Back after a couple of years, some questions

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wolfman1360

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Message 1991846 - Posted: 29 Apr 2019, 3:01:52 UTC

Howdy!

I'm back after a couple of years. I was pretty much exclusively running WCG and have decided to branch out a little.

I'm curious the differences between the two available projects here. Is one for the GPU and one for CPU?
I have a few different setups. Is there anything in particular I need to keep in mind?
I know that on another project I'm attempting, having some issues with validating tasks. Without going into much detail this is pretty frustrating to be using tons of CPU resources and, after a day of work, getting an error / invalid result, so I just want to make sure I do everything right from the start this time. Maybe I'll have better luck here.
For reference, here are a few examples of what I'll be adding to the project.

AMD Ryzen 7 1800x, AMD Radeon RX570, Windows 10
Intel core i5 3317U, Intel HD Graphics 4000, Windows 10 pro (Should I only compute on the gpu to make for quicker runtimes and less heat?)
Intel core i7 3610QM, Nvidia Geforce 670m, Intel hd graphics (though I don't believe the latter works under linux), Ubuntu
AMD Fx8350, AMD Radeon hd6450, Ubuntu. Is this gpu even worth adding? I know I should upgrade it...

Any help very much appreciated!
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Message 1991857 - Posted: 29 Apr 2019, 5:20:41 UTC - in response to Message 1991846.  

The project has both cpu and gpu apps for the multiband search and for the astropulse search. So you can crunch on both or either of the cpu or gpu. Generally you should not use the builtin graphics of Intel chips unless you limit the cpu tasks to maybe 1 or 2 since the cpu usage dramatically slows down the gpu crunching.

I only see Windows hosts listed for you. Not sure if you mean you intend to shift two hosts to Linux or maybe you have shifted them to Linux but haven't contacted the project since making the change. You should be able to run the SoG application for both Windows and Linux which is the fastest gpu application. Your Kepler card doesn't have the required minimum CC capability of 5.0 to run the special CUDA9 or CUDA10 apps. Those are the current fastest apps but only for Nvidia gpus and for Linux hosts.

Whatever hardware you eventually choose to run, you should be able to use them. Welcome back.
Seti@Home classic workunits:20,676 CPU time:74,226 hours

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Message 1991858 - Posted: 29 Apr 2019, 5:29:31 UTC - in response to Message 1991857.  

Hello
I just attached the Linux hosts to Seti via bam, so it will probably take a bit before it follows through.
I do have a Lenovo x1 extreme on order, but not sure I want to muck about with installing / running Linux on it as it will be my primary workhorse. It will have a gtx 1050TI, which should be reasonably quick even in Windows, I would imagine.

What are the main differences between AstroPulse and SETI@home v8? Not able to find too much info on what exactly both do for the project specifically /the ram requirements per WU. The previous project I attempted spiked the ram of this machine up pretty close to its limit.

Can any of the video cards I listed comfortably run more than one WU? Is it worthwhile doing that or should I just stick to one? I heard sometimes that can speed up performance.

thanks for the info so far.
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Message 1991866 - Posted: 29 Apr 2019, 6:49:56 UTC

With the current crop of applications and data there is little point in running more than one task at a time on any of your current cards.
MB and AP datasets are processed by different applications and which undertake very different search algorithms. Currently AP are only split from data coming from the Arecibo telescope, which is rare, while MB data is split from both Arecibo and Green Bank telescopes, and there is plenty of that data.
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Message 1991869 - Posted: 29 Apr 2019, 7:15:53 UTC - in response to Message 1991866.  

With the current crop of applications and data there is little point in running more than one task at a time on any of your current cards.
MB and AP datasets are processed by different applications and which undertake very different search algorithms. Currently AP are only split from data coming from the Arecibo telescope, which is rare, while MB data is split from both Arecibo and Green Bank telescopes, and there is plenty of that data.

