I there any way to restrict AstroPulse work units processing on a laptop? My Acer does have an I3 processor, but it's speed is less than my 2 other desktops. They are AMD Core 4 and Cor 6 processors and run faster. I'd rather run the AstroPulse on the faster systems and normal workunits on the laptop.

Suggestions?

<< jim >>

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Either you install the optimized apps with Multibeam only (what will btw. speed them up a lot) or you assign your laptop to one of the home, work or school venues and set in the preferences of this venue to setiathome enhanced only. But I'd go with the opt. apps, eventually even astropule will run in short enough time, that you may want to keep it.

Edit: the recommendation to install the optimized apps actually applies to all your computers, they can speed up the processing a lot so you get more science done, but only if it's OK for you to check sometimes if they need an update, they will not be updated automatically. More information about the installer of the opt apps you can find here.

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You could set one of the venues/locations, accessible from your account page, to not include astropulse. Then you would also need to set your notebook to that venue/location from the details page for it.

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SETI@home classic workunits: 93,865 CPU time: 863,447 hours
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Test Msg.

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Thanks for the info. I downloaded the optimized apps. Does it automaticly enhance BOINC? It said it downloaded to c:\Program data\... I can't even find that directory, is it hidden? I'm on Win 7 64bit. I see that the CUDA process is running the Lunitics app, but don't see any change in the normal SETI enhanced.

any help is appreciated.

<< Jim >>

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Thanks for the info. I downloaded the optimized apps. Does it automaticly enhance BOINC? It said it downloaded to c:\Program data\... I can't even find that directory, is it hidden? I'm on Win 7 64bit. I see that the CUDA process is running the Lunitics app, but don't see any change in the normal SETI enhanced.

any help is appreciated.

<< Jim >>

The program data folder is normally hidden. You can goto Tools > folder Options > View in explorer and change what is hidden from there if you wish. If you open task manager and switch to the processes tab you can see which applications are running to confirm the new exes are in place. you may need to check the options for "Show processes from all users". The optimized apps for the cpu will be named something like AK_v8b_win_x64_SSSE3x.exe. the name will depend on which option you selecting during the install.

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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 see that the CUDA process is running the Lunitics app, but don't see any change in the normal SETI enhanced.

If you see the following line in the start up messages of BOINC

27/07/2011 09:54:31	SETI@home	Found app_info.xml; using anonymous platform

than both CPU and GPU apps are the optimized version, the installer does not have the option to keep the stock app.

On your X4 machine, are you sure there are any GPU tasks running? I can't see any reported back or requested for the GPU optimized apps in the task list, only CPU.

On the X6 and i3 you havn't try yet I assume...

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Yes, I do have GPU (CUDA) tasks running on my X4 machine. and your right I haven't downloaded the apps to the other two computers yet, kinda wanted to test one before I did the other two :-)
I'll check the start up message to see if I have that line in it.

Thanks for the info

<< Jim >>

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Ok, just shut down BOINC and restarted. Yes the line you said to check for is there, so I guess everything is running fine.
I'm just running the defaults can I do more optimization for my individual computers (X4, X6 and I3) or should I just use the defaults? I have good graphics cards on the X4 and X6, the Intel laptop sucks.

Thanks

<< Jim >>

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Morning Jim, the first thing I would recommend is to update the driver for your GPU. That 258.xx is getting a bit old. Right now I believe 266.xx or267.xx drivers are recommended if you are planning to run APs on your GPU. It's probably best to run the default for awhile to see how it does then we can help with any tweaking you might need.

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PROUD MEMBER OF Team Starfire World BOINC

Morning Jim, the first thing I would recommend is to update the driver for your GPU. That 258.xx is getting a bit old. Right now I believe 266.xx or267.xx drivers are recommended if you are planning to run APs on your GPU. It's probably best to run the default for awhile to see how it does then we can help with any tweaking you might need.

That would be 266.58

To download it, you'll need to find the "Beta and Archived drivers" download page on nvidia.com - don't accept anything offered on the main download page, or by the automatic hardware scan, if you intend to participate in the Astropulse GPU Beta test.

ok, just updated the video NV driver to: 8.17.12.7533
Thanks for the the help and info

<< Jim >>

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Ok richard, did I screw up by using Win 7 to check on the driver? I went to the driver in control panel and told it to update the driver on the web.

