Are w/u's taking longer?

Post by **Buster Gunn** » Thu Oct 16, 2008 10:06 pm

Seems my machines have slowed down. Has anyone else slowed down? I haven't changed anything by my RAC is going down.

Ben · Post by **Ben** » Thu Oct 16, 2008 10:46 pm

Maybe the new application has slowed some WU's down? Or maybe it needs a damn good kick

steve · Post by **steve** » Fri Oct 17, 2008 12:21 am

Same here I noticed a drop checking machines found some of them had dropped from 650mhz to 450mhz the factory default is 650mhz and 700mhz ...... It must be the new app will keep checking to find the problem running boic 6.3.10 and win xp64 all my cards are 8800gt's and from various manufactures. Would advise everyone check the clock speed and ram speed

Post by **Buster Gunn** » Fri Oct 17, 2008 2:13 am

all my cards are 8800gt's

Same here. I noticed I'm getting some w/u's with over 20 minutes of cpu time lately compared to 20-30 seconds. Something changed at there end.
At least it will be the same for everyone.

Nightlord · Post by **Nightlord** » Fri Oct 17, 2008 10:49 am

I haven't noticed anything on my systems, in fact my rac continues t slowly climb as a result of the improvements on the GTX series with the Linux app.....but I'll check them later.

I did notice a few weeks ago something strange where my CPU efficiency as recorded by the project was down at 50%. Of course GPUgrid doesn't use much CPU, but the scheduler still gets confused. If it is anything less that high 90's then Boinc thinks the system is in use for something else, even if it isn't - and that maybe due to the new scheduler stuff.

In Boinc 6.3.14 there were some changes to the scheduler I think. Do you have the ncpus+1 work around to use all you CPU cores plus the GPU? If so, it might be something to do with that interacting with the new scheduler.

Ben · Post by **Ben** » Fri Oct 17, 2008 6:36 pm

Hmm interesting. I didn't think PS3 Grid would have the ability to under clock a GPU?

Unless it is just not pressuring it as much, although i find that hard to believe. I will keep an eye out to see if my clock speed has dropped when i do another WU.

***Edit***
Maybe it would be a good idea to reboot the machines every so often? Give the GPU's a few minutes to come off of 100% load. I think steve mentioned something before about using the scheduler to automatically re-boot every X hours? However you would need to setup the pc's so that they would auto login (unless you run BOINC as a service).

steve · Post by **steve** » Sun Oct 19, 2008 3:07 am

it would seem that they released a new app 6.48 on the 16th oct this may be the problem???

Post by **Buster Gunn** » Sun Oct 19, 2008 5:19 am

it would seem that they released a new app 6.48 on the 16th oct this may be the problem???

I don't know what happened but my times are returning to normal. From what I can tell, my problems started on the 14th and ended this AM. I'm staying away from any new Boinc client for now. They all seem flaky at best. Even 6.3.10 is not a gem. I can't control any new app from PS3.

I've read the PS3Grid forum and the admin there seems to shoot from the hip a lot, trying out things on the fly. I think his experimenting is causing most of the problems. I re-booted all my machines and re-installed the BOINC client from scratch along with the latest Cuda drivers this AM.

Whatever was wrong with my machines is now gone. I'll keep a better eye on things.

Ben · Post by **Ben** » Sun Oct 19, 2008 12:05 pm

Buster Gunn wrote:
it would seem that they released a new app 6.48 on the 16th oct this may be the problem???
I don't know what happened but my times are returning to normal. From what I can tell, my problems started on the 14th and ended this AM. I'm staying away from any new Boinc client for now. They all seem flaky at best. Even 6.3.10 is not a gem. I can't control any new app from PS3.

I've read the PS3Grid forum and the admin there seems to shoot from the hip a lot, trying out things on the fly. I think his experimenting is causing most of the problems. I re-booted all my machines and re-installed the BOINC client from scratch along with the latest Cuda drivers this AM.

Whatever was wrong with my machines is now gone. I'll keep a better eye on things.

I agree with you that the BETA clients are not brilliant, as they have been just thrown together because of the fact they hadn't really allowed for GFX cards to be utilised until now. However saying that 6.3.14 seems to be working a treat so far. Maybe it is worth using this version?

Post by **Buster Gunn** » Sun Oct 19, 2008 7:32 pm

Maybe it is worth using this version?

I'll give it a try on 1 machine. Thanks Ben

Ben · Post by **Ben** » Sun Oct 19, 2008 8:17 pm

No problem. The link in case you do not know it:

x86 bit client (recommended if your not sure what version you have) - http://boinc.berkeley.edu/dl/boinc_6.3. ... telx86.exe

x64 bit client - http://boinc.berkeley.edu/dl/boinc_6.3. ... x86_64.exe

Post by **Megacruncher** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 12:55 am

As far as I'm concerned 6.3.10 works fine so I'll not be upgrading unless someone finds some totally new features. If you do let us know!

Post by **Buster Gunn** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 4:07 am

I installed 6.3.14. An hour later the machine was frozen solid.
6.3.10 was reloaded. I'll also wait for a better review on a new client.

Ben · Post by **Ben** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 12:07 pm

It has been running fine for me

No crashs / lockups and seemed better then 6.3.10. Sorry to hear that, i was only going on what i have experienced on this machine. Where you using 2 cards or more in the same machine to run PS3 Grid?

Post by **Buster Gunn** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 5:59 pm

Where you using 2 cards or more in the same machine to run PS3 Grid?

