What is Avg Work Done (Credits)?

Brett Kuntz
Brett Kuntz
Joined: 13 Aug 10
Posts: 4
Credit: 1778319
RAC: 0
Topic 195258

What is the Avg. Work Done? How is it calculated? Why is it constantly going up even though my computer is not increasing in speed?

Gary Roberts
Gary Roberts
Moderator
Joined: 9 Feb 05
Posts: 5842
Credit: 109410941167
RAC: 34965813

What is Avg Work Done (Credits)?

Hi Kuntz - welcome to Einstein!

You obviously have a very decent machine with >10K total credits after just a couple of days :-).

Quote:
What is the Avg. Work Done? How is it calculated?


If you head over to the BOINC Website and click on the 'documentation' link under the 'Volunteer' heading near the top of the page, you will be taken to a Wiki where you can find information on many of these sorts of questions. If you scroll down through all the links on the main page of the Wiki, you will find one in the miscellaneous section near the bottom of the page which is directly about credit. While you are on the main page, take a look at all the other available topics as well in case you find other things of interest.

Quote:
Why is it constantly going up even though my computer is not increasing in speed?


Recent Average Credit (RAC) is a moving average taken over 10 days (I think) of your machine's production. On day one, after first joining, its value will be the average of 9 days of zero production and one day of full production. On day two, .... - I'm sure you get the picture.

It is also being affected by delays in granting credit if your 'wingman' is a bit slower in returning results than yourself. It wouldn't be unusual for it to take a couple of weeks or more to reach a semblance of stability.

Cheers,
Gary.

Mike Hewson
Mike Hewson
Moderator
Joined: 1 Dec 05
Posts: 6534
Credit: 284734192
RAC: 103342

RE: It is also being

Message 99086 in response to message 99085

Quote:
It is also being affected by delays in granting credit if your 'wingman' is a bit slower in returning results than yourself.


Do we ( attempt to ) match 'like with like' with the locality scheduling features ? He's certainly at the top end of performance, low turnaround times indeed. He may peak RAC in the top 100 I think.

Cheers, Mike.

I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...

... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal

Gary Roberts
Gary Roberts
Moderator
Joined: 9 Feb 05
Posts: 5842
Credit: 109410941167
RAC: 34965813

RE: RE: It is also being

Message 99087 in response to message 99086

Quote:
Quote:
It is also being affected by delays in granting credit if your 'wingman' is a bit slower in returning results than yourself.

Do we ( attempt to ) match 'like with like' with the locality scheduling features ?


No. Locality scheduling just keeps track of which hosts already have which LIGO data files and so tries to minimise unnecessary downloads of additional LIGO data wherever possible. It may well be that a very fast host and a very slow host are paired up with the same LIGO data files and (together with other hosts as well) are crunching on the same series of tasks.

Quote:
He's certainly at the top end of performance, low turnaround times indeed. He may peak RAC in the top 100 I think.


Even if so, there really is no problem with being paired up with an old, slow host. If you think about it, it's much more preferable to be paired up with a slow host that returns one result every two days than with a fast host with an 8 day cache :-). Yes, they do exist :-).

Cheers,
Gary.

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

RE: RE: Why is it

Message 99088 in response to message 99085

Quote:
Quote:
Why is it constantly going up even though my computer is not increasing in speed?

Recent Average Credit (RAC) is a moving average taken over 10 days (I think) of your machine's production. On day one, after first joining, its value will be the average of 9 days of zero production and one day of full production. On day two, .... - I'm sure you get the picture.


In your example, the RAC would only go up. But it doesn't. You forgot about the decay. ;-)

Each time new credit is added, the RAC is recalculated. Once every week it's also divided in half. This latter counts for RAC to go down, especially when no credit is added or when you stop crunching completely.

For the complete drop-down (albeit somewhat old and perhaps not completely correct anymore versus the new credit system), see RAC in the Unofficial Wiki.

Brett Kuntz
Brett Kuntz
Joined: 13 Aug 10
Posts: 4
Credit: 1778319
RAC: 0

Thanks guys! I also found the

Thanks guys! I also found the built-in benchmarker so I will test out a few different configurations tomorrow to see what clock speeds make for the best crunching!

Mike Hewson
Mike Hewson
Moderator
Joined: 1 Dec 05
Posts: 6534
Credit: 284734192
RAC: 103342

RE: see what clock speeds

Message 99090 in response to message 99089

Quote:
see what clock speeds make for the best crunching!


Apart from pure speed, decent memory size and bandwidth, a major determinant is floating point efficiency. There has been much work devoted to optimising the relevant code sections. For GW tasks at least, one part is processor bound, the other memory bound. I can't remember where we are with the Intel vs AMD debate, probably on the Intel side last I recall. Of course there is the Power PC or whatever Apple is serving these days. Also while the screensavers are nice, they do slow the crunching.

@Gary :

Quote:
Even if so, there really is no problem with being paired up with an old, slow host. If you think about it, it's much more preferable to be paired up with a slow host that returns one result every two days than with a fast host with an 8 day cache :-). Yes, they do exist :-).


Well put. I never thought of it that way.

Cheers, Mike.

I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...

... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal

Brett Kuntz
Brett Kuntz
Joined: 13 Aug 10
Posts: 4
Credit: 1778319
RAC: 0

Aside from BSOD's and

Aside from BSOD's and freezing, if a tiny calculation error takes place, what signs or errors should I look for?

Mike Hewson
Mike Hewson
Moderator
Joined: 1 Dec 05
Posts: 6534
Credit: 284734192
RAC: 103342

RE: Aside from BSOD's and

Message 99092 in response to message 99091

Quote:
Aside from BSOD's and freezing, if a tiny calculation error takes place, what signs or errors should I look for?


I'm not aware of the E@H apps giving BSOD's/freezing per se. The calculation errors ( if any ) get picked up back at the server side ( ie. the E@H validators, after you have returned the workunit ) by various tests including with respect to other quorum members' results for that work unit - a given unit of work is replicated and sent to several distinct hosts for precisely that purpose.

Cheers, Mike.

I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...

... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal

Brett Kuntz
Brett Kuntz
Joined: 13 Aug 10
Posts: 4
Credit: 1778319
RAC: 0

Well my computer is being a

Well my computer is being a poopy pants and not wanting to run at 4.2GHz anymore, I think silicon degradation has permanently forced me down to 4GHz. On the plus side I can now run my memory at 1905MHz CL7 as before it was 1676MHz CL6. I'll work on my memory timings a little bit this week and try to get them down quite a bit to make up for it.

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