I was wondering if this was a normal load pattern when running SETI@home tasks on my CPU:



The load will go from 80-90% to 5% and back up again over and over. I've got an i5-2400 and a 550ti.

I'm also only running at 40-50% cpu usage because my temp (according to realtemp) spikes into the 60's sometimes. I'm not sure how accurate that is though because it will go from 50 to 60 back to 50 in a second, based on the CPU load. Any help is greatly appreciated.

I can but assume that "50%" is a time averaged level rather than a continuous level.

Both my current crunchers are running at 100%, and are essentially "flat lined" at that figure.

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

ya totally normal, if you only put 40%-50% it s normal you get that kind of pattern.

me i have 100% and it s linear. 100% always 100% of the time

Haha ok thanks for the reply. I would go 100% but I'm scared with the temps I'm getting at just 50%. I should probably look at how accurate realtemp is though because it fluctuates +/- 10 a lot.

That is normal unless you are specifying affinity when you start BOINC to keep it on whichever cores you want.

For your a 4 core CPU you probably want to let windows spread the load across all of the cores, but if you do not. Then you can start BOINC from a command line like this:
start /affinity hex value boinc.exe

I made a little table of the values since it seems backwards to me.

HEX	BINARY		CPU Cores
1	0001		0
2	0010		1
3	0011		0,1
4	0100		2
5	0101		0,2
6	0110		1,2
7	0111		0,1,2
8	1000		3
9	1001		0,3
A	1010		1,3
B	1011		0,1,3
C	1100		2,3
D	1101		0,2,3
E	1110		1,2,3
F	1111		0,1,2,3

HEX	BINARY		CPU Cores
10	00010000	4
20	00100000	5
30	00110000	4,5
40	01000000	6
50	01010000	4,6
60	01100000	5,6
70	01110000	4,5,6
80	10000000	7
90	10010000	4,7
A0	10100000	5,7
B0	10110000	4,5,7
C0	11000000	7,7
D0	11010000	4,6,7
E0	11100000	5,6,7
F0	11110000	4,5,6,7

For a 4 core system to just use cores 0 & 2:
start /affinity 5 boinc.exe
For a 4 core system to just use cores 1 & 3:
start /affinity A boinc.exe
For a 8 core system to just use cores 0, 2, 4, & 6:
start /affinity 55 boinc.exe
For a 8 core system to just use cores 1, 3, 5, & 7:
start /affinity AA boinc.exe

While you could use F (on a 4 core system) or FF (on an 8 core system). That would be a bit silly since you would be telling it to let it use all cores which is the system default.

---

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

That is normal unless you are specifying affinity when you start BOINC to keep it on whichever cores you want.

For your a 4 core CPU you probably want to let windows spread the load across all of the cores, but if you do not. Then you can start BOINC from a command line like this:
start /affinity hex value boinc.exe

...

While you could use F (on a 4 core system) or FF (on an 8 core system). That would be a bit silly since you would be telling it to let it use all cores which is the system default.

I don't really understand what you mean by this. I have it on whatever the default is right now, which it looks like is using all 4 cores equally. The main thing I'm concerned about is my temp, which realtemp shows spiking close to 70 when I'm running at 90%+ cpu usage.

HAL9000 wrote:

That is normal unless you are specifying affinity when you start BOINC to keep it on whichever cores you want.

For your a 4 core CPU you probably want to let windows spread the load across all of the cores, but if you do not. Then you can start BOINC from a command line like this:
start /affinity hex value boinc.exe

I made a little table of the values since it seems backwards to me.

HEX	BINARY		CPU Cores
1	0001		0
2	0010		1
3	0011		0,1
4	0100		2
5	0101		0,2
6	0110		1,2
7	0111		0,1,2
8	1000		3
9	1001		0,3
A	1010		1,3
B	1011		0,1,3
C	1100		2,3
D	1101		0,2,3
E	1110		1,2,3
F	1111		0,1,2,3

HEX	BINARY		CPU Cores
10	00010000	4
20	00100000	5
30	00110000	4,5
40	01000000	6
50	01010000	4,6
60	01100000	5,6
70	01110000	4,5,6
80	10000000	7
90	10010000	4,7
A0	10100000	5,7
B0	10110000	4,5,7
C0	11000000	7,7
D0	11010000	4,6,7
E0	11100000	5,6,7
F0	11110000	4,5,6,7

For a 4 core system to just use cores 0 & 2:
start /affinity 5 boinc.exe
For a 4 core system to just use cores 1 & 3:
start /affinity A boinc.exe
For a 8 core system to just use cores 0, 2, 4, & 6:
start /affinity 55 boinc.exe
For a 8 core system to just use cores 1, 3, 5, & 7:
start /affinity AA boinc.exe

While you could use F (on a 4 core system) or FF (on an 8 core system). That would be a bit silly since you would be telling it to let it use all cores which is the system default.

How can I integrate this into a normal BOINC 6.12.34 installation?

Anthony.

---

SETI classic wu's 10000; CPU time 47121 hours

The longer I live, the more reasons I develop for wanting to die.

HAL9000 wrote:

That is normal unless you are specifying affinity when you start BOINC to keep it on whichever cores you want.

For your a 4 core CPU you probably want to let windows spread the load across all of the cores, but if you do not. Then you can start BOINC from a command line like this:
start /affinity hex value boinc.exe

I made a little table of the values since it seems backwards to me.

