One thing I have noticed though. I installed the card and I am pumping out seti units by the bundle. One every 8-12 minutes but when I look at my stats my RAC is lower then it was before? I only installed the card in 1 machine and I am not gaining ground as fast? The graph of my progrsss appears to have slowed dramatically since the card was installed?

Check your pending credits. It's probably higher now that you're running GPU tasks. You may just be waiting on others now in order to get credit granted.

not that bad, its 13k credits pending. Not that bad and its not really climbing. It grew to 13k and is hovering there.

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I'm looking to start using a GPU as well. I have 8 computers running BOINC and want the best bang for my buck. Which NVIDIA card is recommended for the best RAC? Can I add a card or two to my machine just for BOINC and continue to use my MB video for general computer use or do the video cards have to be active with windows desktop on them to be used? Running various versions of windows PC's (XP, 2000, 2003, etc... all 32 bit)

I'd suggest you start off with a fairly low-end card. Seti doesn't need many shaders so putting a high-end card in doesn't give much advantage. If however you wanted to use it for other projects then it may be worth getting a more powerful card. Just make sure you get a minimum of 512Mb RAM on the card.

I started off with a 9800GT which was fine, pulls approx 100w so not too bad. You can even use it with GPUgrid. These days most of my crunchers have GTS250's. I also have an i7 with dual GTX260's.

BOINC still has some scheduling issues with cuda and then there is the issue of the VLAR work units for Seti. You can use the ReSchedule tool to shift them onto the cpu. BOINC also doesn't like mixed cards in a system, try and keep them the same sort if you are going to have more than one card per machine.

The GTX275 is a long card, approx 10 inches, so make sure you have room to fit it. I bought myself one but the various connectors get in the way so it may not fit.

So Boinc wouldn't like a 295 and a 275 in the same case? Bummer. No I have a 295, I was just thinking of adding a 275 If I came into one, As I can always use the extra power and My current psu can handle as many as two 295 cards, But getting a 2nd 295 would take Me time to get.

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

OK having read thru this...

Can ya'll help me with low budget cards to put into a headless cruncher running 64b Linux.

I found some 512MB 9600GTs for under $75 each shipped or the 1GB models for around $80 each. A 9800GT would run me around $100. For this initial foray into GPU crunching would I benefit more from two 9600GT cards or the single 9800GT? An additional benefit of the 9600s is it appears all the PSUs I have will handle those. I would have to be a bit more selective for the 9800.

These cards are for nothing but number crunching on SETI, Aqua, GPUGrid.

Is there something that can give me an idea of the output differences between these two?

Thanx much.

---

- da shu @ HeliOS,
"A child's exposure to technology should never be predicated on an ability to afford it."

I have 2 9600gts in my second rig and they work very well.
I would suggest having the 2 9600's as it wil give you the
added feature of being able to run SLI if you have an SLI
capable mobo.
Downside is they are onlt 37GFLOPS.
I am running 2 Aqua tasks on the rig with them in and at present
they have completed about 60% and it has taken around 160 hrs still
80 to 100 hrs to go on them.
Dave

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I have 2 9600gts in my second rig and they work very well.
I would suggest having the 2 9600's as it wil give you the
added feature of being able to run SLI if you have an SLI
capable mobo.
Downside is they are onlt 37GFLOPS.
I am running 2 Aqua tasks on the rig with them in and at present
they have completed about 60% and it has taken around 160 hrs still
80 to 100 hrs to go on them.
Dave

Dave,
I was going to put one each in two different dedicated number crunchers. Have you run any SETI or GPUGrid with them? I read some grumblings about WU deadlines on GPUGrid but no mention of what card they were using that wouldn't meet these. Left a post there also.

Thanx for the reply.
Skip

---

- da shu @ HeliOS,
"A child's exposure to technology should never be predicated on an ability to afford it."

ok, say price wasnt an issue. I want to install cards in all my machines for maximum BOINC stats. What would you choose then? All my machines can take large cards. I dont need to use it for anything else...

