Posts by Careface

1) Message boards : Number crunching : Crunching advice (Message 1713813)
Posted 16 Aug 2015 by Profile Careface
Post:

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 :)
2) Message boards : Number crunching : Crunching advice (Message 1713776)
Posted 16 Aug 2015 by Profile Careface
Post:
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
3) Message boards : Number crunching : Crunching advice (Message 1712758)
Posted 14 Aug 2015 by Profile Careface
Post:
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 ;)
4) Message boards : Number crunching : Crunching advice (Message 1712608)
Posted 14 Aug 2015 by Profile Careface
Post:
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.
5) Message boards : Number crunching : Crunching advice (Message 1712481)
Posted 13 Aug 2015 by Profile Careface
Post:
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..
6) Message boards : Number crunching : Crunching advice (Message 1712230)
Posted 13 Aug 2015 by Profile Careface
Post:
Yay the 970 arrived! :) Updated drivers to latest as 312.xx didn't seem to support it, now it's crunching away :) It's boosting to 1265mhz straight out of the box, pretty happy about that! Wonder how she will OC? :D

Ran into some pretty silly problems along the way, though.. So, I have a Silverstone DA850 modular PSU, had it for a good 7-8years; couldn't find the second dual 6pin cable.. The card came with 2 dual molex->6pin cables, so 4 molex free needed. Sweet, I find the molex modual, plug it in... only has 3 molex and a FDD connector.. Oh well, I can sort that tomorrow at a PC store, thought I may as well put the cards in anyway, save me having to do it tomorrow. But no, the 970 doesn't fit in PCI-e slot 1 because of the SATA connectors at the edge of the board (i7 960 on GA-EX58-UD4P). But the 660 Ti's fans touches the exposed RAM chips on the 970 if it's in slot 2.. Now, the UV acrylic case I bought 11 years ago obviously wasn't designed with triple-SLI in mind :p neither the 660 Ti nor the 970 will go in slot 3. To further complicate things down the track, I have a PCI-e 1x SoundBlaster Z to wiggle around somewhere.. It won't fit in slot 1 because it hits the mobo's MCH10 HSF and heatpipe, and it won't fit between the 970 and 660 Ti if they're in slot 1 and 2..

Sooo... I pulled the 660 Ti out, 970 in slot 2, SoundBlaster in slot 2. It sucks, but it will have to do for now until I can figure out how best to fix it haha. I *think* my RAC will basically be plateauing at ~18000-19000 anyway I think, roughly given the average daily credit over the 27 days I've been crunching on the 660 Ti, and taking into account the increase I saw when I added CPU crunching, and also OCing the card further... So it will be interesting to see what happens to my RAC at stock boost.. It's nearly 11pm here and as much as I *really* want to stay up and play with this beast, unfortunately, work on the 'morrow :(

I've noticed that over the last couple hours or so I've been crunching, average GPU load is 95%, and while different AR WU will give varying levels of load..HAR/VHAR aka "shorties" are usually quite spiky in GPU load, rarely if ever having long patches of consistent high GPU load sees them constantly bounce between 97-98%, with the occasional 96% and 99% popping up. The yummy long WUs with the 0.38-0.44 AR that are long and give good credit keep the load at 98-99%, with the odd dip to 97%.. But I've never seen this much variation before; I think it's going to trend down soon too as I'm seeing quite a few 93-94%. This is running 2 WU at a time, btw. So obviously I'd be debating doing 3 WU at a time..

I really have no idea; memory controller load is at 80%+ (which is ~11% higher than the 660 Ti), so I'd imagine adding a 3rd in there would just cause congestion and decrease output.. Thoughts? Otherwise I have a good few weeks ahead of me testing things and waiting for RAC to stabilise lol . The temps at stock boost are staying around 66-67C; which means the fan is on ~11% and I can't hear a thing. Obviously this will all change when I OC it and change the fan profile (I did give 100% a go though :p just for funsies~ boy do they motor! lol), but I was still quite impressed with it; hopefully this means there will be quite a bit of headroom for OCing!

Oh, regarding the Xperia Z crunching - I still haven't figured out a way around the battery problem. Using 2 cores and setting it to 1512mhz (max, stock) while wall charging will charge very slowly, but it will charge. I had it plugged in all night last, started with ~34%, ended with ~71%, and all day at work today and it added ~9% or so as it was in very ocassional use. On the plus side, in the almost 3 days since it's been crunching, it's got 522 credit and 47 RAC... go go! :D

Crunch on!
7) Message boards : Number crunching : Crunching advice (Message 1710606)
Posted 9 Aug 2015 by Profile Careface
Post:
Awesome, will do mate :) my rig is still stabilising too, but nearly there I think. By the time the 970 arrives (hopefully Thursday/Friday), it should be stable so I can see what the new card adds to it :)

Crunch on!

