I've been wanting to upgrade for some time now. And, I know research after purchase can result in some serious head banging (I'm an expert in that department). Well, I did my research in all regards except for BOINC, sadly.

I've purchased, but not yet received, a GeForce 960 to replace my GeForce GT 610. The 610 has been doing fairly well with its 48 CUDA cores and the 960 has 1024. But, then I saw someone on Amazon comment that there's a problem with some applications seeing the cores correctly. (Uh oh).

Although I wanted the upgrade anyway, for other reasons, does anyone here have any info on problems with the GeForce 960 and problems BOINC may have utilizing its resources?

Surely, it will perform better than the 610, right?

The 960 basically looks like 1/2 of a 980, to me, & we have a number of people using 980's. So I wouldn't expect any problems with it working.

The app developers are still trying to work out how to take full advantage of this latest generation hardware. So at present you will probably not see 15x the output compared to the 610. It might only be 10-12x or so. Perhaps a bit less. Once you have 2 or 3 instances going at once it might equal out.

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SETI@home classic workunits: 93,865 CPU time: 863,447 hours
Join the [url=http://tinyurl.com/8y46zvu]BP6/VP6 User Group[

What problems did you read about? Could you link the review or post part of it here so we can see what they are talking about?

Well, if it's half a 980 at less than half the cost, I guess that's fair. And fits my budget better than a $550-600 GPU.

@Zalster:

If you are buying it for the CUDA cores, you will have to wait until Nvidia releases the next revision of Drivers. As of this review, 347.52 is the current non beta driver and I am getting "This graphics driver could not find compatible graphics hardware". According to the forums on Nvidia's web page, it is a known issue that will be worked out soon.

http://www.amazon.com/review/R30V3BR69VGKLM/ref=cm_cr_pr_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B00SC6HAS4
A response from the reviewer indicates a future driver release may address this.

Fixed it.

Well, if it's half a 980 at less than half the cost, I guess that's fair. And fits my budget better than a $550-600 GPU.

@Zalster:

If you are buying it for the CUDA cores, you will have to wait until Nvidia releases the next revision of Drivers. As of this review, 347.52 is the current non beta driver and I am getting "This graphics driver could not find compatible graphics hardware". According to the forums on Nvidia's web page, it is a known issue that will be worked out soon.

http://www.amazon.com/review/R30V3BR69VGKLM/ref=cm_cr_pr_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B00SC6HAS4
A response from the reviewer indicates a future driver release may address this.

That sounds like that person might be having an issue installing the driver, or they are having an error ID 10T issue.

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SETI@home classic workunits: 93,865 CPU time: 863,447 hours
Join the [url=http://tinyurl.com/8y46zvu]BP6/VP6 User Group[

Ok Victor,

I read his review. I don't think he is talking about crunching with BOINC.

The Nvidia forums regarding the drivers 347.52 seems to be about that driver causing video game play issues as well as crashing the Geforce Experience program.

This can be avoided by going with a lower driver version and not upgrading the drivers until they fix whatever problem they are having.

I run the 980s and the highest driver I have is 347.25. You can download whichever version of the nvidia driver you want from Nvidia directly and select it.

Here is the link to Nvidia driver 347.25

http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/81389/en-us

We learned shortly after the 900s came out to wait on updating the drivers since there were some issues early on. Always get them directly from Nvidia and don't let Windows download and install them for you.

When you get your 960 install that driver and see how it does.

If there is an issue come back here and post so we can help you.

Happy Crunching...

Zalster

Edit...

I agree with Hal about him having issues installing.

2nd Edit..

I see what he is talking about with the cuda. Evidently with some higher end games, the 960 fails and crashes the systems. Again, should be fine for crunching.

I bought a GTX 960 about a week ago. Had to disable the built in video on my motherboard, but it was very slow anyway. GTX 960 been running fine and RAC is growing for that machine as expected. Seems very comparable in output to the GTX 750ti I have running in another machine.

Herb

I installed the 960 this afternoon. And it is churning along just fine.

Aside from noticing improvement in video related stuff, I've got a question about BOINC & SETI. I am seeing only one WU processing at a time. Yeah, it's crunching them a lot faster than my 610 did. But, can this GPU be coaxed into processing more than one at a time? Or is the increased speed with individual WUs all I can ask of it?

