1) Message boards : Number crunching : Request for help with stable driver for Radeon HD 6670 / Windows 10 64-bit (Message 1819653) Posted 25 Sep 2016 by Tony Habergham Post: OK, I've now tried the 'Tdr weak', and now get a message "Application has been blocked from accessing graphics hardware", with a comment identifying the application in question as Seti@home 8.1. Progress then freezes, as before. It is difficult to disable the APU integrated GPU - I was rather surprised to find that it still appears in device manager after disabling it in the bios! Simply setting the 'use all GPU's' option in the Boinc config file back to zero was no good - Boinc startup identifies it's performance as equal to the PCIe card, and identifies it first, and uses it for seti in preference to the PCIe card. After unpicking it from 'dual graphics' mode, and disabling it in device manager, I get the HD 6670 to be the only GPU running, and get the above result. I only run with 3 of the four cores of my A10 6700T APU available to Boinc, running 'Climate Prediction'. Since Seti only claims to need 0.0515 CPUs for each task, I would have thought that one free core should be ample for Seti plus everything else. Thanks for everyones help so far... I'm beginning to think that an AMD APU + GPUs combination is the wrong one for seti crunching, and I may have to go inactive again, until my next hardware upgrade... to CPU/Nvidia.

2) Message boards : Number crunching : Request for help with stable driver for Radeon HD 6670 / Windows 10 64-bit (Message 1819488) Posted 25 Sep 2016 by Tony Habergham Post: Since taking the update from windows 8.1 to 10, I find myself unable to go more than a few hours (and sometimes minutes) before I get "Display driver stopped responding and has restarted", or simply stops progressing, errors out, or even causes a complete system reboot, when running Seti@home. I discovered that Windows 10 had been automatically updating the graphics driver, and have disabled that, but still haven't found a stable configuration. This is after several day's effort installing/uninstalling (over several weeks). Having previously been offline for several months, I cant remember the last configuration that worked under windows 8.1/64. I've recently tried catalyst driver versions 14.4, 14.9, 16.2.1, 15.7.1, 16.7.3, 15.11 and a modded 14.11.1. Can anyone advise any particularly stable versions to try for this card/os combination?

3) Message boards : Number crunching : AMD Radeon HD 6670 over Nvidia GeForce GTS 450 (Message 1503739) Posted 13 Apr 2014 by Tony Habergham Post: Thanks for this. I do not know why you were worried about "matching" the graphics card to the built-in graphics on the APU. If there's a reason to-do that, I'm not aware of it. I did have an idea of using the APU and GPU as the linked entity for games, as they were designed for. A more powerful GPU would be too powerful to link, as well as being outside my price range. I'm an infrequent player of games that require a decent GPU, but it does happen. I also was also reading on another site (link has been lost) that the combined 'entity' could perform as a combined 864-shader GPU for Seti. To be honest, it was an impulse buy - The box the APU came in listed three GPU models to match is with, and the most powerful was also the cheapest, at my preferred supplier. At 66 watts for 480 shaders it seemed a good buy - I've learned that heat is an issue since my 8800GTS days.

4) Message boards : Number crunching : AMD Radeon HD 6670 over Nvidia GeForce GTS 450 (Message 1503655) Posted 13 Apr 2014 by Tony Habergham Post: Following on from advice on a thread of a while back, http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=73118 I've invested in a new set of PC kit, and ended up with an AMD A10 6700T APU, on a dual slot motherboard, with 16 gigs of RAM and Win 7 Pro 64-bit. Now, I was tempted to acquire a suitable 'matching' graphics card for the APU; a Radeon HD 6670, which seemed to be clearly superior to my existing GTS 450 for seti, with 480 shader units over 192, and a higher floating-point performance (from techpowerup.com). Now I'm worried, since according to videocardbenchmark.net, the Older Nvidia card has an actual 3d 'rating' about 50% higher than the slightly less long in the tooth ATI card. Have I wasted my £53? Also... two PCIe slots... two cards. What are the chances of getting them both working for seti at the same time? Nvidia and ATI on the same machine?

5) Message boards : Number crunching : AMD Socket / Processor for new PC (Message 1432854) Posted 24 Oct 2013 by Tony Habergham Post: Thanks to all for the guidance. I'm just exploring the background to the current range of available AMD processors, for a new setup in the region of £200. My understanding is (correct me if wrong), the APU is a cost-saving measure, by incorporating a GPU processor on the same chip as the CPU, thus negating the requirement for a separate graphics card, and sacrificing some CPU performance as a trade-off. So, for somebody with a "competant" graphics card, I would go for the socket AM3+ FX-chips, as they are much powerful at the same price level, and the on-chip GPU would be wasted. A little like the old 'onboard graphics/shared memory' systems of old. However, from the point of veiw of Seti processing, the APU could be better since I could process both on the APU's GPU, and on the graphics card as I do now. In fact, I'm toying with the idea of coupling a 65W A10-5700 APU (that has an integral 384 core HD 7660D GPU) with a dual PCI-e x16 motherboard, to fit both my existing GTS 450, and maybe a second standalone graphics card later (if I can pick one up cheaply on ebay). The APU+GPU setup is 55W lower than my current setup, and must be around 100W less than when I was running a 9800 GTX+, so there should be enough capacity on my 650W PSU to run a second card. I'd therefore be processing 3 GPU-based workunits at a time... or is there a flaw in my cunning plan? A single brand new high-end graphics card might well be more productive, but I've decided that the underlying system base has to be upgraded at some stage. Thx, AH

6) Message boards : Number crunching : AMD Socket / Processor for new PC (Message 1432463) Posted 24 Oct 2013 by Tony Habergham Post: Why stay 32-bit for the OS when you have glorious 64-bit hardware? I've already got the OS, got it quite cheap when Win7 was going out of stock in favour of Win8. I acually chose 32-bit because I have a stock of old games and business applications going back anything up to 8-10 years I'd still like to have available (although, in hindsight, now that I've decided to replace, rather than upgrade, my old Athlon X2 4800, this might not have been the best long-term option).

