Process only while screen saver runs?

Questions and Answers : Preferences : Process only while screen saver runs?
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Profile Joshua J. Slone

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Message 1833370 - Posted: 30 Nov 2016, 19:07:55 UTC

Is it possible to do as I say in the title? I feel like it used to work this way (just getting back into this after years off), but now I don't see how.

In BOINC Manager I can tell it to suspend activities while the computer is in use. However, as long as I'm not actively inputting it starts to process. End result: if I'm watching a video, several minutes in it starts eating up the CPU and causing noticeable skipping. I could tell it to wait until activity has been suspended something like an hour, or to cap CPU usage much lower, but either of these would decrease efficiency a lot more than necessary at times when I'm not watching a video. I did try seeing if the BOINC screen saver would force it into starting anyway, but if it still hasn't been X minutes, the screen saver will just show a "Computer is in use" message.
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Message 1833418 - Posted: 1 Dec 2016, 2:22:11 UTC - in response to Message 1833370.  

There's no way to do specifically what you're asking, but there are a few other options.

1) You could create a CC_Config.xml file specifying that when certain executables are running, processing is suspended. I use this when playing games, but I leave CPU processing alone and only suspend GPU processing. I simply don't have a problem when watching videos while processing on my CPU. Not on my main machine, nor on my less powerful Media PC (Core i7 2700K). I do experience problems watching some videos (depends on how CPU or GPU intensive the video decoding is).

2) You're incorrect when you say reducing CPU usage would decrease efficiency. BOINC launches a separate application for each CPU core in your system (excepting some projects that are multi-threaded, which SETI is not one of them). I see you're using an 8 core CPU. Thus, if you set CPU processing to 50%, you'd use 4 cores, each at 100% efficiency, and you'd still have 4 cores for doing other tasks.

3) You can continue to use the only start processing after X minutes as you tried, but set it one minute before your screen saver kicks in. So if you set the screen saver to kick in after 15 minutes. Set BOINC to start processing after 14 minutes so that the crunching is happening before the screen saver kicks in.


I personally think a combination of options 1 and 2 should suffice.
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Profile Joshua J. Slone

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Message 1834479 - Posted: 6 Dec 2016, 23:14:54 UTC - in response to Message 1833418.  

2) You're incorrect when you say reducing CPU usage would decrease efficiency. BOINC launches a separate application for each CPU core in your system (excepting some projects that are multi-threaded, which SETI is not one of them). I see you're using an 8 core CPU. Thus, if you set CPU processing to 50%, you'd use 4 cores, each at 100% efficiency, and you'd still have 4 cores for doing other tasks.

What I meant was lower efficiency of project results. If I tell it to wait for 30 minutes of idle, or only use 50% of the CPU, those things will still be in effect when I'm not trying to use the machine. Loss for the project but no gain for me, so decreased efficiency.

The cc_config.xml solution sounds like it should take care of my issue without those drawbacks, though. Thanks!

*slightly later*
I see that exclusive applications can be set from the BOINC Manager as well, but I'd previously missed the Advanced View. At any rate, adding wmplayer.exe took care of the specific problem I was having, so I can set the idle time back low without problem.
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Questions and Answers : Preferences : Process only while screen saver runs?


 
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