I installed the 960 this afternoon. And it is churning along just fine.

Aside from noticing improvement in video related stuff, I've got a question about BOINC & SETI. I am seeing only one WU processing at a time. Yeah, it's crunching them a lot faster than my 610 did. But, can this GPU be coaxed into processing more than one at a time? Or is the increased speed with individual WUs all I can ask of it?

My estimate for a 960 would be that crunching 2 at a time would be nearly linear scaling ( i.e. not slow down each WU much, total throughput approaching 2x depending on the system feeding it), and 3 maybe a bit more efficient overall. Hard to guess more precisely than this without knowing a fair bit about the system. Others can recommend the current app_config.xml settings to get more than one running, as I use an older version.

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"Living by the wisdom of computer science doesn't sound so bad after all. And unlike most advice, it's backed up by proofs." -- Algorithms to live by: The computer science of human decisions.

My estimate for a 960 would be that crunching 2 at a time would be nearly linear scaling ( i.e. not slow down each WU much, total throughput approaching 2x depending on the system feeding it), and 3 maybe a bit more efficient overall. Hard to guess more precisely than this without knowing a fair bit about the system. Others can recommend the current app_config.xml settings to get more than one running, as I use an older version.

The PC is a relic, but it was pretty hot in its day (8-9 years ago). Dual Quad Core Xeon processors at 2.66 Ghz, 16 GB RAM, SSD. Don't know what else you or someone else might need to know that is relevant. Ask if so.

Oh, and the 960 is on a PCIe x16 slot.

My estimate for a 960 would be that crunching 2 at a time would be nearly linear scaling ( i.e. not slow down each WU much, total throughput approaching 2x depending on the system feeding it), and 3 maybe a bit more efficient overall. Hard to guess more precisely than this without knowing a fair bit about the system. Others can recommend the current app_config.xml settings to get more than one running, as I use an older version.

The PC is a relic, but it was pretty hot in its day (6-7 years ago). Dual Quad Core Xeon processors at 2.66 Ghz, 16 GB RAM, SSD. Don't know what else you or someone else might need to know that is relevant. Ask if so.

A system of this calibre, all basics being well, should have no issues feeding a 960 with 2 or 3 tasks at a time (at least for Cuda multibeam). For Astropulse, probably 2 at a time.

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"Living by the wisdom of computer science doesn't sound so bad after all. And unlike most advice, it's backed up by proofs." -- Algorithms to live by: The computer science of human decisions.

OK, how do I accomplish this? Do I have to install the Lunatics software? Or is that even the answer.

Thanks.


EDIT: I've searched my C: drive and my data directory for app_config.xml and haven't located it.


My startup log for anyone who might find it helpful ...
-----------------
3/18/2015 4:40:41 PM | | Starting BOINC client version 7.4.36 for windows_x86_64
3/18/2015 4:40:41 PM | | log flags: file_xfer, sched_ops, task
3/18/2015 4:40:41 PM | | Libraries: libcurl/7.39.0 OpenSSL/1.0.1j zlib/1.2.8
3/18/2015 4:40:41 PM | | Data directory: S:\BOINC
3/18/2015 4:40:41 PM | | Running under account User
3/18/2015 4:40:41 PM | | CUDA: NVIDIA GPU 0: GeForce GTX 960 (driver version 347.88, CUDA version 7.0, compute capability 5.2, 2048MB, 1885MB available, 2748 GFLOPS peak)
3/18/2015 4:40:41 PM | | OpenCL: NVIDIA GPU 0: GeForce GTX 960 (driver version 347.88, device version OpenCL 1.1 CUDA, 2048MB, 1885MB available, 2748 GFLOPS peak)
3/18/2015 4:40:41 PM | | Host name: DellPrecis490
3/18/2015 4:40:41 PM | | Processor: 8 GenuineIntel Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU X5355 @ 2.66GHz [Family 6 Model 15 Stepping 7]
3/18/2015 4:40:41 PM | | Processor features: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss htt tm pni ssse3 cx16 syscall nx lm vmx tm2 dca pbe
3/18/2015 4:40:41 PM | | OS: Microsoft Windows 7: Professional x64 Edition, Service Pack 1, (06.01.7601.00)
3/18/2015 4:40:41 PM | | Memory: 16.00 GB physical, 16.19 GB virtual
3/18/2015 4:40:41 PM | | Disk: 2.73 TB total, 214.18 GB free
3/18/2015 4:40:41 PM | | Local time is UTC -5 hours
3/18/2015 4:40:41 PM | | VirtualBox version: 4.3.12
3/18/2015 4:40:41 PM | | Config: don't compute while googleearth.exe is running
3/18/2015 4:40:41 PM | | Config: don't compute while WinTV7Rec.exe is running
3/18/2015 4:40:41 PM | climateprediction.net | URL http://climateprediction.net/; Computer ID 1354602; resource share 100
3/18/2015 4:40:41 PM | SETI@home | URL http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/; Computer ID 7334605; resource share 100
3/18/2015 4:40:41 PM | climateprediction.net | General prefs: from climateprediction.net (last modified 09-Feb-2015 21:01:04)
3/18/2015 4:40:41 PM | climateprediction.net | Computer location: home
3/18/2015 4:40:41 PM | climateprediction.net | General prefs: no separate prefs for home; using your defaults
3/18/2015 4:40:41 PM | | Reading preferences override file
3/18/2015 4:40:41 PM | | Preferences:
3/18/2015 4:40:41 PM | | max memory usage when active: 9828.99MB
3/18/2015 4:40:41 PM | | max memory usage when idle: 14743.49MB
3/18/2015 4:40:41 PM | | max disk usage: 214.25GB
3/18/2015 4:40:41 PM | | suspend work if non-BOINC CPU load exceeds 20%