EDIT: Sweet, got my 1% badge :) I thought I might have needed to wait for the new GPU, but the extra wee bit I squeezed out of my 660 Ti just bumped me over the mark.. Woo! Beers (and non alcoholics) on me! :)
8) Message boards : Number crunching : Crunching advice (Message 1710594)
Posted 9 Aug 2015 by Profile Careface
Post:
Thanks all for the replies! In the end I just bought a EVGA GTX970, and made sure that it had the ACX2.0 cooler since it'll be put in the case alongside the GTX 660 Ti..

@Zombu2 - thanks for the advice :) while I've heard really good things about EVGA, this is the first card I'll have bought from them. Unfortunately, the StepUp program doesn't seem to be available in my country (New Zealand) so that option might be out :(

Hoping to break 30k RAC with the rig, but time will tell!

Crunch on!
9) Message boards : Number crunching : Crunching advice (Message 1708422)
Posted 4 Aug 2015 by Profile Careface
Post:
Thanks everyone for the replies; you've definitely helped me decide what I'll do with my rig. Now I just have to source everything, and then compare it to my current. I'll be sure to post when I have updates!

Crunch on! :)
10) Message boards : Number crunching : Crunching advice (Message 1707602)
Posted 2 Aug 2015 by Profile Careface
Post:
Hmm it won't let me edit my quote, but after having a look around (and in regards to your feeback, Looks like I'm definitely keen on the 970. Ordinarily I go with Gigabyte since they've been super good with me - any recommendations regarding brand?

I'll be overclocking regardless, so pretty much price/high performance is key :)

Seriously though, thanks for all the help :) I've been crunching since 1999, but lost my account number lol.. So I started again in 2003 haha :)

Thanks heaps! :)

EDIT: Horrible spelling!
11) Message boards : Number crunching : Crunching advice (Message 1707515)
Posted 2 Aug 2015 by Profile Careface
Post:
Thanks all for the help!

Thanks TL, I didn't know about the app_config file (only app_info) but that makes things much easier! Previously with each update I was just replacing <count>1</count> with <count>0.5</count> in notepad lol. So app_config somewhat overrides _info? Good to know :) Thanks!

Don't apologise for the lecture, Zalster :) that's actually perfectly what I was after. I had a sleep on it, and I'm now pretty sure I'd rather look to the future.. I got my current 660 Ti when it was only a few months old, so it's time for an upgrade :) I've been looking at the 970s, but I was a bit concerned with the 3.5gb+512mb 'issue'.. I'f I had ~$1100 (NZD) to drop on a 980 Ti, I would, but after looking at TDP, # of CUDA cores, heat output etc, I'm still looking at the 970s(unless the 980s come down in price soon..) so I could simply add a few more in when they get cheaper :)

For Grant, I had a test of your idea of not leaving CPU cores to feed the GPU, and my tests showed that if I leave 8/8 CPU threads and 2/2 GPU threads running, both GPU-z and MSI AfterBurner show my GPU usage spike from 50-97%, avg ~84% overnight.. I disabled a thread to dedicate to GPU, and while this helped, it still spiked between 70-97%.. I disabled 2 threads (sadly not on the same core, but I can fix this) and GPU went back to up 98-99% constant. Whether or not the extra ~10% GPU crunch time will offset the loss of 2 threads (i7 960 @ 3.6ghz; showing ~3.7GFLOP/s per core) I guess I'll know soon enough once RAC stabilises.

Again, thanks all for the help! Very much appreciated :)

Crunch on!

EDIT: I was thinking about getting the GTX 970 Mini-ITX version, mostly because it's cheaper and has a lower TDP so it shouldn't pop my circuit breakers lol... Thoughts? :)
12) Message boards : Number crunching : Crunching advice (Message 1707297)
Posted 1 Aug 2015 by Profile Careface
Post:
Thanks heaps for the replies :) I see your point with not needing rescheduler. Was just as a backup for when things get dry due to my rubbish internet connectivity. from what you're saying, I might be looking at either 960 or 970 as it's been a while since I've put a bit of love into my rig. I'm liking the extra cores of the 970, but the increase in price.. hmm.

