Guide to running multiple GPU work units

[Mindweaver]

Try this one:
*4 HCC gpu wu's (1.0 CPU + 0.25 GPU) and 2 HCC cpu wu's

Spoiler: click me

<app_info> 
	<app> 
		<name>hcc1</name> 
		<user_friendly_name>Help Conquer Cancer</user_friendly_name> 
	</app> 
	<file_info> 
		<name>wcg_hcc1_img_7.05_windows_intelx86__ati_hcc1</name> 
		<executable/> 
	</file_info> 
	<file_info> 
		<name>hcckernel.cl.7.05</name> 
		<executable/> 
	</file_info> 
	<file_info>
		<name>wcg_hcc1_img_7.05_windows_intelx86</name>
		<executable/>
   </file_info>
	<app_version> 
		<app_name>hcc1</app_name> 
		<version_num>705</version_num> 
		<platform>windows_intelx86</platform> 
		<plan_class>ati_hcc1</plan_class> 
		<avg_ncpus>1.0</avg_ncpus> 
		<max_ncpus>4.0</max_ncpus> 
			<coproc> 
				<type>ATI</type> 
				<count>.25</count> 
			</coproc> 
		<file_ref> 
			<file_name>wcg_hcc1_img_7.05_windows_intelx86__ati_hcc1</file_name> 
			<main_program/> 
		</file_ref> 
		<file_ref> 
			<file_name>hcckernel.cl.7.05</file_name> 
			<open_name>hcckernel.cl</open_name> 
		</file_ref> 
	</app_version>
	<app_version>
		<app_name>hcc1</app_name>
		<version_num>705</version_num>
		<platform>windows_intelx86</platform>
		<avg_ncpus>1.000000</avg_ncpus>
		<max_ncpus>1.000000</max_ncpus>
		<api_version>6.13.0</api_version>
		<file_ref>
			<file_name>wcg_hcc1_img_7.05_windows_intelx86</file_name>
			<main_program/>
		</file_ref>
	</app_version>
</app_info>

I've run into some minor scheduling glitches but it gives me 60-65k ppd on the FX 8350/7870 rig (6 gpu, 2 cpu)

I'll try it out and let every one know how it goes.

 

[Norton]

I'll try it out and let every one know how it goes.

You may want to switch over to the new app_config setup if starting fresh. Download the latest BOINC manager (7.0.42) from BOINCstats and go for it. See my later post

*note- it seems easier to setup than app_info

 

[agent00skid]

Do note that max concurrent is for both CPU and GPU WU's.

And for most people, it's not really necessary, I just included it to show what could be done with the new app_config. (And it was part of the example I made mine from.)

 

[mstenholm]

So back home in cold Denmark. Santa came early and left me two 7970s. They are now installed and is running stock (925 MHz) and with 6 WUs each on a i970. I will leave them run like this for an hour or so and then go for 2x12 and 950 MHz.

 

[KieX]

OP guide overhaul: app_config.xml

Detailed the new app_config.xml process in OP. I've hidden the old one inside a spoiler tag for reference. Please change to this whenever you can, as this is the recommended way by WCG and the app_info will not be useable in future.

Big thanks agent00kid for the code on this.

 

[[Ion]]

Detailed the new app_config.xml process in OP. I've hidden the old one inside a spoiler tag for reference. Please change to this whenever you can, as this is the recommended way by WCG and the app_info will not be useable in future.

Big thanks agent00kid for the code on this.

Thank you for the update!

Any idea when they'll be phasing it out? I'd rather not mess with my configuration twelve hours before I leave for a week, but I'd also rather it not stop working while I'm gone

EDIT: I have it set up--it seems to be working fine. I'll certainly be keeping an eye on it. An added advantage is that the estimated time/GPU WU is much more accurate now.

 

[manofthem]

Detailed the new app_config.xml process in OP. I've hidden the old one inside a spoiler tag for reference. Please change to this whenever you can, as this is the recommended way by WCG and the app_info will not be useable in future.

Big thanks agent00kid for the code on this.

Very good, thanks. I'm going to try it out tomorrow and see how it runs on Windows 8. I'll report back with any news

 

[Norton]

Thank you for the update!

Any idea when they'll be phasing it out? I'd rather not mess with my configuration twelve hours before I leave for a week, but I'd also rather it not stop working while I'm gone

EDIT: I have it set up--it seems to be working fine. I'll certainly be keeping an eye on it. An added advantage is that the estimated time/GPU WU is much more accurate now.

