GPU Crunching on a budget: AMD

[Dirk Broer]

The various models AMD/Ati 'budget cards' compared:

AMD/Ati 'budget cards' compared

Model	Video Chip	Shaders	GFLOP SP	GFLOP DP	TDP in Wtt
HD 4770	RV740	640	960	192	80
HD 5770/6770	Juniper XT	800	1360	none	108
HD 7770	Cape Verde XT	640	1280	80	80
HD 7790	Bonaire XT	896	1792	128	85
R7 260	Bonaire	768	1536	96	95
R7 360	Tobago	768	1613	101	100
R7 460	Polaris-11	896	2150	122	75

[Dirk Broer]

Can we get even more 'budget'? Yes, we can!

More ' budget' AMD

Model	Video Chip	Shaders	GFLOP SP	GFLOP DP	TDP in Watt
HD 4670	RV730 XT	320	480	none	59
HD 5670	Redwood XT	400	620	none	64
HD 6550D	BeaverCreek*	400	480	none	65-100*
HD 7670/6670	Turks XT	480	768	none	66
HD 7550D	Devastator*	384	614	yes	65-100*
HD 8670D	Devastator*	384	648	yes	65-100*
R7 250	Oland XT	384	768	48	75
R7 7890K	?*	512	735	46	65-95*

*=IGP, runs along for free with your CPU -which runs anyway while crunching, cheapskate!

[Dirk Broer]

What is THE cheapest AMD-based GPU crunching solution? It is my beloved AM1 platform.
Mobo's as cheap as 25 Euro's can be combined with a quad-core Athlon 5350 that will take 40 Euro's out of your wallet and from there it is only the cost of a HDD or SSD and some RAM as I got plenty of old cases and PSUs, but I prefer iTX cases with a small -less than 100 Watt- internal PSU.
The Athlon 5350 has an internal R3 GPU with 128 shaders that will crunch for you, but don't expect wonders...

[Dirk Broer]

Time for some tinkering. Let's assume your name is Chris Crossfire and that you recently bought a secondhand FM1 mobo with room for three video cards (Yes, they do exist, got one of them myself).
Our hypothetical Chris Crossfire, always short on money, then goes hunting for a cheap secondhand FM1 APU. This can be even easier than the hunt for his mobo, as everybody wants to get rid of the FM1 thingies. The same goes for the cards that can be combined with the APU to go into Chris' namesake Crossfire, albeit the virtual branch of the family: HD 6450s, HD 6570s and HD 6670s.
Now Scole already warned that combining two (or more) cheap cards can end up worse than one supposedly expensive card in terms of GFLOPs and Watts -read Quids, Greenbacks- but I will take it into extremes here and let Chris go hunting for three dirt-cheap HD 6450s to combine with his Athlon A8-3850.

As he turns on his newly-built GPU cruncher, the power meter in his apartment shifts gear as the APU (100 Watt) and the three GPUs (some 25 Watt each) pull 175 Watt alone for roughly 1100 GFLOP. After some months of crunching his wife gets cross with him over the power bill and he has scored very little credits, BOINC-wise. So he decides to go crunching in the low tarif hours, but now he needs stronger GPUs and he trades his three HD 6450s (plus some extra) for three HD 6670s. Now he can pull 300 Watt out of the wall while crunching 2700 GFLOP, which leaves his wife utterly unimpressed (and BOINC likewise).

What should he have done? He should have bought a Radeon HD 7990, and relegate an easy GPU project to be run from the IGP of his APU while going full for the other GPU projects using -in the low tarif hours- the 375 Watt TDP HD 7990, as it does 8200 GFLOP (SP) alone and has considerable Double Precision capability too.

[Dirk Broer]

Linux kernel 5 and the rehabilitation of the AM1 platform.