No, just 1 card a 8800gt with only 3 other cores running. The machine is a Q6600 running Vista Ultimate 64 bit. I am really not a big fan of BOINC and there testing procedures on their clients. Until 6 months ago, I was still running 5.10.13 on all my machines. It was the only stable client I ever found.

I'm content to let others find the bugs. I think they spend way too much time trying to solve exotic problems for crunchers who have a unique situation rather than concentrate of the core client. I use the KISS principal most of the time, KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID.

Ben · Post by **Ben** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 9:34 pm

Buster Gunn wrote:
Where you using 2 cards or more in the same machine to run PS3 Grid?
No, just 1 card a 8800gt with only 3 other cores running. The machine is a Q6600 running Vista Ultimate 64 bit. I am really not a big fan of BOINC and there testing procedures on their clients. Until 6 months ago, I was still running 5.10.13 on all my machines. It was the only stable client I ever found.

I'm content to let others find the bugs. I think they spend way too much time trying to solve exotic problems for crunchers who have a unique situation rather than concentrate of the core client. I use the KISS principal most of the time, KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID.

I have pretty much the same setup as you do.
Q6600 quad
8800gt OC
Vista x64 (Home Premium)

But I agree that their testing should perhaps be a more thorough... However they do warn you that it is a BETA client and that these things must be expected. Bit of a pain though!

Post by **ianmbaker2** » Sun Oct 26, 2008 10:18 pm

There have been some more "upgrades" I've noticed on GPUGRID. A week or so ago, it changed from minimal CPU time to taking about 20% of a core.
This evening, I noticed that I have 4 instances of Enigma running, along with my one GPUGrid, with the GPUGrid taking around 7% of one core, and the rst spread out among the 4 Enigma WUs.

Anyone noticed any other changes?

Ian

steve · Post by **steve** » Mon Oct 27, 2008 3:01 am

ianmbaker2 wrote:There have been some more "upgrades" I've noticed on GPUGRID. A week or so ago, it changed from minimal CPU time to taking about 20% of a core.
This evening, I noticed that I have 4 instances of Enigma running, along with my one GPUGrid, with the GPUGrid taking around 7% of one core, and the rst spread out among the 4 Enigma WUs.

Anyone noticed any other changes?

Ian

Same here boinc 6.3.10 now shares the gpu with other project also many many comp- errors Maybe the ps3grid admin are fafing around again...... I do wish they would post a warning.....

Post by **ianmbaker2** » Mon Oct 27, 2008 5:28 pm

I noticed that one of my grid WUs errored out, fortunatelu after only a few seconds. The rest seem to be OK.

On a lighter ( for me) note. I put a new heatsink (Zalman VF1000) on to my 9800GT and the temperature has dropped from 90 DegC to 67 DegC, plus it is running much quieter even with the fan at full speed all the time. It even seems to have reduced my CPU temps by a few degrees. This isn't due to the case being cooler, because I run it with the side off to give my Zalman CPU cooler as much air as possible.

Ian

Post by **Megacruncher** » Mon Oct 27, 2008 11:23 pm

I had a brief alarm when I upgraded to 6.3.17 only to find that I had 1 PS3 WU running, 1 WCG going & 2 cores totally unemployed. I stepped back to 6.3.14 and it was okay again. Today I see that all the quads are running 1 PS3 + 4 others. And I've had no errors myself.

Anyway this is cutting edge stuff so we should tolerate the odd experiment that backfires.

Post by **ianmbaker2** » Tue Oct 28, 2008 12:00 pm

Cutting edge is what makes it fun.

I am still at BOINC 6.3.10, so I can only theorise that any changes have happened in the CPUGrid client.

Ian

Post by **Buster Gunn** » Tue Oct 28, 2008 3:40 pm

Same here boinc 6.3.10 now shares the gpu with other project also many many comp- errors Maybe the ps3grid admin are fafing around again...... I do wish they would post a warning.....

They do seem to have a sense of pizazz at PS3Grid.

I'm still on 6.3.10 also and some of my machines seem to be doing 4 cores + PS3. I have noticed that once in a while, it reverts to 4 cores running with the PS3 waiting. After I suspend/resume the running project , PS3 starts up again. Not too often but it does happen.

Ben · Post by **Ben** » Fri Oct 31, 2008 7:22 pm

The recommended version by PS3 Grid is now 6.3.19, but knowing how they like to jump in and adopt an idea (sometimes very good!) i am not sure myself.

I am currently running 6.3.14 and will report back soon after i download and try 6.3.19

Nightlord · Post by **Nightlord** » Fri Oct 31, 2008 8:17 pm

I've been running 6.3.19 for a couple of days.

It's better than most previous versions, but still has the pre-empting bug. However, this time it's the CPU project that gets pre-empted, leaving the GPU running.

So, not too bad if you want to keep the GPU happy.

Aparently there will be a 6.3.21 available later today.....but it is the weekend and I think it maybe risky

Post by **FlyingfocRS** » Fri Oct 31, 2008 10:10 pm

Aye Mac users are already at 6.3.20
this is all preparatory work for 6.4.1 which will apparantly be biased towards GPU based crunching.
They are fairly rattling through the updates with previous ones barely being tested before another version comes out.

Ben · Post by **Ben** » Sat Nov 01, 2008 1:10 pm

FlyingfocRS wrote:Aye Mac users are already at 6.3.20
this is all preparatory work for 6.4.1 which will apparantly be biased towards GPU based crunching.
They are fairly rattling through the updates with previous ones barely being tested before another version comes out.

Sounds a bit like microsoft

The Scottish Boinc Team

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