19/8-26/8 Merlyn's Memorial-Stage 3 Milkyway TSTB challenge

Alez · Post by **Alez** » Fri Aug 02, 2013 10:46 pm

http://boincstats.com/en/stats/challenge/team/chat/414

Name Merlyn's Memorial - Stage 3
Status Upcoming
Project MilkyWay@home
Issued by The Scottish Boinc Team
Start time 2013-08-19 01:00 UTC
End time 2013-08-26 01:00 UTC
Late entrants allowed? Yes
Number of teams participating Â» 7
Number of users participating 0

Alez · Post by **Alez** » Sun Aug 18, 2013 2:41 am

Starts soon, time to make the switch and build that bunker.........

Post by **Megacruncher** » Sun Aug 18, 2013 2:41 am

23 hours to go.
So what settings should we use to optimise this one?

Alez · Post by **Alez** » Sun Aug 18, 2013 2:46 am

I'm not telling..... until I'm winning

Actually don't think there are any other than to run ATI cards as they rule here. You can run more than 1 unit at a time but as GPU's are not true parallel devices the savings are very minimal unless your card is seriously under utilised. If anyone wants a config to run more than 1 unit at a time I can provide, maybe it will work better for you than it has for me but I highly doubt it.

Edited to add... and deselect n-body in your profile as they error so much. Running under Linux is also better than Windoze but that's all getting a bit extreme for a simple competition

Basically your 580 will be good here as they have far better double precision than my 660ti's.
The best optimisation is to overclock your GPU. Milkyway uses very little memory so downclock the memory loads and overclock as much as you can before it locks up on the units.

Alez · Post by **Alez** » Sun Aug 18, 2013 10:31 pm

3 1/2 hrs to go.........

after collatz, this is going to be a kick in the credits

Alez · Post by **Alez** » Mon Aug 19, 2013 12:22 am

1 3/4 hrs to go. The ATI chewing through units so fast there is no point trying to bunker them as I can't download enough. Maybe the last hour if I can stay awake.

Mojito and match sticks required.
Sici have joined the challenge, 18 teams in now. Top 3 would be an excellent result.

Despite the rate the ATI is going through units my hourly credit graph, Collatz v's Milkyway is depressing. Back to Collatz for me after this one. Could be another UK #1 in Collatz for us. UKBT not really that far ahead of us 8)

Silver · Post by **Silver** » Mon Aug 19, 2013 6:22 pm

Sorry boys but I think I'm going to be somewhat of a spectator on this one.
My antique graphics card will not chew through milkyway

- even though it's not supposed to ruin your appetite between meals!
I spent hours yesterday trying to get the scheduler to fetch some work to stockpile till the challenge started and managed a whole 8 WU's so I'm now slowly churning out some CPU units to prop up the tail end of the leaderboard

I feel this might be another sign that I require a graphics card with a number somewhat higher than 5850

PinkPenguin · Post by **PinkPenguin** » Mon Aug 19, 2013 9:20 pm

Silver wrote:Sorry boys but I think I'm going to be somewhat of a spectator on this one.
My antique graphics card will not chew through milkyway - even though it's not supposed to ruin your appetite between meals!
I spent hours yesterday trying to get the scheduler to fetch some work to stockpile till the challenge started and managed a whole 8 WU's so I'm now slowly churning out some CPU units to prop up the tail end of the leaderboard

I feel this might be another sign that I require a graphics card with a number somewhat higher than 5850

Neither will my low level GPUs run MW but then they do run Collatz and I still couldn't make the top 100... while running MW on CPU only I've managed to make and maintain 50th so far... Curious isn't it!... by the way the n-body units do give good points if you can get them to work.

Silver · Post by **Silver** » Mon Aug 19, 2013 10:34 pm

[quote="PinkPenguin"
Neither will my low level GPUs run MW but then they do run Collatz and I still couldn't make the top 100... while running MW on CPU only I've managed to make and maintain 50th so far... Curious isn't it!... by the way the n-body units do give good points if you can get them to work.

[/quote]

It's somewhat strange. I'm sure there must be some explanation, maybe someone more knowledgeable than me will be able to explain it?

All the n-body units I tried failed but I had a little tweak so we'll see what happens next time I pick up some units.

Really need to proof read before I post - my card's a 5750, I was only 100 out

Alez · Post by **Alez** » Mon Aug 19, 2013 10:46 pm

Silver wrote:Sorry boys but I think I'm going to be somewhat of a spectator on this one.

We are in 2nd place. If we want to stay there then every single one of us crunching helps, spectating isn't allowed

I've once again got a scheduler issue where it keeps downloading ATI units and ignores the nVidia. As a consequence 1 nVidia is still running Collatz until I figure it out. That nVidia is making more credit per hour than 3 x GTX660ti's and my 7970 which does a Milkyway unit in 26 secs.