7) Message boards : Number crunching : AMD Socket / Processor for new PC (Message 1432431) Posted 23 Oct 2013 by Tony Habergham Post: Due to financial constraints it's been a few years since I've done a major upgrade to my main PC, which is on usually 24/7, and running Seti on the Graphics card when not otherwise in use. I've now decided that the time is fast approaching when I'll have to consider replacing the Motherboard / CPU / Memory. I'm going with AMD as I have since my first build back in 1994, but being out of the upgrade business for a couple of years, I'e been trying to work out what to go for. All my previous experience tells me to avoid 'on board' graphics like the plague, but reading the forum gives the impression that the newer AMD 'APU' processors, while not as powerful (and cheaper) might actually be more productive for seti, than a 'pure' CPU. Am I right in this? I'm planning to keep my current graphics card, a GTS 450, which is less than a year old, for playing the slightly less than cutting-edge-required occasional gaming (something like Skyrim or X-Com). Would an APU-based system be powerful enough for this, and give no problems, coupled with the dedicated card? Currently I'm musing something along the lines of an AMD A8-5500 APU on an Asus F2A55-M board, with $GB DDR-3 running Windows 7 Pro, 32-bit. Thanks in advance for any advice.

8) Message boards : Number crunching : Noobie CUDA GPU temperature worry (Message 940778) Posted 17 Oct 2009 by Tony Habergham Post: Thanks to all who've responded, several nice pointers to go on. I do think the temps were too high, having had one 'Computation error' today, which I've never seen before. On the other hand, it's the fans which seem to fail on graphics cards these days, rather than the electronics directly. It was having blue screens on high GPU load which started me paying attention to GPU temp, and running GPU-z. I was running passively cooled, without knowing it, for months). I dont have my machine on 24/7 since they invested global warming (and it seems kind of silly when I have a 60% dedication to climatepredition.net) - just about 6 hours straight in the evenings and 14 hours at wekends - just so I can pop back for a quick surf as the mood takes me). EVGA Precision is very nice (there's a more recent release on the link given). Throttling back to the Minimimum 415 MHz core seems to give temps in the mid/high 80's, which seems more comfortable place for me. Does anyone have any advice on tweaking the settings for seti? The shader clock is independently settable, and I got the impression that these were the beasties which were doing the work for CUDA/Boinc. And the memory clock... the 800MHz DDR3 seems to be set to run at 792 as standard. I understand heard faster memory is better for seti, and wouldn't genarate heat, I'd think. I'm open to input. Better case cooling is an obvious step, but I am sat in front of the thing for a fair proportion of the time while crunching (either surfing or running 15 year old games with DosBox) so I dont want too much noise. In any event, there's not much room left, without a major restructure... the dual-width graphics card (which is venting outside the case) leaves no room for the modified case (quieter fan) cooler I had in as well, before the graphics upgrade. I was quite pleased with the main setup I'd just got to - picked up a massive dual-heatpipe cpu cooler cheaply, which was capable of keeping my Athlon 64 at below 55C at 100% load, even with the CPU fan off completely. It produced CPU temps in the high 30's at minimum fan speed, producing a nice airflow over the ramsinks and chipset sink as well. Anyway, thanks to all. TonyH

9) Message boards : Number crunching : Noobie CUDA GPU temperature worry (Message 940734) Posted 17 Oct 2009 by Tony Habergham Post: Please excuse if this is going over old ground, but a half-hour search didn't turn up anything relevant. After passively boincing for years, I checked the seti forums a few weeks ago, and learned about CUDA. Pursuading myself that my eighteen-month-old ATI card was on it's last legs, I splashed out on ebay and yesterday acquired a 8800 GTS OC with 320 MB. Installed it last night; seems OK: processing WU's in 12-40 minutes, compared to 8-10 hours for the CPU. However GPU-z is reporting temperatures of 88-93C, which is worrying me a lot - the old ATI card peaked at 60C in games, and my CPU claims to be a tepid 37C these days. I've browsed the Nvidia forum and cant get a clear answer - it varies from 'anything over 70C is slowly cooking your memory' to 'the GPUs are fine up to 120C'. I'm thinking of using an app (any recommendations?) to throttle back the card - I understand the 'OC' means it's factory overclocked already. On the other hand, it's not actually givining any problems, even when 'utilize GPU when computer is active'. Any considered advice on the long-term impacts of this temperature? TonyH

10) Message boards : Number crunching : Welcome to the 10 year club (Message 940727) Posted 17 Oct 2009 by Tony Habergham Post: Infrequent lurker, just browsing and saw this thread. http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/show_user.php?userid=40557 Ten years back in May... think I was on a K6-333 back then. Wonder how long it would take to process a modern unit?

 
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