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Message boards : Graphics cards (GPUs) : Does exist a two GPU PC detailed guide for GPUGRID?

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Message 2693 - Posted: 2 Oct 2008 | 21:29:51 UTC
Last modified: 2 Oct 2008 | 21:31:04 UTC

I would like to read a detailed guide that explains how to configure a two GPUs PC under Vista to run two process (one in each GPU) of GPUGRID simultaneously.

Does anyone know where to find it?

It would be very appreciated.

NOTE: two single GPU graphics card, each in one PCIe slot.

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Message 2695 - Posted: 2 Oct 2008 | 21:34:35 UTC - in response to Message 2693.

Not sure what you mean. Setup is no different than "normal" GPU-crunching. Are you familiar with that? Apart from disabling SLI you don't have to do anything special to crunch on both GPUs.

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Message 2696 - Posted: 2 Oct 2008 | 21:40:00 UTC - in response to Message 2695.
Last modified: 2 Oct 2008 | 21:40:48 UTC

Not sure what you mean. Setup is no different than "normal" GPU-crunching. Are you familiar with that? Apart from disabling SLI you don't have to do anything special to crunch on both GPUs.

MrS


Well, I'm now crunching GPUGRID with a monoGPU PC.

Do you want to say that it will automatically recognize the two GPU's and will put to work properly?

Suppose I have a quadcore crunching QMC and GPUGRID in a PC with two GPU's (not SLI). Will it automatically put two cores to crunch QMC and the other two to crunch GPU?

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Message 2702 - Posted: 2 Oct 2008 | 22:16:56 UTC
Last modified: 2 Oct 2008 | 22:17:54 UTC

Exactly :)

I don't have such a system myself, but a member in *my* team is quite talkative and has it up and running that way. You may have to make sure not to put the CPU-project ressource share on a super-high priority though, as this may confuse the scheduler.

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Message 2707 - Posted: 3 Oct 2008 | 1:03:45 UTC - in response to Message 2696.

Suppose I have a quadcore crunching QMC and GPUGRID in a PC with two GPU's (not SLI). Will it automatically put two cores to crunch QMC and the other two to crunch GPU?


Yes. Simply adding a 2nd GPU will be automatically recognized / utilized by GPUGrid (assuming you don't enable SLI). I have a Q6600 with 2 8800GT's. The line you will be looking for in the Messages upon BOINC startup is something similar to:

9/26/2008 8:53:41 PM||Coprocessor: GeForce 8800 GT (2)

Notice the "(2)" following the identification of the coprocessor.

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Message 2727 - Posted: 3 Oct 2008 | 10:30:57 UTC - in response to Message 2707.

Do I need a SLi chipset to install 2 cards ? I've got 3 PCI-E I could use but on Intel chipset.

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Message 2728 - Posted: 3 Oct 2008 | 10:48:51 UTC - in response to Message 2727.

Do I need a SLi chipset to install 2 cards ? I've got 3 PCI-E I could use but on Intel chipset.


No and don't use SLI, otherwise it will not work. With windows you need often 2 monitors, on every card one, to get your card working.

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Message 2731 - Posted: 3 Oct 2008 | 12:22:54 UTC - in response to Message 2728.

With windows you need often 2 monitors, on every card one, to get your card working.


Oh damn, I forgot that! Under Vista and XP SP3 you need to have a desktop extended to each card, otherwise MS will not load the driver for the card and it can not be found by BOINC, kind of. And you can only do this if there is a monitor connected. But as far as I know this doesn't mean you actually need 2 monitors: if you have one with dual inputs or a KVM it should work as well.

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Message 2735 - Posted: 3 Oct 2008 | 12:41:48 UTC - in response to Message 2731.

Under Vista and XP SP3 you need to have a desktop extended to each card, otherwise MS will not load the driver for the card and it can not be found by BOINC, kind of. And you can only do this if there is a monitor connected. But as far as I know this doesn't mean you actually need 2 monitors: if you have one with dual inputs or a KVM it should work as well.


I have WinXP SP3 with two 8800GT's. I extended the desktop to the 2nd monitor without attaching a KVM / monitor to it -- works perfectly well with GPUGrid.

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Message 2736 - Posted: 3 Oct 2008 | 12:48:02 UTC

Oh, thanks for the info! So this is only neccessary under Vista?

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Message 2768 - Posted: 3 Oct 2008 | 21:34:47 UTC - in response to Message 2736.

Oh, thanks for the info! So this is only neccessary under Vista?

MrS


Exactly!

Vista and Server 2K8!

This is not a driver problem.

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Message 2816 - Posted: 5 Oct 2008 | 21:19:55 UTC - in response to Message 2731.

With windows you need often 2 monitors, on every card one, to get your card working.


Oh damn, I forgot that! Under Vista and XP SP3 you need to have a desktop extended to each card, otherwise MS will not load the driver for the card and it can not be found by BOINC, kind of. And you can only do this if there is a monitor connected. But as far as I know this doesn't mean you actually need 2 monitors: if you have one with dual inputs or a KVM it should work as well.

MrS

I have two cards under xp sp3. I did not put any load on the second card (display, kvm or dummy load). I did not extend the desktop to the card. It was recognized by BOINC where it ran both cards for a week, and both are recognized by FAH. No dummy load, no extending the desktop.

Note, that I *DID* have to do the kvm & extend desktop to get my first dual GPU system to run under Vista, which is why I built this one using XP.

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Message 2819 - Posted: 6 Oct 2008 | 1:07:08 UTC - in response to Message 2816.


I have two cards under xp sp3. I did not put any load on the second card (display, kvm or dummy load). I did not extend the desktop to the card. It was recognized by BOINC where it ran both cards for a week, and both are recognized by FAH. No dummy load, no extending the desktop.


This makes sense. I had to extend the desktop *not* to get BOINC to work, but only to run the card at full speed. For some reason, without extending the desktop, the 2nd 8800GT only ran at 1/2 speed (approx). But, it always was recognized as a 2nd coprocessor by BOINC and would run GPUGrid (though slowly due to the 1/2 speed issue).

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Message 2901 - Posted: 9 Oct 2008 | 3:36:43 UTC - in response to Message 2819.

This makes sense. I had to extend the desktop *not* to get BOINC to work, but only to run the card at full speed. For some reason, without extending the desktop, the 2nd 8800GT only ran at 1/2 speed (approx). But, it always was recognized as a 2nd coprocessor by BOINC and would run GPUGrid (though slowly due to the 1/2 speed issue).


Right and my experience was the same under Vista x64 also. The references that I have made to people having to extend the desktop in XP SP3 are based upon user claims. Not sure what the details are, but it appears that some XP SP3 users need to extend the desk top and some don't. I would guess that its not SP3 that causes the need, but some other windows update.....I really don't know one way or the other though....

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Message boards : Graphics cards (GPUs) : Does exist a two GPU PC detailed guide for GPUGRID?

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