PCI GPU Help please...

Questions and Answers : GPU applications : PCI GPU Help please...

Author	Message
Dufman Send message Joined: 19 Nov 00 Posts: 8 Credit: 3,438,364 RAC: 7,639	Message 1226847 - Posted: 3 May 2012, 20:56:35 UTC
	This is my first post.... (Don't be too harsh ;) I have a question for the GPU super users. I was at Microcenter today and saw a GT 430 in PCI. I looked it up real quick on my phone and it seemed like a decent cheap card. I thought cool I could put that in one of my empty pci slots. I got home put it in the bottom slot and the system wouldn't boot. Everything powered on, but the monitor stayed blank. I moved it up a slot and the same thing. I even tried moving the monitor cord down to it...nothing. Did I get a bum card or am I missing something? It was the only one in the store :( I'm running: Biostar TA990FXE Mainboard Athlon II x4 635 8gigs of 1600 ram ASUS gtx 550 ti gt210 (both PCIe 2.0) Powered by an OCZ 750w (continuous) power supply
	ID: 1226847 ·

Volunteer tester Send message Joined: 9 Apr 02 Posts: 11987 Credit: 17,885,405 RAC: 59,676	Message 1226851 - Posted: 3 May 2012, 21:10:50 UTC - in response to Message 1226847.
	Check your BIOS to make sure your primary video slot is not set to [Auto] but to the correct video adapter you plan on using. Hint: If set to [PEG], that is the PCI Express Graphics adapter.
	ID: 1226851 ·

Dufman Send message Joined: 19 Nov 00 Posts: 8 Credit: 3,438,364 RAC: 7,639	Message 1226870 - Posted: 3 May 2012, 22:04:04 UTC - in response to Message 1226851.
	I don't see any reference to primary video in either the boot menu or the PCI menu.
	ID: 1226870 ·

Jim Bohan Send message Joined: 23 Dec 01 Posts: 46 Credit: 14,455,962 RAC: 16,491	Message 1226932 - Posted: 4 May 2012, 0:29:25 UTC
	Hi, I'm trying to use remote desktop to get to my other computer, I have an MSI mother board and an AMD X6 processor with an Nvidia 550 TI. When I remote into it, it says the GPU is missing. When I hook my keyboard and monitor directly to it, it still says the GPU is missing. I exit BOINC completly and then reload it. It will recognize it then. I did notice a couple of times that I would get an error from the Catalyst Manager so I uninstalled it, rebooted etc since I'm not running a Radion card. Any suggestions? Oh, I'm running Windows 7 Professional on both systems. Jim ____________ Member B-52 Stratofortress Association Retired Air Force
	ID: 1226932 ·

skildude Send message Joined: 4 Oct 00 Posts: 8940 Credit: 36,401,374 RAC: 55,882	Message 1226942 - Posted: 4 May 2012, 1:14:18 UTC - in response to Message 1226932.
	remote desktop has been known to kill the Video card drivers and crash WU's Your best bet for remoting into your PC is using Logmein. It can be used for free and works without killing processes. The only setback is that it doesnt work with Linux machines ____________ Proud member of TSWB. End terrorism by building a school
	ID: 1226942 ·

Jim Bohan Send message Joined: 23 Dec 01 Posts: 46 Credit: 14,455,962 RAC: 16,491	Message 1226986 - Posted: 4 May 2012, 2:28:58 UTC - in response to Message 1226942.
	Great, I'll try that. I've seen it on the internet. Thanks, Jim ____________ Member B-52 Stratofortress Association Retired Air Force
	ID: 1226986 ·

Dufman Send message Joined: 19 Nov 00 Posts: 8 Credit: 3,438,364 RAC: 7,639	Message 1227009 - Posted: 4 May 2012, 4:21:04 UTC - in response to Message 1226851.
	I just tried it again to watch the digital readout on the board and it stops on code 0d. There is no reference to 0d in the manual or that I can find on the internet... Any other ideas?
	ID: 1227009 ·

