PrimeGrid Challenges 2019

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Ken g6

Programming Moderator, Elite Member
Moderator
Dec 11, 1999
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Current challenge: Prime Sierpinski Problem (PSP) LLR, December 12-21 (04:19 UTC)

Happy new year! Here's the (tentative) list of this year's PrimeGrid challenges:

Code:
#  Date             Time UTC  Project  Duration  Challenge
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1   7-22 January    05:43:00  SoB-LLR  15 days   Conjunction of Venus & Jupiter Challenge
2   5-10 March      18:00:00  GCW-LLR  5 days    Year of the Pig(ging out on our CPU cycles :P) Challenge
3  24-31 May        00:00:00  TRP-LLR  7 days    Hans Ivar Riesel's 90th Birthday Challenge
4  15-20 July       20:17:00  PPS-LLR  5 days    50th Anniversary of the Moon Landing Challenge
5   3-10 August     00:00:00  ESP-LLR  7 days    Lennart Vogel Honorary Challenge
6  21-26 September  11:00:00  AP27     5 days    Oktoberfest Challenge
7  10-15 October    18:00:00  PPS-DIV  5 days    World Maths Day Challenge
8  24-29 October    00:00:00  321-LLR  5 days    50 years First ARPANET Connection Challenge
9   1-11 November   18:04:00  PSP-LLR  10 days   Transit of Mercury Across the Sun Challenge
10 12-22 December   04:19:00  GFN-21+  10 days   Aussie, Aussie, Aussie! Oi! Oi! Oi! Summer Solstice Challenge

What you need:
  • One or more fast x86 processors, preferably with lots of cores. (Even slow ones might do!)
  • Windows (Vista or later 64-bit, or XP or later 32-bit), Linux, or MacOS 10.4+.
  • BOINC, attached to PrimeGrid (http://www.primegrid.com/).
  • Your PrimeGrid Preferences with only the above project(s) selected in the Projects section.
  • Patience! All of these projects run long, slow WUs, at least on your CPU. As a result, no challenge is less than five days long. :eek:

What may help LLR (all but two of the challenges):
  • An Intel Sandy Bridge or later ("Core series" other than first-generation) processor with AVX may be 20-70% faster than with the default application. Sadly, that does not include Pentium or Celeron processors, or AMD processors.
  • In most challenges - probably all of these since their WUs are so large - it helps to enable multi-core processing with app_config.xml. Leave hyper-threading on if you do this!
  • Faster RAM might help on many challenges, as long as it's stable.
What may help in other challenges:
  • A GPU helps in two challenges.
  • Juggling in some extra WUs may help in challenges where you run more than one WU on the CPU at a time. (Or, switching to use all cores on one WU at the end may work equally well.)
  • Turning on hyper-threading may help.

What won't help (but won't hurt either):
  • A large amount of RAM.
  • Any Android devices.

What won't help (and will hurt, sort of):
  • Unstable processors. (Invalid work will be deducted! :eek: If Prime95 worked recently on your processor, it should be stable.)
  • Work not downloaded anduploaded within the challenge. (It's not counted.) Should you not be able to be in front of one or more computers at that time, there are several options:
    • You can often set BOINC's network connection preferences to wait until a minute or two after challenge time.
    • And for short work units, you can just set the queue level very low (0.01 days). This also makes it more likely that you will be a prime finder rather than a double-checker. But you might want to raise their queue size after the challenge is underway.

Welcome and good luck to all! :)

P.S. If no one has posted stats lately, try tracking your stats with my user script. With that installed, visit the current challenge's Team stats link for TeAm stats.
 
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Howdy

Senior member
Nov 12, 2017
572
480
136
these PSP WUs are so long
That's an understatement..............watching paint dry is more entertaining!!

Then again a quote from the thread shows this:

"4255 tasks have been returned so far. That's over 1400 per day. Normal is less than 100 per day."
 
