I would appreciate it if you could elaborate and I'm sure other GPUgrid contributors would.


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Well, the app runs faster and uses 92% of GPU! Great, you think?

I now can't watch HD movies or do anything else without turning GPUGrid off!

The GUI lags and programs unresponsive.

Windows 7 - Swan Sync - 4GB Ram - GTX460 IGig

This is only going to cost you production and I did warn you that PC's are used for other things while running GPUGrid. This is only going to stop some people helping you at all.


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My Windows 7 computer with the GTX 480 card just successfully completed the first of these units. It took a little over 6 hours to finish compared to about 8 hours for the 6.13. Card utilization was up to 85% compared to the mid 60's for 6.13. The card temperature reached into the 80's compared to the 70's for 6.13 at 100% fan speed. Except for the fact that the computer is sluggish and slow to respond, nothing bad is happening.

My Windows xp computer with the GTX 285 shows no significant improvement in performances. Card utilization increased from 95% to 97%. The sluggishness is less noticeable on this one.

Both are running swan_sync = 0.

I just deleted the swan_sync = 0 on my windows 7 computer, and yes it did become more responsive (less sluggish). Card utilization is down to 73% max, temperature is down. It runs great.

My Windows 7 computer with the GTX 480 card just successfully completed the first of these units. It took a little over 6 hours to finish compared to about 8 hours for the 6.13. Card utilization was up to 85% compared to the mid 60's for 6.13. The card temperature reached into the 80's compared to the 70's for 6.13 at 100% fan speed. Except for the fact that the computer is sluggish and slow to respond, nothing bad is happening.

My Windows xp computer with the GTX 285 shows no significant improvement in performances. Card utilization increased from 95% to 97%. The sluggishness is less noticeable on this one.

Both are running swan_sync = 0.

See this post http://www.gpugrid.net/forum_thread.php?id=2546#21400


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I was not expecting the machine to become faster if you were using SWAN_SYNC already. Strange.
All these utilization things are really system dependent. The change of above average priority should not produce any sluggishness. It should be transparent to you. Maybe try to remove SWAN_SYNC.

gdf

My Windows 7 computer with the GTX 480 card just successfully completed the first of these units. It took a little over 6 hours to finish compared to about 8 hours for the 6.13. Card utilization was up to 85% compared to the mid 60's for 6.13. The card temperature reached into the 80's compared to the 70's for 6.13 at 100% fan speed. Except for the fact that the computer is sluggish and slow to respond, nothing bad is happening.

My Windows xp computer with the GTX 285 shows no significant improvement in performances. Card utilization increased from 95% to 97%. The sluggishness is less noticeable on this one.

Both are running swan_sync = 0.

Is the new higher priority being applied at the application level, or the thread level?

I think it maybe the CPU priority and you're right.

I lowered the app priority to "below normal" on a problem machine and walla! it all came back I can now play HD movies and run progs and still use 90% GPU for GPUGrid. Happy!

Your path is clear.

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Looks like the priority is applied to the application (going by Task Manager)

Setting the app to NORMAL priority seems to work as well.
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@GDF

I took a look at the machine I have got that only runs GPUG with high priority and it runs fine with no discernible lag.

The machine I have a problem with runs 3 other BOINC projects and GPUG which I do have a problem with priority.

I don't think (from what I have read) Einstein makes a huge use of the GPU and maybe that's why they get away with it.
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I just deleted the swan_sync = 0 on my windows 7 computer, and yes it did become more responsive (less sluggish). Card utilization is down to 73% max, temperature is down. It runs great.

According to my experience with the beta 6.39/6.40 app. and the 6.14 app. the best way how to make a machine "for user usable" is to change priority of 6.14 process to low (XP) or below normal (Win 7/Vista) using e.g. Prority Tamer. Run times are very good and a machine is not sluggish, both system and Boinc GUI are responsive. Swan_syn=0 can be left to be set.

I don't understand. What did Einstein@home do?
The point is to increase utilization on heavy loaded CPU windows machines without affecting lag in the user interface.

gdf

Until then, we can adjust the priority level with the good old "3rd party" tools.

Status report: I'm crunching some GIANNI_KKFREE WUs right now, and I'm getting "only" 82-86% GPU usage with the new 6.14 client.

Update on my status report: when my Core2 Quad started to crunch another GIANNI_KKFREE WU (so now it's crunching two of these at the same time), the GPU usage is dropped to 75-80%. However there is no change in the GPU usage on my Core i7-870, when it's crunching two of these at the same time (81-85%).

SWAN_SYNC on or off for both?

Any manual/tool changes in priority?

Number of cores/threads freed on each system?

What else are you crunching?

That's only a 1 to 10% difference, so might just be down to the CPU's.

Well, the app runs faster and uses 92% of GPU! Great, you think?

I now can't watch HD movies or do anything else without turning GPUGrid off! The GUI lags and programs unresponsive.

This is only going to cost you production and I did warn you that PC's are used for other things while running GPUGrid. This is only going to stop some people helping you at all.

Hi SK,

The difference would probably be slightly less if you freed up another CPU core on your C2Q; it's being compared to an i7 with 4 threads free.