24 hrs running on one of my rigs (7770's w/4 wu's each) and all is well so far

 

[[Ion]]

24 hrs running on one of my rigs (7770's w/4 wu's each) and all is well so far

Seems to be OK on the i7-920 system. I'm not touching the GTX460 setup--that card won't be running in that setup for all that much longer anyways, so I'll just leave it doing 1 WU. Now to just decide on the GPU I need for it...

 

[KieX]

Any idea when they'll be phasing it out? I'd rather not mess with my configuration twelve hours before I leave for a week, but I'd also rather it not stop working while I'm gone

No idea when. WCG plan to give a heads-up the their members and a short grace period to make the change whenever they announce it.

But after reading Kevin Reed's explanation about why the old method is bad for WCG and the benefits of the hassle-free new method.. I recon it's worth doing sooner rather than later.

 

[Norton]

Couple of quick questions:

How do you set the BOINC Manager to report completed wu's as soon as completed?

Most of my machines are now hanging onto completed wu's for longer than usual and I've done some manual dumps of up to 100 or wu's more at times...

and

Does anyone know the relative performance from a 7950 compared to a 7870?
I'm looking to pickup a 7950 but I'm not completely convinced that the 7950 is the better card (watt for watt, wu efficiency, etc..) The 7870 and 7770's I have run very smooth and very cool and may end up just adding another 7870 and 7770 rather than mess around with anything other than a 7970 as the ultimate upgrade to the gpu fleet.

Thanks in advance for any input!

 

[KieX]

Couple of quick questions:

How do you set the BOINC Manager to report completed wu's as soon as completed?

Most of my machines are now hanging onto completed wu's for longer than usual and I've done some manual dumps of up to 100 or wu's more at times...

and

Does anyone know the relative performance from a 7950 compared to a 7870?
I'm looking to pickup a 7950 but I'm not completely convinced that the 7950 is the better card (watt for watt, wu efficiency, etc..) The 7870 and 7770's I have run very smooth and very cool and may end up just adding another 7870 and 7770 rather than mess around with anything other than a 7970 as the ultimate upgrade to the gpu fleet.

Thanks in advance for any input!

You can use Mindweaver's util to automatically upload as they complete: http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=106370

I don't know the performance of 7870, but a 7950 can do 100K like the 7970's with little effort. Just keep in mind 7950 will want you to feed 10WU at least for best results. If you don't have at least 4 cores/threads to push them, you lose a lot of points at which stage the 7870 might do better for the wattage.

 

[Norton]

You can use Mindweaver's util to automatically upload as they complete: http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=106370

I don't know the performance of 7870, but a 7950 can do 100K like the 7970's with little effort. Just keep in mind 7950 will want you to feed 10WU at least for best results. If you don't have at least 4 cores/threads to push them, you lose a lot of points at which stage the 7870 might do better for the wattage.

Thanks- that utility just adds a line into cc_config AFAIK, which I should be able to do manually (wasn't sure if there were any other tweaks or settings to check)

I can get around 60-65k on the 7870 w/6 wu's and likely closer to 75-80k with 8 wu's (we'll find out soon enough... switching that rig over to app_config w/8 wu's this evening ). I have 8 threads on the FX cpu's so feeding 2x 7870's with 16 wu's or a 7950/70's with 10 or more wu's should be fine...

 

[KieX]

Thanks- that utility just adds a line into cc_config AFAIK, which I should be able to do manually (wasn't sure if there were any other tweaks or settings to check)

I can get around 60-65k on the 7870 w/6 wu's and likely closer to 75-80k with 8 wu's (we'll find out soon enough... switching that rig over to app_config w/8 wu's this evening ). I have 8 threads on the FX cpu's so feeding 2x 7870's with 16 wu's or a 7950/70's with 10 or more wu's should be fine...

Yup. Quick note on that cc_config.. it sometimes doesn't exist and needs to be created from scratch (why I pointed to the util). If it exists and it's filled with a lot of stuff (from newer BOINC clients) then the line is there already.. search and modify it - otherwise you'll add a line with 1 and have the default one with 0 resulting in 0.

I don't think you can wrong with either choice of GPU, though I will definitely recommend 7950. It's good enough to play Far Cry 3 with full eye candy in my short spells off crunching duties

 

[mstenholm]

I don't think you can wrong with either choice of GPU, though I will definitely recommend 7950. It's good enough to play Far Cry 3 with full eye candy in my short spells off crunching duties

Since solitaire is the most demanding game I have ever played on my PCs I can't comment on the last statement but I think that my previous 6 WUs on the 7950 were on the low side. I got 83K but rising it to 8 seems to add a bit to that. I will let it run a day or two like this before going for 10 just to make sure I'm not missing the "sweet point" on my rig.