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Ken g6

Programming Moderator, Elite Member
Moderator
Dec 11, 1999
16,251
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Day 4 stats:

Rank___Credits____Username
37_____1212201____Howdy
40_____1096365____crashtech
46_____934214_____Ken_g6
78_____497067_____biodoc
82_____476362_____VirtualLarry
118____258868_____Orange Kid
186____99351______SlangNRox
209____81457______zzuupp
246____33150___10esseeTony

Rank__Credits____Team
8_____6045240____BOINC@MIXI
9_____4936182____AMD Users
10____4891087____Storm
11____4689038____TeAm AnandTech
12____4060846____Rechenkraft.net
13____3770351____Antarctic Crunchers
14____3172836____Team 2ch

Some tech crashed by me. ;) I blame problems with Amicable Numbers.

Anyway, we're moving up. :)
 

SlangNRox1

Junior Member
Oct 14, 2019
4
8
81
Looks like I completed a couple of wu without even knowing there was a race. Now I unchecked the other pg projects so i should have a more completed. Just realized there was a race yesterday when I checked this thread
 
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Ken g6

Programming Moderator, Elite Member
Moderator
Dec 11, 1999
16,251
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Day 5 (only half way?!) stats:

Rank___Credits____Username
37_____1622797____crashtech
39_____1560788____Howdy
43_____1300837____Ken_g6
86_____557509_____biodoc
95_____476362_____VirtualLarry
112____373805_____Orange Kid
163____187446_____SlangNRox
169____181393_____zzuupp
268____33150___10esseeTony

Rank__Credits____Team
7_____8841403____Crunching@EVGA
8_____7634511____BOINC@MIXI
9_____6550923____Storm
10____6294092____TeAm AnandTech
11____6077349____AMD Users
12____5543511____Rechenkraft.net
13____4883028____Antarctic Crunchers

Despite all the clouds I'm using we still haven't passed the Storm. ;) But we both passed AMD.
 

Ken g6

Programming Moderator, Elite Member
Moderator
Dec 11, 1999
16,251
3,846
75
Day 6 stats:

Rank___Credits____Username
27_____2369396____crashtech
39_____1921016____Howdy
45_____1550852____Ken_g6
87_____669224_____VirtualLarry
98_____557509_____biodoc
113____465853_____Orange Kid
176____214966_____SlangNRox
193____181393_____zzuupp
285____33150___10esseeTony

Rank__Credits____Team
7_____10685556___Crunching@EVGA
8_____9321780____BOINC@MIXI
9_____8110347____AMD Users
10____7963364____TeAm AnandTech
11____7876787____Storm
12____6796044____Rechenkraft.net
13____6018563____Antarctic Crunchers

Well, this is different. Storm and AMD Users switched places around us.
 

Ken g6

Programming Moderator, Elite Member
Moderator
Dec 11, 1999
16,251
3,846
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Day 7 stats:

Rank___Credits____Username
28_____2963291____crashtech
40_____2325008____Howdy
45_____1929661____Ken_g6
82_____870507_____VirtualLarry
105____593916_____Orange Kid
113____557509_____biodoc
185____248521_____SlangNRox
188____242407_____zzuupp
308____33150___10esseeTony

Rank__Credits____Team
7_____13062151___Crunching@EVGA
8_____10864959___BOINC@MIXI
9_____10750329___AMD Users
10____9763973____TeAm AnandTech
11____9477575____Storm
12____8767492____Rechenkraft.net
13____7234893____Antarctic Crunchers

I guess AMD picked up some steam.

chart.png

We could probably use some help staying ahead of the Storm too.
 

Howdy

Senior member
Nov 12, 2017
572
480
136
@Ken g6 I think someone either slowed my machines down or your clouds became a severe storm!!:) Your getting too close!!! I do believe though that the "help" is occupied elsewhere right now "building" up things.
 

