970 should easily be able to handle 3 work units at a time

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RE: SATA controllers and mounting PCI-e card.

I had a similar situation with a Gigabyte MOBO and a GTX-275 card. (Both replaced, now.) I ended up using Right Angle Connectors for the SATA cables. This allowed the PCI-e card to mount flush in the PCI-e slot. This might also help you solve your card mounting issues.


TL

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TimeLord04
Have TARDIS, will travel...
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970 should easily be able to handle 3 work units at a time

Thanks heaps, wow, you're right.. it's not dropped below 99% at all overnight running 3 WU.. This is gonna be good! :D

RE: SATA controllers and mounting PCI-e card.

I had a similar situation with a Gigabyte MOBO and a GTX-275 card. (Both replaced, now.) I ended up using Right Angle Connectors for the SATA cables. This allowed the PCI-e card to mount flush in the PCI-e slot. This might also help you solve your card mounting issues.


TL

I'm glad you got yours sorted mate :) sadly my issue is the exact opposite of your issue it seems lol. The SATA connectors on the mobo are right angle connectors (as in, you plug the SATA cable into the *side* of the mobo, not the face)... Oh well :( I'll sort something out :) Firstly I need a new case; this one is super cramped and it's about time.

Boy I'm going to miss this thing though :( its seen over a decade of different rigs and bits and pieces overclocked to hell and back in it..

This was certainly a PITA with a number of older MoBos - I had one that I could only insert a GTS250 into after I carefully removed much of the insulation at the bend out of the SATA socket - I don't know how many SATA cables I wrecked until I got a couple that worked....

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

This was certainly a PITA with a number of older MoBos - I had one that I could only insert a GTS250 into after I carefully removed much of the insulation at the bend out of the SATA socket - I don't know how many SATA cables I wrecked until I got a couple that worked....

Mm yeah, that sucks to hear my friend. I'm thinking about getting some eSATA HDDs or maybe some kind of PCI hub or something, and then just removing the onboard SATA connectors. Or I can just get a new mobo, which might have to happen tbh.

970 should easily be able to handle 3 work units at a time

But whether you will crunch more or less WUs per hour than with 2 at a time you'll need to monitor closely yourself.

My GTX 750Tis have no problems crunching 3 at a time, but that results in less work being done than when crunching 2 at a time.

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Grant
Darwin NT

Would getting a PCIe riser work? Give you a little more wiggle room.

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970 should easily be able to handle 3 work units at a time

But whether you will crunch more or less WUs per hour than with 2 at a time you'll need to monitor closely yourself.

My GTX 750Tis have no problems crunching 3 at a time, but that results in less work being done than when crunching 2 at a time.

That's a very good point, and it's one I'm going to have to spend quite a bit of time testing. At the moment, logging GPUz 24/7 has shown that 2 WU will, over a 24+ hour period, show an total average of 95-96% (actual number was 95.6%, but yeah). 3 WU, for the last 16 hours or so has given me an average of 98.4%... Whether or not this will translate into RAC is another story.. the extra load could be from constantly having to shuffle things around with 3 WU, who knows?

Would getting a PCIe riser work? Give you a little more wiggle room.

Yeah very good point! I think I will pick a couple of powered ones up anyway; I'm getting a new case at any rate, but I have another crunching project in mind that I'll likely need them for ;)

The thing is NOT to look at the %load on the GPU, but the number of tasks turned round in a given period. That period must be long enough to get a good spread of tasks because there are times when there are only APs/Shorties/wotevers and that will sway the average quite a lot - let things run for a few days in one configuration before changing it to another

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

That's a very good point, and it's one I'm going to have to spend quite a bit of time testing. At the moment, logging GPUz 24/7 has shown that 2 WU will, over a 24+ hour period, show an total average of 95-96% (actual number was 95.6%, but yeah). 3 WU, for the last 16 hours or so has given me an average of 98.4%.

As others have mentioned- the % load on the GPU doesn't matter- what does matter is how many WUs you process per hour.
If you can process more WU per hour with the GPU load around 85% than around 99% then 85% is better, it will result in a higher RAC.

What you need to monitor is the WU processing times. The more WUs you run at the same time, the longer it will take to process them. The more WUs processed per hour, the higher your RAC will be. For most cards 2 at a time is the sweet spot; running 3 at a time actually reduces the number of WUs done per hour. However some cards are able to process more WUs per hour when running 3 at a time than running 2.

