Milkyway@Home 5870 GPU questions

[Sunny129]

i just installed my 5870 and have been trying to test it out w/ some MW@H WU's. initially i had problems getting BOINC to recognize the 5870. my goal was to run the display with the onboard HD 3300 video, and let the 5870 do nothing but crunching, thus avoiding any GUI lag. but for some reason BIONC wouldn't recognize the 5870 while the 3300 was set to be the primary GPU...even with the 5870 connected to the DVI port on the monitor (and the onboard video connected to the VGA port). i can't use the dummy plug trick b/c all the DVI-VGA adapters i have won't fit/plug into the miniDP-to-DVI adapter that in turn connects to any 1 of the 6 miniDP jacks on my 5870 . i thought the pin-outs on all DVI connectors were the same up until now...what a rude awakening lol.

the DVI end of the mini DisplayPort-to-DVI connectors that came with my 5870 look like this:

...but i have to order one whose DVI end looks like this:

...because all of my DVI-VGA adapters look like this:

...long story short, my DVI-VGA adapters won't fit the mini DisplayPort-to-DVI converter due to the 4 extra pins surrounding the flat piece inside the DVI end of the DVI-VGA adapter. i'm hoping that this will allow me to run the 5870 as the secondary GPU and the integrated as the primary GPU, b/c it would let me do it by way of connecting both cards to the same display (one by DVI and the other by VGA). but i already have my doubts b/c the mini DisplayPort-to-DVI converter i need can only connect to DVI-to-DVI or DVI-to-HDMI cables & adapters, but not DVI-to-VGA, according to monoprice.com. i'm starting to think that the dummy plug trick is impossible to do with a video card that only has mini DisplayPort jacks on it :thumbsdown:...i hope i'm wrong about this. can anyone confirm or deny this? i could really use some advice here...*EDIT* - i found a solution - they make mini DisplayPort-to-VGA converters, which should work every bit as well as a dummy plug as the typical DVI-to-VGA adapter. i'll get one and let you all know how it goes...

at any rate, i ended up having to do exactly what i didn't want to do in the mean time - make the 5870 the primary GPU and have it run the display AND run MW@H . but at least this gave me a glimmer of hope b/c BOINC finally recognized the 5870...and just as one problem goes away, another takes its place. BOINC downloaded 32 MW@H GPU WU's, but since then they've all been sitting there "ready to start." at one point i walked away from the computer to have dinner. when i came back, 1 of those 32 tasks was approx. 50% done, with 45 sec. down and 45 to go, and "waiting to run (0.05 CPUs + 1.00 ATI GPUs)." an hour later (maybe longer), i noticed the GUI lag pick up severely, so i knew the video card had gone back to work on a MW@H task. sure enough, the GUI lag went away not quite a minute later as the WU finished. so my question is, why is my GPU usage at 0% with 30+ MW@H GPU tasks in the que? and why is 1 of those tasks "waiting to run" at any given time when the GPU isn't busy doing anything else? shouldn't my GPU be busy all the time with this much work in the que? bottom line, what can i do to get my 5870 to crunch more that 45 seconds at a time ever hour or so?

TIA,
Eric

 

[Rudy Toody]

Have you looked at the settings in Catalyst? It might have a setting for discrete video for the card to let you use on-board video for the display.

 

[Sunny129]

Have you looked at the settings in Catalyst? It might have a setting for discrete video for the card to let you use on-board video for the display.

Unfortunately I've been unable to open catalyst conmtrol center ever since I installed the 5870 and the associated software. I think I have a software conflict between my onboard video drivers/utilities and my 5870's drivers/utilities. I won't get to address the issue again until I get home from work this afternoon. Actually CCC.exe does execute, as I can see it running in windows task manager, but I cannot get it to show up on my desktop or the tool bar at the bottom of the desktop. So its running, but inaccessible...ill work on it tonight and let you know what happens.

 

[Freewolf]

You might want to check your preferences
Mine look like this

Suspend work while computer is on battery power?
Matters only for portable computers yes
Suspend work while computer is in use? no
Suspend GPU work while computer is in use?
Enforced by version 6.6.21+ yes
'In use' means mouse/keyboard activity in last 3 minutes
Suspend work if no mouse/keyboard activity in last
Needed to enter low-power mode on some computers --- minutes
Suspend work when non-BOINC CPU usage is above
0 means no restriction
Enforced by version 6.10.30+ 25%
Do work only between the hours of
No restriction if equal ---
Leave tasks in memory while suspended?
Suspended tasks will consume swap space if 'yes' no
Switch between tasks every
Recommended: 60 minutes 60 minutes
On multiprocessors, use at most 16 processors
On multiprocessors, use at most
Enforced by version 6.1+ 100% of the processors
Use at most
Can be used to reduce CPU heat 100% of CPU time

 

[Sunny129]

bottom line, what can i do to get my 5870 to crunch more that 45 seconds at a time ever hour or so?

TIA,
Eric

ok, so i solved this problem as well (with a little help from someone on the MW@H forums). it turns out that while i made all the appropriate changes to my account settings at the MW@H website, i forgot to change the corresponding settings in the BOINC client itself. specifically, i did not have the "use GPU while computer is in use" checked. i keep forgetting that changing any settings online doesn't always automatically change the settings in the BOINC client itself. i had a feeling it would come down to something really simple and stupid LOL. needless to say, my 5870 is chugging along at ~90% GPU load now.

now the only issues i have to solve is getting the Catalyst Control Center up and running correctly, and getting the integrated video to run as the primary GPU and the 5870 as the secondary. i'll update again laterthis evening with results...

