Folding@Home on a 4870

[Cheex]

Yes, you are all welcome.

And yes, I am feeling pretty damn good right about now. Only problem is that I won't have such good gaming performance when I upgrade my monitor to either 1680x1050 or HOPEFULLY 1920x1200.
I actually ended up with two 4870 1GB cards...a mix-up, long story...2nd one arrives next week.

Anyway, I don't think I can afford to keep both...so I'll have to resell one of them.
In the mean time though, when I get it, I'll be running 4870 1GB CF!!!

BTW: How do you fold with 2 cards?? Do they both just run or you have to set up 2 clients and do some configurations?

 

[VirtualLarry]

You need to set up two clients, and disable crossfire, in order to run.

 

[Cheex]

Thanks Larry. I will be sure to try it when the 2nd card arrives.

What about my PPD??
Is ~3000 good?

 

[Cheex]

I'm having system crashes and I suspect that it is the F@H client. I'm never around the PC when it restarts or crashes or whatever but I just see it rebooted when I get back. Is anyone else having a similar issue?

 

[theAnimal]

I had to back off my overclock a bit when I started running the GPU2 client. (3.14->3.08)

 

[Assimilator1]

Originally posted by: Cheex
I'm having system crashes and I suspect that it is the F@H client. I'm never around the PC when it restarts or crashes or whatever but I just see it rebooted when I get back. Is anyone else having a similar issue?

Can't you setup a log file with a temperature monitoring program?

 

[Cheex]

Originally posted by: Assimilator1

Originally posted by: Cheex
I'm having system crashes and I suspect that it is the F@H client. I'm never around the PC when it restarts or crashes or whatever but I just see it rebooted when I get back. Is anyone else having a similar issue?

Can't you setup a log file with a temperature monitoring program?

i could but i don't think i need to....my fan was set to full 100% the times when it crashed. it is pretty cool in the 50's under F@H load @ 100% fan.

100% is LOUD but i wasn't around the computer so it didn't matter.

 

[Assimilator1]

Errr, I don't get ya , so it was crashing with the fan @100% or setting it to 100% has fixed it??

 

[Cheex]

It was crashing even then with the fan @ 100%.

I THINK I fixed the problem though....not sure yet.
I fold on my GPU and crunch SETI on my CPU.....so....
I set SETI (that sounds weird lol)......anyway....
I set SETI you only use 75% of my CPUs so that the remaining "free" clock cycles go to help the GPU client do whatever it needs the CPU for.
I think they maybe were "fighting" over the CPU....LOL....resulting in the crashes.

I'll run it like this for a while and see what happens.

Wish me luck.

 

[Drsignguy]

Cheex, I think the crashing is probably due to instability and not the clashing between F@H and SETI.

By putting in another card, it just may put your system instable. I did the same thing, and
I had to up my Cpu voltage one click to get it back to stable again. I am leaning towards the "draw" that card has and it effects the droop in voltages. Minor of course, but in some cases it does effect things. Double check Cheex just to make sure.

 

[Assimilator1]

'may make your system unstable'

Cheex
Has it only crashed sinced adding & crunching with the 2nd card?

 

[Cheex]

No no no....I haven't received the 2nd card yet....LOL.

 

[Assimilator1]

Ah ok , maybe the extra heat from the GPU crunching is pushing your o/ced CPU over the edge?
If it's still crashing see what happens if you drop the CPU clock 100MHz.

 

[Cheex]

Well it hasn't crashed since I've made SETI use a bit less CPU...
It seems that the GPU client needed some of the CPU and that is all.

I'm just hoping that is actually solved now.

 

[Drsignguy]

Originally posted by: Cheex
Well it hasn't crashed since I've made SETI use a bit less CPU...
It seems that the GPU client needed some of the CPU and that is all.

I'm just hoping that is actually solved now.

Cheex, how much Cpu does you 4870 use? Just curious. My 3870 uses at least 100% of 1 core to run a client and the Gtx 260 uses maybe 5% -10% of 1 core....A huge differance.

 

[Cheex]

Originally posted by: Drsignguy

Originally posted by: Cheex
Well it hasn't crashed since I've made SETI use a bit less CPU...
It seems that the GPU client needed some of the CPU and that is all.

I'm just hoping that is actually solved now.

Cheex, how much Cpu does you 4870 use? Just curious. My 3870 uses at least 100% of 1 core to run a client and the Gtx 260 uses maybe 5% -10% of 1 core....A huge differance.

Well, after watching it in the Task Manager, my 4870 (FahCore_11.exe) uses between 10% and 20% of the CPU overall.
Affinity is set to both cores so it does its own thing.
SETI is set to use a maximum 75% so as I said, they are not "fighting" over the CPU anymore.