You might remember that after Ubuntu 16.04 things went rotten with 'older' AMD cards and IPGs, but that has changed with the introduction of the latest Linux kernels.
At the moment I have an AM1 system with both the AMDGPU and the AMDGPU PRO driver running to my astonishment:

Code: Select all

14-8-2019 11:23:23	Starting BOINC client version 7.9.3 for x86_64-pc-linux-gnu	
14-8-2019 11:23:23	log flags: file_xfer, sched_ops, task	
14-8-2019 11:23:23	Libraries: libcurl/7.58.0 OpenSSL/1.1.1 zlib/1.2.11 libidn2/2.0.4 libpsl/0.19.1 (+libidn2/2.0.4) nghttp2/1.30.0 librtmp/2.3	
14-8-2019 11:23:23	Data directory: /var/lib/boinc-client	
14-8-2019 11:23:24	OpenCL: AMD/ATI GPU 0: AMD Radeon Graphics (driver version 2671.3, device version OpenCL 1.2 AMD-APP (2671.3), 2553MB, 2553MB available, 154 GFLOPS peak)	
14-8-2019 11:23:24	OpenCL: AMD/ATI GPU 1: AMD KABINI (DRM 3.27.0, 5.0.0-25-generic, LLVM 8.0.0) (driver version 19.0.8, device version OpenCL 1.1 Mesa 19.0.8, 3072MB, 3072MB available, 96 GFLOPS peak)	
14-8-2019 11:23:24	OpenCL CPU: pthread-AMD Athlon(tm) 5350 APU with Radeon(tm) R3 (OpenCL driver vendor: The pocl project, driver version 1.1, device version OpenCL 1.2 pocl HSTR: pthread-x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-bdver3)	
14-8-2019 11:23:25	[libc detection] gathered: 2.27, Ubuntu GLIBC 2.27-3ubuntu1	
14-8-2019 11:23:25	Host name: Asrock-AM1H-ITX	
14-8-2019 11:23:25	Processor: 4 AuthenticAMD AMD Athlon(tm) 5350 APU with Radeon(tm) R3 [Family 22 Model 0 Stepping 1]	
14-8-2019 11:23:25	Processor features: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ht syscall nx mmxext fxsr_opt pdpe1gb rdtscp lm constant_tsc rep_good nopl nonstop_tsc cpuid extd_apicid aperfmperf pni pclmulqdq monitor	
14-8-2019 11:23:25	OS: Linux Ubuntu: Ubuntu 18.04.3 LTS [5.0.0-25-generic|libc 2.27 (Ubuntu GLIBC 2.27-3ubuntu1)]	
14-8-2019 11:23:25	Memory: 14.62 GB physical, 2.00 GB virtual	
14-8-2019 11:23:25	Disk: 109.53 GB total, 75.23 GB free	
14-8-2019 11:23:25	Local time is UTC +2 hours	
14-8-2019 11:23:25	VirtualBox version: 5.2.32_Ubuntur132056	
14-8-2019 11:23:25	Config: use all coprocessors

[davidbam]

I am very interested, thanks. Can I use this on Ubuntu 19.04 with xeons please?

Also, how is the performance vs. AMD under Windows. Reason I ask is that I did get AMD cards working with 18.10 (I think) but the returns were very poor by comparison to what others were getting with same card under Windows. I am thinking particularly of RX580 crunching Einstein.

If you have installation instructions, I'll be happy to give it a try

[Dirk Broer]

I am very interested, thanks. Can I use this on Ubuntu 19.04 with xeons please?

Not sure what you mean. You want to crunch on the IGP of Xeon's? AMDGPU or AMDGPU PRO are not gonna help there. If you want to crunch on the IGP of a Xeon (or i9, i7, i5, i3, pentium, Celeron) you can use the new NEO compute driver under Linux. But running another discrete GPU alongside might pose problems. You might want to try to run a RX580 using both AMDGPU and AMDGPU PRO though...

Also, how is the performance vs. AMD under Windows. Reason I ask is that I did get AMD cards working with 18.10 (I think) but the returns were very poor by comparison to what others were getting with same card under Windows. I am thinking particularly of RX580 crunching Einstein. If you have installation instructions, I'll be happy to give it a try.

Such a question can best be answered via WUProp. Go to their 'results' section and select e.g. GPU Credit for the RX580.