OK, how do I accomplish this? Do I have to install the Lunatics software? Or is that even the answer.

Thanks.

[Stock or Lunatics]
In current versions of Boinc (which is where my knowledge runs out, I use old ones) there is a file you need to edit called app_config.xml. Someone will come along with those details ;)

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"Living by the wisdom of computer science doesn't sound so bad after all. And unlike most advice, it's backed up by proofs." -- Algorithms to live by: The computer science of human decisions.

you should find a file named app_config.xml in a directory like this ...

C:\ProgramData\BOINC\projects\setiathome.berkeley.edu


Use NOTEPAD to edit it!

try putting this in it ...

<app_config>

<app>
<name>setiathome_v7</name>
<gpu_versions>
<gpu_usage>0.5</gpu_usage>
<cpu_usage>0.4</cpu_usage>
</gpu_versions>
</app>

<app>
<name>astropulse_v7</name>
<gpu_versions>
<gpu_usage>0.5</gpu_usage>
<cpu_usage>0.4</cpu_usage>
</gpu_versions>
</app>

</app_config>

it should kick your GPU to 2 workunits at a time ... and yea, restart BOINC when you make a change.

---

I've done a search on both my entire C:\ drive (and location specified by Brent Norman), and my BOINC data folder (on a separate drive). There does not appear to be a file named app_config.xml on my system. (?)

I have the program on my C:\ drive and the data folder on a separate drive, as I was concerned about excessive writes to my SSD.

I'm not sure where is when you install on a different drive.

it's in your BOINIC app folder, data folder, or MOST LIKELY where you have seti downloading to.

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I've done a search on both my entire C:\ drive (and location specified by Brent Norman), and my BOINC data folder (on a separate drive). There does not appear to be a file named app_config.xml on my system. (?)

I have the program on my C:\ drive and the data folder on a separate drive, as I was concerned about excessive writes to my SSD.

You have to make the file called app_config.xml, you won't have one if you haven't already made it yourself.

Claggy

Thanks for clearing that up Claggy!

When I run this ...
=====================
<app_config>

<app>
<name>setiathome_v7</name>
<max_concurrent>2</max_concurrent>
<gpu_versions>
<gpu_usage>0.4</gpu_usage>
<cpu_usage>0.4</cpu_usage>
</gpu_versions>
</app>


<app>
<name>astropulse_v7</name>
<max_concurrent>2</max_concurrent>
<gpu_versions>
<gpu_usage>0.5</gpu_usage>
<cpu_usage>0.4</cpu_usage>
</gpu_versions>
</app>

</app_config>
=====================
I get two GPUs running, but only 1 CPU. I then deleted the xml file, read the config files again, and now I have 8 CPU WUs processing along with 2 GPU units. Curious to know what happens when one of those two GPU units is completed.

Remove the Max_Concurrent lines as you do not need them for that system.

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