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PrimeGrid Summer Solstice Challenge - keeping cool

Ken g6

Ken g6

Programming Moderator, Elite Member
Moderator
So, PrimeGrid's next challenge is a one-day CW Sieve race on June 20. I don't have time to post much about the race now, but I wanted to post something about it, and to mention something about the best ways to run it.

The CW Sieve can be run on CPUs, but it's most effectively run on nVIDIA GPUs. Being that this is the summer solstice challenge, this may provide a challenge for those of us in the northern hemisphere, because of the heat output from GPUs.So here are some tips for minimizing heat output during the race:

1. Underclock your GPU memory, and undervolt it if you can. GPU memory speed has little effect CW Sieve on GTX 2XX and older GPUs, and none at all on Fermis, due to their cache.
2. Given the choice between CPU work and GPU work, aim for GPU work. In your PrimeGrid preferences, you can uncheck the checkbox to do CPU work in one of your profiles, while leaving the nVIDIA checkbox checked. Apply that profile to any machines with GPUs where heat is an issue.

And finally, remember, it's only a one-day race. 😉
 
Last edited:
I'll be racing.
Although I am not at home and I will have to start Primegrid with these tasks a day or two before the race ...
I will not be around to do any stats ... 🙁
 
When race time rolls around, you could set your preferences to receive RPS WUs and to buffer 10 days of work, update your client with the SoB WUs, and see if you get any RPS WUs. 155 hours < 240 hours, so you ought to. If you do, you could then suspend the SoB work.
 
Three-hour stats:
Rank___Credits____Username
23_____80539______petrusbroder
129____16399______Ken_g6
159____10568______Robert Everly
181____7288_______kimmyl
188____6195_______GLeeM
198____4737_______Rudy Toody
276____364________filibusterman

Rank__Credits____Team
15____161078_____BOINCstats
16____152331_____Ukraine
17____143585_____BOINC@AUSTRALIA
18____126092_____TeAm AnandTech
19____97667______UK BOINC Team
20____95116______Aggie The Pew
21____92565______Team Starfire World BOINC

Apparently we don't have a lot of heavy-hitters with nVIDIA GPUs. 🙁
 
Ken g6 said:
Apparently we don't have a lot of heavy-hitters with nVIDIA GPUs. 🙁
Click to expand...

Not here. 🙁 Just a GTX260 and a very tired gt9500. :'(

Not to sidetrack too much, but the most important factor in cuda crunching is the number of stream processors correct? Would be nice if there was some benchmarks somewhere that compares cuda crunch times.
 
Stats update: 2011 06 20:

TeAm member stats:
Rank ___ Name _________________________ credits
________________________________________________
0023 ____ petrusbroder ______________ 121 355.30
0130 ____ Ken_g6 _____________________ 27 332.27
0169 ____ Robert Everly ______________ 14 577.21
0182 ____ kimmyl _____________________ 11 661.77
0196 ____ GLeeM ______________________ 10 204.05
0212 ____ Rudy Toody __________________ 7 288.61
0227 ____ biodoc ______________________ 5 466.45
0275 ____ rabrittain __________________ 1 457.72
0315 ____ Filibusterman _________________ 364.43

324 racers were crunching ...

Team-stats:
14 ____ BOINCstats __________________ 273 322.74
15 ____ BOINC@Poland ________________ 270 407.29
16 ____ Ukraine _____________________ 264 211.98
17 ____ BOINC@Australia _____________ 219 387.05
18 ____ TeAm AnandTech ______________ 198 614.52
19 ____ UK BOINC Team _______________ 173 833.26
20 ____ Russia ______________________ 156 705.04
21 ____ Aggie The Pew _______________ 147 229.85

61 teams are taking part in the race.

I will probably have the time to do the morning stats in about 6 hours, but then I am leaving for my vacation and will not have the time to do any more stats.
Race well, and add more GPUs! 😉
 
RobertE said:
Not to sidetrack too much, but the most important factor in cuda crunching is the number of stream processors correct? Would be nice if there was some benchmarks somewhere that compares cuda crunch times.
Click to expand...
It varies, but for current PrimeGrid apps, what matters is stream processors times MHz. Architecture also matters - Fermi cores are faster than older cores.

See also here for a benchmarking thread. 🙂
 
Ken g6 said:
It varies, but for current PrimeGrid apps, what matters is stream processors times MHz. Architecture also matters - Fermi cores are faster than older cores.

See also here for a benchmarking thread. 🙂
Click to expand...

Thanks for pointing towards that thread. I had thought I seen something before, that must have been it. Going back through it though, there doesn't seem to be much with the 5xx line. Lots of stuff scatter throughout as well. Would be nice to have a simple little graph. 🙂
 
6:00 stats (a.k.a. the last stats where I'm going to be ahead of BioDoc 😉):

Rank___Credits____Username
24_____175655_____petrusbroder
134____42273______Ken_g6
137____41180______biodoc
176____23687______Robert Everly
187____19314______kimmyl
199____16399______GLeeM
229____10932______Rudy Toody
293____2915_______rabrittain
310____1822_______filibusterman

Rank__Credits____Team
15____420188_____Ukraine
16____405610_____BOINC@Poland
17____343657_____BOINC@AUSTRALIA
18____333818_____TeAm AnandTech
19____279518_____Russia
20____249634_____UK BOINC Team
21____221209_____Aggie The Pew

We're so close to catching Australia.
 
Stats update: 2011 06 21, 03:45:23:

TeAm member stats:
Rank ____ Name ________________________ credits
________________________________________________
0023 ____ petrusbroder ______________ 284 620.08
0085 ____ biodoc ____________________ 119 168.71
0172 ____ Ken_g6 _____________________ 43 367.21
0177 ____ kimmyl _____________________ 40 816.20
0188 ____ Robert Everly ______________ 36 443.03
0214 ____ GLeeM ______________________ 25 510.12
0244 ____ Rudy Toody _________________ 16 763.79
0291 ____ Filibusterman _______________ 8 017.47
0301 ____ rabrittain __________________ 6 924.18

489 racers were crunching ...

Team-stats:
13 ____ Ukraine _____________________ 731 411.64
14 ____ BOINC@MIXI __________________ 728 496.20
15 ____ Crunching Family ____________ 722 665.32
16 ____ BOINC@Poland ________________ 673 831.65
17 ____ BOINC@Australia _____________ 588 919.39
18 ____ TeAm AnandTech ______________ 580 537.49
20 ____ UK BOINC Team _______________ 415 450.56
19 ____ Russia ______________________ 531 703.83
21 ____ Team Starfire World BOINC ___ 365 888.04

84 teams are taking part in the race.
 
sorry guys I tried to update and nothing was requested. My time to completion is still hovering around the same 155 hours despite the couple extra days of computation. Right now I'm 88 hours in and only 40&#37; done. 😱
 
Thanks for the stats! I was a little late bringing the GeForce 9800 GT that Rudy got for me online. I put Debian 64 on the machine, but I couldn't figure out how to install the cuda drivers. I screwed the system up trying, so I decided to put the re-install off for a day or so and use WinXP Pro installation (dual boot) to go ahead and put the card in the race. I look forward to being able to use the Debian on future races though. It's too bad that normal people can't experience this kind of fun!
 
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