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GPU folding questions

Duvie

Elite Member
1) when my screensaver kicks on no matter if it is a simple winxp one or my picture slide show my units slows down like 5x...I go from 2mins per percentage to 10min per percentage


2) I set up system variable yet my gpu unit is using portions of all 4 cores....If anything it now stays 25% pegged...At first it did just use the cpu core 3 and cpu usage bounced from 22-25% all the time...

3) Even when I was able to get it to use one core....I noticed some simple things like web page browsing would slow me down like 10-15second...burning a DVD did not...perhaps it is anything with graphics (be it a webpage with flash stuff)

4) should I be using any force methods in the shortcut? Ie advmethods? List all of them other nvidia gpu users are using...


I have a 9800GT superclocked on quad QX6700 3.466ghz
 
Are 1gb ram cards better then 512mb cards? I remember back in the day that was true with 256mb x1900 cards and 512mb ones....
 
I use the latest drivers for my nvidia cards as it has signifigently reduced the cpu usage to almost zero. -verbosity 9 -advancemethods are probably the most common. Also, I use -forcegpu nvidia_g80 flag. Now, I think that flag forces the client to use your card no matter what. But if I remember correctly, if it isn't supported, then it might fail if the flag is given. Hopefully someone can chime in on that one.

Also, with the latest drivers, ie; 180.xx, it opens the door for the SMP clients to run more efficiently. Personally, I use 1 smp and dual up on the Gpu clients. I did use 2 Smp's at one time but smp's seem to be much better with 1 and all cores utilized for just that.

As for your screensaver, I would turn that off and have your monitor shut down after a personal preferance. I have tried all that you have mentioned and the only thing you won't really change much is when you use your machine to surf while the clients are running. I will slow it down a bit.

And it does seem the more memory on the cards, the better. 🙂

 
I had Duvie use "-gpu 0 -forcegpu nvidia_g80" to prepare for a second card, and the NV_FAH_CPU_AFFINITY = 0 env variable. I have the same problem on one of my 15 cards (only one, very odd) not even the other card in the same box !!!! If I even have a blank screen for a screen saver, it almost shuts the gpu down, ppd drops from 4200 to 800 !!!!!
 
Originally posted by: Markfw900
I had Duvie use "-gpu 0 -forcegpu nvidia_g80" to prepare for a second card, and the NV_FAH_CPU_AFFINITY = 0 env variable. I have the same problem on one of my 15 cards (only one, very odd) not even the other card in the same box !!!! If I even have a blank screen for a screen saver, it almost shuts the gpu down, ppd drops from 4200 to 800 !!!!![/q]


Good Plan to be prepaired.

On that rig, what OS is that with and what drivers you running? Is it the main card or the secondary card that has this issue? Just seems wierd that this occurs with 1 of 2 cards in the same box. very strange indeed.
 
Win XP 32, 178.34 drivers (the newer drivers don't work with nvidia system tools or rivatuner)

And I have 15 video cards, 7 machines with 2 cards each, and out of all those, this is the only card with that problem ! And it the newest generation of 9800 GTX+, that only has one six pin power plug, and is short like other cards, not a monster like the 260, or my 3 older 9800 GTX+ cards.
 
I got 181.22 driver to work just fine with rivatuner in windows xp x64. As for the nvidia system tools, can not comment on that as I don't have that installed. I am telling you that with the latest drivers, my cpu% is almost zero with the cards at full. This makes my SMP's haul ass. Here is a snapshot of my lastest production. My only Ati card is in the E7200 rig.

Have you tried switching out the card to another rig to see if the same thing happens? Would be interesting to see if it were the card and not the system. I am betting the system has everything to do with it. 🙂
 
Originally posted by: Duvie
1) when my screensaver kicks on no matter if it is a simple winxp one or my picture slide show my units slows down like 5x...I go from 2mins per percentage to 10min per percentage

The same thing will happen with the Uniprocessor client (and probably the SMP).

It is amazing how much CPU a screen saver uses (some are worse than others), at least with older CPUs.
 
Thats right, it does take up the cpu % a lot. Thats another reason I cant stand screensavers. Unless its a work PC and its not mine, then its all good 😛.
 
One more vote for no screen saver. I set my windows for none and just tell it to turn off the monitor (power settings) instead.

-Sid
 
Originally posted by: Insidious
One more vote for no screen saver. I set my windows for none and just tell it to turn off the monitor (power settings) instead.

-Sid

+1...the correct and responsible choice of DCers everywhere.
 
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