Advanced search

Message boards : Number crunching : Question on headless GPUs

Author Message
Toni
Volunteer moderator
Project administrator
Project developer
Project tester
Project scientist
Send message
Joined: 9 Dec 08
Posts: 1006
Credit: 5,068,599
RAC: 0
Level
Ser
Scientific publications
watwatwatwat
Message 52142 - Posted: 25 Jun 2019 | 13:29:02 UTC
Last modified: 25 Jun 2019 | 13:29:18 UTC

A question for the gurus out there. Under W10, can one crunch on an NVIDIA GPU which is NOT attached to a monitor - the monitor being attached to an internal graphic card?

I remember something was mentioned about a dongle. Is this a thing?

Thanks!

Zalster
Avatar
Send message
Joined: 26 Feb 14
Posts: 211
Credit: 4,496,324,562
RAC: 0
Level
Arg
Scientific publications
watwatwatwatwatwatwatwat
Message 52143 - Posted: 25 Jun 2019 | 14:47:18 UTC - in response to Message 52142.

No clue on Wins 10 as I stay away from it. But on Win 7 you can. The dummy plug I use just to keep the screen resolution at my preference instead of max size when I remote into the machine. Just a FYI. Amazon sells dummy dongles.

Richard Haselgrove
Send message
Joined: 11 Jul 09
Posts: 1620
Credit: 8,925,363,275
RAC: 18,604,815
Level
Tyr
Scientific publications
watwatwatwatwatwatwatwatwatwatwatwatwatwatwatwatwatwatwatwatwatwatwatwatwatwatwat
Message 52144 - Posted: 25 Jun 2019 | 15:36:10 UTC

Yes - I got mine through Amazon, too. Search "dummy plug headless" does the trick. People used to solder them themselves in VGA days, but you can now get DVI and HDMI up to (at least) 4K resolution - I wouldn't try making one of those.

Keith Myers
Send message
Joined: 13 Dec 17
Posts: 1343
Credit: 7,716,100,648
RAC: 12,385,922
Level
Tyr
Scientific publications
watwatwatwatwat
Message 52145 - Posted: 25 Jun 2019 | 17:36:45 UTC

I believe Toni's question was not about using a dongle for remoting into a headless server, but rather will BOINC crunch on a gpu that does not have a monitor or dongle connected.

Yes it can.

RFGuy_KCCO
Send message
Joined: 13 Feb 14
Posts: 6
Credit: 1,056,951,005
RAC: 0
Level
Met
Scientific publications
watwatwatwatwatwatwatwatwat
Message 52146 - Posted: 25 Jun 2019 | 17:55:40 UTC - in response to Message 52145.

I believe Toni's question was not about using a dongle for remoting into a headless server, but rather will BOINC crunch on a gpu that does not have a monitor or dongle connected.

Yes it can.


+1

I'm running several of my GPUs headless under Win10. Works without issue.

____________

Richard Haselgrove
Send message
Joined: 11 Jul 09
Posts: 1620
Credit: 8,925,363,275
RAC: 18,604,815
Level
Tyr
Scientific publications
watwatwatwatwatwatwatwatwatwatwatwatwatwatwatwatwatwatwatwatwatwatwatwatwatwatwat
Message 52147 - Posted: 25 Jun 2019 | 18:21:04 UTC - in response to Message 52145.

I believe Toni's question was not about using a dongle for remoting into a headless server, but rather will BOINC crunch on a gpu that does not have a monitor or dongle connected.

Yes it can.

Though not always for Intel GPUs.

rod4x4
Send message
Joined: 4 Aug 14
Posts: 266
Credit: 2,219,935,054
RAC: 0
Level
Phe
Scientific publications
watwatwatwatwatwatwatwatwatwat
Message 52148 - Posted: 25 Jun 2019 | 23:49:34 UTC - in response to Message 52142.

Under W10, can one crunch on an NVIDIA GPU which is NOT attached to a- the monitor being attached to an internal graphic card?

The Monitor can be connected to internal GPU, the Nvidia GPU does NOT need to be primary GPU (as long as motherboard BIOS supports this config) nor does it need a dongle to crunch.

mmonnin
Send message
Joined: 2 Jul 16
Posts: 337
Credit: 7,666,958,683
RAC: 10,044,224
Level
Tyr
Scientific publications
watwatwatwatwat
Message 52149 - Posted: 26 Jun 2019 | 0:08:02 UTC

The only card I've seen picky about having something attached has been my RX 580. NV and Intel are fine w/o anything attached. Sometimes a 2nd 'monitor' can be setup within windows w/o having a physical monitor actually attached to satisfy the GPU.

Piri1974
Send message
Joined: 2 Oct 18
Posts: 38
Credit: 6,896,627
RAC: 0
Level
Ser
Scientific publications
wat
Message 52966 - Posted: 10 Nov 2019 | 23:01:40 UTC
Last modified: 10 Nov 2019 | 23:04:27 UTC

I do this on several Windows 10 PCs:

I have several PCs with integrated graphics which do have an added GPU while the monitor is connected to the integrated GPU.
This poses no problem at all on my AMD pcs, and I only have a small issue on my Intel pc, see below.

Here they are:

AMD A8-9600 with integrated Radeon R7 + a GT710 doing the crunching:
http://www.gpugrid.net/show_host_detail.php?hostid=514223
No problem whatsoever.

Athlon 200GE with integrated Vega 3 and an added GT730 doing the crunching:
http://www.gpugrid.net/show_host_detail.php?hostid=503400
No problem whatsoever.

On my Intel pc it works too, but there is a small bug though:
Intel Core i5-8400 with integrated Intel graphics, and an added GT730 doing the crunching:
http://www.gpugrid.net/show_host_detail.php?hostid=513885
It works, but as soon as the BOINC screen saver starts, moving your mouse or touching the keyboard can no longer bring back the Windows screen.
I need to push ctrl+alt+del to get the Windows screen back.
I haven't been able to solve this issue until now, not even with the latest drivers... Maybe it's a BIOS issue.
But for the rest the GPU number crunching works perfectly on this pc too.
Turning off the BOINC screen saver probably solves the problem, but even on LCD screens it is not a good idea to let the same screen be projected for hours...
Maybe I could try using another screen saver like the "lines" screen saver in Windows... haven't tried that yet.

In the Windows Task Manager - in the performance tab - you get to see both GPUs,
and you can see in the graphs called "CUDA" or "Computing" which one is doing the work.

There, I hope this info helps you out. :-)

Have a nice day;
Carl

jjch
Send message
Joined: 10 Nov 13
Posts: 101
Credit: 15,601,765,034
RAC: 4,573,639
Level
Trp
Scientific publications
watwatwatwatwatwatwatwatwatwatwatwatwatwatwat
Message 52969 - Posted: 11 Nov 2019 | 6:39:47 UTC

Turn off the BOINC screen saver. It just wastes CPU cycles anyway. You can either set your screen saver to a blank/black screen or have your monitor turn off.

Piri1974
Send message
Joined: 2 Oct 18
Posts: 38
Credit: 6,896,627
RAC: 0
Level
Ser
Scientific publications
wat
Message 52970 - Posted: 11 Nov 2019 | 13:32:09 UTC - in response to Message 52969.

Turn off the BOINC screen saver. It just wastes CPU cycles anyway. You can either set your screen saver to a blank/black screen or have your monitor turn off.


Thx for the advice. :-)
Having the monitor go to sleep is probably the best option indeed. Minimises the usage of the monitor and saves electricity as well.

Post to thread

Message boards : Number crunching : Question on headless GPUs

//