Personal computing discussed

Moderators: renee, farmpuma, just brew it!

 
PainIs4ThaWeak1
Gerbil
Posts: 77
Joined: Fri Jun 26, 2009 11:13 am

Re: What are you guys folding with?

Mon Sep 15, 2014 2:08 pm

Could anyone elaborate on what exactly happened with BigAdv? I haven't been folding for the past calendar year, due to being out of the country... So I haven't paid much attention to the happenings in the F@H community.

From what I'm gathering here, it sounds that the benefit of running a 4P system has since been completely/largely diminished? (Due to no awarding of BigAdv points?)

I had been running a 3930k and 2x GTX 680's for some time, and an E8400 & GTX 295 before that. My intention was to soon invest(/throw money away) on a 4P system, now that I've returned state-side, but if it now makes more sense to put that money into GPUs, then why spend the $1200-$2000 on a complete 4P system? (Or is my logic flawed here?)
 
Flying Fox
Gerbil God
Posts: 25690
Joined: Mon May 24, 2004 2:19 am
Contact:

Re: What are you guys folding with?

Mon Sep 15, 2014 3:10 pm

PainIs4ThaWeak1 wrote:
Could anyone elaborate on what exactly happened with BigAdv? I haven't been folding for the past calendar year, due to being out of the country... So I haven't paid much attention to the happenings in the F@H community.

From what I'm gathering here, it sounds that the benefit of running a 4P system has since been completely/largely diminished? (Due to no awarding of BigAdv points?)

I had been running a 3930k and 2x GTX 680's for some time, and an E8400 & GTX 295 before that. My intention was to soon invest(/throw money away) on a 4P system, now that I've returned state-side, but if it now makes more sense to put that money into GPUs, then why spend the $1200-$2000 on a complete 4P system? (Or is my logic flawed here?)

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=92750

It's pretty much as good as dead. Unless you have other uses to a computer that can utilize a lot of cores, you should not buy one just to be folding. GPU folding is still where it is at, but you will need higher wattage PSUs (worth the points though) and need to bear in mind that constant 100% GPU load is going to shorten their lifetime.
The Model M is not for the faint of heart. You either like them or hate them.

Gerbils unite! Fold for UnitedGerbilNation, team 2630.
 
Khali
Gerbil XP
Posts: 405
Joined: Thu Dec 20, 2012 5:31 pm

Re: What are you guys folding with?

Mon Sep 15, 2014 5:25 pm

PainIs4ThaWeak1, the people with multi processor systems have three choices now that Big Advantage is ending, or has ended (I stopped paying attention back in January/February). They can run the SMP work(for however long that will last), they can shut those systems down, or they can move over to Boinc. If you still want to contribute/donate your computer time then you only have two real choices there.

There are a few projects that are focusing on proteins via the Boinc client. GPU Grid (which some times has CPU work), Poem@Home, and Rosetta. There there are several projects focusing on other Bio/Medical areas like Malaria Control Project, World Community Grid's Mapping Cancer Markers and Fight Aids At Home, etc.

I considered trying to start up a TR Boinc team earlier this year but it did not look like there would be much interest and some out right hostility to the idea. So I moved on to another team for now. :(
 
w76
Gerbil
Posts: 67
Joined: Fri Jul 11, 2014 3:15 pm

Re: What are you guys folding with?

Mon Sep 15, 2014 6:10 pm

Khali, I'd join. Currently either a member or founder of a team for the college I graduated from, but for most projects it's totally dead. I take breaks of over a year, come back, still #1 member typically. Much rather associate with TR, I actually never liked that school anyway.
 
Kougar
Minister of Gerbil Affairs
Posts: 2306
Joined: Tue Dec 02, 2008 2:12 am
Location: Texas

Re: What are you guys folding with?

Tue Sep 16, 2014 12:12 am

Plenty of teams on other sites running F@H, BOINC, or other distributed computing projects! EVGA and Anandtech just to name two.

Some 4P system users switched to running multiple GPUs just because of the large increases in PPD they're starting to generate (200K PPD for a top-end 780 Ti or Titan Black) and because GPUs now require 1-2 dedicated CPU cores apiece to maintain that level of performance. Others parted out to recoup some of the investment.
 
BIF
Minister of Gerbil Affairs
Posts: 2458
Joined: Tue May 25, 2004 7:41 pm

Re: What are you guys folding with?

Tue Sep 16, 2014 7:44 am

Kougar wrote:
... GPUs now require 1-2 dedicated CPU cores apiece to maintain that level of performance...


This may have been true for the older work units, but is not true for F@H x17 work units. At least not on AMD cards using OpenCL, which I can vouch for.

On my old Q6600 system's old cards, what you say was true. Each X16 WU running on a GPU would use a CPU core and with only 4 to spare (and no Hyperthreading in a Q6600), I would run out of cores very quickly.