1) Almost all of my machines support PCI video (except maybe 2 or 3 support PCI-E?)
2) Most are lights out systems so set it and forget it scenerio is best
3) Can I set them up just for CUDA and use my MB video for video?
4) Running latest boinc. Will they detect and use the card automatically or do I need to do something?

dajohnso, if you want maximum BOINC credits then I wouldn't be crunching SETI on your GPU. For CUDA I'd be crunching AQUA@home and for an ATI card I'd be crunching Milkyway@home and getting a 4850x2.

OK having read thru this...

Can ya'll help me with low budget cards to put into a headless cruncher running 64b Linux.

I found some 512MB 9600GTs for under $75 each shipped or the 1GB models for around $80 each. A 9800GT would run me around $100. For this initial foray into GPU crunching would I benefit more from two 9600GT cards or the single 9800GT? An additional benefit of the 9600s is it appears all the PSUs I have will handle those. I would have to be a bit more selective for the 9800.

These cards are for nothing but number crunching on SETI, Aqua, GPUGrid.

Is there something that can give me an idea of the output differences between these two?

Thanx much.

BOINC estimates crunching capability by multiplying the number of multiprocessors by the clock rate. Each 9600 GT has 8 multiprocessors, a 9800 GT has 14. Assuming similar clock rates then two 9600 GT cards should beat a 9800 GT. But $150 for two vs. $100 for one would make me consider other factors. One thing I'd consider is possible card failure, having two cards would mean losing only half on one failure...

                                                               Joe

I run seti on the 2 9600gt's most of the time,but due to seti problems I have been doing Aqua tasks on them. They are not the quickest but as Josef W says
if you loose 1 then you still can crunch.
The upside is if you have an SLI ready mobo then you get better graphic when run in this mode as opposed to splitting them.
Against what others have posted in the past I have never had to set a dummy monitor for either of my 2 rigs running 2 nvidia cards.
I plugged them in ran the up to date driver and Boinc saw both cards and they ran ok.
I have 2 GTX 275's on my main rig an i7 920 running Vista 64 with no problems.
Dave

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OK having read thru this...

Can ya'll help me with low budget cards to put into a headless cruncher running 64b Linux.

I found some 512MB 9600GTs for under $75 each shipped or the 1GB models for around $80 each. A 9800GT would run me around $100. For this initial foray into GPU crunching would I benefit more from two 9600GT cards or the single 9800GT? An additional benefit of the 9600s is it appears all the PSUs I have will handle those. I would have to be a bit more selective for the 9800.

These cards are for nothing but number crunching on SETI, Aqua, GPUGrid.

Is there something that can give me an idea of the output differences between these two?

Thanx much.

As far as 'Budget' cards go (for CUDA performance anyways)....the 9600 GSO cards (1st & 2nd Revisions, NOT 3rd) are the way to go.

9600 GSO (1st & 2nd Revision):
- Cheap (under $80 USD usually)
- 96 Shader Cores
- Note desireable by most, so readilly available.

The unoficial 3rd revision of the card/moniker (using NEW stock, not rebranding old) ......uses less cores (64 I believe?), but uses faster DDR3 memory 100% of the time...no DDR2.

The old revisions were based on a 'rebranding' of 86/8800 Series cards for resale in the NEW marketplace of the 9000 Series.

I have tried (and own) 2 types of these cards. A 768MB DDR2/96 Core version and a 384MB DDR3/96 core version. The DDR3 version is a littel faster acording to BOINC by a few GFLOPS, even though is uses less memory.

Hope that helps.
Allan

---

I am TCP JESUS...The Carpenter Phenom Jesus....and HAMMERING is what I do best!
formerly known as...MC Hammer.

Thank you very much.

I found a 9600GSO 384MB card with 96 stream procs and it is either out on the front porch or will be here tomorrow. In the interim I also bought a used 8800GT with a big A/C S1 cooler on it.

I installed that into one of the crunchers tonight but BOINC is reporting no CUDA devices (Unbuntu v8.10, 64b, v180 restricted driver says it's active)... gotta solve this first.

OK having read thru this...

