Note: there are still no CUDA apps for the Mac yet, but it looks like this going to change soon. But at least after having done this, as soon as those apps are out, your BOINC client will be able to start GPU crunching immediately.

Actually there is, at Collatz.

---

I got colatz running on my MAC Pro with an NVIDIA FX 4800.

BOINC lists the status as "Running (0.17 CPU's + 1.00 NVIDIA GPUs)". Is this normal? Is it using one GPU core only?

---

There is only one GPU in the FX4800, the GTX295 has 2 GPU's. You have 192 CUDA cores which are all used to process the work.

---

Is it possible to use JUST the GPU to do the work in the BOINC Manager? It seems like no matter what I do, it's using regular CPU to do the work. I've installed the latest CUDA driver (2.3.1a) for my MacBook Pro 17" and I have it set to use the 9600GT card (Higher Performance setting in Energy Saver preferences). If I click the "Your Computers" link in BOINC Manager, it shows GPU as "---" on the webpage it takes me to. I don't see any error messages or anything in the Messages tab.

In BOINC Preferences, I have it set to "Use GPU while computer is in use", but the other 2 above it are unchecked and everything else is unchanged.

Update: I followed some of the instructions above and now have it detecting my GeForce 9600GT card for work. However, I still have 2 issues:

1. I want to use ONLY GPU for computing, freeing up CPU for normal usage.

2. In "Messages", it shows that it's requesting new tasks for GPU, that communications failed and that my internet connection is "OK", so the project servers may be temporarily down. Is this an often occurrence?

1. I want to use ONLY GPU for computing, freeing up CPU for normal usage.

Tasks are marked by BOINC to be processed by a particular executable. There is a separate executable for GPU tasks and for CPU tasks. If a task is marked to be processed by the CPU app and you change your preference, it will not be marked by the GPU app. The kind thing to do is to work through your CPU units until they are all gone, or you can simply abort them if you do not want them and they will be sent to a different person.

2. In "Messages", it shows that it's requesting new tasks for GPU, that communications failed and that my internet connection is "OK", so the project servers may be temporarily down. Is this an often occurrence?

It depends on what's going on. Lately it has been a regular occurrence, but the majority of the time the comms work fine.

---

1. I want to use ONLY GPU for computing, freeing up CPU for normal usage.

Just some clarifications:

GPU crunching will still use the CPU. The application itself will still need to run on the CPU, which in turn will translate the task into kernels readable to the GPU. The GPU will work through that data, then the CPU will transfer the outcome back to disk.

Added to that, the GPU will also do everything you see on screen, so it can never be used completely for crunching alone. Something has to show you what's going on on your monitor.

Perhaps that in the future applications can run directly on the GPU, but then the operating system you're using will need to know about that as well. Thus far none of the available ones do.

---