win 7 machines

I have two win 7 machines with both HD 4000 and 8800 GT, Yes, the dual GPU support had to be turned on in the BIOS. No, dummy plugs not required.

Run times are 750-800 seconds per task.

Reno, NV
Team: SETI.USA

Mumak
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These BRP4 tasks cause a bit

These BRP4 tasks cause a bit of confusion now.
In the past they were a bit different and run on CPUs and GPUs.
A while ago, you switched BRP4 to CPU-only (Arecibo).
Now you released BRP4 for Intel GPUs (opencl-intel_gpu), which belong under the recent BRP (Arecibo) group (of CPU-only tasks).
And Bernd is now working on BRP4 bundles for GPUs, which is now a new BRP (Arecibo, GPU) group...

Is it possible to make a better distinguish/grouping between these sorts of tasks, so one knows what to expect and what to choose from ?

-----

Bikeman (Heinz-Bernd Eggenstein)
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RE: Edit: First

Quote:

Edit: First opencl-intel_gpu workunit done in 10:17 minutes. Compared to around 45 minutes for the BRP4X64 cpu version (with 5 cpu jobs running at once).

Nice, a Haswell GPU !

Cheers
HB

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