GPUGrid Supercomputer week!

[stoneageman]

Please keep in mind that SWAN_SYNC should only be used for fermis ... never for 2XX.
If you do use it on 2xx cards the runtimes will actually get slower

Works fine with my 200 series, giving 5-25% improvement, depending on wu type However at the moment, with the mainly KASHIF wu's, I don't have it enabled on most rigs as the trade off with WCG is not worth it. Best for me just to add another 275

[SMTB1963]

Works fine with my 200 series, giving 5-25% improvement, depending on wu type However at the moment, with the mainly KASHIF wu's, I don't have it enabled on most rigs as the trade off with WCG is not worth it. Best for me just to add another 275

mmm...works on 200s as well? Interesting...what drivers/OS?

The more I learn about SWAN_SYNC, the more it seems to be a strange way to keep the GPU fed with CPU cycles. I mean, an entire CPU core/thread at 100% per GPU - even though the GPU(s) don't require 100% of a core/thread?

Seems to me that if you're running dual GPUs, using the "% of the processors" value in BOINC Preferences by itself to free up a single thread would give the GPUs all the CPU cycles they need, yet allow you to run an extra WCG task (without even setting up SWAN_SYNC). Dunno. I'm probably still not getting it. For some reason, I still can't seem to get my head wrapped around this SWAN_SYNC thing.

perhaps I should stop posting speculations and test it on my own equipment again? ya think?

[Fhqwhgads6680]

Wait so can only one wu be crunched at a time? I have a 780i SLI board and was wondering if it would benefit to have 2 more gtx260's or if getting something like a gtx465 would be better? Also, I just noticed that with the 1 gtx260 I have I am doing about the same boinc points as about 6 quads 10 dual cores and 1 hex core.... HOLY CRAP!

[Kryja]

You mean you have spare pcie slots and cards!? ;P

GPUGRID is the same as WCG, the more cores / cards you have in any one machine the more wu's said machine can churn out. If you have spare cards by all means put them on the grid.

If you're looking at your wu waiting to run and are confused that there is only the one current wu and one waiting to run that is perfectly fine.

I can't shake the feeling I'm missing something with your post, have I completely missed the point

[josh1980]

I'd love to know alot more details on what SWAN_SYNC actually does. I can say that on Windows XP x64 it had no affect for me. Of course, no increase in PPD would be expected since the GPU sits at 94-99% usage with XP anyway. But I did test it just to be sure.

[Fhqwhgads6680]

Well, I was just curious if I can only run one wu at a time per card. The gtx216 has 216SP and I just thought they would be able to break that up into more than one WU at a time, but I guess they can make use of all 216SP with the one WU depending on the coding?

And I was wondering what would be better: I have 1 GTX260 right now in a 780i sli board with 3x pci-e 16 slots. Would 2 more gtx260's be more benificial than say selling the gtx260 and getting a gtx465 and planning on SLI'ing that in the future?

[Kryja]

Yes only one wu per card. Were you hoping for 216 wu's for your 260? Kidding And you're right about the coding part. I seem to remember someone (more than likely Snow) saying that the 400 series is still yet to be optimised and that the wu's are not taking advantage of the full card.

Ah right. Could you not just get a 465 and move the 260 down a slot? Then when you want to go sli move it to the third slot?

I think you should keep your 260, just oc the shadders to buggery. My 275 as an average over the past twenty days was ~45k. That's with the shadders set to 1620 or so.

[Otis11]

So with the results today that brings an end to our very first supercomputer week on GPUGrid. I want to say thank you to everyone who contributed this week- Whether you had 1 9800 or 100 480s, we all appreciate your contributions.

For all the new members - welcome to the team! If you're now leaving us, no matter what the reason, know that you are always welcome here in the DC section of XS, and those of you staying - I look forward being run over by you in the future.

For the regular members - Thank you for going above and beyond, throwing in that extra card, letting your computer run that extra hour, and always helping and motivating your teammates here. You guys are a great team, I'm glad to be a part of it!

And as far as what difference this week made, well:

Very nice...just look at the increase in RAC for the week:



That's a helluva steep curve, especially since only a little over a third (57 out of 168) of our team posted results for the week.

Congrats guys and thanks for all your contributions!

[lkiller123]

That was awesome, although I did not make as much.

Let's get another one going sometime during April. Let's say right after WCG's?