Hello people,

i got miself a problem runnung CUDA lately.

wasn't crunching anything for last couple of months (Prescott heating issues, no CUDA card, etc.); wanted to get back to it, but whatever i run (winXP_x86, win7_x86_64, nv190_c2.3, nv195_c3.0) it aways freezes my desktop. it happens when the graphics has something more to do, like playing a movie, displaying a VirtMachine, or just moving windows around the screen under W7.

CUDA card is the best PU on my system, it would be a shame not using it.
In fact i switched back to Windows from Linux to get CUDA working.

Did anyone got into this maybe?
Got any suggestions?

Simple answer don't run Cuda tasks when you want to watch movie.
Your GSO 9600 has only just enough memory to run Cuda,and then when you try other things memory gets streched.

Dave

---

hmmm...
didn't think about that
thought that it would rather be memory transfers causing a driver bug
and that memory is bigger than 384M - there is over a Gig allocated to video by the OS...

thanks

From memory I may be wrong someone will correct me Cuda requires 256 Mb memory on card to run.

Dave

---

It's not so much the memory that's the problem here, but the GPU. When you run CUDA, your GPU is saturated with the Seti task. It can't do anything else GPU intensive at that time. Anything 3D or watching a DVD is GPU intensive.

If it is the memory that's causing it, it may well be the Aero desktop that's used in Windows 7. That's very memory hungry & uses the GPU.

Advice is: Run CUDA only when you're not otherwise using the computer.

---

it could be correct: gpu-z reports memory usage at 225Mb,
GPU utilisation at 97%
Memory controller utilisation at about 50%
(that would say to us that memory bandwidth is not stressed to the max)

HDvideo playback requires 48Mb i think (correct me if i am wrong)
Virtual Machine i usually run is set to have 64Mb

so with 384 onboard we still have room, even if OS did not add anything,
and it does

i read somewhere on nvidia forums that CUDA does not have its own virtual adress space, like other processes on the CPU do

what you think bout that?


EDIT:
Ageless - will have to follow your advice, but in August/September'09 i did not have this problem at all; that's why i am all suprised

so with 384 onboard we still have room, even if OS did not add anything,
and it does

i read somewhere on nvidia forums that CUDA does not have its own virtual adress space, like other processes on the CPU do

what you think bout that?

That's correct. The CUDA app that nVidia wrote for SETI@Home does not use system memory provided by the OS; it uses the onboard buffer memory built into the graphics card only.

I think the primary issue is the Aero effects using up GPU time to draw objects to screen and giving the appearance of lag due to the GPU also processing the science as well. Add in the fact that your memory on the card is low, CUDA takes up 255MB, Aero takes more, your screen resolution also requires more memory and I think we have a combination of issues adding up to the sum total of your problem.

The best advise is to simply not use the GPU while you are using your computer.

---

The best advise is to simply not use the GPU while you are using your computer.

That's going to be difficult there, Charlie. ;-)
The Graphics Processing Unit will always be 'in use' when you use the computer as it shows everything you do on the monitor. You may want to say "Don't use the GPU for CUDA while you are using the computer".

Doc, the option is available in your preferences:
Online: Suspend GPU work while computer is in use? Yes.
Local: Uncheck "Use GPU while computer is in use".

---

yep, thats almost always the solution
if I control what is on the screen while the GPU starts to work again

okay, I just thought there is a solution to that one

thank you all for your opinion on that

If you don't mind suspending all tasks (not just CUDA) there's a relatively easy way to do it ... just go to the Data/BOINC directory and create a file called cc_config.xml. Inside it, put the following

<cc_config>
<options>
<exclusive_app>[app_executable_name]</exclusive_app>
<no_gpus>0</no_gpus>
</options>
</cc_config>

for example, I've set mine not to run any tasks while I watch a movie on vlc, or play warcraft. When BOINC detects any of them running, it will pause (suspend) all tasks

<cc_config>
<options>
<exclusive_app>war3.exe</exclusive_app>
<exclusive_app>vlc.exe</exclusive_app>
<no_gpus>0</no_gpus>
</options>
</cc_config>

If you don't mind suspending all tasks (not just CUDA) there's a relatively easy way to do it ...

There's even an <exclusive_gpu_app> option, so that you don't have to suspend all tasks. See Client configuration in the BOINC wiki.

Gruß,
Gundolf

---

Computer sind nicht alles im Leben. (Kleiner Scherz)

SETI@home classic workunits 3,758
SETI@home classic CPU time 66,520 hours