I am running multiple 16-40 core servers and one person with what I assume is a single workstation with 8 cores and 8 nVidia GPUs outperforms? What gives?

I am running multiple 16-40 core servers and one person with what I assume is a single workstation with 8 cores and 8 nVidia GPUs outperforms? What gives?

Pretty simple...
GPUs, especially with the Lunatics opti app installed, are far faster than CPUs.

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"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

Sounds like shenanigans to me ;)

Does this Lunatics app require much tweakage? I am too busy to micro-manage a lab full of multi core servers...

Sounds like shenanigans to me ;)

Does this Lunatics app require much tweakage? I am too busy to micro-manage a lab full of multi core servers...

Not a lot of tweakage. Their auto installer takes care of things pretty well.
If you want to stay current, you do have to monitor this forum once in a while to see when new versions are released, as they will not automatically update.

But the basic thing is, you are not doing any GPU crunching, and will probably not make up the difference with CPUs alone.

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"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

I am running multiple 16-40 core servers and one person with what I assume is a single workstation with 8 cores and 8 nVidia GPUs outperforms? What gives?

Looking over your list of machine a lot of them seem to be P4 based systems. The P4 isn't the bang for the buck in crunching seti. One of my single i7-860 systems pumps out 7,000-8,000 just with the CPU. Some of the other i7's, especially when overclocked, can go 12,000-15,000 with just the CPU. Then a few dual GPU video cards and you see the systems that can run close to 100,000RAC.
Looking at the Top Computers list is a good way to make you say @#^$&!

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SETI@home classic workunits: 93,865 CPU time: 863,447 hours
Join the [url=http://tinyurl.com/8y46zvu]BP6/VP6 User Group[

Lunatic is a one time install, other have described the process in detail in other threads. After that you can leave it alone (or tweak a bit if so inclined). For me, it more than doubled CPU RAC.

BUT ... you need to keep track of updates, and install them manually, unlike the stock apps that get updated by BOINC without any involvement on your part.

Concerning GPUs with Lunatics: my laptop is a dual core 2 year old machine, gets about 800 RAC running S@H 24 hours a day. A have a 5 year old GPU machine that gets 2500+ RAC on GPU alone running S@H.

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I am running multiple 16-40 core servers and one person with what I assume is a single workstation with 8 cores and 8 nVidia GPUs outperforms? What gives?

I have 3 GTX 460s which are 336 cores each and 2 GTX 295's which are 480 each, and I'm at 80k RAC and climbing.

That's almost 2000 cores in 4 machines, and the CUDA cores are much better at this kind of math. Hence the reason the Air Force built a supercomputer out of PS3s!

http://www.physorg.com/news/2010-12-air-playstation-3s-supercomputer.html

It's also the reason that NVIDIA Makes external boxes that can house multiple GPU cards.

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lunatics is almost a guaranteed doubling of your current RAC

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In a rich man's house there is no place to spit but his face.
Diogenes Of Sinope

I have a pile of nVidia and ATI cards in the lab...will any GPU work, ala ATI/AMD or are we talking nVidia only? My servers have multiple x8 and x16 PCIe slots each. I could load them up...

I have a pile of nVidia and ATI cards in the lab...will any GPU work, ala ATI/AMD or are we talking nVidia only? My servers have multiple x8 and x16 PCIe slots each. I could load them up...

There are applications for both.
Nvidia cards need to be 8400 or higher.
Right now only a Multibeam application is released, but an Astropulse application is in the works.
ATI cards need to be HD2000 or higher. The x800 x1000 cards are no go sadly. I have a lot of those I could be using if they were. :(
For the ATI cards there are different applications depending on the card.
Generally HD2000 & HD3000 cards can only use the hybrid Astropulse application. Where the HD4800 cards and higher can use the OpenCL applications for Multibeam and Astropulse.
The Lunatics installer eliminates a lot of problems with what to do as it basically says 'tick this box for this card'

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SETI@home classic workunits: 93,865 CPU time: 863,447 hours
Join the [url=http://tinyurl.com/8y46zvu]BP6/VP6 User Group[

I have a pile of nVidia and ATI cards in the lab...will any GPU work, ala ATI/AMD or are we talking nVidia only? My servers have multiple x8 and x16 PCIe slots each. I could load them up...

Any nVIDIA cards listed here will work.