 

[Assimilator1]

Interesting, you wouldn't think that fighting over resources would cause it to crash though...

I'm looking at prices on the 4850 & in just the last 2-3weeks they've gone up £20-£30!

Originally posted by: Drsignguy

Originally posted by: Cheex
Well it hasn't crashed since I've made SETI use a bit less CPU...
It seems that the GPU client needed some of the CPU and that is all.

I'm just hoping that is actually solved now.

Cheex, how much Cpu does you 4870 use? Just curious. My 3870 uses at least 100% of 1 core to run a client and the Gtx 260 uses maybe 5% -10% of 1 core....A huge differance.

Same OS?

 

[Cheex]

Originally posted by: VirtualLarry
You need to set up two clients, and disable crossfire, in order to run.

Okay my second (temporary) card has arrived....how do I setup a 2nd client and get both GPUs to crunch???

 

[videogames101]

Originally posted by: Assimilator1
Interesting, you wouldn't think that fighting over resources would cause it to crash though...

I'm looking at prices on the 4850 & in just the last 2-3weeks they've gone up £20-£30!

Originally posted by: Drsignguy

Originally posted by: Cheex
Well it hasn't crashed since I've made SETI use a bit less CPU...
It seems that the GPU client needed some of the CPU and that is all.

I'm just hoping that is actually solved now.

Cheex, how much Cpu does you 4870 use? Just curious. My 3870 uses at least 100% of 1 core to run a client and the Gtx 260 uses maybe 5% -10% of 1 core....A huge differance.

Same OS?

It uses much less CPU in Vista than in XP.

 

[Drsignguy]

Originally posted by: Assimilator1
Interesting, you wouldn't think that fighting over resources would cause it to crash though...

I'm looking at prices on the 4850 & in just the last 2-3weeks they've gone up £20-£30!

Originally posted by: Drsignguy

Originally posted by: Cheex
Well it hasn't crashed since I've made SETI use a bit less CPU...
It seems that the GPU client needed some of the CPU and that is all.

I'm just hoping that is actually solved now.

Cheex, how much Cpu does you 4870 use? Just curious. My 3870 uses at least 100% of 1 core to run a client and the Gtx 260 uses maybe 5% -10% of 1 core....A huge differance.

Same OS?

Originally posted by: videogames101

It uses much less CPU in Vista than in XP.

Interesting....

3870 is on Xp x64, and GTX 260/216 is on vista x64.

 

[Cheex]

Originally posted by: Cheex

Originally posted by: VirtualLarry
You need to set up two clients, and disable crossfire, in order to run.

Okay my second (temporary) card has arrived....how do I setup a 2nd client and get both GPUs to crunch???

Come on guys....help me out....

I wanna make use of the 2nd card while I still have it. More PPD for the TeAm.

 

[Assimilator1]

I'd love to help but I haven't a clue , other than suggesting trawling the F@H forums.
I've PMed Markfw to see if he can help.

Btw what's your latest ppd scores with the 4850?

 

[Cheex]

Thanks. I'll have to try doing that after I'm finished benchmarking for a new article (check my sig).

I have a 4870 btw....and the PPD (according to FahMon) varies between 2000-3000.
Is that good??

 

[Markfw]

Originally posted by: Cheex

Originally posted by: Cheex

Originally posted by: VirtualLarry
You need to set up two clients, and disable crossfire, in order to run.

Okay my second (temporary) card has arrived....how do I setup a 2nd client and get both GPUs to crunch???

Come on guys....help me out....

I wanna make use of the 2nd card while I still have it. More PPD for the TeAm.

Easy. Copy the folder that your GPU "stuff" is in to a new folder, maybe GPU2 or something.

Then change your shortcut to launch it to add "-gpu 0" to the end of the run line on your existing one.

Then delete client.cfg and the work and queue and unitinfo on the new folder.

Create a new shortcut to launch the new exe in the new folder.

add "-gpu 1 -forcegpu nvidia_g80" (replace with the keyword for ATI, not sure, have to research) to the new shortcut. Below is a quote I found (not tested)

"In step 21, yes, you use -forcegpu nvidia_g80 even if you have a G92 card. The other options you can use are -forcegpu ati_r600 or -forcegpu ati_r700 (for ATi cards obviously). Add -configonly to this command to configure your client. Be sure to add the -forcegpu whatever to the extra command line options."

Then when you run it, and configure, make sure the advanced options is selected, and pick a Machineid that is not in use. If your folding CPU is 1, and your GPU is 2 (defaults I think), then pick 3 for the second card. Just make sure all your client have a different ID.

You are up and running !

 

[Cheex]

Thanks a lot Mark. I will try to get both of them running later...once I finish my Catalyst 8.11 vs 8.12 Performance Mini-Review.