<< Jim >>

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Ok richard, did I screw up by using Win 7 to check on the driver? I went to the driver in control panel and told it to update the driver on the web.

<< Jim >>

The answer would be no, You didn't screw up. (275.33 is the recommended driver for Win7, is a Cuda 4.0 driver, and incompatible with this application. )

I screwed up by letting it go on this long (and not finding a way to force the app developer to listen).

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"Living by the wisdom of computer science doesn't sound so bad after all. And unlike most advice, it's backed up by proofs." -- Algorithms to live by: The computer science of human decisions.

Ok richard, did I screw up by using Win 7 to check on the driver? I went to the driver in control panel and told it to update the driver on the web.

<< Jim >>

The answer would be no, You didn't screw up. (275.33 is the recommended driver for Win7, is a Cuda 4.0 driver, and incompatible with this application. )

I screwed up by letting it go on this long (and not finding a way to force the app developer to listen).

Well, it is only a Beta app, and released privately by the developer: there is a recommendation to roll back the driver in the release note, in the same post as the download link. [though admittedly in the context of a reduction in CPU use]

Perhaps more to the point, this is more of a warning to all the helpful people on this board: please don't rush into advising every user to install third-party apps, from whatever source. As Gecko always used to say, installing optimised apps REQUIRES ADVANCED SKILLS - doubly so for Beta testing optimised apps.

Could everybody please advise users to take care, and think through what's going to work for them - even if the mechanical process of installation is easier now with the unified installer, there are still long-term consequences (complete re-installation when sah_v7 is released, to name but one) to be mentioned. Installing new apps should never be treated as a no-brainer.

Ok richard, did I screw up by using Win 7 to check on the driver? I went to the driver in control panel and told it to update the driver on the web.

<< Jim >>

No, I wouldn't call that a screw-up - as Jason says, the current NVidia driver is fine for general use.

But, it is at best semi-compatible with the Beta AP app - that is, the two will work togther, but you may get unexpected crashes if you have to suspend or close down BOINC while an AP task is running on the GPU.

As I posted in the other thread, it might be best to use either the new driver, or the Beta AP app, but not both togther.

The application in the Lunatics installer, for processing MB tasks on your GPU, is perfectly fine for running with the driver you now have installed.

Maybe i´m just too stupid but do you guys change motor oil every 4 weeks ?

I see similar happenings as with ATI drivers.

New drivers not better for eveything.
But not all seems to be affected.

Note: I quit counting how many times i mentioned to be careful with beta apps.

Did anyone listen ?

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With each crime and every kindness we birth our future.

Did anyone listen ?

And that is precisely what it's all about. Eric Listened. Even David Anderson Listened (in his own way). 'The world' at large has not listened there are major technological changes afoot.

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"Living by the wisdom of computer science doesn't sound so bad after all. And unlike most advice, it's backed up by proofs." -- Algorithms to live by: The computer science of human decisions.

Did anyone listen ?

And that is precisely what it's all about. Eric Listened. Even David Anderson Listened (in his own way). 'The world' at large has not listened there are major technological changes afoot.

Slicker at Collatz hasn't listened eithier, but then again his Cuda31 app errors out with Cuda 4 drivers too, and that hasn't been fixed eithier,
not noticed any downclocking problems being reported at Einstein, not sure what's happening there.

Has there been any changes at other GPU projects?

Claggy

Did anyone listen ?

And that is precisely what it's all about. Eric Listened. Even David Anderson Listened (in his own way). 'The world' at large has not listened there are major technological changes afoot.

Slicker at Collatz hasn't listened eithier, but then again his Cuda31 app errors out with Cuda 4 drivers too, and that hasn't been fixed eithier,
not noticed any downclocking problems being reported at Einstein, not sure what's happening there.

Claggy

Cuda31 has bugs only related to mixing different generation cards while running CuFFT, most projects that don't use FFT's would be in the clear for that & otherwise Cuda 3.1 is excellent. It's always possible that Einstein programmers knew what they wer doing and so didn't do non-thread-safe behaviour, such as terminating task feeding threads without prejudice mid crunch. BoincApi did that unless you know what you are doing.

I'm difficult to get cranky, but now is the time.


Jason

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"Living by the wisdom of computer science doesn't sound so bad after all. And unlike most advice, it's backed up by proofs." -- Algorithms to live by: The computer science of human decisions.