Upgrading Video Drivers

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Herb Smith
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Message 1754896 - Posted: 8 Jan 2016, 17:10:32 UTC

Just joined Beta, so I could help with testing of NVIDIA GPU's. Got the message below to upgrade to latest drivers. I have seen lots of discussion here over time about not using either MS drivers and not using the Full blown NVIDIA Tools. I do no gaming on my systems. The GPU's are all for crunching and maybe some video watching.

What the best or simplest (safest) way to upgrade


1/8/2016 10:57:34 AM | SETI@home Beta Test | Started download of libfftw3f-3-3-4_x86.dll
1/8/2016 10:57:37 AM | SETI@home Beta Test | Finished download of setiathome_8.04_windows_intelx86.exe
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1/8/2016 10:57:38 AM | SETI@home Beta Test | Finished download of libfftw3f-3-3-4_x86.dll
1/8/2016 10:57:38 AM | SETI@home Beta Test | Started download of bl_bkg_804.jpg
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1/8/2016 10:57:39 AM | SETI@home Beta Test | Started download of setiathome-8.04_AUTHORS.txt
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1/8/2016 10:57:40 AM | SETI@home Beta Test | Started download of setiathome-8.04_COPYING.txt
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1/8/2016 10:57:41 AM | SETI@home Beta Test | Started download of setiathome-8.04_COPYRIGHT.txt
1/8/2016 10:57:42 AM | SETI@home Beta Test | Finished download of setigraphics_8.04_windows_intelx86.exe
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1/8/2016 10:57:42 AM | SETI@home Beta Test | Started download of setiathome-8.04_README.txt
1/8/2016 10:57:42 AM | SETI@home Beta Test | Started download of seti_804.jpg
1/8/2016 10:57:42 AM | SETI@home Beta Test | Sending scheduler request: To fetch work.
1/8/2016 10:57:42 AM | SETI@home Beta Test | Requesting new tasks for NVIDIA GPU
1/8/2016 10:57:43 AM | SETI@home Beta Test | Finished download of setiathome-8.04_README.txt
1/8/2016 10:57:43 AM | SETI@home Beta Test | Finished download of seti_804.jpg
1/8/2016 10:57:43 AM | SETI@home Beta Test | Started download of bl_804.jpg
1/8/2016 10:57:43 AM | SETI@home Beta Test | Started download of 06ap11ag.14109.12337.8.42.253
1/8/2016 10:57:44 AM | SETI@home Beta Test | Finished download of bl_804.jpg
1/8/2016 10:57:44 AM | SETI@home Beta Test | Scheduler request completed: got 0 new tasks
1/8/2016 10:57:44 AM | SETI@home Beta Test | Message from server: NVIDIA GPU: Upgrade to the latest driver to process tasks using your computer's GPU
1/8/2016 10:57:45 AM | SETI@home Beta Test | Finished download of 06ap11ag.14109.12337.8.42.253
1/8/2016 10:57:45 AM | SETI@home Beta Test | Starting task 06ap11ag.14109.12337.8.42.253_1
1/8/2016 10:58:35 AM | SETI@home Beta Test | Message from task: 0
1/8/2016 10:58:35 AM | SETI@home Beta Test | Computation for task 06ap11ag.14109.12337.8.42.253_1 finished

Herb
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Message 1754898 - Posted: 8 Jan 2016, 17:19:25 UTC - in response to Message 1754896.  

Go to Nvidia driver download site and download drivers > 350.XXX to be compatible with SETI Beta NV apps. I am running the 353.62 version as they have had the least amount of trouble with BOINC and since I don't game like yourself, feel no need to update to later drivers which are mainly for new game releases.
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Herb Smith
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Message 1754911 - Posted: 8 Jan 2016, 18:54:51 UTC

Thanks, After I get back from my PowerBall ticket run, here is the plan.

1. Download new drivers
2. Shutdown bonic
3. Reboot
4. Install new drivers
5. Reboot
6. Restart Bonic

Herb
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Message 1754915 - Posted: 8 Jan 2016, 19:07:19 UTC - in response to Message 1754911.  
Last modified: 8 Jan 2016, 19:10:21 UTC

Thanks, After I get back from my PowerBall ticket run, here is the plan.

1. Download new drivers
2. Shutdown bonic
3. Reboot
4. Install new drivers
5. Reboot
6. Restart Bonic

Herb

A couple of observations from my experience, others may like to differ or add. Your steps 3 (and perhaps 2 and 6, though they can't hurt) are unnecessary. Also, when you install the new driver, choose the custom option and deselect the GeForce Experience. I've found that tool to be unnecessary and sometimes a PIA, since I think it mainly serves to keep gamers on the latest release.
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Message 1754925 - Posted: 8 Jan 2016, 19:39:31 UTC - in response to Message 1754915.  

Thanks for more input. Yes my plan is very conservative, but I have learned to be that way the hard way. Invest time upfront (maybe even in hindsight waste) but save trying to clean up later.

Anyway. The upgrade went well. I downloaded and then choose the advanced install. I did not install the GeForce Experience having seen lots of comments about it. I also saw an option for a clean install and checked it. It switched to default drivers, then forced a reboot. Upon reboot with defaults in place, it installed the new drivers, and rebooted again.

Things look to be ok. Video looks back to normal. Beta downloaded some WU's and is busy running one instance on my 750ti.