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Grant
Darwin NT

My R9 280Xs can run 4 WUs a piece with no problems.

But how many WUs per hour do they process?
My GTX 750Tis can run 3 at a time with no problems, however I do more work when running only 2.

The R9 280Xs are processing WUs at about 20 to 30 minutes apiece. I upped it from three per GPU and my RAC is still climbing.

AMD FX-8350 at 4300mhz
16gigs of G-Skill Ripjaws RAM at 1600mhz
2-Powercolor R9 280Xs 1030/1500mhz
Gigabyte GA970-UD3 MOBO
Samsung EVO 850 SSD
Rosewill Glacier 1200W PSU
____________

I dragged this over from another thread.

I am still running 4 WUS per GPU at 20 to 30 minutes apiece. Up from 3 WUs apiece at 20 to 25 minutes. A net gain in my eyes, even if it is a small gain. 20% more compute time, 25% more WUs.

Am I correct?

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The R9 280Xs are processing WUs at about 20 to 30 minutes apiece. I upped it from three per GPU and my RAC is still climbing.

RAC isn't useful for determining how well a system is crunching as it can take 6-8 weeks for major hardware changes to finally settle on the new "normal" RAC, and that is when there are no system outages.
The run time per WU is what matters for making crunching throughput comparisons over the short term.

I am still running 4 WUS per GPU at 20 to 30 minutes apiece. Up from 3 WUs apiece at 20 to 25 minutes. A net gain in my eyes, even if it is a small gain. 20% more compute time, 25% more WUs.

Am I correct?

Yep, as long as you are comparing the same types of WUs, and as long as those improvements are over & and above running 2 WUs at a time.

With my GTX 750Tis, running 3 WU at a time resulted in processing more longer running WUs per hour. Unfortunately the shorties ran much longer- so much so that they actually offset the gains made by the longer running WUs. So 2 at a time is best for me.

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Grant
Darwin NT

Thanks for everyone's replies, and I'm glad this is starting some friendly debate on the subject :)

I had quite an advantageous cache of WU last night (NZ time), ~70 or so 0.42 AR (my favourite!), so I tested for 2 hours each on the 970 running 2WU and 3WU respectively, and you're right - 2WU comes off *slightly* higher overall throughput than 3WU despite the GPU load.

~18-19mins per 3 WU vs ~11-13mins per 2 WU, overall across 2 hours (I ran them in 1 hour sets - i.e. 1hour of 2WU, 1hour of 3WU, then repeated). I made absolutely sure that all controllable variables were accounted for etc.

To the results!

First test of 3 WU showed 9 completed, 3 running @ ~19.5-20%. (~9.6 WU/hour)

Second test of 3 WU showed 9 completed, 3 running @ ~20.1-20.5% (~9.7 WU/hour)

First test of 2 WU showed 10 completed, 2 running @ ~45.5-50% (~11 WU/hour)

Second test of 2 WU showed 10 completed, 2 running ~43-47% (~10.9 WU/hour)

Interesting indeed. Afterwards, I chucked the 660 Ti back in and shifed everything around in my case (I'm not going to take photos - you'd all disown me for how shocking my case/cable management is like atm!) and crunched with both overnight.

Boy the 660 Ti really gets so much hotter than the 970... Two things I've learned in the last 24 hours. 1) I desperately need to replace the handbuilt UV acrylic case I made 10 years ago, as it *really* isn't made for SLI, and 2) I'm going to invest in a watercooling setup. These cards are just too hot.


I have some more questions, though. Firstly, should I be using CUDA50 (Kepler/Maxwell) on both cards (as they are both Kepler and Maxwell respectively), or should I use the older version for "mixed" machines? Currently I'm using CUDA50.

Secondly, I'm looking for some case and cooling recommendations - as mentioned, I've had this case for a looooooong time.. I'm looking for one that can offer some good cable management options, and can fit some kind of watercooling loop in there....

Lastly (you all must be sick of my questions by now haha) what recommendations do you have for watercooling setups that would work with both cards? I've had watercooled rigs before as side projects or when I was into benching long ago, but I'm totally out of the loop (ha!) now..

Thanks heaps everyone for your help! You've all been amazing :D

Cheers,
Careface

Firstly, should I be using CUDA50 (Kepler/Maxwell) on both cards (as they are both Kepler and Maxwell respectively), or should I use the older version for "mixed" machines? Currently I'm using CUDA50.