Can ya'll help me with low budget cards to put into a headless cruncher running 64b Linux.

I found some 512MB 9600GTs for under $75 each shipped or the 1GB models for around $80 each. A 9800GT would run me around $100. For this initial foray into GPU crunching would I benefit more from two 9600GT cards or the single 9800GT? An additional benefit of the 9600s is it appears all the PSUs I have will handle those. I would have to be a bit more selective for the 9800.

These cards are for nothing but number crunching on SETI, Aqua, GPUGrid.

Is there something that can give me an idea of the output differences between these two?

Thanx much.

As far as 'Budget' cards go (for CUDA performance anyways)....the 9600 GSO cards (1st & 2nd Revisions, NOT 3rd) are the way to go.

9600 GSO (1st & 2nd Revision):
- Cheap (under $80 USD usually)
- 96 Shader Cores
- Note desireable by most, so readilly available.

The unoficial 3rd revision of the card/moniker (using NEW stock, not rebranding old) ......uses less cores (64 I believe?), but uses faster DDR3 memory 100% of the time...no DDR2.

The old revisions were based on a 'rebranding' of 86/8800 Series cards for resale in the NEW marketplace of the 9000 Series.

I have tried (and own) 2 types of these cards. A 768MB DDR2/96 Core version and a 384MB DDR3/96 core version. The DDR3 version is a littel faster acording to BOINC by a few GFLOPS, even though is uses less memory.

Hope that helps.
Allan

If your 384mb ddr3/96 core card is anything like my eVGA Dual Slot (same specs) it will OVERCLOCK like CRAZY.

Here are the 'BOINC Benchmarks' of my 9600 GSO's:


CUDA device: GeForce 9600 GSO (driver version 18585, CUDA version 1.1, 384MB, est. 48GFLOPS) Stock 384MB DDR3
CUDA device: GeForce 9600 GSO (driver version 18585, CUDA version 1.1, 384MB, est. 62GFLOPS) OC'd 384MB DDR3

CUDA device: GeForce 9600 GSO (driver version 18585, CUDA version 1.1, 768MB, est. 46GFLOPS) Stock 768MB DDR2
CUDA device: GeForce 9600 GSO (driver version 18585, CUDA version 1.1, 768MB, est. 53GFLOPS) OC'd 768MB DDR2


Notice the difference between the 384MB DDR3 Card compared to the 768MB DDR2 Card stock and Overclocked ? TONS of headroom in the DDR3 card (DDR3 card is eVGA Dual Slot, DDR2 cards were Single Slot XFX).

---

I am TCP JESUS...The Carpenter Phenom Jesus....and HAMMERING is what I do best!
formerly known as...MC Hammer.

I've had nothing but trouble with my 9600 GT.

The 9600 GT is a 64 core fairly quick board, but the 9800 GT is a 112 Core board. For the prices you are getting, go with the 9800, it is far faster at crunching. I'd say mine is in the 2200 - 2500 RAC range on its own. The 280 GTX is around 5500.

I'd be surprised if you could get more than 1400 out of a 9600 GT.

Oh, and the 512 MB 9600 GSO only has 48 cores...piece of crap. They are right about the 384 768 early revisions though. Better for crunching than 9600 GT, worse for gaming.

Well those two cards are sitting in the box... I also bought a used 8800GT and so far I can't get it configured right so BOINC sees it (64b Ubuntu v8.10)... getting pretty frustrated with it.

I also just filled out the RMA stuff on my HD4770 that I'd hoped to crunch MW on a windows machine. New ATI Catalyst package doesn't work with MW and older ones don't know what a 4770 is (winxp 32b). Too bad it's an almost 4850 with much lower power draw. Nice card otherwise.

Well those two cards are sitting in the box... I also bought a used 8800GT and so far I can't get it configured right so BOINC sees it (64b Ubuntu v8.10)... getting pretty frustrated with it.

I also just filled out the RMA stuff on my HD4770 that I'd hoped to crunch MW on a windows machine. New ATI Catalyst package doesn't work with MW and older ones don't know what a 4770 is (winxp 32b). Too bad it's an almost 4850 with much lower power draw. Nice card otherwise.