Thanks! So far this is looking pretty slick and the runtimes seem to be quite reasonable (averaging around 11 minutes on the RX570 and just over 2 hours and change on the Ryzen).
Now to play around with resources, which from what I'm reading, is a real hit and miss situation and can take Boinc weeks to figure out...
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Message 1991895 - Posted: 29 Apr 2019, 13:53:56 UTC - in response to Message 1991869.  


Now to play around with resources, which from what I'm reading, is a real hit and miss situation and can take Boinc weeks to figure out...


While there are commonalities many get varying results depending on the hardware, the software and mix of tasks being sent out. Once you are ready to, you can look at command line parameters and sometimes get a little faster processing on the gpus.

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Message 1991904 - Posted: 29 Apr 2019, 16:42:46 UTC - in response to Message 1991895.  

While there are commonalities many get varying results depending on the hardware, the software and mix of tasks being sent out. Once you are ready to, you can look at command line parameters and sometimes get a little faster processing on the gpus.

Tom

Now I'm curious - what command line options?
I have my rx570 at stock clock speeds. Will overclocking hurt the validity of the results by chance?
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Message 1992081 - Posted: 1 May 2019, 5:08:07 UTC

Excessive overclocking can result in poor results, so, for now, leave it well alone.
"Command lines" are a set of parameters that can be "tuned" to improve the performance of an application. They are set in a file with a very particular name which varies with the application in use, and you have to do some work on the configuration files.
To get you started, use the "Lunatics installer" to get the best possible application for your GPU, doing so will also build you a basic set of configuration files Run that for a bit, keeping an eye on times and error rates. The command line Guru is a gent called Mike, and in the readme that comes with the lunatics installer he has provided a set of command lines for various GPUs which should get you started.

You can find the Lunatics installer here: http://mikesworld.eu/download.html
Choose the correct version for your operating system. Generally it picks the "best first guess" at what applications to run, and they are normally very close to being the best for your system, just make sure the "SoG" application is selected for your GPU.
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Message 1992085 - Posted: 1 May 2019, 5:32:00 UTC - in response to Message 1992081.  

Excessive overclocking can result in poor results, so, for now, leave it well alone.
"Command lines" are a set of parameters that can be "tuned" to improve the performance of an application. They are set in a file with a very particular name which varies with the application in use, and you have to do some work on the configuration files.
To get you started, use the "Lunatics installer" to get the best possible application for your GPU, doing so will also build you a basic set of configuration files Run that for a bit, keeping an eye on times and error rates. The command line Guru is a gent called Mike, and in the readme that comes with the lunatics installer he has provided a set of command lines for various GPUs which should get you started.

You can find the Lunatics installer here: http://mikesworld.eu/download.html
Choose the correct version for your operating system. Generally it picks the "best first guess" at what applications to run, and they are normally very close to being the best for your system, just make sure the "SoG" application is selected for your GPU.


Thank you so much for this.
I have, apparently, done something horribly, horribly wrong. However my runtimes appear to be hovering around 58 minutes per WU - of course that's boinc's estimated runtime at this point since things have reset themselves, according to the installer.

I'm also not entirely sure where to put these command line switches, or if I should not be running boinc to begin with?

Sorry. It's past midnight here which is probably not a great time to be playing with this. Hopefully these tasks complete overnight and don't actually take nearly an hour each.
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Message 1992155 - Posted: 1 May 2019, 16:37:31 UTC

After using the installer it is quite common for runtimes to appear to much extended, just keep an eye on them for a bit, you should see the real runtime drop quite dramatically as a job proceeds. As BOINC "learns" the new applications it will settle down to a more realistic figure which should be lower than those you had before.
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Message 1992167 - Posted: 1 May 2019, 17:14:35 UTC - in response to Message 1992155.  

After using the installer it is quite common for runtimes to appear to much extended, just keep an eye on them for a bit, you should see the real runtime drop quite dramatically as a job proceeds. As BOINC "learns" the new applications it will settle down to a more realistic figure which should be lower than those you had before.


Thank you! They seem to be marginally improving.
thanks again
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Questions and Answers : Getting started : Back after a couple of years, some questions


 
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