I have a Nvidia Quadro FX 1800 which apparently has 64 "cuda cores" on it. On the same machine I have a GeForce 8500 GT that has 16 "cuda cores" on it. They are both running/co-existing on a used Xeon I got the other day. And both processing cuda22-cuda42 tasks. So...

Clearly each one of these cores is a calculating processor. So that leads me to the question of how many cuda cores are involved in what Seti calls a "cuda42" task? Same question with a "cuda50" task?

If it is one task to a core (which I would find hard to believe) then "in theory" I could run 80 cuda tasks at the same time. Since this would drive my productivity through the roof I suspect each cuda42 task is using multiple cuda cores.

Can someone explain?

Thanks,
Tom

---

A proud member of the OFA (Old Farts Association).

Well yes you MIGHT be able to run a very large number of simultaneous tasks, but it is very unlikely that you would actually be able to - the individual cores are not that powerful, compared with a single CPU core - a GPU achieves it performance by having a number of (relatively) simple cores that it can throw at a problem. The realistic number of simultaneous tasks is actually quite small, typically two or three before the GPU starts to struggle, either with data though-put, or task swapping, or some other bottle neck.
You've already found how to configure BOINC to allow SETI@Home to run more than one task on a GPU, so do a controlled experiment, set the task/GPU to one, and let it run for a few dozen tasks, noting how long each one actually takes to run, repeat with two per GPU, three per GPU and so on - you will find that the system will suddenly go very unresponsive, and the time per task increases dramatically (and I do mean dramatically - an order of magnitude isn't unknown!). Now look at all the data, and you see that there is a "sweet-spot" in total number of tasks per hour.

---

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

It odd. As of this morning the "*.cfg" files for the Cuda apps have all displayed that they were setting the task priority at "abovenormal" and when you look in the task manager not a single one is running at "abovenormal".

Either something has gotten garbled in the files or I have something else set someplace that is over riding them. Any ideas where to look?

These are the same machines that I updated the video drivers on without turning off ceti, just paused it. So they have multiple gpu tasks all in "waiting to run".

This has happened on two machines. Even when I reboot one of them the priority belownormal doesn't go away. At least its not setting to "low" :)

Thanks,
Tom

---

A proud member of the OFA (Old Farts Association).

Hi Everybody.

Please help.
I have a Nvidia Gt 630 VGA Card ( 64 bit,2 Gb ddr3 memory,902 MHz,384 Cuda core,or stream.
Seti not send me the Gpu packs,only Cpu use the compute.

How setting the boinc client using the Gpu?

Thx

Go to your account page and in the middle of the page click on seti@home Preferences. Select which ever profile you want. Click on use NVIDIA GPU. You can also select which type of work units you want there, seti@home V7 and astropulses. Make sure you have the most up to date video drivers for your Nvidia cards. You can to go to

http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us

if you want to update your drivers. Always use the Nvidia website. Don't let windows download it. Always do a clean install each time. You can also download Geforce experience which will help you keep track of what drivers you need for your system and will help you download them

http://www.geforce.com/geforce-experience

Lastly, you might want a program to monitor the temps and speed of your GPU. Depending on who manufacture it. If it was made by EVGA then you can download their Precision X which monitors those things.

http://eu.evga.com/precision/

after all this then you can run GPU work units as you choose. Remember that you need at least 1 core to support any work done of the GPU so you don't want to total max out your chip and then "Starve" the GPU. It needs a portion of a cpu core to analyze data and by totally utilizing the chip, the GPU has to wait for help.


If after all this, you still don't get any work, post the first 30 lines of the event log here so we can help you figure out why it isn't working.


Happy Crunching...

Zalster


Edit..

I've looked at your system and it appears that it has downloaded some work units for your GPU so now we need to wait and see if they process correctly. Nothing more to do at this moment, it is working

And one hour later (17 Jul 2014, 20:58:56 UTC) you have 20 GPU tasks ...

---

 


- ALF - "Find out what you don't do well ..... then don't do it!" :)
 

Thanks for your help.Have a nice day :D

Welcome everybody.
One new Question :
How do I configure seti@home to run multiple WU on one GPU?
It is possible?
Thanks for the help.

Attila

Yes it is possible. I've never done it with standard apps but I would think you would need to make a app_config.xml file. Others know how to do it with standard apps. I been using the Lunatics modified apps so that is the one I'm most familiar with. You might want to read this thread and see what you think

http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=71866#1375941


Zalster

To Attys:

This will do it:

<app_config>
<app>
<name>setiathome_v7</name>
<gpu_versions>
<gpu_usage>0.5</gpu_usage>
<cpu_usage>0.19</cpu_usage>
</gpu_versions>
</app>
<app>
<name>astropulse_v6</name>
<gpu_versions>
<gpu_usage>0.5</gpu_usage>
<cpu_usage>1.1</cpu_usage>
</gpu_versions>
</app>
</app_config>

This goes in the "C:\ProgramData\BOINC\projects\setiathome.berkeley.edu" directory (or the one you specified when you installed BOINC) and is named "app_config.xml". It tells BOINC to allocate 1.1 CPUs for AP WUs, but only 0.19 CPUs for MB WUs. You may need to adjust those numbers based on your CPU speed, system configuration and your usage patterns/needs/wants.