CUDA50 is it for current hardware, it's really more for Kepler hardware, but there's nothing more suited for Maxwell yet.
The older versions (than CUDA50) are much slower.


Best sort of cooling, is no case at all.
eg Antec Skeleton.

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Grant
Darwin NT

Best sort of cooling, is no case at all.
eg Antec Skeleton.

That's a pretty interesting design. Unfortunately I have way too much dust around here to go without filters.

I like the Corsair Carbide Air 540 but I also had to go with an aftermarket company to get filters to cover ALL of the intakes,

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811139022&cm_re=corsair_carbide_air_540-_-11-139-022-_-Product

My friend here like the Cooler Master HAF case

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119265

He doesn't have an issue with dust at his house, lol

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CUDA50 is it for current hardware, it's really more for Kepler hardware, but there's nothing more suited for Maxwell yet.
The older versions (than CUDA50) are much slower.

Awesome, thanks. I was confused as to why I see so many 6xx and newer cards running CUDA42 around here, thought there must have been a reason.

Best sort of cooling, is no case at all.

Well that's essentially what I have; its a cuboid of thin UV reactive transparent plastic that I cut out some slots to fit vid cards in etc, and for the last 8 or so years it's gone without the side panel on - and as of last night when I couldn't fit SLI cards in - the bottom panel. So its essentially just a sheet of plastic now with cables sprawled and components not mounted the best.. So its pretty makeshift and I'm definitely looking at changing it.

The flat (apartment for US speakers) has 3 pets in it, so caseless kinda isn't an option unfortunately lol. Due to this fact, and the fact these cards run hotter than a Prescott and Palomino merged together running with ambient temps that make the Sahara look like the Cosmic Microwave Background, I'll definitely be watercooling... And id like a bling-as case to go with it so i can marvel at its SETI-seeking glory! (Okay, maybe I was a bit dramatic there :p)

Thanks heaps for the help so far fellas, very much appreciated :)

I like the Corsair Carbide Air 540 but I also had to go with an aftermarket company to get filters to cover ALL of the intakes,

I too use the Air 540 case for one of my systems and like it a lot. However I too found the lack of filters on the majority of openings a minus. Can I ask what company were you referring too for aftermarket filters?

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Seti@Home classic workunits:20,676 CPU time:74,226 hours

A proud member of the OFA (Old Farts Association)

Keith,

Here is the link to a USA supplier but it looks like they are out of stock.

http://www.performance-pcs.com/demciflex-magnetic-fan-dust-filter-custom-8-piece-set-for-corsair-air-540.html

here's another company that carries them

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/21119/ffi-176/DEMCiflex_Corsair_Air_540_Magnetic_Dust_Fan_Filter_Set_-_8_Piece.html

You can always order them from the manufacturer but they are in South Africa so it takes a little bit longer to get here.

http://www.demcifilter.com/c198/Air-540.aspx

I ended up ordering mine from South Africa because I didn't see the other 2 above beforehand. I also ordered extra filters because of modification I had done on mine

Hope this helps

Zalster

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Wow, that looks perfect. Didn't know they made complete sets for specific cases. Looks like I will be ordering a set from FrozenCPU on Monday. Thanks for the tip, Zalster. Right now I only have a cobbled up piece of vacuum cleaner filter that I have the case siting on to cover up those huge holes under the hot swap drive bays. There is nothing preventing dust and cat hair from getting into the case from the power supply section or above the card slots.

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Seti@Home classic workunits:20,676 CPU time:74,226 hours

A proud member of the OFA (Old Farts Association)

In the past, I had to get creative. I used white paper coffee filters; traced the fan outline onto the filter, and cut the filter to fit. Next, poked screw mounting holes into filter, mounted fan and filter, and screwed them back into place.

I also "Pressurized" the case by taking the low mounted front fan and making sure it blew into the case. Next, took the upper, rear fan and made sure that it, too blew into the case. Finally, made sure that the PSU, usually mounted above the upper rear fan, sucked the air up and then out of the case. NEVER had any dust, debris, cat hair, or any foreign matter build up in the cases that I pressurized in this way. Worked well for cases from 1998 to 2006. Today's basic cases with PSU still mounted at the top of the case will work this way. Cases with more than two case fans may not accommodate this design.


TL

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TimeLord04
Have TARDIS, will travel...
Come along K-9!
Join Calm Chaos