[davidbam]

No, xeon (rather than anything AM1) will be the cpu platform. AMD RX580 or older for the GPU

[Dirk Broer]

YMMV: Check whether you have Linux Kernel 5.0 (or higher) first. If you have a crunching setup with the open-source AMDGPU driver for your RX580, install the latest 19.20 AMDGPU PRO driver -download at AMD- over it and keep your fingers crossed. Works for Moo!, Seti gives seg fault errors.

[davidbam]

yup 5.0 according to https://www.zdnet.com/article/ubuntu-19 ... -0-kernel/

I'll give it a go thanks

[Dirk Broer]

Just to keep you busy: There's a new Ubuntu/Xubuntu/Lubuntu: 20.04, with Kernel 5.4 and Boinc-Client 7.16.6

Now I didn't pinpoint the culprit yet, but 20.04 gives the well-known "No usable GPUs found", 7.16.6 adding the dreaded "GPU detection failed: process exited with status 1: Operation not permitted" --mind you: this is the very system that ran GPU tasks under two different drivers on its R3/HD8400 IGP under Xubuntu 18.04, as mentioned a few posts earlier in this thread.

Code: Select all

1-5-2020 04:00:26	Starting BOINC client version 7.16.6 for x86_64-pc-linux-gnu	
1-5-2020 04:00:26	log flags: file_xfer, sched_ops, task, coproc_debug	
1-5-2020 04:00:26	Libraries: libcurl/7.68.0 OpenSSL/1.1.1f zlib/1.2.11 brotli/1.0.7 libidn2/2.2.0 libpsl/0.21.0 (+libidn2/2.2.0) libssh/0.9.3/openssl/zlib nghttp2/1.40.0 librtmp/2.3	
1-5-2020 04:00:26	Data directory: /var/lib/boinc-client	
1-5-2020 04:00:26	[coproc] launching child process at /usr/bin/boinc	
1-5-2020 04:00:26	[coproc] with data directory /var/lib/boinc-client	
1-5-2020 04:00:27	GPU detection failed: process exited with status 1: Operation not permitted	
1-5-2020 04:00:27	[coproc] read_coproc_info_file() returned error -108	
1-5-2020 04:00:27	No usable GPUs found	
1-5-2020 04:00:27	libc: Ubuntu GLIBC 2.31-0ubuntu9 version 2.31	
1-5-2020 04:00:27	Host name: Asrock-AM1H-ITX	
1-5-2020 04:00:27	Processor: 4 AuthenticAMD AMD Athlon(tm) 5350 APU with Radeon(tm) R3 [Family 22 Model 0 Stepping 1]	
1-5-2020 04:00:27	Processor features: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ht syscall nx mmxext fxsr_opt pdpe1gb rdtscp lm constant_tsc rep_good nopl nonstop_tsc cpuid extd_apicid aperfmperf pni pclmulqdq monitor	
1-5-2020 04:00:27	OS: Linux Ubuntu: Ubuntu 20.04 LTS [5.4.0-28-generic|libc 2.31 (Ubuntu GLIBC 2.31-0ubuntu9)]	
1-5-2020 04:00:27	Memory: 15.08 GB physical, 2.00 GB virtual	
1-5-2020 04:00:27	Disk: 109.04 GB total, 60.95 GB free	
1-5-2020 04:00:27	Local time is UTC +2 hours	
1-5-2020 04:00:27	VirtualBox version: 6.1.6_Ubuntur137129	

Note the total lack of OpenCL, even that for the CPU (POCL). Clinfo gives "CommandLine Error: Option 'limited-coverage-experimental' registered more than once!
LLVM ERROR: inconsistency in registered CommandLine options"
The culprit seems to be that various parts needed for crunching have been compiled using the same LLVM version...

[davidbam]

I had such high hopes.

Thank you - you just saved me a fair bit of time trying

[Dirk Broer]

Partial success: Lubuntu 20.04 is now using its GPU -hat off to Oibaf. It -Lubuntu- didn't have the 'GPU detection failed: process exited with status 1: Operation not permitted' warning that Xubuntu 20.04 gave in the BOINC log in the first place.