Ken g6

Programming Moderator, Elite Member
Moderator
Dec 11, 1999
16,251
3,846
75
Day 8 stats:

Rank___Credits____Username
28_____3525384____crashtech
38_____2707406____Howdy
46_____2204976____Ken_g6
85_____970188_____VirtualLarry
96_____810951_____Orange Kid
123____557509_____biodoc
166____342349_____SlangNRox
178____303581_____zzuupp
325____33150___10esseeTony

Rank__Credits____Team
7_____15313382___Crunching@EVGA
8_____13350193___AMD Users
9_____12554262___BOINC@MIXI
10____11455498___TeAm AnandTech
11____11363826___Storm
12____10042973___Rechenkraft.net
13____8331730____Antarctic Crunchers

@Ken g6 I think someone either slowed my machines down or your clouds became a severe storm!!:) Your getting too close!!!
When the FB sprint ended I put a few local machines on PG. It may have been timing of work completion too. I don't think I'm as close now.

I do believe though that the "help" is occupied elsewhere right now "building" up things.
"The help" better arrive soon - a Storm is coming!
 

Ken g6

Programming Moderator, Elite Member
Moderator
Dec 11, 1999
16,251
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Day 9 stats:

Rank___Credits____Username
28_____3935917____crashtech
40_____3053467____Howdy
47_____2507510____Ken_g6
86_____1036212____VirtualLarry
93_____974695_____Orange Kid
135____557509_____biodoc
171____375130_____SlangNRox
197____303581_____zzuupp
338____33150___10esseeTony

Rank__Credits____Team
8_____16402348___AMD Users
9_____14132996___BOINC@MIXI
10____13837007___Storm
11____12777176___TeAm AnandTech
12____11737278___Rechenkraft.net
13____9618307____Antarctic Crunchers
14____8262301____Team 2ch

Well, we got caught by the Storm.

180190.jpg


(With apologies to aigomorla.)

23 hours to go. You might want to start setting No New Tasks on some machines. Remember to destroy, not just shut down, any cloud instances.
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,369
10,067
126
I just updated my UEFI BIOS on my Asus B450-F ROG STRIX Gaming ATX board, to 2901, which claimed to fix some bugs, and tweak memory OC settings/process.

I wasn't doing anything exhorbitant with memory OC, just setting DOCP and accepting the default of 3600 (my GSKill Trident RGB is rated at 3600, and "for AMD"). I do set FCLK to 1800 too, to match DRAM clock, which has worked thus far.

Anyways, enough beating around the bush, when I got my BIOS update, I simply "Restarted", I didn't follow my normal procedure, I was so excited that there was a BIOS update. (I was hoping that it was an AGESA 1.0.0.4 beta, but I don't think so, there was no mention of a new AGESA version in the BIOS notes.)

Anyways, I simply Restarted, and got an appcrash error from my GPU mining app, and then I flashed the BIOS, without resetting to defaults first. (My CPU is not OC, and my DRAM is set to straight XMP / DOCP settings). I did reset to "Optimized Defaults" AFTER the flash, and then re-setup the AMD NVMe RAID settings, as I am running RAID-0 of Intel 660p 1TB NVMe SSDs.

I got a "Computation error" on one of the PG race WUs in BOINC! My first that I remember seeing, on this rig, since basically nearly since I built it, except perhaps when I wasn't in a race and was trying fixed-clock OCs with this Ryzen R5 3600 CPU that I have in it.

I'm a little bit concerned for the stability of my system. Did my choosing to "Restart" the system, WITHOUT setting BOINC to "Suspend" under Activity, before manually Exiting BOINC, and THEN "Restarting" (*my normal procedure for shutting down BOINC gracefully).

Or is it a more serious issue, that the newer 2901 UEFI revision for my B450-F ROG STRIX is somehow unstable. I did notice that the Vsoc was set to 1.05V instead of 1.1V on "Auto" settings, maybe I should tweak that back up to 1.1V. I think that does affect the memory controller. (Edit: Also, I am running all four DIMM slots filled with identical model DDR4, @ 3600 speeds. Maybe it needs 1.1V Vsoc to drive the memory controller properly for that kind of loading? Haven't had any browser image errors that I can see, which I think I would get if my RAM wasn't running right.)