But almost every newer GPU can do x17 WUs. It may even be an efficient use of your money to upgrade to the lowest R9 or Nvdia equivalent card just for the ability to run those x17s and free up a CPU core.

I can't speak for Nvidia's CUDA cards; but I suspect they too don't reserve a CPU core when processing x17 WUs.
 
Flying Fox
Gerbil God
Posts: 25690
Joined: Mon May 24, 2004 2:19 am
Contact:

Re: What are you guys folding with?

Tue Sep 16, 2014 8:07 am

BIF wrote:
Kougar wrote:
... GPUs now require 1-2 dedicated CPU cores apiece to maintain that level of performance...


This may have been true for the older work units, but is not true for F@H x17 work units. At least not on AMD cards using OpenCL, which I can vouch for.

On my old Q6600 system's old cards, what you say was true. Each X16 WU running on a GPU would use a CPU core and with only 4 to spare (and no Hyperthreading in a Q6600), I would run out of cores very quickly.

But almost every newer GPU can do x17 WUs. It may even be an efficient use of your money to upgrade to the lowest R9 or Nvdia equivalent card just for the ability to run those x17s and free up a CPU core.

I can't speak for Nvidia's CUDA cards; but I suspect they too don't reserve a CPU core when processing x17 WUs.

What is the distribution these days on x17 vs other WUs?
The Model M is not for the faint of heart. You either like them or hate them.

Gerbils unite! Fold for UnitedGerbilNation, team 2630.
 
BIF
Minister of Gerbil Affairs
Posts: 2458
Joined: Tue May 25, 2004 7:41 pm

Re: What are you guys folding with?

Tue Sep 16, 2014 9:15 am

I haven't seen an x16 or any other type of GPU WU since the beginning of the year. As far as I can tell, they have the pipeline fully packed with x17 WUs.

Edit: I should also add that errant x17 WUs seem to be fewer in number of late, too. In the first few months of the year, I was seeing an occasional series that would fail and checkpoint-resume many times before my system would finally finish them. I would lose an average of 2% progress on each resume, but would still make decent forward progress. Only one time I had a truly bad one that wouldn't even post back to the mothership, but that was many months ago. Reliability has been high in the last 6-8 months (or more).
 
Kougar
Minister of Gerbil Affairs
Posts: 2306
Joined: Tue Dec 02, 2008 2:12 am
Location: Texas

Re: What are you guys folding with?

Tue Sep 16, 2014 9:10 pm

BIF wrote:
I can't speak for Nvidia's CUDA cards; but I suspect they too don't reserve a CPU core when processing x17 WUs.


x17, and x18 cores both consume a full CPU core on NVIDIA cards, and the F@H client auto-configures a CPU core in reserve for them. It would be sort of ironic if AMD cards don't because it would mean NVIDIA and AMD have swapped places.
 
Flying Fox
Gerbil God
Posts: 25690
Joined: Mon May 24, 2004 2:19 am
Contact:

Re: What are you guys folding with?

Tue Sep 16, 2014 9:42 pm

Kougar wrote:
BIF wrote:
I can't speak for Nvidia's CUDA cards; but I suspect they too don't reserve a CPU core when processing x17 WUs.


x17, and x18 cores both consume a full CPU core on NVIDIA cards, and the F@H client auto-configures a CPU core in reserve for them. It would be sort of ironic if AMD cards don't because it would mean NVIDIA and AMD have swapped places.

Since when? I remembered last year when I got x17's on my 660 the CPU usage dropped quite a bit. It was the x15's that needed a full core.
The Model M is not for the faint of heart. You either like them or hate them.

Gerbils unite! Fold for UnitedGerbilNation, team 2630.
 
Kougar
Minister of Gerbil Affairs
Posts: 2306
Joined: Tue Dec 02, 2008 2:12 am
Location: Texas

Re: What are you guys folding with?

Wed Sep 17, 2014 5:20 pm

Flying Fox wrote:
Since when? I remembered last year when I got x17's on my 660 the CPU usage dropped quite a bit. It was the x15's that needed a full core.


Then you're mixed up! :lol:

I'm looking right now at my systems. x15 project on a 750 Ti requires <1% of the CPU. An x17 project on my 480 FTW requires 15% of a 4771, which is roughly 1.2 cores. x17 has ALWAYS required CPU overhead... the last time that was true for NVIDIA folding was back around 2007-2008 when F@H first began using CUDA on NVIDIA GPUs and Vista was just out. And yes, x18 also requires CPU overhead but if I recall AMD cards can't use that core.
 
farmpuma
Minister of Gerbil Affairs
Posts: 2810
Joined: Mon Mar 22, 2004 12:33 am
Location: Soybean field, IN, USA, Earth .. just a bit south of John .. err .... Fart Wayne, Indiana
Contact:

Re: What are you guys folding with?

Fri Sep 19, 2014 7:33 am

npore wrote:
I don't know if there is already a thread for this, but I thought it'd be kinda cool to see what kinda hardware everyone is folding with - number of machines/specs/cooling etc.. I imagine there's quite a range of gear folding for the team... ancient - new, low end - high end, server stuff..