Code: Select all

12-5-2020 12:02:54	Starting BOINC client version 7.16.6 for x86_64-pc-linux-gnu	
12-5-2020 12:02:54	log flags: file_xfer, sched_ops, task	
12-5-2020 12:02:54	Libraries: libcurl/7.68.0 OpenSSL/1.1.1f zlib/1.2.11 brotli/1.0.7 libidn2/2.2.0 libpsl/0.21.0 (+libidn2/2.2.0) libssh/0.9.3/openssl/zlib nghttp2/1.40.0 librtmp/2.3	
12-5-2020 12:02:54	Data directory: /var/lib/boinc-client	
12-5-2020 12:02:54	OpenCL: AMD/ATI GPU 0: AMD KABINI (DRM 3.35.0, 5.4.0-29-generic, LLVM 9.0.1) (driver version 20.2.0-devel, device version OpenCL 1.1 Mesa 20.2.0-devel (git-0bea2a1 2020-05-11 focal-oibaf, 3072MB, 3072MB available, 96 GFLOPS peak)	
12-5-2020 12:02:54	libc: Ubuntu GLIBC 2.31-0ubuntu9 version 2.31	
12-5-2020 12:02:54	Host name: MSI-AM1I	
12-5-2020 12:02:54	Processor: 4 AuthenticAMD AMD Athlon(tm) 5350 APU with Radeon(tm) R3 [Family 22 Model 0 Stepping 1]	
12-5-2020 12:02:54	Processor features: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ht syscall nx mmxext fxsr_opt pdpe1gb rdtscp lm constant_tsc rep_good nopl nonstop_tsc cpuid extd_apicid aperfmperf pni pclmulqdq monitor	
12-5-2020 12:02:54	OS: Linux Ubuntu: Ubuntu 20.04 LTS [5.4.0-29-generic|libc 2.31 (Ubuntu GLIBC 2.31-0ubuntu9)]	
12-5-2020 12:02:54	Memory: 15.09 GB physical, 0 bytes virtual	
12-5-2020 12:02:54	Disk: 213.02 GB total, 176.93 GB free	
12-5-2020 12:02:54	Local time is UTC +2 hours	
12-5-2020 12:02:54	VirtualBox version: 6.1.6_Ubuntur137129	

Xubuntu 20.04 still sucks. Gonna test the full Ubuntu 20.04 on a dedicated test system with a nVidia card next.

[Dirk Broer]

Linux kernel 5 and the rehabilitation of the AM1 platform.

You might remember that after Ubuntu 16.04 things went rotten with 'older' AMD cards and IPGs, but that has changed with the introduction of the latest Linux kernels.
At the moment I have an AM1 system with both the AMDGPU and the AMDGPU PRO driver running to my astonishment:

Code: Select all

14-8-2019 11:23:23	Starting BOINC client version 7.9.3 for x86_64-pc-linux-gnu	
14-8-2019 11:23:23	log flags: file_xfer, sched_ops, task	
14-8-2019 11:23:23	Libraries: libcurl/7.58.0 OpenSSL/1.1.1 zlib/1.2.11 libidn2/2.0.4 libpsl/0.19.1 (+libidn2/2.0.4) nghttp2/1.30.0 librtmp/2.3	
14-8-2019 11:23:23	Data directory: /var/lib/boinc-client	
14-8-2019 11:23:24	OpenCL: AMD/ATI GPU 0: AMD Radeon Graphics (driver version 2671.3, device version OpenCL 1.2 AMD-APP (2671.3), 2553MB, 2553MB available, 154 GFLOPS peak)	
14-8-2019 11:23:24	OpenCL: AMD/ATI GPU 1: AMD KABINI (DRM 3.27.0, 5.0.0-25-generic, LLVM 8.0.0) (driver version 19.0.8, device version OpenCL 1.1 Mesa 19.0.8, 3072MB, 3072MB available, 96 GFLOPS peak)	
14-8-2019 11:23:24	OpenCL CPU: pthread-AMD Athlon(tm) 5350 APU with Radeon(tm) R3 (OpenCL driver vendor: The pocl project, driver version 1.1, device version OpenCL 1.2 pocl HSTR: pthread-x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-bdver3)	
14-8-2019 11:23:25	[libc detection] gathered: 2.27, Ubuntu GLIBC 2.27-3ubuntu1	
14-8-2019 11:23:25	Host name: Asrock-AM1H-ITX	
14-8-2019 11:23:25	Processor: 4 AuthenticAMD AMD Athlon(tm) 5350 APU with Radeon(tm) R3 [Family 22 Model 0 Stepping 1]	
14-8-2019 11:23:25	Processor features: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ht syscall nx mmxext fxsr_opt pdpe1gb rdtscp lm constant_tsc rep_good nopl nonstop_tsc cpuid extd_apicid aperfmperf pni pclmulqdq monitor	
14-8-2019 11:23:25	OS: Linux Ubuntu: Ubuntu 18.04.3 LTS [5.0.0-25-generic|libc 2.27 (Ubuntu GLIBC 2.27-3ubuntu1)]	
14-8-2019 11:23:25	Memory: 14.62 GB physical, 2.00 GB virtual	
14-8-2019 11:23:25	Disk: 109.53 GB total, 75.23 GB free	
14-8-2019 11:23:25	Local time is UTC +2 hours	
14-8-2019 11:23:25	VirtualBox version: 5.2.32_Ubuntur132056	
14-8-2019 11:23:25	Config: use all coprocessors

