At last ATI support was added to BOINC officially.

I installed the latest version 6.10.17 and I found out that the GPU was running on 3D mode (judging from its clocks) although there is no work available.
Its OK when crunching, but isn't the use for 3D clocks useless without work to crunch?

Any thoughts?

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You can try Collatz or Milkyway. Both projects work very well with your ATI card. You may be surprised to find out how fast you run compared to the CUDAs. My 4770 out runs the 295 cuda cards thats a $100 card whipping on a $400 card

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In a rich man's house there is no place to spit but his face.
Diogenes Of Sinope

I meant that the best solution is for ATi's clocks to not run in 3D mode when the GPU is idle (because of no work and/or application is available).
ATi's getting really hot when running on 3D mode and the fan is rotating at 4000+ rpms.
I know that this will happen -normally- when crunching a workunit, but when the GPU is idle, the clocks must be running on 2D mode.

Which is the one who must switch to 2D mode when the GPU is idle?
Catalyst drivers or BOINC application itself?

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All that BOINC does is check whether or not a certain (couple of) dynamic linked library file(s) is/are available on your system. It doesn't do anything with the GPU itself, but will only detect if your GPU is CAL capable.

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All that BOINC does is check whether or not a certain (couple of) dynamic linked library file(s) is/are available on your system. It doesn't do anything with the GPU itself, but will only detect if your GPU is CAL capable.

And what about new Remote Desktop detection code?
BOINC does some GPU calls, in other case it would never be touched badly by driver restart...

@Timi
On my host I see Catalyst downclock GPU back to 500MHz from 750MHz when GPU not doing GPU-based tasks.
Catalyst 9.2, BOINC 6.10.16, Vista x86

You can try Collatz or Milkyway. Both projects work very well with your ATI card. You may be surprised to find out how fast you run compared to the CUDAs. My 4770 out runs the 295 cuda cards thats a $100 card whipping on a $400 card

well yea, the (295) 240*2(NV) cores versus,(4770) 640 cores stream cores.

but nvidia provides more support than ati. so factor that into your equation and you get nvidia still on top in my mind. not to mention that it's hard coding for ati.

and i might add, nvidia cards play better.

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I recommend Secunia PSI: http://secunia.com/vulnerability_scanning/personal/
Go Georgia Tech.

I run my ati fan off of the CCC just need to set the ATI overdrive on and adjust the GPU fan to 50% that keeps the heat down[/list]

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In a rich man's house there is no place to spit but his face.
Diogenes Of Sinope

Please answer to me: someone says that BOINC SETI doesnot use ATI cards, and for someone status is unclear. (yes I know for other aplication that use ATI card, I ask for SETI)
Yesterday Boinc after update of previous version download file with interesting name graphicsseti_enhanced.exe ( or something similar to that) also BOINC recognized my Radeon 3850. So if I only work SETI BOINC and SETI doesnot use ATI, for what is that file?
Since there is no new work I cannot find where or when SETI USE that file.
Thanks for any answer!

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I am cruncher :)
I LOVE SETI BOINC :)

Please answer to me: someone says that BOINC SETI doesnot use ATI cards, and for someone status is unclear. (yes I know for other aplication that use ATI card, I ask for SETI)
Yesterday Boinc after update of previous version download file with interesting name graphicsseti_enhanced.exe ( or something similar to that) also BOINC recognized my Radeon 3850. So if I only work SETI BOINC and SETI doesnot use ATI, for what is that file?
Since there is no new work I cannot find where or when SETI USE that file.
Thanks for any answer!

That'll be the Seti@home enhanced Screensaver program, earlier versions of the Setiathome app had it combined with the app,
now with Boinc v6.x.x, the screensaver program is in a separate file.

Claggy

Tnx Claggy

But since then SETI writes next message

31/10/2009 19:25:34 SETI@home Requesting new tasks for CPU and GPU

So if Boinc SETI dont use GPU, why BOINC write that message?

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I am cruncher :)
I LOVE SETI BOINC :)

The latest versions of Boinc (ie 6.10.xx) now detect ATI GPU's as well as Nvidia GPU's, and will ask for CPU & GPU work from each project you're attached to,
some projects will have apps for ATI GPU's and some won't, Boinc can't tell which project's have app's and which one's don't,
Boinc will ask for GPU work at Seti a few times with longer and longer backoff times, until it'll only do it once every 24hrs,

Claggy

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Tnx
Mistery solved :)

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I am cruncher :)
I LOVE SETI BOINC :)

Returning to the official subject of the thread, I must say that the usage of Seti on an Ati 4870x2 seems very difficult -maybe impossible. Let me write down the whole story.

I found out that even if there is no work to be done on the GPU, the clocks will run in 3D mode 750MHz/900MHz, making the fan to evolve at 4000 rpms. This is even worst if you have your PC close to bed and left it on all night -as always !!! The fan wont let you sleep at all.
The same will happen if there are workunits to be crunched.
So, we have the problem of heat and thus sound, that will make the night a real nightmare :(

What are the possible solutions?
Solution 1: Use an Accelero Xtreme 4870x2 will help (possible GPU failure during installation)
Solution 2: A setting to enable or disable the GPU cruching on demand, whenever you want to, through BOINC Manager. ("Use GPU while computer is in use" is not a fully solution)
Solution 3: Stay at 6.6.41, where ATI wont be found from BOINC Manager

I really want to crunch SETI workunits with my 4870x2, but the extreme heat and generated sound from the GPU fan are big disadvantages here.

