Need Multi-GPU Help......56K!

[Naja002]

Cool. Yes, that's a Good idea. I may try that. Tinkering with other things in RT atm, but having to wait until WUs complete to see what happens.

In post #21 I posted:

So, right now--at this moment--maybe not in 5 minutes--but right this moment--Things are running well and as they should be!

Well, sure enough, GPU2 completed a WU, uploaded/DLed and restarted the GUI and GPU2 points went back to shat. I waited, went out to the store, came back....still no good.

But oddly, I can shutdown GPU1 and wait probably 20 mins and GPU2 will go back up. Then restart GPU1 and everything is ok--until GPU2 completes a WU and restarts the GUI server. GPU1 can complete a WU and restart its GUI server--there is no negative effect. But with GPU2 there is. Makes no sense to me, but I don't know enough about this stuff to understand what's what......

GPU2 just completed and restarted again. Same ol' shat: 3min steps=50% PPD.

[Naja002]

Just wanted to add:

When I shutdown GPU1--I don't have to wait......I can go to my desktop, start GPU1 right back up and the PPD on GPU2 will start to climb to 100% and stay there until it completes the WU and restartes the GUI server.

Anybody have any idea what would cause that?

[WFO]

Have you tried the latest release drivers 177.84?

http://www.nvidia.com/object/cuda_get.html

You are running the latest 6.20 client too right? Once that was released dual-clients were easy as pie.

[road-runner]

I have a cable running from my second card to my TV. I also set the priority to low instead of idle, and put both cards on the same cpu core 3, with -gpu 0 and -gpu 1 flags, I am using the console version...

[Naja002]

Have you tried the latest release drivers 177.84?

http://www.nvidia.com/object/cuda_get.html

You are running the latest 6.20 client too right? Once that was released dual-clients were easy as pie.

I am and have been using 177.83. Its worked and not worked--same driver. I seriously doubt its the driver, but a total uninstall/reinstall may be needed (Driver, RT, F@H)

Yes, I am using the 6.20 GPU2 systray---again-its worked and not worked with this version.

I have a cable running from my second card to my TV. I also set the priority to low instead of idle, and put both cards on the same cpu core 3, with -gpu 0 and -gpu 1 flags, I am using the console version...

It was working fine yesterday by plugging in the 2nd monitor, booting up and then pulling the 2nd monitor and putting it back on its pc.

Today I installed the DVI to VGA Dummy and things have been wonky. It works--but not exactly like its supposed to (described above). There's something simple missing....what? I don't know.



I did find this in RT under the "Power User" tab:






The lit up light bulbs would indicate that the device(s) are working, but the Exclamation point would indicate a conflict of some kind.

I clicked the "! above the OK/Apply buttons and the exclamation points went away........!?!? The "!="Find Next Updated Entry".......sorry, I don't have a clue. Sheesh. I tried changing the zero to 1, the 2 to 1--wouldn't take it.

Now I just have to wait until the GPU2 WU completes. This could take years, ya know! But I'm not far from bed, so things may just have to wait until tomorrow. Worst comes to worst---I'll uninstall everything and reinstall.

[Naja002]

Ok, well, now its working. Go figure. Not sure if it was clearing the "exclamation" point or if it just needs a few hours to "ramp up" or what.

I don't mind having an issue as much when I finally understand what the "fix" is. Not the case right now though....

Thank You all for helping out! But somehow I doubt this is over.

[Naja002]

Just wanted to add another update:

GPU2 just completed another WU and restarted the GUI server. It restarted at ~50%, but ramped up to ~92% in 5-6 steps (%). I've seen it behave this way before and I can definitely live with it. It will be back at 100% before long, until the WU completes and then it will go through this cycle again. Over and over.

That's not what it was doing yesterday though. That's why I've learned to wait and see how it behaves. Yesterday it was just at 50%....period. Or would return to 50% after restarting the GUI.

Anyway, it seems to be working now. But everything will probably fall a part whenever I have to reboot. We'll see....

[Naja002]

No doubt some of Ya are tired of this thread/issue, but I'm hoping someone will come along with a fix. Because this is just really strange to me.

The SS below shows that's there is something up with the GPU1 GUI server start/stop. I have no idea what it is, but this is why the problem seems to come and go. But it doesn't come and go--its always there....

This SS shows GPU2 is crankin' along @ 2308PPD and is at 36%, while GPU1 is doing 5386 and is at 86%:



Everything is the same, except GPU1 has made it to 99%:




Now the WU completes on GPU1, the GUI server is STOPPED, the WU is uploaded, a new one is downloaded and the GPU1 GUI server is RESTARTED. At 1% on GPU1--the PPD on GPU2 already start going up:




By 2% on GPU1--GPU2 is back to running ~100%:




It will continue this way until GPU2 completes and when its GUI server restarts--it will go back to 50% production. Then when GPU1 completes and restarts--GPU2 will go back to 100% production.
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EDITing in some SS:

GPU2 completes and restarts....3%--PPD drop like a rock:










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This works out pretty good when GPU1 is only a few % behind GPU2, but not the other way around.