You could probably get away with using 5 threads on that i7 without any GPU task deficit.

PCIE 16 or 8 makes little or no difference to GPUGrid tasks, but there are still architectural differences that might make some difference (other than on the CPU).

Looks like GDF did not apply the same credit formula for the long tasks as Toni is doing. Obviously he is busy for the next 10days, so I dont expect that to be fixed retrospectively or for existing queued tasks.

my gtx 460 still makes the computer freeze so hard that i have to suspend the gpugrid project. even with the new kkfree4 .. gpu usage at constant 90%

just like the user that downloads boinc from another site and just runs gpugrid without ever coming to this forum.. i don't want to complicate my life either with third pary softwares and getting technical about gpugrid(it all should be just <plug and play>).. i'll hold the project on suspend.

if problems go away please somebody post here that they did so i can resume.

also there's one thing i don't understand.. why are tasks tested directly on the users.. shouldn't there be some testing machines or a team of testers? i mean.. when i release a VB.NET software i don't release it without thoroughly testing it on more computers.. because releasing a software without testing increases a lot the probability of users bumping into bugs and they'll stop using the software. I think you should have a group of volunteers on which you can test the tasks before releasing them.. thus avoiding losing gpugrid users. if you guys want to adopt this system i will happily apply as a volunteer giving access with teamviewer or testing the tasks myself with given instructions.

my gtx 460 still makes the computer freeze so hard that i have to suspend the gpugrid project. even with the new kkfree4 .. gpu usage at constant 90%

just like the user that downloads boinc from another site and just runs gpugrid without ever coming to this forum.. i don't want to complicate my life either with third pary softwares and getting technical about gpugrid(it all should be just <plug and play>).. i'll hold the project on suspend.

if problems go away please somebody post here that they did so i can resume.

also there's one thing i don't understand.. why are tasks tested directly on the users.. shouldn't there be some testing machines or a team of testers? i mean.. when i release a VB.NET software i don't release it without thoroughly testing it on more computers.. because releasing a software without testing increases a lot the probability of users bumping into bugs and they'll stop using the software. I think you should have a group of volunteers on which you can test the tasks before releasing them.. thus avoiding losing gpugrid users. if you guys want to adopt this system i will happily apply as a volunteer giving access with teamviewer or testing the tasks myself with given instructions.

[

This is only going to cost you production and I did warn you that PC's are used for other things while running GPUGrid. This is only going to stop some people helping you at all.

I don't think so. For people running GPUgrid 24/7 a 10% increase in performance is a good news. It's still possible to configure Boinc to not use the GPU when the system is in use. Other Boinc applications that use intensively the GPU are in the same situation.
Of course to adapt the system to personal needs, it could be nice to have the choice by example in the GPUGrid account setting. But this means I suppose two versions of the application or a system variable.

my gtx 460 still makes the computer freeze so hard that i have to suspend the gpugrid project. even with the new kkfree4 .. gpu usage at constant 90%

just like the user that downloads boinc from another site and just runs gpugrid without ever coming to this forum.. i don't want to complicate my life either with third pary softwares and getting technical about gpugrid(it all should be just <plug and play>).. i'll hold the project on suspend.

if problems go away please somebody post here that they did so i can resume.

also there's one thing i don't understand.. why are tasks tested directly on the users.. shouldn't there be some testing machines or a team of testers? i mean.. when i release a VB.NET software i don't release it without thoroughly testing it on more computers.. because releasing a software without testing increases a lot the probability of users bumping into bugs and they'll stop using the software. I think you should have a group of volunteers on which you can test the tasks before releasing them.. thus avoiding losing gpugrid users. if you guys want to adopt this system i will happily apply as a volunteer giving access with teamviewer or testing the tasks myself with given instructions.

you have small problems while gpu grid is running.. but my computer becomes unusable while gpugrid runs.. in the past it wasn't like this.

i'm not contesting that for some people it works very well because they have a different card. but i have a gtx 460 which is bought by a lot of people and if they have the same problem the gpugrid project manager can see a serious drop in the number of people that are running gpugrid. the question is.. does he even monitor this?
and why are releases with major bugs given to users without beeing tested first on multiple computers with different video cards etc.?

from my point of view they are failing to respect BASIC logical rules and the users are paying for the mistakes made with stress.

Betting Slip:"This is only going to stop some people helping you at all."
yes.. it's a simple thing.. if you're going to say to a bunch of people <please come and help for a good cause> a lot of them will say <ok> .. but if after that you'll say <but you have to learn these technical things and wast time on this forum + jump through these loops every time you run a task> a lot of the volunteers will say <umm.. no thanks.. bye bye>

Andrew, have you tried altering priority as I posted above?