To Darrell and Zalster

I made several versions.
I get the following message every time:
Syntax error in the app_info.xml
Simultaneously, the client discards all packets.
What am I doing wrong?

Win7 Ultimate 64 bit 4 Gb Ram,
Intel Dual Core 3,06 GHz
Nvidia GT 630 with 384 Cuda cores.

Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate, 64-bit (Service Pack 1)
DirectX version: 11.0
GPU processor: GeForce GT 630
Driver version: 337.88
Direct3D API version: 11
Direct3D feature level: 11_0
CUDA Cores: 384
Core clock: 901 MHz
Memory data rate: 1800 MHz
Memory interface: 64-bit
Memory bandwidth: 14.40 GB/s
Total available graphics memory: 3839 MB
Dedicated video memory: 2048 MB DDR3
System video memory: 0 MB
Shared system memory: 1791 MB
Video BIOS version: 80.28.3F.00.12
IRQ: 16
Bus: PCI Express x8
Device Id: 10DE 1284 84611043
Part Number: 2132 0000

Thanks for your help.

---

A couple of things-
First, did you use a simple TEXT editor to modify app_config.xml? (Notepad will do). If you used anything else there is a chance that the file was incorrectly formed.
Second, posting your system information is of only marginal use, as it is obviously a problem with your app_config.xml file. So post your file here, then others can see what you have done wrong. (It is all too easy to make a minor mistake - I've got a few spare tee-shirts doing so over the years.

---

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

Syntax error in the app_info.xml

This means that somewhere in your App_info.xml there is either a space or a character in the wrong place. Easiest thing for you to do is copy and paste your app_info file here so we can look at it and see where the error is.


Zalster

I'm going to be busy these next 24 hours so I might not get back to you before then

this is the original,non modified app_info file

<app_info>
<app>
<name>setiathome_enhanced</name>
</app>
<file_info>
<name>setiathome_7.7._windows_intelx86.exe</name>
<executable/>
</file_info>
<file_info>
<name>setiathome_graphics_7.7_windows_intelx86.exe</name>
<executable/>
</file_info>
<app_version>
<app_name>setiathome_enhanced</app_name>
<version_num>660</version_num>
<api_version>6.1.0</api_version>
[
<coproc>
<type>CUDA</type>
<count>1</count>
</coproc>
]
[ <plan_class>cuda</plan_class> ]
[ <flops>X</flops> ]
[ <avg_ncpus>X</avg_ncpus> ]
[ <max_ncpus>X</max_ncpus> ]
[ <cmdline>args</cmdline> ]
<file_ref>
<file_name>setiathome_7.7_windows_intelx86.exe</file_name>
<main_program/>
</file_ref>
<file_ref>
<file_name>setiathome_graphics_7.7_windows_intelx86.exe</file_name>
<open_name>graphics_app</open_name>
</file_ref>
</app_version>
</app_info>

What to modify to run multiple tasks at the same time?

---

To Attys:

Change to "<count>0.5</count>" for two at a time, or "<count>0.3</count>" for three at a time.

I don't have any "[" or "]" in any of my app_info.xml files. Where did you get yours? Is this a BETA version of an app? Or an example from a document? The stock app supplies values for everything it uses, and yours has "X" in place of values.

Mine from Lunatic's, for example, is:

<app_version>
<app_name>setiathome_enhanced</app_name>
<version_num>608</version_num>
<platform>windows_x86_64</platform>
<plan_class>cuda</plan_class>
<avg_ncpus>0.040000</avg_ncpus>
<max_ncpus>0.040000</max_ncpus>
<coproc>
<type>CUDA</type>
<count>0.5</count>
</coproc>
<file_ref>
<file_name>Lunatics_x41zc_win32_cuda50.exe</file_name>
<main_program/>
</file_ref>
<file_ref>
<file_name>cudart32_50_35.dll</file_name>
</file_ref>
<file_ref>
<file_name>cufft32_50_35.dll</file_name>
</file_ref>
<file_ref>
<file_name>mbcuda.cfg</file_name>
</file_ref>
</app_version>

Also note that I previously gave you an example for the app_config.xml, not app_info.xml.

One solution is not working either.
The my GPU is processing a packet at a time.

Thanks for help.

 
You were told to make app_config.xml file, NOT app_info.xml

And don't copy what you see on the above help pages, it will of course not work
It is general description of what may be in the file, NOT a file ready to use here.

This app_config.xml is for SETI@home (if you want to tweak it - ask what the values mean):

<app_config>
	<app>
		<name>setiathome_v7</name>
		<gpu_versions>
			<gpu_usage>0.5</gpu_usage>
			<cpu_usage>0.2</cpu_usage>
		</gpu_versions>
	</app>
	<app>
		<name>astropulse_v6</name>
		<gpu_versions>
			<gpu_usage>0.5</gpu_usage>
			<cpu_usage>1.0</cpu_usage>
		</gpu_versions>
	</app>
</app_config>

---

 


- ALF - "Find out what you don't do well ..... then don't do it!" :)