Having problems passing cmd line parameters to correct GFX card.

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Profile Karsten Vinding
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Message 1899809 - Posted: 8 Nov 2017, 7:38:20 UTC
Last modified: 8 Nov 2017, 7:42:18 UTC

I'm running seti on two GFX cards.

An older Radeon HD7770, and a Radeon RX480.

Even though the RX480 is considerably faster I still keep the HD7770 running because it is still much faster than the CPU.

The HD7770 gets assigned as device 0 and the RX480 as device 1

My problem is tat even though I run with a settings file like this:

<Device0>
Parameters
</Device0>
<Device1>
Parameters
</Device1>

(I dont remember the exact parameters, and am not at the computer right now).

Then every single job I run on both cards show this:

<stderr_txt>
Preferred workgroup size set to 64.
Maximum single buffer size set to:512MB
Number of period iterations for PulseFind set to:2
High-performance path selected. If GUI lags occur consider to remove -high_perf option from tuning line
SpikeFind FFT size threshold override set to:2048
TUNE: kernel 1 now has workgroup size of (64,1,4)
Verbose level set to:1
Number of app instances per device set to:1
Maximum single buffer size set to:2048MB
Number of period iterations for PulseFind set to:1
Target kernel sequence time set to 500ms
SpikeFind FFT size threshold override set to:2048
oclFFT global radix override set to:256
oclFFT local radix override set to:16
oclFFT max WG size override set to:256
oclFFT max local FFT size override set to:512
oclFFT number of local memory banks set to:64
oclFFT minimal memory coalesce width set to:64
High-performance path selected. If GUI lags occur consider to remove -high_perf option from tuning line
Defaults scaling is disabled, basic defaults will be used. Tuning on user's discretion.
Preferred workgroup size set to 64.
Preferred workgroups number per compute unit set to 32.
TUNE: kernel 1 now has workgroup size of (4,4,16)
Priority of worker thread raised successfully
Priority of process adjusted successfully, high priority class used
OpenCL platform detected: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
BOINC assigns device X (0 or 1)
1 slot of 64 used for this instance
Info: BOINC provided OpenCL device ID used
Info: CPU affinity mask used: 4; system mask is ffff


As you can see, many of the parameters are repeated, and I end up running with the parameters I set for device 1, on both cards. I don't produce bad results, but I think the settings that was ment for the RX480, are sub optimal for the HD7770, as its a much lower end card.
For instance it seems to try to run with 2Gb single buffer size (on a 1Gb card), even though I try to set it to 512Mb. Luckily the app is smart enough to ignore this and stay within whats available, but still it doesn't work as its designed to do.

Anybody got any ideas as to what is going wrong?

I have had this working before, I don't know what has gone wrong. Clearly the settings file is being read, but its not interpreted correctly by the app it seems.
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Message 1900006 - Posted: 9 Nov 2017, 13:11:50 UTC - in response to Message 1899809.  
Last modified: 9 Nov 2017, 13:12:23 UTC

Not much help yet :)

I have tried creating the settings file from scratch, inputting all the variables by hand, but it does not seem to help.

I have tried with notepad, and with another dedicated raw text editor, with no luck.

Anybody have any ideas?
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Profile Brent Norman Crowdfunding Project Donor*Special Project $75 donorSpecial Project $250 donor
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Message 1900015 - Posted: 9 Nov 2017, 14:15:28 UTC - in response to Message 1900006.  

If it is reading 'some' parameters from the file it's not the text editor being used.

As for separating the command links; I know it can be done, it's all about proper placement and config.
My knowledge on this ... nada ...
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Message 1900016 - Posted: 9 Nov 2017, 14:22:40 UTC

Which command files are you talking about - there are several, some can be set up to configure two different cards differently, others work across the board.
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Message 1900020 - Posted: 9 Nov 2017, 14:56:32 UTC
Last modified: 9 Nov 2017, 14:58:03 UTC

If you are talking about device specific app config.xml it might be the boinc version.
I never got it working myself with Boinc 7x.

It has to be defined correctly in appinfo.xml.


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Message 1900022 - Posted: 9 Nov 2017, 15:01:06 UTC - in response to Message 1900020.  
Last modified: 9 Nov 2017, 15:22:05 UTC

Device IDs are not a supported parameter in BOINC's app_config.xml file, whichever version of BOINC you run. The documented parameters are all supported correctly under BOINC v7.8.3, so far as I've been able to observe.

app_info.xml doesn't support Device ID parameters either.
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Message 1900049 - Posted: 9 Nov 2017, 17:55:56 UTC - in response to Message 1900022.  

Device IDs are not a supported parameter in BOINC's app_config.xml file, whichever version of BOINC you run. The documented parameters are all supported correctly under BOINC v7.8.3, so far as I've been able to observe.

app_info.xml doesn't support Device ID parameters either.


I should have been more specific.
I mean MultiBeam_<vendor>_config.xml documented in OpenCL readme.
It worked perfectly with Boinc 6.


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Message 1900068 - Posted: 9 Nov 2017, 20:26:02 UTC
Last modified: 9 Nov 2017, 20:27:40 UTC

OK.

I'm at the computer now, so I can provide some more detail.

The file I'm using is "mb_cmdline_win_x86_SSE2_OpenCL_ATi_HD5.txt"

And the settings I use are these.

<device0>
-pref_wg_size 64 -sbs 512 -period_iterations_num 1 -tt 1500 -hp -high_perf -spike_fft_thresh 2048 -tune 1 64 1 4 -high_prec_timer
</device0>

<device1>
-pref_wg_size 64 -sbs 2048 -period_iterations_num 2 -spike_fft_thresh 2048 -oclfft_tune_gr 256 -oclfft_tune_lr 16 -oclfft_tune_wg 256 -oclfft_tune_ls 512 -oclfft_tune_bn 64 -oclfft_tune_cw 64 -hp -no_defaults_scaling -tune 1 4 4 16 -high_prec_timer
</device1>

Device 0 is the HD7770, and device 1 is the RX480.

Ignore the actual settings, I'm still working on getting them optimized.

The settings file is being read, but somehow the app is not respecting that it should use different settings for each card.

I know it can work, I have had it working before. I'm wondering why it wont anymore?

Perhaps it started when I upgraded the apps from r3557 to r3584, but I'm quite certain it has worked with r3584 also.

Oh, and i recently updated BOINC to the latest version, but still went from a 7.xxx version, to the latest.
Perhaps I should try installing an older BOINC version?
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Message 1900091 - Posted: 9 Nov 2017, 22:33:04 UTC

If you find that changing between BOINC v7.6.xx and BOINC v7.8.x makes a difference, please document carefully with any event log messages and report. It shouldn't make any difference, but stranger things have happened in Kansas.
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Message boards : Number crunching : Having problems passing cmd line parameters to correct GFX card.


 
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