The Scottish Boinc Team

There are new optimized apps for both Windows and Linux:

HERE

From the forums, for machines that support AVX and FMA3 the AVX performs a little better. On Sandybridge and later use the AVX app. For machines that don't support AVX then use the SSE2 app.

1. Download and unpack the file.
2. Stop BOINC
3. Copy the 2 files into your /projects/gene... folder
4. Restart BOINC

You should be good to go at this point. To confirm look at your BOINC message and you should see a line towards beginning saying; TN-Grid fournd app_info file using anonymous platfrom.

I was away to post this. Great minds and all that

Is the file TN-Grid.windows-x86-64-avx-v1.0.zip, dated Dec 20, the only 64 bit version?

Is TN-Grid.windows-x86-avx-v1.0.zip, dated Dec 29, the 32 bit version or latest 64 bit version? EDIT: It's the 32 bit version.

the x86 are 32 bit, x86-64 are 64 bit. There are 3 apps for each type of system. SSE2, AVX and FMA. I have installed the sse2 versions. Only 64 bit available for linux.

2 x faster on i7 on win7, nearly 5 x faster on xeons
3 x faster on amd fx6300.
Installed on the linux systems, will have some numbers for that in a few hours I guess.

What is FMA, which systems will it run on and is it faster than any of the others?

Also, AVX runs on my i7-3770K but I think that is AVX 1.0. Is that still faster than FMA and SSE2?

I'm checking to see whether Linux or Windows pays better. On 2 I7-3930 machines it looks like Windows has the edge. I just moved a dual X5675 machine over so I can check it on a single machine. It'll take several hours to get the results.

You certainly have to pay the pending god on this project ... I have 134k in pending now

My machines sat idle for 6 hours last night ... I just couldn't figure out what I wanted to run. I finally decided I would follow you guys over. It worked out fantastic for me. I haven't run TN-Grid since 2015 and they've renamed the project (used to have "test" at the end). I happened to need one itty bitty WuProp star to get my 3 star on the 4th right BINGO!

scole250 wrote:What is FMA, which systems will it run on and is it faster than any of the others?

Also, AVX runs on my i7-3770K but I think that is AVX 1.0. Is that still faster than FMA and SSE2?

FMA3 is a new instruction set and is either Haswell or the generation after that. It really speeds up Prime crunching - PG uses it now.

In one step it will multiply 2 numbers and add them to a running total:

C=A*B+C

According to some benchmarks on the forums it appears to be a little slower than AVX .. on PG it is much better than AVX 2.0. So it is dependent on how much the code relies on doing that type of calculation.

I didn't try the SSE2 on my Sandybridge CPUs which have AVX 1 but the AVX made a BIG difference on them.

EDIT: FMA3 would also greatly speed up FFT calculations ... we'll all probably be dead and gone before Seti upgrades their app to take advantage of it

SSE2 will run on just about every semi modern PC. AVX might or might not be slightly faster though you have to balance heat versus output and the fact that credit screw will kick you in the nads for actually crunching units too quick. FMA3 I believe is Haswell and further only.
SSE2 on linux seems to be about double the speed of the standard app on both i7's and xeons. Seems Windoze is the main winner of the opti app or in other words the standard app runs crap on doze and far better on linux. Another win for team penguin.

Anyone tried the AVX versus the sse2 ?
My initial gains seem to be holding. Opti app is wat faster.

Alez wrote:Anyone tried the AVX versus the sse2 ?
My initial gains seem to be holding. Opti app is wat faster.

I haven't tried AVX vs SSE2 however I can report that there is virtually no difference between Linux or Windows using the same machines. Linux may crunch just a hair faster but Windows pays a hair more so it is a total wash.

There are even ARMv6, ARMv7 and ARMv8 apps for TN-Grid

I think I have enough pending to coast to a gold badge so I'm going NNW

Are any of these optimisations still applicable please? (on Linux)

I am giving TN-Grid a wee trial

I believe they have all now been incorporated into the project as the official apps. Certainly you should get sse2 and avx units until project decides which are best for that system.

Okay - many thanks

Of course when an app leaves the stone age, the usual suspects complain that it crashes on their win xp 32 bit systems. The same people that continue to use Boinc 6.xxx and probably believe that tin foil hats are required at all times.

Also be aware that some tasks can have quite high memory usage. Best to check and adjust the number of running cores appropriately.