L'histoire se répète (pardon me Klatchian): After the initial refusing of Xubuntu 20.04 to behave there was an update -and now it works as Ubuntu 18.04 did after kernel 5 came out.
Even more surprising was that Linux Mint 19.3 stopped seeing its IGP after that update and, after checking for the Intel Neo GPU driver it seemed to have disappeared. So I downloaded the latest one, installed it and - nothing. I searched for Intel-opencl-icd and found nothing. From sheer WTF I installed the ICD of the old intel driver, Beignet, and presto:

Code: Select all

J5005-iTX
20-5-2020 14:19:40	Starting BOINC client version 7.9.3 for x86_64-pc-linux-gnu	
20-5-2020 14:19:40	log flags: file_xfer, sched_ops, task	
20-5-2020 14:19:40	Libraries: libcurl/7.58.0 OpenSSL/1.1.1 zlib/1.2.11 libidn2/2.0.4 libpsl/0.19.1 (+libidn2/2.0.4) nghttp2/1.30.0 librtmp/2.3	
20-5-2020 14:19:40	Data directory: /var/lib/boinc-client	
20-5-2020 14:20:53	OpenCL: Intel GPU 0 (ignored by config): Intel(R) Gen9 HD Graphics NEO (driver version 20.19.16754, device version OpenCL 1.2 NEO, 3277MB, 3277MB available, 115 GFLOPS peak)	
20-5-2020 14:20:53	OpenCL: Intel GPU 1: Intel HD Graphics Family (driver version 1.3, device version OpenCL 2.0 beignet 1.3, 4096MB, 4096MB available, 144 GFLOPS peak)	
20-5-2020 14:20:53	OpenCL CPU: Intel(R) Pentium(R) Silver J5005 CPU @ 1.50GHz (OpenCL driver vendor: Intel(R) Corporation, driver version 18.1.0.0920, device version OpenCL 2.1 (Build 0))	
20-5-2020 14:20:59	[libc detection] gathered: 2.27, Ubuntu GLIBC 2.27-3ubuntu1	
20-5-2020 14:20:59	Host name: Asrock-J5005-iTX	
20-5-2020 14:20:59	Processor: 4 GenuineIntel Intel(R) Pentium(R) Silver J5005 CPU @ 1.50GHz [Family 6 Model 122 Stepping 1]	
20-5-2020 14:20:59	Processor features: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx pdpe1gb rdtscp lm constant_tsc art arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good nopl xtopology nonstop_tsc cpuid aperf	
20-5-2020 14:20:59	OS: Linux LinuxMint: Linux Mint 19.3 Tricia [5.3.0-53-generic|libc 2.27 (Ubuntu GLIBC 2.27-3ubuntu1)]	
20-5-2020 14:20:59	Memory: 15.05 GB physical, 15.43 GB virtual	
20-5-2020 14:20:59	Disk: 314.28 GB total, 147.37 GB free	
20-5-2020 14:20:59	Local time is UTC +2 hours	
20-5-2020 14:20:59	VirtualBox version: 5.2.34_Ubuntur133883	

As the system is already swamped with one running GPU doing Collatz, I leave it be for the moment. If and when Seti and/or Seti beta come back to life, I'll experiment some more.

