curious--is this behaving as expected?

Questions and Answers : GPU applications : curious--is this behaving as expected?
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steppy

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Message 866254 - Posted: 16 Feb 2009, 21:42:44 UTC

Greetings all:

Prior to CUDA, my quad core set to use 95% of processor would show four processors steady at pretty well maxed in the task manager and BOINC concurrently processing four work units usually 3 SETI and 1 ASTROPULSE.

Now with the CUDA running BOINC shows one SETI unit using .12 cpus, CUDA, along with one ASTROPULSE unit.
The task manager shows about 35-45% processor activity for all four cores. Also the activity bounces from 20 to 65% or so.

Is this expected behviour?

Thanks,

stephen


GenuineIntel
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU @ 2.66GHz [x86 Family 6 Model 15 Stepping 7]
(4 processors) NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX (767MB)
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Message 866277 - Posted: 16 Feb 2009, 23:10:33 UTC

This is a current limitation of BOINC's CUDA implementation. CUDA runs SETI MultiBeam tasks only, so when a CUDA task is running, no other SETI MultiBeam tasks can run on the CPU (they will all wait on the GPU). This means that only AstroPulse (which does not have a GPU app yet) or another project can run on the CPU while this is happening. If you do not have enough AstroPulse workunits or another project's tasks downloaded to run on the other three cores (one core "feeds" the GPU), then they will go idle.

There is a fix to let the fourth core work on a unit while the GPU is working on a task, but the newer BOINC client has not been released to the public yet.
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Message 866474 - Posted: 17 Feb 2009, 12:31:45 UTC - in response to Message 866277.  

Thanks for the explanation.

So am I better off like this or with a non-CUDA version of BOINC? I only have one AstroPulse work unit now. If I had additional AstroPulse units would they be running concurrently? If so, how to get more AstroPulse? I have plenty SETI units for now.

Thanks again.

stephen
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Message 866621 - Posted: 18 Feb 2009, 2:55:37 UTC - in response to Message 866474.  

Thanks for the explanation.

So am I better off like this or with a non-CUDA version of BOINC? I only have one AstroPulse work unit now. If I had additional AstroPulse units would they be running concurrently? If so, how to get more AstroPulse? I have plenty SETI units for now.

Thanks again.

stephen


Work is handed out randomly by the schedulers every time you contact the servers. I really can't answer if you're better off without CUDA (no need to change BOINC versions, there is a preference to disable CUDA online), as I don't run CUDA myself. Current speculation is that a quad-core will get more work done than a single GPU, but I can't confirm or deny this.
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Message 869319 - Posted: 25 Feb 2009, 14:14:10 UTC - in response to Message 866621.  

thanks again.
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Message 869764 - Posted: 26 Feb 2009, 19:23:45 UTC

Hi,
you can use an client from Raistmer that use cpu and gpu
with seti mb units...
download: http://lunatics.kwsn.net/gpu-crunching/ak-v8-cuda-mb-team-work-mod.0.html

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Message 869936 - Posted: 27 Feb 2009, 5:12:26 UTC - in response to Message 866621.  


I really can't answer if you're better off without CUDA (no need to change BOINC versions, there is a preference to disable CUDA online), as I don't run CUDA myself. Current speculation is that a quad-core will get more work done than a single GPU, but I can't confirm or deny this.


I disabled CUDA and my RAC almost doubled


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Message 871588 - Posted: 3 Mar 2009, 2:13:55 UTC

I enabled CUDA and my rac tripled.

It all depends on the vid card.


Do you Good Search for Seti@Home? http://www.goodsearch.com/?charityid=888957
Or Good Shop? http://www.goodshop.com/?charityid=888957
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Message 871698 - Posted: 3 Mar 2009, 12:37:05 UTC - in response to Message 871588.  

How do you disable CUDA? Where?

stephen
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Message 871710 - Posted: 3 Mar 2009, 13:30:13 UTC - in response to Message 871698.  

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Questions and Answers : GPU applications : curious--is this behaving as expected?


 
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