 

[Norton]

Since solitaire is the most demanding game I have ever played on my PCs I can't comment on the last statement but I think that my previous 6 WUs on the 7950 were on the low side. I got 83K but rising it to 8 seems to add a bit to that. I will let it run a day or two like this before going for 10 just to make sure I'm not missing the "sweet point" on my rig.

Solitaire isn't so demanding.... However, in the olden days I used to use speed rounds of FreeCell to test stability on Super Socket 7 rigs. It was just as good as any other stability test back then

EDIT- looks like those 7770's are spooling up nicely- over 150k total today (All rigs) with 2 hours left

 

[ThE_MaD_ShOt]

I use Spider Solitaire these days as it even gives my Crossfired rig fits.

 

[manofthem]

Well, I didn't get a chance to update BOINC yesterday, so today is the day. I've already set No New Tasks and am waiting for the WUs to finish and report. After that, i'm going to uninstall and then update

I'll be posting later with any news; hopefully it'll work without any issue


Edit and update:
Well, it looks like the steps worked but I'm still getting driver crashes a few seconds in. Every time I try to run more than 1 WU, boom! driver crash. So this sucks! I was really hoping that it would work on Windows 8 finally, but alas, not yet.

If anyone knows if i'm missing something or if anyone knows how to get it working nicely on Windows 8, I'm ALL EARS!

*I'm running 12.11beta driver, either 7 or 8. I have tried 12.10 before, but maybe I'll give it another go
**Norton pointed me to a link at XS which may prove to be beneficial; I'm trying it out now
***No success yet, going to try later on.

 

[mstenholm]

Since I was not happy with running 8 GPU and 4 CPU units on my 12 "cores" (yield less then running 8 GPUs on a lesser CPU) I changed it to run 12 GPU and no CPU units. What happened was now one 7770 is running 8 and one is running 4. Any workaround? 8 is way to much. I was expecting an even spilt. The one with the 8 is GPU0.

 

[[Ion]]

Since I was not happy with running 8 GPU and 4 CPU units on my 12 "cores" (yield less then running 8 GPUs on a lesser CPU) I changed it to run 12 GPU and no CPU units. What happened was now one 7770 is running 8 and one is running 4. Any workaround? 8 is way to much. I was expecting an even spilt. The one with the 8 is GPU0.

Can I see your app_config file? Mine is doing an even split between all three GPUs (you need to specify that it requires 1 CPU and .25 GPUs/WU)

 

[ThE_MaD_ShOt]

Well, I didn't get a chance to update BOINC yesterday, so today is the day. I've already set No New Tasks and am waiting for the WUs to finish and report. After that, i'm going to uninstall and then update

I'll be posting later with any news; hopefully it'll work without any issue


Edit and update:
Well, it looks like the steps worked but I'm still getting driver crashes a few seconds in. Every time I try to run more than 1 WU, boom! driver crash. So this sucks! I was really hoping that it would work on Windows 8 finally, but alas, not yet.

If anyone knows if i'm missing something or if anyone knows how to get it working nicely on Windows 8, I'm ALL EARS!

*I'm running 12.11beta driver, either 7 or 8. I have tried 12.10 before, but maybe I'll give it another go
**Norton pointed me to a link at XS which may prove to be beneficial; I'm trying it out now
***No success yet, going to try later on.

I have been getting a driver crash from time to time on my cfired rig and it only runs 1 wu per card. The crash happens like once a week or can be longer in between. The rig always recovers and continues crunching though. I think I a going to pick up another gpu for this rig (79xx) and then split the 6850's up in the 2 other rigs that are just crunching on the cpus right now. That or I may just not crunch with the 6850's at all after I get my next gpu. Still deciding on what I am going to do.

 

[AlienIsGOD]

4 WU's on the 7870

 

[Norton]

4 WU's on the 7870

7870's will do 6-8 wu's easy. Try it out once you're spooled up some

 

[[Ion]]

I got the HD7950 in about an hour ago. I've installed it in my i3 system and it's running 1 WU quite nicely. However, it doesn't recognize the app_config.xml file (BOINC never even sees it) so it's only doing 1 WU. Any suggestions?

EDIT: NVM, I realized I was using an ancient version of BOINC. Fixed

 

[HammerON]

So I got home and deleted the app_info file and used the app_config but I am having some trouble...

Any suggestions? I restarted BOINC and re-read the config..
The Event Viewer showed that it was reading Mindweaver's app_config only, so I deleted it and tried again:

Now it states that there is no app_config file found

I would actually like to run 8 WU's per GPU. How would I set that up?