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what are GPU crunchers using to monitor GPU usage?

Sunny129

Sunny129

Diamond Member
up until now i've been strictly a CPU cruncher. i use the Windows task manager (the ctrl-alt-del menu) to monitor CPU usage and system memory usage. but i just took delivery of an HD 5870 2GB GPU and have no idea how to monitor GPU usage, GPU memory usage, GPU temp, etc. i have GPU-Z on my computer, but as far as i can tell, it only monitors the GPU core clock and the GPU memory clock. mind you, its currently monitoring an old-as-hell ATI Fire GL T2 GPU, and not my 5870 (i'm on my work PC, and my 5870 is at home and still not installed). perhaps the ATI Fire GL T2 is so antiquated that it doesn't output any more than just core clock and memory clock parameters to utilities like GPU-Z? perhaps i'll see more parameters in GPU-Z once i install the 5870 and start monitoring it instead? or is GPU-Z just not powerful enough software to monitor more than core clock and memory clock, regardless of the GPU used?

i see folks posting all the time in the DC forums about how much of their GPU and GPU memory is being used (in an effort to either increase their crunching efficiency or increase the number of WU's a particular GPU can handle at once), but i'm unclear as to what software folks are using to monitor these things. i searched the forums and got a few hits, but no threads were real clear on what folks were using to monitor such parameters, nor were they clear about what specific parameters were being monitored...any suggestions?

TIA,
Eric
 
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Something like Folding@Home will pretty much use 100% of the GPU if no other application is running.. The only way to increase output with a given GPU is to avoid running other applications..

What serious crunchers will pay attention to, is what GPU does the best job for a given application and weigh such things as price/performance and maybe overclock-ability to some extent..

Here is a fairly recent comparison of the best folders..

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2010/08/05/what-is-the-best-graphics-card-for-folding/3


With that in mind, monitoring GPU usage, serves no real purpose as far as I can tell ..
 
alright - i see that i should have been more specific about what i intend to do with my 5870. first thing's first - i'll be using the 5870 for either Milkyway@Home or SETI@Home Astropulse. there will be absolutely no folding done with this GPU. don't get me wrong - its a great cause, its just not a field of science i'm interested in.

now for simplicity's sake, let's just assume that i'm going to start with S@H AP, and will put MW@H on the back burner until i get S@H AP sorted out. now from what i understand, S@H AP doesn't simply utilize 100% of an ATI GPU, unlike F@H. in fact, i don't even think there is a standard S@H AP ATI GPU application for BOINC - that is, i think the only way to crunch S@H AP with an ATI GPU is via an optimized app that must be downloaded from the S@H Lunatics website. and even then, i believe some BOINC files have to be modified in order to run multiple AP WU's on a single GPU, and thus make the GPU crunch WU's as efficiently as possible. then again, perhaps i'm understanding it all wrong. but in the event that i am understanding correctly, i'd still like some sort of capable GPU monitoring software so that i can actually see what percentage of the GPU core (and/or its streaming processors) is being used while i'm in the testing/experimenting phase. after all, how else do folks calculate - and improve upon - the efficiency/productivity of their GPU crunchers, short of documenting WU crunch times (which could take hours, days, or even weeks)?
 
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Diogenes2 said:
Looks like running Seti on an ATI GPU will be a real challenge.. Good luck ..
Click to expand...
unfortunately, this seems to be the case. actually, from what i've read so far, getting the app up and running isn't that complicated b/c the S@H Lunatics guys have some sort of universal installer now. the trick is improving the crunching efficiency of the GPU once you have it working, and that trick is knowing how to edit and manipulate the appropriate BOINC files...which i'll admit intimidates me somewhat (just like editing the registry does LOL).

at any rate, that's why i'd like some kind of software to monitor specific GPU parameters. quite frankly i don't see how folks know for sure how efficiently their GPU is being utilized by DC apps unless they have a utility that reads parameters (such as GPU core/streaming processor usage, GPU memory usage, etc.) at any given time. i mean i'm glad that GPU-Z can monitor my GPU core and GPU memory frequencies, but i'm not sure it'll tell me anything in addition to that.
 
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Sunny129 said:
...i mean i'm glad that GPU-Z can monitor my GPU core and GPU memory frequencies, but i'm not sure it'll tell me anything in addition to that.
Click to expand...
well i got my definitive answer to this question, and i'll post up pics for anyone else who wonders about this BEFORE his/her GPU has arrived.

for the HD 3330 integrated graphics, the only two parameters available to GPU-Z are GPU core clock and GPU memory clock:

pg.png




...the HD 5780 discrete card on the other hand makes available a host of parameters to the GPU-Z utility:

bhm.png




this is in fact the kind of utility i was looking for. i guess i more or less answered my own question. now i can at least see GPU usage increase as a percentage value while i steadily increase the number of simultaneous S@H AP WU's crunched until the GPU load is maxed out. its interesting to note that the core and memory clocks are 157 MHz and 300 MHz respectively...do the core and memory clocks of the 5870 throttle down when the card isn't being used? or is GPU-Z giving me funky readings here?
 
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Just checked on one of my remote computers with a Radeon GPU: there I use MSI Afterburner 2.1 for OC'ing and for montoring temperature, GPU-usage, fan speed, memory clock, core clock ... it works for NVIDIA and Radeon GPUs equally well.
It is beta-software .... that is the 2.1-version, the older versions are not beta.

You could probably use the Riva Tuner, but I find the interface of the Afterburner more efficient for me.
 
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