Remaining step is to remember how to get it running two instances on the 750ti. Could not find app_info.xml. So research time.

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Message 1754931 - Posted: 8 Jan 2016, 20:08:33 UTC - in response to Message 1754925.  

Remaining step is to remember how to get it running two instances on the 750ti. Could not find app_info.xml. So research time.

Herb

Use app_config.xml, it's simpler. But, before you do that, you should probably check your GPU Load and CPU usage for the single instance. The OpenCL GPU apps on Beta seem to be sucking up as much as a full core to feed them. I know they do on my T7400 (3 cores for 3 GPUs running 1 instance per GPU), and others have reported the same.
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Message 1758178 - Posted: 22 Jan 2016, 12:30:08 UTC

Hi,
I'm trying to run an gtx260 and a gtx750ti in the same computer but need to use driver version 340 as it's the latest the gtx260 still supports.

I'm not sure if the version 8 GPU app is still in beta or not but will I be able to run SETI GPU tasks on this computer in future?

I did see mention on some posts that suggest a minimum of version 350.

Starting BOINC client version 7.4.23 for x86_64-pc-linux-gnu
OS: Linux: 3.19.0-15-generic
CUDA: NVIDIA GPU 0: GeForce GTX 750 Ti (driver version 340.93, CUDA version 6.5, compute capability 5.0, 2048MB, 2009MB available, 1472 GFLOPS peak)
CUDA: NVIDIA GPU 1: GeForce GTX 260 (driver version 340.93, CUDA version 6.5, compute capability 1.3, 896MB, 845MB available, 805 GFLOPS peak)
OpenCL: NVIDIA GPU 0: GeForce GTX 750 Ti (driver version 340.93, device version OpenCL 1.1 CUDA, 2048MB, 2009MB available, 1472 GFLOPS peak)
OpenCL: NVIDIA GPU 1: GeForce GTX 260 (driver version 340.93, device version OpenCL 1.0 CUDA, 896MB, 845MB available, 805 GFLOPS peak)
..
Config: use all coprocessors
SETI@home | Message from server: NVIDIA GPU: Upgrade to the latest driver to process tasks using your computer's GPU




    
<cc_config>
    <options>
    <use_all_gpus>1</use_all_gpus>
    </options>
</cc_config>
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Message 1758184 - Posted: 22 Jan 2016, 12:44:41 UTC - in response to Message 1758178.  

Hi,
I'm trying to run an gtx260 and a gtx750ti in the same computer but need to use driver version 340 as it's the latest the gtx260 still supports.

I'm not sure if the version 8 GPU app is still in beta or not but will I be able to run SETI GPU tasks on this computer in future?

....

That's not a good combination to run as both cards are totally different in so many ways and I'd suggest dumping that GTX 260 as the GTX 750Ti is so much quicker.

Cheers.
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Message 1758187 - Posted: 22 Jan 2016, 13:05:12 UTC - in response to Message 1758178.  
Last modified: 22 Jan 2016, 13:37:23 UTC

Hi,
I'm trying to run an gtx260 and a gtx750ti in the same computer but need to use driver version 340 as it's the latest the gtx260 still supports.

I'm not sure if the version 8 GPU app is still in beta or not but will I be able to run SETI GPU tasks on this computer in future?

I did see mention on some posts that suggest a minimum of version 350.

v8 for NVidia is released, both as a stock app and via the Lunatics installer.

Drivers around 340 are fine for the CUDA Multibeam applications, all versions. The 350 minimum applies to the NV OpenCL application, which has not been transferred to Main - you can ignore that.

BUT - if you want to run Astropulse as well, avoid that exact 340 driver while the GTX 260 is active. There is possibly a 341 hotfix available, dated February 2015 - that would do, but it's available for Windows Vista and upwards only - for Windows XP, you'd need to drop back to the one before 340. Anything from 306 upwards would still leave you a full choice of CUDA apps.

BUT - there's another BUT. The GTX 260 would thrive on cuda32: the GTX 750Ti would prefer cuda50. You can't have both. So one card or the other will always be running far below optimum. As Wiggo says, it would be far better to throw away the GTX 260, and buy a second GTX 750Ti. Probably cheaper over the lifetime of the machine, too - the 750s use much less electricity, but produce a greater output with it.
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Message 1758193 - Posted: 22 Jan 2016, 13:32:11 UTC
Last modified: 22 Jan 2016, 13:32:39 UTC

the 750s use much less elestricity, but produce a greater output with it


I wish my computer would run on that!

Sounds a lot more flexible.
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Message 1758197 - Posted: 22 Jan 2016, 13:38:29 UTC - in response to Message 1758193.  

LOL - corrected, thanks. I'm not feeling terribly flexible myself this morning, it has to be admitted.
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Message 1758205 - Posted: 22 Jan 2016, 14:27:26 UTC - in response to Message 1758184.  

Hi Wiggo,
Yes. I know the 260 is old but I need to keep that particular computer in use and I have those cards to spare. As long as the compute time for the 260 is faster than that of it's cpu, I'd like to make use of it if possible.
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Message 1758227 - Posted: 22 Jan 2016, 16:11:46 UTC
Last modified: 22 Jan 2016, 16:12:04 UTC

[url] http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/compare.php?cmp[]=17&cmp[]=2815 [/url]

this gtx 260 IS a big disgrace to ur electricity bill. ;)
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Message boards : Number crunching : Upgrading Video Drivers


 
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