You bring up a good point with AP crunching. I hear people talking about AP WU quite highly, so I was wondering - I currently only have MB set up. I just reinstalled Lunatics apps to include CPU crunching, and now for some reason my GPU is only crunching 1 WU (I changed the app_info.xml to 0.5 CUDA count too).. Guess I'll figure that out soon :) it's 11:20pm here, getting a bit tired haha.
13) Message boards : Number crunching : Crunching advice (Message 1707283)
Posted 1 Aug 2015 by Profile Careface
Post:
Hey all, I don't post very often and I recently got back from a pretty long break (sorry!) due to internet issues, but it's now winter here and I'm loving my rig keeping my room toasty :) With that in mind, a few questions on improving output..

Firstly, I'm using GPU only crunching at the moment - partly to measure its output, partly because of power issues (circuit breaker keeps popping when others are home), and partly because I didn't know if it was better to keep a thread/core free to feed the GPU or not.. Thoughts? Better to just go full 8/8 threads on CPU and 2 GPU threads (keeps it at 98-99%)?

Secondly, upgrade advice.. Assuming I can get my power issues sorted, I'd be looking at getting a new GPU or two. I currently have a GTX 660 Ti @ 1202/1555, which looks to give me ~12k RAC at this stage.. It's a bit tricky finding 660 Tis compared to newer models, but I'm not much of a gamer anymore so I don't mind having a mixup and forgoing SLI (I'm running a GA-EX-UD4P, so 3 16x slots), or is it better just to scrap the 660 Ti and just get new gear? If so, I'm seeing the 750 Ti being the current price/performance champ?

Thirdly, based on whether or not we decide to go multi GPU route, what then regarding CPU crunching? Dedicate cores to the GPUs?

Lastly, I can't seem to find a working version of ReScheduler around.. given my ongoing internet issues and only having ~70% uptime, and that there's a limit of 100 in progress tasks per device, was wondering if it was still possible to reschedule WU so the faster devices can run them when things dry up?

EDIT: That reminds me! Is there any way to prioritise shorties to get them done sooner? Previously I would have rescheduled them, or it would have happened if EDF was triggered.. but not sure how things work now with the changes to WU cache ..

Sorry for the long winded post! It's been a long day and I've had a few...

Cheers! :)
14) Message boards : Technical News : Colo! (Mar 28 2013) (Message 1354038)
Posted 6 Apr 2013 by Profile Careface
Post:
Just came back from a year or so hiatus, but wow. Haven't seen download speeds this good in a long time :) great work everyone! :D Very muchly appreciated!
15) Message boards : Number crunching : 2WU on 1 GPU, 1 WU on the other? (Message 1353016)
Posted 3 Apr 2013 by Profile Careface
Post:
Hmm thanks for all the replies! It seems it may just be easier to run 2 WU on each card, and just take the performance hit on the 260. Surely the gains on the 660 would more than make up for it :)
16) Message boards : Number crunching : 2WU on 1 GPU, 1 WU on the other? (Message 1352997)
Posted 3 Apr 2013 by Profile Careface
Post:
Ohhh thanks :D I might just set the 260 to use the x38g_cuda32 app and the 660 to use the x41g version :) I'll see if it works!
17) Message boards : Number crunching : 2WU on 1 GPU, 1 WU on the other? (Message 1352979)
Posted 3 Apr 2013 by Profile Careface
Post:
So I recently upgraded from a GTX 260 to a GTX 660 Ti, and I was wondering if it was possible to set up so 2 WU run on the 660, and 1 WU runs on the 260? I've messed around with cc_config and the new app_config files during the outage, but couldn't really seem to get it to work. I'm not even sure if it's possible, but figured someone might know :)

Cheers!
18) Message boards : Number crunching : Taking a break from SETI@home (Message 1147280)
Posted 30 Aug 2011 by Profile Careface
Post:
Best of luck, mate :) Hope to see you back soon!
19) Message boards : Number crunching : Rookie mistake (Message 1119584)
Posted 21 Jun 2011 by Profile Careface
Post:
Are there really projects hurting for crunchers?


Folding@home is always, always looking for crunchers. Hurting? No. "Would be glad for more people to join, and not just have the mentality of people like Ryan"? Yup.

ib4 "herp derp maybe you should go there"
20) Message boards : Number crunching : Rookie mistake (Message 1119581)
Posted 21 Jun 2011 by Profile Careface
Post:
<rant>


11+ huh, good for you buddy. It's people like you that drive people away from projects like these with your elitist "oh well, piss off then, someone will take your place" attitude.

Good call bro, good call.


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