Credit crunch indeed.......

Silver · Post by **Silver** » Tue Aug 20, 2013 12:14 am

alezevo1 wrote:
Silver wrote:Sorry boys but I think I'm going to be somewhat of a spectator on this one.
We are in 2nd place. If we want to stay there then every single one of us crunching helps, spectating isn't allowed

I've once again got a scheduler issue where it keeps downloading ATI units and ignores the nVidia. As a consequence 1 nVidia is still running Collatz until I figure it out. That nVidia is making more credit per hour than 3 x GTX660ti's and my 7970 which does a Milkyway unit in 26 secs. Credit crunch indeed.......

Well maybe spectating was the wrong word. Watching you all disappear into the distance while I chug along at the back is probably more appropriate.

How is the 7970? its on my potential new hardware list, unless I wait till the next generation of cards at the start of next year

Alez · Post by **Alez** » Tue Aug 20, 2013 1:10 am

The 7970 is awesome if you want to run milkyway, collatz or distrtgen. compared to the nvidia's the drivers are a pain in the ass to set up and it is noisier. ( at least my saphire version is ) For a focused cruncher on these projects brilliant, for a more general card the nvidia gtx 660 ti is probably better value for money. More projects support nVidia and the cuda app is probably taking over as ATI seem to have little interest in supporting open_cl outside of gaming. I'm sure others will have there own opinions.

Post by **Megacruncher** » Tue Aug 20, 2013 1:34 am

Yup. We are only 200K clear of third place so it's all GPUs to the grindstone with cpu cores welcome too.

I must say that the drop in my/our credits is pretty eye watering and as soon as this is over I'll be back on Collatz.

Alez · Post by **Alez** » Tue Aug 20, 2013 2:45 am

Me too. New team goal, #1 UK in Collatz

?

Really could have been done with a 1million a day member being available to crunch. Any chance of upgrades being completed before this ends ?

Alez · Post by **Alez** » Tue Aug 20, 2013 11:24 am

Only 100 k clear of the russian stargazers now. Think they will catch us before the end of today

Post by **Megacruncher** » Tue Aug 20, 2013 10:04 pm

Arrgh! The Russkies are upon us.
Part of the problem is that my crunchers have spent more of the day polishing off about to expire Collatz work. I'll make sure that they focus on MW from now even is it means wasting some work. They are mainly solo ones so at least there won't be too many irate wingmen.

So backs to the wall & let's hope there's some cavalry coming. :)

Silver · Post by **Silver** » Tue Aug 20, 2013 10:50 pm

Megacruncher wrote: Part of the problem is that my crunchers have spent more of the day polishing off about to expire Collatz work.

Ahh, suddenly your lowly 7th place makes sense

Hope you can dig us out of the hole we seem to be slowly falling into.

Our cause was not helped by my interweb/router/cabling throwing a hissy fit tonight and me running out of work for a few hours!

Here's hoping our fortunes improve for the rest of the challenge :)

Alez · Post by **Alez** » Wed Aug 21, 2013 10:33 am

Indeed the Russkies have over ran our positions, but we are only 200k behind. if we can stay within striking distance to them and they slack off or Janos manages to get online then I believe we can take 2nd place back.

Sici's win is already a done deal, that's some amount of crunching power they can unleash.
In the top 100 we have...
Megacruncher TSBT 6th
alezevo1 8th
Skywalker TSBT 27th
PinkPenguin 59th
Paul of TSBT 71st
Radio 81st
allan 96th

Keep going everyone, 3rd is brilliant but we can get 2nd again before this ends.

PinkPenguin · Post by **PinkPenguin** » Wed Aug 21, 2013 1:48 pm

Megacruncher wrote:So backs to the wall & let's hope there's some cavalry coming. :)

Someone give a yell when it turns up! I'd like to get out of the way before I get trampled on...

Janos (retired) · Post by **Janos (retired)** » Wed Aug 21, 2013 2:56 pm

My crunchers are back online and I see a Milkyway snack is in order :)

PinkPenguin · Post by **PinkPenguin** » Wed Aug 21, 2013 4:19 pm

Janos wrote:My crunchers are back online and I see a Milkyway snack is in order :)

Uh! oh!... one flattened penguin with side order of mushy peas and deep-fried mars bar coming up!

Janos (retired) · Post by **Janos (retired)** » Wed Aug 21, 2013 6:08 pm

PinkPenguin wrote:
Janos wrote:My crunchers are back online and I see a Milkyway snack is in order :)
Uh! oh!... one flattened penguin with side order of mushy peas and deep-fried mars bar coming up!

Need a pick-me-up? I have lots of cold ones in the fridge!