AMD/ATi cards from 4xxx up will do to (and some older ones will run hybrid mode) but I can't help with a link for these (though someone will likely fill this bit in). ;)

Cheers.

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I have a pile of nVidia and ATI cards in the lab...will any GPU work, ala ATI/AMD or are we talking nVidia only? My servers have multiple x8 and x16 PCIe slots each. I could load them up...

Any nVIDIA cards listed here will work.

AMD/ATi cards from 4xxx up will do to (and some older ones will run hybrid mode) but I can't help with a link for these (though someone will likely fill this bit in). ;)

Cheers.

The Readme for the v0.38 installer actually had the detailed info regarding some of the caveats it looks like.

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SETI@home classic workunits: 93,865 CPU time: 863,447 hours
Join the [url=http://tinyurl.com/8y46zvu]BP6/VP6 User Group[

Most of the top crunchers are running Windows, and for that the Lunatics installer is really very simple.
First get the system running on the stock applications, make sure you've got the correct drivers for your GPU (a search on here will help). Let it burn in for few days. Go to the Lunactics site and download their latest STABLE installer, tick a few boxes, sit back and watch the credits roll in.

Most of the real kings are heavily overclocked, something not for the feint hearted, as getting it wrong and really cook your hardware, so they have massive cooling added, and even then the systems are quite sensitive to the environment...

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

I am running multiple 16-40 core servers and one person with what I assume is a single workstation with 8 cores and 8 nVidia GPUs outperforms? What gives?

Pretty simple...
GPUs, especially with the Lunatics opti app installed, are far faster than CPUs.

For example-
One of my CPUs does a shorty in around 35-40min. My GPU does the same Work Units in about 2min 50sec. Longer running Work Units on the CPU take around 3 hours. On the GPU, about 18min.

Looking over your list of machine a lot of them seem to be P4 based systems.

It has to be said- the P4 was a very poor performing CPU. Great clock speeds, but very poor performance.

P4 660 v i72600k
Keep in mind the P4 660 was pretty much the pinacle of P4 performance. Compared to current CPUs it's woefull. Earlier P4 CPUs would look even worse.
Also keep in mind that the current crop of CPUs also use less power than the P4s did.
Intel may have screwed up with NetBurst, but they hit the jackpot with the Core architecture.

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Grant
Darwin NT

gcpeters, you can also have a look at my 3 lowly PC's (well that's IMHO of them) that use 5 older 9800GT/GTX cards (10 CPU cores in total) and my RAC is about the same as your's. ;)

Cheers.

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The other thing to keep in mind is many of the high RAC machines are dedicated crunchers, and even if used for other purposes Seti is always running.

eg this is my main machine i use at home.
% of time BOINC is running 99.7291 %
While BOINC running, % of time work is allowed 99.9909 %


With your systems- particularly the 60 & 16 processor systems- what % of time is BOINC running? And when it's running what % of time is it allowed to crunch? And are all of the CPUs & Cores being used?
And keep in mind using an optimised CPU application will reduce crunching times by about a third compared to the stock application.

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Grant
Darwin NT

One thing I didn't see mentioned but could be important in your case is that running the Lunatics apps will increase the heat your rigs put out. This is because they work your rigs hard. Just be sure you have plenty of fresh air around them.

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PROUD MEMBER OF Team Starfire World BOINC

I'm running Dell big-iron servers (R900, R910) with massive cooling and baseboard management...also power pigs btw ;)

I'll throw some GPUs in them and see what happens...

An ATI or nVidia card of the right series per PC will heave your RAC sky high. It also allows your rigs to attach to other projects running GPU work (PrimeGrid, SETI, Einstein, Milkyway, DNETC, GPUGrid, and many other worthwhile projects).

The ATI and NV cards I currently have, some very much legacy PCI bus (not PCI-E) my top RAC hits 850,000. There are people with many PCs (like you) and multiple GPUs where I have seen their RACs at 9.35+million and more and their total credits, across several projects, approaching 4billion CS.

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It's good to be back amongst friends and colleagues

I'm running Dell big-iron servers (R900, R910) with massive cooling and baseboard management...also power pigs btw ;)

I'll throw some GPUs in them and see what happens...

Just to give you an idea, all I'm running is an Intel E5400 and a GTS 450 NVIDIA card giving me my 10k+ RAC.

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PROUD MEMBER OF Team Starfire World BOINC