Running SETI@Home and Folding@Home at the same time

Questions and Answers : Windows : Running SETI@Home and Folding@Home at the same time
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Alfonso

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Message 982155 - Posted: 21 Mar 2010, 17:25:05 UTC

I have an Intel Core2Duo@2.2GHz with 1GB RAM and a GeForce 8500GT running on Windows 7 x64.
I'm running two Folding@Home console clients, one for each core with different machine IDs (I'm not running any GPU client because it slows down everything).
Yesterday I decided I wanted to run Seti@Home too along with Folding@Home.

I just installed BOINC and now both F@H and Boinc are running at the same time (without the screensaver). If I open the Windows resource manager I see two F@H processes and two S@H processes using almost 25% CPU each.

First question: Is there any special considerations I should have for running F@H and S@H at the same time? Would this cause any problems? Should I change something in the options?

Second question: I think BOINC wasn't using my GPU initially, so I updated my card drivers and considering the message windows I think my GPU is being used. Is there any way to make sure S@H is using my GPU?
I ask because I'm not experiencing any slowdown (F@H GPU client always slowed everything down). Is it true that BOINC uses the GPU only after a while of inactivity? That would be great, but I'm not using the screensaver.

Third question: How do I make sure both cores aren't doing the same work?

Thanks in advance. I'm asking in the F@H forum too.
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Message 982163 - Posted: 21 Mar 2010, 17:35:13 UTC - in response to Message 982155.  

Folding@Home and BOINC are mutually exclusive applications. They both want to use all the spare CPU cycles, and they both are set to run at the lowest priority.

You will have to manually delegate your resources, such as running Folding@Home on your GPUs (if possible) and running SETI@Home on your CPUs (or vice versa, if possible).
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Alfonso

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Message 982171 - Posted: 21 Mar 2010, 17:44:34 UTC - in response to Message 982163.  

Thanks.
How do I disable CPU for Seti@Home so I can use only GPU and leave CPU for F@H?
I tried the preferences but I'm not sure what to change.

Or is there any way to make S@H use only one CPU core so I can leave the other one for F@H?
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John McLeod VII
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Message 982172 - Posted: 21 Mar 2010, 17:46:28 UTC - in response to Message 982171.  

This web site, your account, computing preference. There is a setting for allowing CPU projects to be downloaded, and one for GPU tasks.


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Message 982175 - Posted: 21 Mar 2010, 17:51:27 UTC - in response to Message 982155.  
Last modified: 21 Mar 2010, 17:57:50 UTC

Is it true that BOINC uses the GPU only after a while of inactivity? That would be great, but I'm not using the screensaver...

Yes, that's configurable via preferences, and it's not necessary to run the screensaver at all.

Gruß,
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[edit]The above preference can be set in Computing preferences. John McLeod VII was speaking about SETI@home preferences.[/edit]
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SETI@home classic workunits 3,758
SETI@home classic CPU time 66,520 hours
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Message 982179 - Posted: 21 Mar 2010, 17:57:31 UTC - in response to Message 982172.  

This web site, your account, computing preference. There is a setting for allowing CPU projects to be downloaded, and one for GPU tasks.


What exactly should I change?
I tried changing
Use at most
(Can be used to reduce CPU heat) 100 percent of CPU time

To 0%, but whenever I save the preferences it appears in 100% again!
I also changed "On multiprocessors, use at most" from 16 to 0
and "On multiprocessors, use at most Enforced by version 6.1+" from 100% to 0%
This two preference did change.

I saved and updated Boinc but Seti keeps using 50% of my CPU

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Message 982181 - Posted: 21 Mar 2010, 17:59:15 UTC - in response to Message 982179.  

See the edit in my previous post.
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Message 982193 - Posted: 21 Mar 2010, 18:07:21 UTC

My mistake it is in:

SETI@home preferences

Use CPU
(enforced by 6.10+ clients)


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Message 982234 - Posted: 21 Mar 2010, 19:11:19 UTC

Thanks everyone for the replies.
I disabled CPU and GPU seems to be working perfectly.
There should be no conflicts with F@H now.
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Alfonso

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Message 982400 - Posted: 22 Mar 2010, 18:42:03 UTC

I'm getting from the F@H forum that a GPU client uses some CPU too, so I should increase the priority of S@H (to something slightly higher than idle) if I'm going to be using S@H for GPU and F@H for CPU.

Is there any way of doing this?
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Message 982404 - Posted: 22 Mar 2010, 18:47:01 UTC - in response to Message 982400.  

the seti app should be able to access teh CPU enough to load the GPU with work. It may be slowed a bit by the F@H app. Try it for a day or so and see if the GPU hangs or gets error on your work


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Message 982512 - Posted: 22 Mar 2010, 22:18:46 UTC - in response to Message 982400.  

I'm getting from the F@H forum that a GPU client uses some CPU too, so I should increase the priority of S@H (to something slightly higher than idle) if I'm going to be using S@H for GPU and F@H for CPU.

Is there any way of doing this?

Yes, however, BOINC sets the CPU portion of tasks with a plan task of < (some small number (0.2?)) of a CPU to be normal priority. The SETI GPU tasks indicate a plan class of 0.01 CPU and 1 GPU, I believe.


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Message 983172 - Posted: 24 Mar 2010, 19:13:28 UTC - in response to Message 982512.  

I'm getting from the F@H forum that a GPU client uses some CPU too, so I should increase the priority of S@H (to something slightly higher than idle) if I'm going to be using S@H for GPU and F@H for CPU.

Is there any way of doing this?

Yes, however, BOINC sets the CPU portion of tasks with a plan task of < (some small number (0.2?)) of a CPU to be normal priority. The SETI GPU tasks indicate a plan class of 0.01 CPU and 1 GPU, I believe.

I think it's working fine so far. It says something like 0.03CPU + 1GPU and I'm not getting any errors in the messages, except those related with the servers, like "project has no jobs available".
But I have no way of knowing if it's slowing down F@H or not.

What does the 0.03 CPU mean? Is this higher than the lowest priority?
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Message 983182 - Posted: 24 Mar 2010, 19:39:47 UTC - in response to Message 983172.  

0.03 is the amount(3%) of CPU time that will be used to load the GPU this isnt very much and should only show a negligible slowdown on the CPU work


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Message 983187 - Posted: 24 Mar 2010, 19:50:54 UTC - in response to Message 983182.  

It should be fine then
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Questions and Answers : Windows : Running SETI@Home and Folding@Home at the same time


 
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