Silver · Post by **Silver** » Wed Aug 21, 2013 6:34 pm

Janos wrote: Need a pick-me-up? I have lots of cold ones in the fridge!

Everyone round to Janos' place , he's got beer :occasion5:

Janos (retired) · Post by **Janos (retired)** » Wed Aug 21, 2013 7:15 pm

Silver wrote:
Janos wrote: Need a pick-me-up? I have lots of cold ones in the fridge!

Everyone round to Janos' place , he's got beer :occasion5:

... and wine.

PinkPenguin · Post by **PinkPenguin** » Wed Aug 21, 2013 7:42 pm

Janos wrote:
Silver wrote:
Janos wrote: Need a pick-me-up? I have lots of cold ones in the fridge!

Everyone round to Janos' place , he's got beer :occasion5:
... and wine.

...didn't even have time to wave :bootyshake: and say "help!" before I got steamrollered! ... I feel flatter than a pancake on shrove tuesday...

...er ...mine's a chilled red and spike it with brandy, please. I need to recover rotundity and a couple of marbles.

Silver · Post by **Silver** » Wed Aug 21, 2013 7:57 pm

PinkPenguin wrote:
...didn't even have time to wave :bootyshake: and say "help!" before I got steamrollered!

it's like he went past us at warp speed, didn't notice a thing till our feathered friend mentioned it!

Alez · Post by **Alez** » Wed Aug 21, 2013 10:33 pm

I'll bring a few bottles of Mojitos round. Welcome back.

Post by **Megacruncher** » Wed Aug 21, 2013 11:54 pm

The Russians were 200K ahead but that has been cut to 45K since the cavalry turned up. We should get second back soon enough. :wav:

Janos is charging up the leader board at a rate of knots - 24th already - and it is quite possible that he will over-run my "lowly" (how very dare you!) 6th place before the race is over. Which would be okay.

Alez · Post by **Alez** » Thu Aug 22, 2013 12:11 am

Yip, he's past Skywalker now so I guess I'm up for 'steamrollering' next

Post by **Megacruncher** » Fri Aug 23, 2013 12:10 am

We now 700K clear in 2nd place. :wav:

And there are 3 of us in the top 10.
Myself in 6, Alezevo1 in 7th and Janos in 10th moving very rapidly up the table.

Alez · Post by **Alez** » Fri Aug 23, 2013 1:16 am

yip back in 2nd in style. Think my steamrollering will occur in the morning

Alez · Post by **Alez** » Fri Aug 23, 2013 10:07 am

The Janos Juggernaut will hammer past me in the next 15 mins or so into 7th place

Post by **Megacruncher** » Sat Aug 24, 2013 12:55 am

alezevo1 wrote:The Janos Juggernaut will hammer past me in the next 15 mins or so into 7th place

And so he did, but since then has switched mainly to Collatz, returning 7th place to you.

The brief but spectacular intervention of the JJ has left us 1.4 Million ahead of the Ruskies which I doubt they can clawback over the next 49 hours.

Alez · Post by **Alez** » Sat Aug 24, 2013 12:36 pm

Megacruncher wrote:
alezevo1 wrote:The Janos Juggernaut will hammer past me in the next 15 mins or so into 7th place
And so he did, but since then has switched mainly to Collatz, returning 7th place to you.

The brief but spectacular intervention of the JJ has left us 1.4 Million ahead of the Ruskies which I doubt they can clawback over the next 49 hours.

and here was me thinking I had successfully defeated him

I like the JJ part, that could stick.

Post by **Megacruncher** » Sun Aug 25, 2013 11:44 pm

Almost done.

We are still over a million clear of the Russians so with just a couple of hours left I think we can safely claim second. Well done everyone. :occasion5:

Alez · Post by **Alez** » Tue Aug 27, 2013 1:10 am

Thanks to the timely intervention of the Janos Juggernaut, now known as the JJ TSBT did indeed take back and hold 2nd place. That gives us a 1st and 2 2nd's for the series so far. Well done all.

Individual Kudos goes to.....

Megacruncher TSBT 7th
alezevo1 8th
Janos of TSBT 12th
Skywalker TSBT 27th
PinkPenguin 67th
Paul of TSBT 81st
djpercival 113th
allan 122nd
Caledon 124th
Iain 127th
Storme 155th
Radio 160th
Richardminton 164th
dw1234 171st
spacehopper68 189th
Garry Ross 298th
Robert Hendry 357th
John Black 365th
outcast 371st
KaizenMike 411th
Kostoglotov 533rd
thinboab 541st
Derek 590th
Leith 725th

Congratulations and thanks to all who participated.

The Scottish Boinc Team

19/8-26/8 Merlyn's Memorial-Stage 3 Milkyway TSTB challenge

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