Posts by ReiAyanami

21) Message boards : Number crunching : Average Credit Decreasing? (Message 1782442)
Posted 25 Apr 2016 by Profile ReiAyanami
Post:
All mine have been going down for over 2 weeks (between 9 to 12%) and still going.
It seems that effects are at least similar to many machines.
My fastest machine's been staying in the middle of the same page of the Top hosts for at least 6 months and I don't see too many position changes in my neighborhood.
Since I don't do anything other than SETI, this is not too bad.
Decreasing RAC certainly doesn't motivate me, though.
I prefer numbers reflect calculation power and time of my machines and something more stable....
22) Message boards : Number crunching : Can I further optimize multiple GPU calculations? (Message 1774733)
Posted 28 Mar 2016 by Profile ReiAyanami
Post:
I have tried what you suggested (increased CPUs to 2 for low loading and made cmdline file edit), but no change in the GPU utilization. It is still around 55%. I also tried POEM and found it can load both at about 77%.

I don'd have experience with AMD but...
Now I leaned that GPU and CPU applications use what ever they want under threads allocated by Operating sysytem, I tried to maximize GPU utilization. This time I used 3 WU per GPU and looked at the effect of freeing more CPU cores. I took data for past 5days until server went down.
With my systems:
i7-3930K with 3 x GTX 670, <GPU_usage>.33, <cpu_usage>.9
i7-950 with 1 x GTX 680, <GPU_usage>.33, <cpu_usage>1
Q6600 with 1 x GTX 950, <GPU_usage>.33, <cpu_usage>1
seem to work fastest.
With these settings, they all achieve 92%(with i7-950)-97%(with i7-3930K) GPU usage with a very little fluctuation most of the time and process GPU WU more than enough to compensate for the reduced CPU WU. GPU stays between 62C(GTX 670) and 67C(GTX 680) with no error. All 3 systems now process more total WU per day than ever, even though CPU usage stays between 60 to 70% (Enough processing power left to process what ever Windows wants to do and stay happy).
Too bad I can't download more WU now...I hope the system recovers soon.
23) Message boards : Number crunching : Can I further optimize multiple GPU calculations? (Message 1773029)
Posted 21 Mar 2016 by Profile ReiAyanami
Post:
Thank you very much for the help.
Also 11+9 = 8+12 = 20 so you may have some forgotten <max_concurrent>20</max_concurrent> in app_config.xml

You were right, I forgot that I set max at 20. I was thinking max was set within the program defined by <name> but obviously total.

I freed up 1 CPU thread for PC's with one Graphics card and 2 for 3 cards and GPU usage went up a little. Meanwhile, total CPU usage went down only by a few %. Will see if increased GPU work can make up for the decreased CPU work, or out performs the previous setting over all.

This setting is great because even with a little bit of work I have to do on these PC's time to time, it doesn't freeze up the screen anymore and doesn't hold up SETI work, either.
Thank you again!
24) Message boards : Number crunching : Can I further optimize multiple GPU calculations? (Message 1772486)
Posted 18 Mar 2016 by Profile ReiAyanami
Post:
I tested further and found that if I run 8 GPU tasks, all 12 CPU tasks run at the same time but not with 9 GPU tasks (<cpu_usage>.04). So this doesn't quite fit what described by BilBg. I wonder what I am overlooking here.
If I suspend all GPU tasks, then all 12 CPU tasks run, of course.
Now I suspended all CPU tasks and observed the CPU usage by GPU tasks (Why didn't I think about this earlier?), and I saw 8 threads keep working for GPU tasks and 4 threads get down to 0, average CPU usage being approximately 14%. Meanwhile average GPU usage of 85% (with CPU tasks running) goes up to 95%.
I still don't have a clue how CPU contributes to GPU tasks but for my 3 GPUs running 9 tasks seem to require 15% of total CPU usage on average.
It looks like if I can dedicate 2 threads to GPU tasks (16.7%), I may be able to maximize my GPU usage.
But again, I don't know the internal work of CPU assignment by the software to GPU tasks, this may not be the case...
Will see.
25) Message boards : Number crunching : Can I further optimize multiple GPU calculations? (Message 1772403)
Posted 18 Mar 2016 by Profile ReiAyanami
Post:
Thank you very much for the detailed explanation.
Your explanation is very clear in terms of how I can free up CPU cores.