[scole of TSBT]

Know anything about this? Can't find a price anywhere...
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/axiom ... spberry-pi

[Dirk Broer]

Know anything about this? Can't find a price anywhere...
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/axiom ... spberry-pi

Article closes with "You can order the CAPA13R from the Axiomtek website now for an undisclosed price"...
But my guess is about 200-300 US$
This is a competitor, for a likewise price.

[Dirk Broer]

The various models AMD/Ati 'budget cards' compared:

This needed some updating
AMD/Ati 'budget cards' compared

Model	Video Chip	Shaders	GFLOP SP	GFLOP DP	TBP in Watt
HD 4770	RV740	640	960	192	80
HD 5770/6770	Juniper XT	800	1360	none	108
HD 7770	Cape Verde XT	640	1280	80	80
HD 7790	Bonaire XT	896	1792	128	85
R7 260	Bonaire	768	1536	96	95
R7 360	Tobago	768	1613	101	100
RX 460	Baffin	896	2150	122	75
RX 560	Baffin	1024	2611	163	80
RX 5600	Navi 10 XE	2048	6390	400	150
RX 5600 XT	Navi 10 XLE	2304	8066	504	160

[Dirk Broer]

Can we get even more 'budget'? Yes, we can!

Another update, and I decided to separate GPUs and IGPs
Lesser ' budget' AMD GPUs

Model	Video Chip	Video Speed MHz	RAM Speed MHz	RAM Bandwidth GB/s	Shaders	SM/CU count	GFLOP SP	GFLOP DP	TBP in Watt
HD 4350	RV710	600	400	6.40	80	1	96	none	20
HD 5450	Cedar Pro	650	400	6.40	80	2	104	none	19
HD 6450	Caicos	625	800	25.60	160	2	200	none	18
HD 7450	Caimour	750	800	12.80	160	2	240	none	18
R5 230	Caicos Pro	625	667	10.67	160	2	200	none	19
R5 330	Hainan	855	900	14.40	320	5	547.2	34.20	50
R5 430	Oland Pro	780	1150	36.80	384	6	599	37.44	50
RX 550	Lexa PRO	1100	1750	112.0	512	8	1,211	75.71	50
RX 5300	Navi 14 XE	1448	1750	168.0	1408	22	4,632	289.5	100
RX 6400	Navi 24 XL	2039	2000	128.0	768	12	3,565	222.8	53

These are, most of the times, the very lowest that AMD could field in that generation. Cheap in both purchase and electricity bill afterwards -but zilch performance, especially in the older models. From the RX 6400 model up they become interesting though, for the 24/7/365 cruncher...

'Budget' AMD IGPs

Model	Video Chip	Video Speed MHz	RAM Speed MHz	RAM Bandwidth GB/s	Shaders	SM/CU count	GFLOP SP	GFLOP DP	TBP in Watt
A8-3870K	Sumo*	600	System	System	400	5	480	none	100*
A10-5800K	Devastator*	800	System	System	384	6	614	yes	100*
A10-6800K	Devastator*	844	System	System	384	6	648	yes	100*
A12-7890K	R7*	866	System	System	512	8	886	46	95*
A12-9800G	R7*	1108	System	System	512	8	1,135	59	65*
R5 2400G	RX Vega 11*	1240	System	System	704	11	1,760	109	65*
R5 3400G	RX Vega 11*	1400	System	System	704	11	1,971	123	65*
R7 4700G	RX Vega 8*	2100	System	System	512	8	2,150	134	65*
R7 5700G	RX Vega 8*	2100	System	System	512	8	2,048	128	65*

'budget', because it is the top model IGP, in the most expensive APU of its generation.
*=IGP, runs along for free with your CPU -which runs anyway while crunching, cheapskate!

[Dirk Broer]

Edited and updated version above/below, depending on your settings