Volunteer tester Send message Joined: 9 Apr 02 Posts: 11987 Credit: 17,885,405 RAC: 59,676	Message 1227129 - Posted: 4 May 2012, 11:47:00 UTC - in response to Message 1227009.
	I'm not sure... I'm a little stumped. I've never used more than one video card in a system so I'm not exactly sure why it doesn't work in your system. If I can think of anything, I'll post again. In the meantime, maybe someone else has an idea....
	ID: 1227129 ·

Dufman Send message Joined: 19 Nov 00 Posts: 8 Credit: 3,438,364 RAC: 7,639	Message 1227176 - Posted: 4 May 2012, 14:30:16 UTC - in response to Message 1227129.
	I think I solved the problem.... I emailed Zotac and Biostar and chatted with a few people on other boards... I'll take the POS back! Then Buy a cheap MB and a few gigs of ram. I'll donate this computer's processor combined with new the MB and ram to fix one of these old Intel boxes sitting around. I have two Pentium D systems that both have issues. Then I'll throw in that phenom II x6 I have wanted and everyone is happy! Problem solved.
	ID: 1227176 ·

Volunteer tester Send message Joined: 9 Apr 02 Posts: 11987 Credit: 17,885,405 RAC: 59,676	Message 1227178 - Posted: 4 May 2012, 14:38:06 UTC - in response to Message 1227176.
	Well that's certainly one way to solve the problem...
	ID: 1227178 ·

Yanivicious Send message Joined: 29 Mar 12 Posts: 152 Credit: 4,005,031 RAC: 7,325	Message 1227880 - Posted: 5 May 2012, 16:14:23 UTC - in response to Message 1226847. Last modified: 5 May 2012, 16:17:33 UTC
	This is my first post.... (Don't be too harsh ;) I have a question for the GPU super users. I was at Microcenter today and saw a GT 430 in PCI. I looked it up real quick on my phone and it seemed like a decent cheap card. I thought cool I could put that in one of my empty pci slots. I got home put it in the bottom slot and the system wouldn't boot. Everything powered on, but the monitor stayed blank. I moved it up a slot and the same thing. I even tried moving the monitor cord down to it...nothing. Did I get a bum card or am I missing something? It was the only one in the store :( I'm running: Biostar TA990FXE Mainboard Athlon II x4 635 8gigs of 1600 ram ASUS gtx 550 ti gt210 (both PCIe 2.0) Powered by an OCZ 750w (continuous) power supply I thought GPU's have to be SLI or Crossfire (for AMD) in order to use more than one GPU on a system? I have GT 430's in 3 of my systems PCI-E slots, but each of those systems have 2 regular PCI slots empty- I would be able to put the plain PCI version of the GT 430 in those slots as well so that SETI can crunch with 3 GPU's on each system? (assuming your PSU's could handle it) ____________
	ID: 1227880 ·

Gatekeeper Send message Joined: 14 Jul 04 Posts: 702 Credit: 139,552,905 RAC: 224,945	Message 1227908 - Posted: 5 May 2012, 16:54:06 UTC - in response to Message 1227880.
	I thought GPU's have to be SLI or Crossfire (for AMD) in order to use more than one GPU on a system? Actually, just the opposite. SLI (IDNK about Crossfire) forces the GPU's to work as one, and that's the way BOINC sees them. Running GPU's as individual units allows them to work individually. ____________
	ID: 1227908 ·