Thank you for folding and Thank you for your contribution to The Tech Report team!

My folding had been limited to a single Nvidia 9600GSO until a couple of months ago when the core_11 charity double check work units sputtered to a stop. Since then my son in Florida has felt sorry for me and has been doing a few more work units than the usual one every now then with his GTX 660Ti. With our cooler weather I plan to plug in my GTX 650Ti, although the latest client says I need a broadband internet connection for GPU folding. I guess we will see what happens when I find the time to install it. If I can get broadband installed before the ground freezes I will add my Xeon version of a core 2 Q6400, an AMD 965BE quad, and a couple of dual core systems for SMP folding.
[img]http://[/img] Image
.* * M-51 * *. .The Whirlpool Galaxy. .TV muted, X dual flying birds & a mantra, "Specter be Gone"
 
BIF
Minister of Gerbil Affairs
Posts: 2458
Joined: Tue May 25, 2004 7:41 pm

Re: What are you guys folding with?

Fri Sep 19, 2014 8:11 am

Greetings, Farmpuma! Some of us are workin' on catchin' ya! :wink:
 
anotherengineer
Gerbil Jedi
Posts: 1688
Joined: Fri Sep 25, 2009 1:53 pm
Location: Northern, ON Canada, Yes I know, Up in the sticks

Re: What are you guys folding with?

Fri Sep 19, 2014 11:33 am

Life doesn't change after marriage, it changes after children!
 
npore
Gerbil
Topic Author
Posts: 32
Joined: Tue Jul 09, 2013 12:00 am
Location: Aotearoa

Re: What are you guys folding with?

Thu Sep 25, 2014 5:58 am

BIF wrote:
I haven't seen an x16 or any other type of GPU WU since the beginning of the year. As far as I can tell, they have the pipeline fully packed with x17 WUs.

Edit: I should also add that errant x17 WUs seem to be fewer in number of late, too. In the first few months of the year, I was seeing an occasional series that would fail and checkpoint-resume many times before my system would finally finish them. I would lose an average of 2% progress on each resume, but would still make decent forward progress. Only one time I had a truly bad one that wouldn't even post back to the mothership, but that was many months ago. Reliability has been high in the last 6-8 months (or more).


Lucky! I guess it's because you've got an AMD card; I tend to get x15 WUs at least 1 day a week, sometimes more. PPD per GPU for those are 35-70K - compared to 210K-280K+ per GPU for x17 :( ... To add salt to the wound, x15 WUs make my GPUs squeal, which is made worse given how quiet everything else is.

Recently I was stuck on x15 for for 5 or 6 days. I switched my client to advanced, which seemed to help (although I was stuck on the project 13000/1 which is the lowest scoring x17 project for me). Alas, back to x15 now.

Haven't come across x18 yet.
 
npore
Gerbil
Topic Author
Posts: 32
Joined: Tue Jul 09, 2013 12:00 am
Location: Aotearoa

Re: What are you guys folding with?

Thu Sep 25, 2014 6:05 am

Kougar wrote:
Flying Fox wrote:
Since when? I remembered last year when I got x17's on my 660 the CPU usage dropped quite a bit. It was the x15's that needed a full core.


Then you're mixed up! :lol:

I'm looking right now at my systems. x15 project on a 750 Ti requires <1% of the CPU. An x17 project on my 480 FTW requires 15% of a 4771, which is roughly 1.2 cores. x17 has ALWAYS required CPU overhead... the last time that was true for NVIDIA folding was back around 2007-2008 when F@H first began using CUDA on NVIDIA GPUs and Vista was just out. And yes, x18 also requires CPU overhead but if I recall AMD cards can't use that core.


Yup, my client auto-configured to use 10/12 threads for my CPU, running 2 NVIDIA GPUs. Needed too - there is decent CPU usage if I just fold with the GPUs.
 
PainIs4ThaWeak1
Gerbil
Posts: 77
Joined: Fri Jun 26, 2009 11:13 am

Re: What are you guys folding with?

Thu Jul 16, 2015 12:48 pm

Small update: Ended up getting rid of the two GTX 680's, in favor of two GTX 970's.

Between the two 970's and the 3930k (@ 4.4Ghz), the system tends to return anywhere from 500 - 675k / day. The higher end of that spectrum is on Core 18 and Core A4 projects. Wattage draw from the wall is typically anywhere from 590 - 615 watts.
 
anotherengineer
Gerbil Jedi
Posts: 1688
Joined: Fri Sep 25, 2009 1:53 pm
Location: Northern, ON Canada, Yes I know, Up in the sticks

Re: What are you guys folding with?

Thu Jul 16, 2015 12:53 pm

Deanjo wrote:
I use the better half.



You have a better half?!?!?!!!!!!!!!!!!1111
Life doesn't change after marriage, it changes after children!

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest
GZIP: On