HEX	BINARY		CPU Cores
1	0001		0
2	0010		1
3	0011		0,1
4	0100		2
5	0101		0,2
6	0110		1,2
7	0111		0,1,2
8	1000		3
9	1001		0,3
A	1010		1,3
B	1011		0,1,3
C	1100		2,3
D	1101		0,2,3
E	1110		1,2,3
F	1111		0,1,2,3

HEX	BINARY		CPU Cores
10	00010000	4
20	00100000	5
30	00110000	4,5
40	01000000	6
50	01010000	4,6
60	01100000	5,6
70	01110000	4,5,6
80	10000000	7
90	10010000	4,7
A0	10100000	5,7
B0	10110000	4,5,7
C0	11000000	7,7
D0	11010000	4,6,7
E0	11100000	5,6,7
F0	11110000	4,5,6,7

For a 4 core system to just use cores 0 & 2:
start /affinity 5 boinc.exe
For a 4 core system to just use cores 1 & 3:
start /affinity A boinc.exe
For a 8 core system to just use cores 0, 2, 4, & 6:
start /affinity 55 boinc.exe
For a 8 core system to just use cores 1, 3, 5, & 7:
start /affinity AA boinc.exe

While you could use F (on a 4 core system) or FF (on an 8 core system). That would be a bit silly since you would be telling it to let it use all cores which is the system default.

How can I integrate this into a normal BOINC 6.12.34 installation?

Anthony.

I start my machine by loading things up in a bat file. I am on my old single core notebook at the moment so it just looks like this:
_B_Start.bat

D:
cd boinc
rd notices /s /q
D:\BOINC\boinc.exe --skip_cpu_benchmarks --detach
start D:\BOINC\boincmgr.exe /s

However a quick change to this would do the trick on a multi-core machine.

D:
cd boinc
rd notices /s /q
start /affinity AA D:\BOINC\boinc.exe --skip_cpu_benchmarks --detach
start D:\BOINC\boincmgr.exe /s

If you are starting BOINC by loading boincmgr.exe I would expect you could just change your starting shortcut or registry entry to:

start /affinity AA D:\BOINC\boincmgr.exe /s

Keeping whatever other syntax you are currently using. If a registry entry is used to start up BOINC for you then you can make the changes on a machine and export the entry to a .reg file. Making the installation on other machines easier for you.

---

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

I'm probably only going to change it on my i7 2600K where I use 7 out of 8 virtual cores. I'll be using 'hex FE' to keep core 0 free. I don't know if I'll use it on my C2D E6750, or on my laptop's C2D T8300.

Thanks for the info HAL9000.

Anthony.

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SETI classic wu's 10000; CPU time 47121 hours

The longer I live, the more reasons I develop for wanting to die.

HAL9000 wrote:

However a quick change to this would do the trick on a multi-core machine.

If you are starting BOINC by loading boincmgr.exe I would expect you could just change your starting shortcut or registry entry to:

start /affinity AA D:\BOINC\boincmgr.exe /s

Keeping whatever other syntax you are currently using. If a registry entry is used to start up BOINC for you then you can make the changes on a machine and export the entry to a .reg file. Making the installation on other machines easier for you.

This didn't work, not by changing the registry and reboot, and if I put the line in a shortcut it gives me the error message 'The name 'start' in the target box is not valid. Make sure... etc'.

I will have to try by writing a batch file as 'start' seems to be a 'console command'.
Like this:

start /affinity FE "C:Program Files\BOINC\boinc.exe" --skip_cpu_benchmarks --detach
start "C:Program Files\BOINC\boincmgr.exe" /a /s

And by starting it via the registry I don't even need the last line as I'm using BoincTasks as my BOINC manager.

Anthony.

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SETI classic wu's 10000; CPU time 47121 hours

The longer I live, the more reasons I develop for wanting to die.

I've tried using a batch file to use the console 'start' command, but it doesn't work. It doesn't even work when I open a command prompt and then use the 'start' command.

Anthony.

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SETI classic wu's 10000; CPU time 47121 hours

The longer I live, the more reasons I develop for wanting to die.

I've tried using a batch file to use the console 'start' command, but it doesn't work. It doesn't even work when I open a command prompt and then use the 'start' command.

Anthony.

If start isn't working from the command prompt then something funny is going on. Maybe it only works with admin rights that isn't being used?

---

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

I started a command promt as administrator and that worked. But how can I start a batch file as administrator (although I'm an administrator).

Anthony.

---

SETI classic wu's 10000; CPU time 47121 hours

The longer I live, the more reasons I develop for wanting to die.

If you want temperature controlled CPU usage I strongly recommend TThrottle. The setting 'use at most only X% of CPU time' has a workfetch bug and does strange things to the CPU usage. If set to less than 100 boinc keeps starting and stopping the apps.

I'm using TThrottle.

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SETI classic wu's 10000; CPU time 47121 hours

The longer I live, the more reasons I develop for wanting to die.

I'm using TThrottle.

Sorry Anthony, that was directed at the person who started the thread :D

If Tim is worried about his CPU getting too hot, TThrottle is a far better option than the BOINC 'use at most x CPU' setting.

I started a command promt as administrator and that worked. But how can I start a batch file as administrator (although I'm an administrator).

Anthony.

If you are an admin I'm not sure why it wouldn't work. If you are using a shortcut to launch the /bat file short cuts do have an option on the Shortcut tab > Advanced > Run as Administrator.

If you run the .bat from a command prompt does it work?

---

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

I have it working now. You really need to change the directory to the boinc folder.

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SETI classic wu's 10000; CPU time 47121 hours

The longer I live, the more reasons I develop for wanting to die.