Yanivicious Send message Joined: 29 Mar 12 Posts: 152 Credit: 4,005,031 RAC: 7,325	Message 1227960 - Posted: 5 May 2012, 18:22:32 UTC - in response to Message 1227908. Last modified: 5 May 2012, 18:28:37 UTC
	yes i've understood that SLI and Crossfire allow for 2 gpu's to function as one, but i thought that was the only way to run more than one GPU on a sytem. Now that I know running them independently is also a possibility. SO BOINC will be able to detect more than one GPU in that case and assign tasks to each GPU automatically etc..? How does the computer know when or which card to use when it kicks in automatically during other computer tasks? using the SLI setup, BOINC would assign one task for both of the cards since they will essentially be showing up as a single piece of hardware.. does SLI or crossfire essentially "double" the performance of the card? if you have two gtx 590's they will essentially both essentially work one 50% of a given task and complete it in half the time that one 590, right? ____________
	ID: 1227960 ·

Gatekeeper Send message Joined: 14 Jul 04 Posts: 702 Credit: 139,552,905 RAC: 224,945	Message 1228011 - Posted: 5 May 2012, 19:49:59 UTC - in response to Message 1227960. Last modified: 5 May 2012, 19:56:02 UTC
	yes i've understood that SLI and Crossfire allow for 2 gpu's to function as one, but i thought that was the only way to run more than one GPU on a sytem. Now that I know running them independently is also a possibility. SO BOINC will be able to detect more than one GPU in that case and assign tasks to each GPU automatically etc..? How does the computer know when or which card to use when it kicks in automatically during other computer tasks? using the SLI setup, BOINC would assign one task for both of the cards since they will essentially be showing up as a single piece of hardware.. does SLI or crossfire essentially "double" the performance of the card? if you have two gtx 590's they will essentially both essentially work one 50% of a given task and complete it in half the time that one 590, right? BOINC reads your system config and determines your available GPU's. Look at my computers, and you can see one has 2 580's, another has 2 590's. The Lunatics software then checks on each new WU startup, sees what card is avaialable, and assigns it to task automatically. There wouldn't be a doubling of performance in SLI; any task uses a finite amount of resources. However, by reducing the amount of GPU per WU, you can do more than one task at a time on Fermi and Kepler class cards. For example, my 590's each do 2 tasks per core simultaneously, or 4 per card. The 580's can do 3 WU's simultaneously. This requires a command line addition to an app_info XML file. EDIT: I should add that running multiple WU's on one GPU core simultaneously does degarde performance vs. running just one WU per core, however, that degradation isn't so much as to offset the overall performance gains of running multiple instances. Each card has it's own "sweet spot"; it's trial and error to find the one for your particular card. ____________
	ID: 1228011 ·

Yanivicious Send message Joined: 29 Mar 12 Posts: 152 Credit: 4,005,031 RAC: 7,325	Message 1228065 - Posted: 5 May 2012, 21:42:32 UTC - in response to Message 1228011.
	got it. thanks gatekeeper ____________
	ID: 1228065 ·

Dufman Send message Joined: 19 Nov 00 Posts: 8 Credit: 3,438,364 RAC: 7,639	Message 1228146 - Posted: 6 May 2012, 2:25:16 UTC - in response to Message 1228065.
	using the SLI setup, BOINC would assign one task for both of the cards since they will essentially be showing up as a single piece of hardware.. does SLI or crossfire essentially "double" the performance of the card? if you have two gtx 590's they will essentially both essentially work one 50% of a given task and complete it in half the time that one 590, right? Actually SLI/Crossfire doesn't double the performance over the single card. However it is a significant increase say about a gain of 70%. The general idea was to future proof you system. If in a few years your computer wont play a game you want you just buy an identical card, hopefully cheep by then, and poof much faster... Go play. Not that people don't go out and buy the fastest cards they can and SLI them now... And now about your PCI slots if your board is a Biostar they do not support any video other than from their PCIe slots. Here is what they told me in an email. "TA990FXE motherboard supports PCI-express video devices only. There are four total PCI-express slots. If using multiple video cards, we suggest to use the same model.support@biostar-usa.com 626-581-1055" I have two different video cards in two slots and they work just fine.
	ID: 1228146 ·

Questions and Answers : GPU applications : PCI GPU Help please...