I haven't had any appcrashes or BSODs since the UEFI update, but I'll keep an eye on it.

It really sucks losing a PG task, like 8-10 hours into it. :(
 

StefanR5R

Elite Member
Dec 10, 2016
5,535
7,875
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I was hoping that it was an AGESA 1.0.0.4 beta, but I don't think so, there was no mention of a new AGESA version in the BIOS notes.
There are AGESA 1.0.0.4B betas emitted by some mainboard makers, and then there is the real AGESA 1.0.0.4B (not beta). According to Ian Cutress, AMD said that users should look out for the latter; especially prospective 3950X users I presume.

I'm a little bit concerned for the stability of my system. Did my choosing to "Restart" the system, WITHOUT setting BOINC to "Suspend" under Activity, before manually Exiting BOINC, and THEN "Restarting" (*my normal procedure for shutting down BOINC gracefully).
I have issued a regular system shutdown occasionally in the middle of an LLR task, and never lost any. But this really depends on the system giving boinc enough time to get all tasks suspended while preparing for the shutdown. Therefore it is indeed safest to shut down boinc before the system is rebooted.

Note, suspending computation or suspending the project or suspending individual tasks only helps in this situation if you switched the option to keep suspended tasks in RAM off earlier.

Or is it a more serious issue,
I don't know. In any case, LLR definitely requires rock-stable RAM timings.
 

Ken g6

Programming Moderator, Elite Member
Moderator
Dec 11, 1999
16,251
3,846
75
Preliminary final stats:

Rank___Credits____Username
30_____4002433____crashtech
37_____3463575____Howdy
48_____2972628____Ken_g6
88_____1195090____VirtualLarry
93_____1099863____Orange Kid
144____557509_____biodoc
170____433160_____SlangNRox
191____369094_____zzuupp
361____33150___10esseeTony

Rank__Credits____Team
9_____16105515___Storm
10____15715259___BOINC@MIXI
11____14365905___Rechenkraft.net
12____14126506___TeAm AnandTech
13____10765199___Antarctic Crunchers
14____9154062____Team 2ch
15____8154297____The Knights Who Say Ni!

Alas, help never arrived. Somewhere the cavalry commander must still be yelling "Chaaaarge!" (What was that movie where they cut to a scene of that through half the movie but they never got there?)

At least I got top 50.
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,369
10,067
126
I woke up this morning (afternoon, really), and my main PC with the 3600 had lost it's internet again, for some reason. (Is this mobo cursed?)

USB ethernet device showed operational in Device Manager, but I unplugged the USB hub it was plugged into and re-plugged it again, and that seemed to have fixed it.

I have some new USB hubs on order as of last night, but they won't be here for a few days.

Yeah, this mobo ate it's own 1GbE onboard NIC, as well as a 10GbE Asus card. Neither is detected at all anymore, and the USB ones seem to be flaky. Sigh. (Maybe I should attempt to RMA this Asus mobo? I think it's been less than a year since I bought it.)

Edit: Oh yeah, one last PG WU was showing "uploading". Sadly, don't think it made it in before the end of the challenge. :(
 

crashtech

Lifer
Jan 4, 2013
10,530
2,116
146
Somehow I never got any notifs for this thread, maybe I should have watched it or even posted in it... Anyway, I think we did alright, considering that WCG is providing some distraction.
 

Howdy

Senior member
Nov 12, 2017
572
480
136
Ut oh!! I show 1 task inconclusive in the last challenge. Which could cost a position for my machines, but thankfully not for the TeAm. Although when I check the DCrs, I think I'm pretty safe. 3 of 4 on the first DCr are invalid, 5 of 15 are invalid on the current DCr, my machine completed 27, all completed and validated, with only 1 inconclusive.
 

lane42

Diamond Member
Sep 3, 2000
5,721
624
126
seems like PG is a little slow. Had little trouble getting to the
site and down loading work.
Edit, seems ok now.
 
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