Any thoughts or ideas?
I don't thing I'm the only one with these problems. :)

PS. Water-cooling is not an solution for me because of a used-all-slots motherboard.

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So you say that you crunch SETI@Home with Ati card?
And other people says that it is not possible?
Pardon if I misunderstand .

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I am cruncher :)
I LOVE SETI BOINC :)

Returning to the official subject of the thread, I must say that the usage of Seti on an Ati 4870x2 seems very difficult -maybe impossible. Let me write down the whole story.

I found out that even if there is no work to be done on the GPU, the clocks will run in 3D mode 750MHz/900MHz, making the fan to evolve at 4000 rpms. This is even worst if you have your PC close to bed and left it on all night -as always !!! The fan wont let you sleep at all.
The same will happen if there are workunits to be crunched.
So, we have the problem of heat and thus sound, that will make the night a real nightmare :(

What are the possible solutions?
Solution 1: Use an Accelero Xtreme 4870x2 will help (possible GPU failure during installation)
Solution 2: A setting to enable or disable the GPU cruching on demand, whenever you want to, through BOINC Manager. ("Use GPU while computer is in use" is not a fully solution)
Solution 3: Stay at 6.6.41, where ATI wont be found from BOINC Manager

I really want to crunch SETI workunits with my 4870x2, but the extreme heat and generated sound from the GPU fan are big disadvantages here.

Any thoughts or ideas?
I don't thing I'm the only one with these problems. :)

PS. Water-cooling is not an solution for me because of a used-all-slots motherboard.

Setiathome doesn't have any ATI applications, so you can't run Seti on your Ati 4870x2:

Setiathome Applications

even Beta doesn't have any ATI applications:

Setiathome Beta Applications

There is a 3rd party ATI Astropulse hybrid app under test, but it won't be ready for some time.

If you have a problem with Boinc Maxing out your GPU & fan's i suggest you take it up on the Boinc Forums

Claggy

Focus guys, focus.

Pepi, I'm not using my ATI for Seti, yet.
I know about the Hybrid Astropulse of Lunatics, that will be available -I hope soon, as other Lunatics projects have.
I'm just trying to point out that the use of ATI cards (mainly the 4800 series) will have major problems with heat and thus sound, which the user wont be able to live with if there is any kind of general GPU-Crunch switch (On/Off) somewhere in the chain of Drivers-Boinc-Seti-3rd party appl.

I will check the BOINC forums, Claggy thanks.

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Focus guys, focus.

Pepi, I'm not using my ATI for Seti, yet.
I know about the Hybrid Astropulse of Lunatics, that will be available -I hope soon, as other Lunatics projects have.
I'm just trying to point out that the use of ATI cards (mainly the 4800 series) will have major problems with heat and thus sound, which the user wont be able to live with if there is any kind of general GPU-Crunch switch (On/Off) somewhere in the chain of Drivers-Boinc-Seti-3rd party appl.

There are new switches available for GPU/CPU in the project preferences at Seti Beta,
when you select the switch to no, Boinc 6.10.x will be longer ask for CPU/GPU work:

Use CPU
(enforced by 6.10+ clients) yes
Use NVIDIA GPU if present
(enforced by 6.10+ clients) yes

Presently it doesn't work correctly across venues with 6.10.x,
I've reported it to the developer's, and they are on the case.

Claggy

I don't think the new user preferences will help Timi with his noisy fan problem. The way they work (and they do work, but only for the default venue so far) is by inhibiting work fetch for that particular GPU for that particular project - no work implies GPU not used.

But that's the position Timi's in already - SETI isn't using his ATI GPU, because there isn't any work for it - not just because there isn't any work at the moment, but because there's no application either.

From what he's saying (and I don't have an ATI card myself, so I can't experiment any further), the mere act of detecting whether or not an ATI card is present as BOINC starts up is enough to set his fans running at full speed for evermore. I'm surprised by that: if it was a general problem, I would have thought we would have heard about it during the development cycle. So maybe it's specific to that particular make or model of card (or even that particular card), or the driver DLLs that BOINC uses in the detection phase.

If I shut down all my GPU apps, my fans go back to idle on both my 4650 and the 4830.

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Yes, i know it won't cure his problem, i was just pointing out that there are new work fetch switches in the pipeline,
that will stop work being asked for, and pointed him in the direct of the Boinc forums as it was more a Boinc problem maxing out his GPU & fans.
and no i haven't heard of this kind of issue before with Boinc eithier.

Timi, you could also look on your card's manufacture's forum, and see if there are any issues mentioned there,
when i got my XFX 9800GTX+ there was a Bios upgrade for some models of 9800GTX+ that didn't increase the fan speed,
there could be something similiar for your's, more likely the developer's will tweak the detection method.

Claggy