I have the same OS, I got both of my GTX 260 to show up after installing the CUDA SDK and Toolkit from Nvidia with no problem... make sure you have them installed correctly AND your account can use them (when I installed mine they were owned by root and group video, changed group to my account and no problems).

Well those two cards are sitting in the box... I also bought a used 8800GT and so far I can't get it configured right so BOINC sees it (64b Ubuntu v8.10)... getting pretty frustrated with it.

I also just filled out the RMA stuff on my HD4770 that I'd hoped to crunch MW on a windows machine. New ATI Catalyst package doesn't work with MW and older ones don't know what a 4770 is (winxp 32b). Too bad it's an almost 4850 with much lower power draw. Nice card otherwise.

I have the same OS, I got both of my GTX 260 to show up after installing the CUDA SDK and Toolkit from Nvidia with no problem... make sure you have them installed correctly AND your account can use them (when I installed mine they were owned by root and group video, changed group to my account and no problems).

Can you provide a link or any details on these steps?

http://lifeofaprogrammergeek.blogspot.com/2008/05/cuda-development-in-ubuntu.html

Following those steps got it working... but for some reason I have to run BOINC as root (ie sudo or gksudo) to get CUDA working, trying to figure out what's wrong there (probably permissions on some file).

http://lifeofaprogrammergeek.blogspot.com/2008/05/cuda-development-in-ubuntu.html

Following those steps got it working... but for some reason I have to run BOINC as root (ie sudo or gksudo) to get CUDA working, trying to figure out what's wrong there (probably permissions on some file).

Don't use the wget in those steps though, download the latest from Nvidia:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/cuda_get.html

Just choose 8.10 and x64, I ignored the driver upgrade (it's a pain to upgrade drivers outside of Synaptic) and just went with the next two on the list (toolkit and sdk). The rest of the steps should be the same.

... but for some reason I have to run BOINC as root (ie sudo or gksudo) to get CUDA working, trying to figure out what's wrong there (probably permissions on some file).

Should be no need for running as root...

What are the file permissions for the /dev/nv* dev files?

("*" is a 'wildcard' that matches anything.)

Does Boinc have read and write access to those files?

Happy crunchin',
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

http://lifeofaprogrammergeek.blogspot.com/2008/05/cuda-development-in-ubuntu.html

Following those steps got it working... but for some reason I have to run BOINC as root (ie sudo or gksudo) to get CUDA working, trying to figure out what's wrong there (probably permissions on some file).

I've been seeing some posts about having to add user "boinc" to the group "video" wonder if this is why they were doing that?

I got one of the 8800GTs put into my regular desktop machine (Ubuntu v8.10, 64b) and it's crunching a GPUgrid WU as I type. :-) It required installation of v6.4.5 from getdeb and putting a link in /var/lib/boinc-client to the libcudart.so libs. Other than that the Ubuntu install of the 180 driver and then running the nvidia-xorg thing got me going on that project. I'm waiting for Aqua to finish a big CPU WU to see if it'll get and process a GPU WU.

I am STRONGLY suspicious that the reason the other 8800GT wouldn't work in the dedicated cruncher I was trying it in is related to the fact that it runs Dotsch/UX (an Ubuntu v8.10 derivative) but that machine is both a headless and diskless cruncher. It boots via PXE from a Dotsch/UX server and then mounts an nfs file system on the server. I am suspicious that the binding of the nvidia driver to the kernel isn't happening on that machine... possibly because part of the intrfms stuff is in a common directory on the nfs server that is not mounted once the boot process is kicked off. I've got a note off to the distro's owner to see what he has to say. The net result is that I may need to put HDDs back in any of those machines that I want to GPU crunch with. I'll be looking at that shortly. Once I get a couple more of these vid cards functional I'll come back to getting Crunch3r's Linux SETI app running.

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- da shu @ HeliOS,
"A child's exposure to technology should never be predicated on an ability to afford it."