May I ask a few more clarifications?

The <cpu_usage> is not used by (GPU) applications, they use as much CPU time as they need no matter what value you set for <cpu_usage>

<cpu_usage> is only used by BOINC - to decide if it should run less CPU tasks so GPU tasks/apps have enough free CPU


This is still confusing to me. Doesn't this mean <cpu_usage> value affect GPU application since it is deciding how much free CPU is allocated to GPU tasks?
If GPU application uses as much CPU time as they need, why do we need to free up CPU core? Also, this brings up another question of how many cores I should free up for my old PC to maximize the speed of GPU application. (And now I can test it by changing <cpu_usage> value, thank you)

i7-3930K with 3 x GTX 670, <GPU_usage>.33, <cpu_usage>.04

For this system with 3 GPUs <cpu_usage>.4 will make BOINC to:
3 GPUs * 3 GPU tasks * 0.4 = 3.6 = (truncated to) 3 = BOINC will run 3 less CPU task (will "free 3 CPU cores")


Here, 3 GPUs * 3 GPU tasks * 0.04 =0.36 = (truncated to) 0
But my PC only runs 11 CPU tasks, not 12.
I'm not restricting CPU usage and set as 100% of the CPUs and CPU time.

This PC uses above 85% of GPU and 98 to 99% of CPU while I'm not doing anything else but SETI calculations with this setting.
26) Message boards : Number crunching : Can I further optimize multiple GPU calculations? (Message 1772191)
Posted 17 Mar 2016 by Profile ReiAyanami
Post:
That's exactly why I asked for rational help to begin with.
When I look at the run time distributions on my main PC, usually 2/3 are 27-33 min WU's, and 20% or so of 10-12 min WU's and some in between. I'm sure there is a good reason for this but I don't know.
27) Message boards : Number crunching : Can I further optimize multiple GPU calculations? (Message 1772150)
Posted 17 Mar 2016 by Profile ReiAyanami
Post:
I understand your point.
With run time of a few thousand seconds and associated standard deviation of a few hundred, I can estimate the statistical power.
That's why I needed rational because I don't have any clue what's CPU's calculating and sequential events happening, i.e. Does GPU need to wait periodically for what's CPU feeds, etc.

I decided to start my experiment blindly but with Sidewinder's observation by increasing CPU usage to 0.4 for now and keep accumulating data.
Sadly I even don't know what CPU usage of 0.4 means, i.e., is this the upper limit, average, time, threads or something else?

With average run time of ~2500 and associated current estimated standard deviation of ~600 sec, it will take a while ;-)
28) Message boards : Number crunching : Can I further optimize multiple GPU calculations? (Message 1772011)
Posted 16 Mar 2016 by Profile ReiAyanami
Post:
On my Q8300 I needed to bump up my <cpu_usage> to 0.4 to keep my GPUs properly fed.


Thank you very much for the info.
I guess I can experiment with mine, too, now that I know I can further reduce the processing speed.
29) Message boards : Number crunching : Can I further optimize multiple GPU calculations? (Message 1772009)
Posted 16 Mar 2016 by Profile ReiAyanami
Post:
20 tasks is far too small a sample size to give you any indication of the performance of a processor, you need to run for two thousand tasks to get a meaningful sample of task types and wingmen - yes, that will take a couple of weeks to achieve.


I get similar averages if I take 20 tasks from 10 days ago or 20 days ago.
Also, I don't understand how wingmen's performance affect my calculation speed.
Am I missing something very fundamental?