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yes.. it works.. but what about the people who download boinc from the berkley site and select gpugrid and don't visit this forum?

anyway.. jumping through loops is not acceptable.. i'll suspend the gpugrid project until it's fixed.

sure gdf.. i have patience.. but you need to ask yourself: does the standard user have it?

i have a 7000 lines vb.net project myself and i understand the problems that come with big projects.. but i don't understand why this severe bug got out to the users.. and i belive it is a big mistake that it ever got out. maybe you should have released it when you had the time to work on the bugs and maybe it should have been tested well before the release.

sure gdf.. i have patience.. but you need to ask yourself: does the standard user have it?

i have a 7000 lines vb.net project myself and i understand the problems that come with big projects.. but i don't understand why this severe bug got out to the users.. and i belive it is a big mistake that it ever got out. maybe you should have released it when you had the time to work on the bugs and maybe it should have been tested well before the release.

Everytime there is a change, there are problems because the heterogeneity is very large out there.

it's not like one can just attach a work pc to the project and forget about it from then on.

it's not like one can just attach a work pc to the project and forget about it from then on.

people invented things like: plug and play, launch and forget(aircraft missiles) etc. because it makes the life of the user easier. i think gpugrid should strive to achieve this too because it also makes less people upset and the number of people that cancel the project will be smaller.

gdf:"Everytime there is a change, there are problems" .. "you'll have to wait 10 days as I am leaving for a 10 days conference tour to USA."

then you would agree with me that you made a big mistake because you didn't plan ahead.. releasing the tasks only when you have free time for the problems that come with this.

i know (it is the standard problem with big projects) but what i don't understand is why the tasks aren't tested first in a "private" enviroment (with volunteer users or something) that reflects the complex structure of the public users.

gdf, can you give us some statistics or a link that shows the number of users that were running gpugrid in an hour from when the new tasks were released? then we could see a drop and how big the impact was.

gdf, can you give us some statistics or a link that shows the number of users that were running gpugrid in an hour from when the new tasks were released? then we could see a drop and how big the impact was.

Boinc statistics are available in a couple of webpages. For example on this one. I don't see any significant drop in the number of active users, and in the number of active hosts.

"Heterogeneity doesn't mean big project"
"GDF is not the defendant, and you are not the prosecutor."
you both are right. i never said these things.

"Actually, you and GDF are on the same side"
sorry if i don't identify myself.. on my domain if i let a freeze problem get to the end user and tell my client "you'll have to wait 10 days because i must go somewhere" the client fires me and gets a coder that fixes the problem in one day. i also ask myself while coding "do i need to put this in a tab somewhere or should i put it in the main form so that the user isn't made to jump through loops to get to this button?"

"you should be a beta tester in the future"
i already was one when the bug came out.. and i will be one in the future too.

i'm not getting personal or emotional in the dialog on this forum.
my personal interest is for the users to benefit of a very good user experience.

"I don't see any significant drop in the number of active users, and in the number of active hosts."
yes. you are right. there is no sudden drop yet. thanks for the graphs. we'll have to watch them in the future.

but that page has shown me an even bigger problem concerning the last 2 graphs:
http://boinc.netsoft-online.com/e107_plugins/boinc/bp.php?project=52






question for GDF: why in the last 3 months gpugrid had about 1400 new hosts (i presume they joined in order to stay) and instead of having an increase of about 1000 users in the active hosts the graph it shows a decrease of 500 active hosts? is there something going horribly wrong and people are leaving? or am i missing something?

also why out of 22.600 hosts ONLY 3804 meaning 17% are active?

.
question for GDF: why in the last 3 months gpugrid had about 1400 new hosts (i presume they joined in order to stay) and instead of having an increase of about 1000 users in the active hosts the graph it shows a decrease of 500 active hosts? is there something going horribly wrong and people are leaving? or am i missing something?

also why out of 22.600 hosts ONLY 3804 meaning 17% are active?

"Actually, you and GDF are on the same side"
sorry if i don't identify myself.. on my domain if i let a freeze problem get to the end user and tell my client "you'll have to wait 10 days because i must go somewhere" the client fires me and gets a coder that fixes the problem in one day.

This new application mainly present changes in terms of the science.

Dagorath:" This isn't a business venture."
oh.. right.. then it's ok to realease versions that freeze the computer of users and force them to shut down the project. i understand.

" You go too far when you guestion GDF"
well.. at least you can move your mouse to navigate this forum.. but when your computer completly freezes (when i was able to move the mouse boinc wouldn't open.. at first i didn't even know what was going on..if i wouldn't have known how to shut it down from task manager i would have been forced to restart the computer and when i would have entered windows it would have been frozen again because boinc starts immediately)
.. then you might think that you have the right to ask a lot of "guestions" to the person that allowed this severe bug to leak beyond the testing team.

"I would like to think we are all on the same side, and just discussing logistics."
same side of the gpugrid project... yes.

Same Beta Task but with SWAN_SYNC not in use:

8 CPU tasks running: GPU Utilization = 97%
7 CPU tasks running: GPU Utilization = 96%
6 CPU tasks running: GPU Utilization = 96%
0 CPU tasks running: GPU Utilization = 92%

It would seem that without SWAN_SYNC in use it is actually better to use all the CPU's; There is a clear 5% reduction in GPU utilization if you don't use the CPU to crunch any CPU tasks.

Why? The core drops it's frequency (3.6GHz down to 1.7GHz).