 

[Sunny129]

*UPDATE* - i've made some decent progress, but also encountered new problems...

when i started the thread i was having trouble getting BOINC to recognize the new 5870 when it wasn't set as the primary GPU. after checking off the "use GPU while computer is in use" box in the BOINC client's preferences and performing some subsequent testing, i've since found that having both the 5870 and the integrated video hooked up to the same monitor will work, even when the 5870 is not set to be the primary GPU. i currently have the 5870 connected to the DVI port and the 3300 integrated video connected to the VGA port, and now the 5870 is crunching MW@H tasks at 99% GPU load while the CPU is simultaneously crunching 5 E@H tasks. it was crunching with all 6 cores previously, but i found the computer to be quite laggy with both the CPU and GPU at ~100% load...so i dialed the CPU back to 5 cores for crunching. given that the integrated video is the primary GPU, and given that its not doing any crunching, i have virtually no GUI lag with the CPU at 85% load and the GPU at 100% load. as soon as my mini DisplayPort-to-VGA converter gets here, i'll be able to make a dummy plug out of it, which will allow me to connect the actual display output from the integrated video to the DVI port on the display (instead of using the crappy VGA port as i'm doing at the moment out of necessity).

my new big problem concerns the connectivity of my BOINC client. when i crunch with both the CPU and the GPU, my BOINC client will tend to lose its connection with, well, whatever its connected to every 5 minutes or so. you know how the BOINC tray icon has a little red X over it as it loads tasks back into memory upon startup, and the "Communicating with BOINC Client. Please wait..." dialogue box appears until its finally connected? well my BOINC client is doing this every 3-5 minutes when both the CPU and GPU are crunching simulteneously. i can suspend all CPU tasks and let the GPU run by itself, and BOINC will stay connected. what gives?

then there's also the issue of having to extend the desktop to the 5870 GPU, which i apparently have to do or else the 5870 won't crunch. b/c i don't actually have a 2nd display to run, my mouse doesn't stop at the right edge of the screen - it wanders past the edge of the screen onto the 5870's desktop which i actually don't have a display for. is there any way i can limit my desktop space to the 1600 x 900 area on my single monitor despite the fact that i have to extend the desktop to the 5870 in order to crunch with it?

 

[dajeepster]

what OS, what Version of Boinc are you running, and what version of CCC are you running?

 

[Sunny129]

what OS, what Version of Boinc are you running, and what version of CCC are you running?

Windows XP Pro SP3 (32-bit)
BOINC 6.10.58 (most recent version)
CCC version 2010.0706.2128.36662 (i would imagine it isn't part of the new catalyst 11.2 package that so many folks are having problems with, b/c this version was on the driver disk that came with the card. i.e. i did not dowload and use the most recent drivers from the AMD website)...EDIT - actually i believe this particular CCC is part of the Catalyst 10.7 driver package b/c, according to AMD's driver download site, the catalyst 10.7 package corresponds to my actual current display driver version of 8.753.0.0000

 

[Sunny129]

as soon as my mini DisplayPort-to-VGA converter gets here, i'll be able to make a dummy plug out of it

so i got my miniDP-to-VGA converter on monday and ghetto rigged it with 68 ohm resistors from Radio Shack...and it works like a charm. it would have been nice to have been able to just use a standard DVI-to-VGA adapter...i would have saved $17. anyways here's what i had to get to accommodate my video card:

...so now that the DVI port on my monitor is free from the 5870 GPU, i've got the integrated GPU connected to it instead of the VGA port.

my new big problem concerns the connectivity of my BOINC client. when i crunch with both the CPU and the GPU, my BOINC client will tend to lose its connection with, well, whatever its connected to every 5 minutes or so. you know how the BOINC tray icon has a little red X over it as it loads tasks back into memory upon startup, and the "Communicating with BOINC Client. Please wait..." dialogue box appears until its finally connected? well my BOINC client is doing this every 3-5 minutes when both the CPU and GPU are crunching simulteneously. i can suspend all CPU tasks and let the GPU run by itself, and BOINC will stay connected. what gives?

i should elaborate on this a bit more. when i say that BOINC "loses its connection," all the tabs go black - that is, if i were to have been looking at my tasks when it happened, the list of tasks would have disappeared and not have come back until BOINC was reconnected. if i were to have been looking at my projects tab when it happened, the same thing would have happened to the projects list. likewise if i were to have been looking at the messages tab, all messages would have disappeared and, upon BOINC reconnecting, start-up dialogue would have appeared in the messages tab as if BOINC had literally been terminated and restarted. i should also note that upon suspending into this "disconnected" state, BOINC stops all CPU tasks stop completely (as witnessed by the CPU load dropping to 0% or thereabouts), while all GPU activity tends to cease about 30 seconds later.

again, i don't get this problem while i run CPU tasks and not GPU tasks, or vice versa (running GPU tasks and not CPU tasks) - its only when i run CPU & GPU tasks simultaneously.