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Jon
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GPU Client and SingleCore on same system?

Wed Aug 13, 2008 11:32 pm

As the title asks, can I have the nvidia GPU client running AND a CPU client running at the same time? Are there any performance downsides to doing this? A cursory glance at Task Manager reveals that the fahcore.exe process (for the GPU client) is only using about 10% of the CPU resources. Seems an awful waste to let my dual cores go idle while the GPU is burdened.
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JPinTO
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Re: GPU Client and SingleCore on same system?

Thu Aug 14, 2008 4:58 pm

I assume you are running Vista. Yes you can run a CPU client, or possibly an SMP client.
 
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Re: GPU Client and SingleCore on same system?

Tue Aug 19, 2008 1:22 pm

Jon wrote:
As the title asks, can I have the nvidia GPU client running AND a CPU client running at the same time? Are there any performance downsides to doing this? A cursory glance at Task Manager reveals that the fahcore.exe process (for the GPU client) is only using about 10% of the CPU resources. Seems an awful waste to let my dual cores go idle while the GPU is burdened.


I am running the GPU2 client and the SMP client on windows vista X64. You will need a multicore processor to run both.

that configuration should work with XP also.
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CampinCarl
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Re: GPU Client and SingleCore on same system?

Wed Aug 20, 2008 1:42 am

Interesting that yours only pegs it at 10%, mine seems to peg one of my cores at 100%. What are you running for a setup?
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Re: GPU Client and SingleCore on same system?

Wed Aug 20, 2008 9:21 am

CampinCarl wrote:
Interesting that yours only pegs it at 10%, mine seems to peg one of my cores at 100%. What are you running for a setup?


My GPU2 core runs at less than 10% on one core most of the time also. I have a Q6600. :)
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Captain Ned
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Re: GPU Client and SingleCore on same system?

Wed Aug 20, 2008 11:49 am

On XPSP3 the GPU client takes 100% of one of my cores (E6600 @3.24GHz) and the single-core client 100% of the other core.
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Re: GPU Client and SingleCore on same system?

Wed Aug 20, 2008 12:17 pm

Vista handles the GPU client much better. It will use anywhere between 3-10% of a core while XP will use 100% of a core (25% of a quad, 50% of a dual core). If you have a dual core, run the single core client on the free core. If you have a quad core and XP, you can run one SMP, one single, and the GPU. If you have Vista, you can run GPU, 1 SMP at 100%, and 1 SMP at 95% (or a lower priority than the GPU client).
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Re: GPU Client and SingleCore on same system?

Sat Aug 23, 2008 4:36 am

I have six XP clients running right now - four GPU and two SMP - spread across five platforms. I originally had an additional CPU client running on one of the GPU platforms but killed it after checking the numbers. It turned out that running a single core client on a E2200 knocked about 1400ppd off of the GPU client (8800GT) that was running on that machine (from 5100ppd down to 3700ppd). Even though there was one core of the E2200 completely free to support the GPU, the GPU client was bogging down. Maybe the lowly cache on the E2x processors has something to do with it. /shrug

On the other hand, I have an Opteron 165 running an SMP client (4 cores running on a dual-core processor) AND supporting a GPU2 client (8600GT) and the GPU client only took about a 200ppd hit when I loaded the SMP. Perhaps the smaller hit is due to the lower demands placed by an 8600GT versus an 8800GT. Again, hard to say. I CAN say that there was very little difference in the GPU ppd when I changed the Opteron from the x86 client to the SMP client.

I guess the message is that if you're not sure if you can run an additional CPU client, just give it a try. But it looks to me like the more mojo you have in your GPU the more likely you are to take a ppd hit from adding a CPU client.
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Re: GPU Client and SingleCore on same system?

Sat Aug 23, 2008 8:23 am

sluggo wrote:
I have six XP clients running right now - four GPU and two SMP - spread across five platforms. I originally had an additional CPU client running on one of the GPU platforms but killed it after checking the numbers. It turned out that running a single core client on a E2200 knocked about 1400ppd off of the GPU client (8800GT) that was running on that machine (from 5100ppd down to 3700ppd). Even though there was one core of the E2200 completely free to support the GPU, the GPU client was bogging down. Maybe the lowly cache on the E2x processors has something to do with it. /shrug

This probably means you may need to play with affinities.
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