Dual F@H SMP Clients in Windows

[goobee]

I'm considering putting together a dual Xeon e5410 8 core box. I assume to run dual SMP clients, all I need to do is install it twice into different directories? Thanks.

 

[GLeeM]

That should about do it!

If you have any problems, just post here and the experts will help

TeAm 198 :thumbsup:

Oh and there is a program called Affinity Changer that might help get better points per day when running two SMPs on Intel procs.

 

[Insidious]

With 8 cores, you can run 4 instances. Use the affinity changer...

that thing will be a beast!

-Sid

 

[goobee]

Won't running 2 instances per 4 cores slow the overall performance of each client down? I'd hate to miss deadlines.

 

[GLeeM]

It will lengthen time to finish each WU, but with Affinity Changer, at least on Quads, it gives like more than 30% increase in ppd. YMMV with two quads.

 

[Insidious]

Originally posted by: goobee
Won't running 2 instances per 4 cores slow the overall performance of each client down? I'd hate to miss deadlines.

The deadline is on the order of 4 days.
Your machine shouldn't have any issue finishing in that amount of time.
(with two instances on a quad, it takes 19 hours. I can't imagine 4 on two quads will be in jeopardy of missing a deadline.)

-Sid

PS: Remember it is your machine... crunch the way YOU like to. :thumbsup:

 

[goobee]

Interesting. I'll give it a go with my existing duallie dual core (4 cores) Opteron boxes. I have an Opteron 270 and Opteron 885 (same as 285).

 

[GLeeM]

Originally posted by: goobee
Interesting. I'll give it a go with my existing duallie dual core (4 cores) Opteron boxes. I have an Opteron 270 and Opteron 885 (same as 285).

Hey Sid (or anybody) help out here. I don't think Affinity Changer helps on AMD?

 

[Insidious]

It won't help any system with less than 4 processors.

I don't know how it behaves on a system with dual, X2s or Opterons

It's a rather easy thing to test for a person that has one of these systems. How about ending all the speculation and theoretical debate....

Will the people with these systems please try it and tell us how it does?

-Sid

 

[goobee]

I've started running 2 SMP clients directly on my dual Opty 885 box (2.6ghz).

The same WU it was working on before I installed the second client was averaging 14 minutes per frame is now averaging 30 minutes per frame. It seems to have doubled with the addition of the second client.

I'll let this run a few days and see how it does with various WUs. Then I'll give Affinity Changer a go and see if it improves frame times.

 

[goobee]

What the hell, I went a head and installed Affinity Changer. It reduced the times from 30 to 23 minutes per frame.

So it appears it does help Opterons too.

 

[Insidious]

Great news Goobee!

I think people were having a hard time with the difference between a dual core AMD and dual, dual core AMDs

If anything does go wierd, please let us know. Until then........

Go baby GO!

-Sid

 

[goobee]

OK, I pulled the trigger and ordered the goods:

Tyan S5375 mobo
2 x Xeon e5430
4 x 1gbs ecc/reg ram

Had to dip into the credit card as my piggy bank didn't have enough in it. :shocked:

Let's see what 4 SMP clients will do with Affinty Changer installed.

 

[Insidious]

Originally posted by: goobee
OK, I pulled the trigger and ordered the goods:

Tyan S5375 mobo
2 x Xeon e5430
4 x 1gbs ecc/reg ram

Had to dip into the credit card as my piggy bank didn't have enough in it. :shocked:

Let's see what 4 SMP clients will do with Affinty Changer installed.

LOL

A BEAST!

:thumbsup:

 

[goobee]

Hmm? I finally got the above-referenced box put together but I'm getting awfully slow frame rates.

Click Here!

I have Affinity Changer installed and it shows up in Task Manager.

Anyone have any ideas?

 

[Assimilator1]

What clock speed is a Xeon e5430 ?

 

[goobee]

2.66ghz. It's one of the new Penryns running at 1333 fsb.

 

[GLeeM]

Looks like a little over 2500 PPD.

 

[Insidious]

something isn't right. That's barely over half of what I am getting from a Quad with two SMPs running (and the affinity changer)

I would look for something else that is running and competing for CPU resources. I also don't know if the affinity changer is set up to work for 8 cores.

I think the first thing I'd do after checking what else is running is try stopping the affinity changer service (RUN -> services.msc) and see what your PPD is that way.

Also, is your PC set up to allow CPU throttling for energy conservation? It might not be running at max speed. Check your windows power settings and your settings in the BIOS of your motherboard.

-Sid

 

[biodoc]

Just out of curiosity, what frame rates do you see with just 2 x smp without affinity changer?

 

[goobee]

Insidious, you might be right. Affinity Changer shows up in Task Manager but doesn't seem to be doing anything (ie: 0% activity)

biodoc, I've been running 2 clients for about a hour now, it's doing ~10 minutes per frame w/ Affintiy Changer installed.

 

[Insidious]

10 minutes a frame is.. (edit) OOPS edited now that I read your post right...

That doesn't sound unreasonable for two clients on a quad. But if you have eight cores, I don't understand why it was so slow with 4 SMPs running

-Sid

(edit: the affinity changer doesn't run all the time... it only checks and adjusts every 10 minutes or so IIRC)

 

[goobee]

Interesting. I uninstalled Affinity Changer, rebooted and ran 2 clients. Doing ~10 minutes per frame. It does seem Affinity Changer is not working, eh?

 

[Insidious]

If you run two clients, that would create eight instances of fahcore_a1.exe. You have eight cores, so you automatically have only one thread per core. Nothing affinity changer can do to make that any better.

You should be able to run two more instances of SMP and see your time per frame increase from ~10 minutes with two clients to ~16 or 17 with four. IF the affinity changer works the same with 8 cores as it does with 4.

-Sid

 

[goobee]

Big bummer, I tried turning the other 2 clients on and got "core communication errors" and lost the progress on the WUs.