My question is, simply put, by increasing CPU time from 0.04 can I reduce run time for GPU tasks, and if so, what enhancement can I expect by increased CPU time: Is it linear? Is it saturable?
30) Message boards : Number crunching : Can I further optimize multiple GPU calculations? (Message 1771941)
Posted 16 Mar 2016 by Profile ReiAyanami
Post:
I have 3 PC's currently working on SETI.

i7-3930K with 3 x GTX 670, <GPU_usage>.33, <cpu_usage>.04, Run time 1409sec, CPU time 243sec, 76 credits
i7-950 with 1 x GTX 680, <GPU_usage>.33, <cpu_usage>.04, Run time 1446sec, CPU time 199sec, 95 credits
Q6600 with 1 x GTX 950, <GPU_usage>.50, <cpu_usage>.04, Run time 2478sec, CPU time 812sec, 102 credits

Run time and CPU time and credits are average of latest 20 WU's for SETI at home v8.
With this setting, GPU usage stays above 80% most of the time.

If I change CPU usage assignment, will it affect Run time?
And does it affect credit?

I can always test this by changing the settings,
but could someone help me rationalize?
31) Message boards : News : UC Berkeley Big Give (Message 1764426)
Posted 12 Feb 2016 by Profile ReiAyanami
Post:
I guess I didn't use the same email address.
Well, I stay without a green star until next time I donate.........
32) Message boards : News : UC Berkeley Big Give (Message 1764363)
Posted 12 Feb 2016 by Profile ReiAyanami
Post:
Hi,
I made donation to SETI on December 31, 2015 (confirmation number 174637) but I don't see a green star yet. I wonder how soon the donation status will be updated and what the duration of the green star display.
Thank you.
33) Message boards : Number crunching : Panic Mode On (101) Server Problems? (Message 1757914)
Posted 21 Jan 2016 by Profile ReiAyanami
Post:
It's very quiet here. Are you all holding the breath?
34) Message boards : Number crunching : Panic Mode On (100) Server Problems? (Message 1731255)
Posted 2 Oct 2015 by Profile ReiAyanami
Post:
OK, it lasted only for another half an hour. Now I can't connect for last 3 hours....mmmm
35) Message boards : Number crunching : Panic Mode On (100) Server Problems? (Message 1731218)
Posted 2 Oct 2015 by Profile ReiAyanami
Post:
Thank you Matt for the update.
I could connect to the server finally and it's been OK for last 2 hours.
I keep my fingers crossed ;)
36) Message boards : Number crunching : Panic Mode On (98) Server Problems? (Message 1698071)
Posted 3 Jul 2015 by Profile ReiAyanami
Post:
AP's!!
I caught the tail end of the feast and got 100 AP's total.
Needed to pay more attention to what I was doing.
Thanks again for all the help.
37) Message boards : Number crunching : Panic Mode On (98) Server Problems? (Message 1697830)
Posted 2 Jul 2015 by Profile ReiAyanami
Post:
Thank you for all the help.
Now I think I know what I did. When I re-installed BOINC software a couple of months ago, I mistakenly used the old copy of Lunatics software. No wonder I couldn't get any AP. I must have been half asleep then.
I have something to do before I go to bed.
Thanks again, all.
38) Message boards : Number crunching : Panic Mode On (98) Server Problems? (Message 1697789)
Posted 2 Jul 2015 by Profile ReiAyanami
Post:
I reverted back to 347.88 and still no AP.
Then I found a message under Notice tub says 'Your app_info.xml file doesn't have a usable version of AstroPulse v7'
I don't know how this happened but at least I know why no AP.
All I did was to install Lunatics_Win64_v0.42 and split GPU to 3.
39) Message boards : Number crunching : Panic Mode On (98) Server Problems? (Message 1697731)
Posted 2 Jul 2015 by Profile ReiAyanami
Post:
Thank you, Brent.
I will try AP only when I get home :)
40) Message boards : Number crunching : Panic Mode On (98) Server Problems? (Message 1697727)
Posted 2 Jul 2015 by Profile ReiAyanami
Post:
Mine are set as AP only and allow other work.
Apparently it's not working because I see 'AP work ready to send' are accumulating and I'm not getting any.....


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