I finally understand the MO here--there is a method to this madness, a rhyme to the reason. Does anybody understand what is causing this and how to fix it?

[Shadowtester]

Not being a windows user and only reading about the gpu clients I have a couple of thoughts that might be the cause of the problem. I know in WinXP that the GPU client ties up 1 core to supply it and in Vista that is not reported as a problem but the client still requires some cpu resources maybe if your also doing smp along with the gpu clients you might be starving the second client some needed cpu time. Maybe you could try increasing the priority of the gpu clients so they have priority over the other running processes. Also you might try assigning each gpu client to a specific core so they do not try to share the same one. Just a couple of sugestions to try could not hurt and you might get lucky even if your not running any smp clients you may have other processes that are cutting into the cpu resources needed to feed the clients and keep them running at full potential.

[Naja002]

Well, Shadowtester, Your words once again may have lead me to the answer. I moved to Vista because of the issues you mention with XP. In Vista every looks fine. Cpu usage is all in line and everything seems in order. But something is wrong, right? Of course.....

Before I even finished reading your post, I decided to check the config files for each GPU. Well, GPU1 is set: "CPU Priority: Slightly higher". But GPU2 was not.


GPU2:




I know to set them on "Slightly Higher". So, I'm thinking.....hoping....that this silly Goof on my part is the answer to this problem! The way things work with this issue--it would make perfect sense that this was the problem.

------------------------------------------------------
I just tested this by shutting down both GPUs and then restarting them: GPU1 first, then GPU2. Traditionally, this would cause the 50% PPD problem on GPU2.

The Effect? They are both running at 100%! Amazing! Its going to be several hours or tomorrow before I am convinced, BUT things are looking Great right now!

Thank You, ST!

[Shadowtester]

Glad I could provide some insight I look forward to having my first Wine GPU clients running this weekend and then look out my productions should really jump Once I get both my computer upgraded for Wine GPU clients I might be able to do 24k ppd going to take a couple of weekends to get everything running but I am looking forward to it

[Naja002]

Well, I stopped the GPU2 for ~15mins so that GPU1 could pass (%-wise). Restarted GPU2 (with GPU1 running) and its all back to 100% PPD! By allowing GPU1 to take the % lead--it will complete, stop, restart before GPU2 and I should know one way or the other much faster if this is, indeed, the fix!

I checked out Linux (ubuntu x64) for the first time a month or so ago right before I upgraded to Vista. Way, way too confusing for me at that time. Now that I have most ducks in a row, I may look into it again. I have a MB, Cpu, HD, Ram, Psu I could setup and may do that. But:

Which Linux do I want to figure out that will allow me to crunch WCG on the Cpu and F@H on the GPU. Wine HQ? Would You happen to have a link to a good Newbie Guide? Biggest issue I had was getting a temp program installed--w/o that I wasn't going to try to sort out Linux on an OCed quad on stock air. Plus I needed to get the cruncher up and going. Now I'm in a place that I can take some time at stock cpu and just work with it when I want. Any guidance?

[Shadowtester]

I use 8.04 Kubuntu 64bit I like the KDE gui being a previous windows user it was closer to what I had been used to. As for a guide the Folding Forum over on the FAH site is pretty good there is also some useful info on the Ubuntu Forum as well. For the GPU client using wine there is a very good guide here on this forum and there is also a great thread over on the FAH GPU forum about using the gpu client in Linux using wine. Honestly Linux is not that hard once you really give it a shot I would recommend setting up a dual boot initially with the Windows of your choice leaving a 100 gig or so hdd space free then installing Linux as a dual boot then you can access windows when you wish for gaming and such and still boot into Linux to get more comfortable with it. That is what I did initially I spent most of the time booted into WinXp but over time I started to spend less and less time in windows honestly I have not booted into WinXP on my computer at home in a couple of months now. I have been able to find free Linux alternatives to pretty much all the windows applications I was using and as a side benefit everything runs faster and is more stable I have not seen a BSOD in almost a year now since I pretty much switched from windows.

[Sparky]

Truely fixed this time I hope?
I got tempted to grab another 9600GSO to play with this...but it would have been XP and a single core, maybe not a good idea anyway.

[Naja002]

See? This is how easily I get confused and how new I am to Linux. I spent probably 10 hrs try to figure out how to install software and how to get a temp monitor working. I understand the 2 different ways of installing SW, but I'm still very lost on Linux overall. Somewhere between TOTAL and Very, Very Newbie here!

I want/need a x64 version, I eventually want the ability to crunch WCG on the cpu and F@H on the GPU, so:

Which should I DLed? Kubuntu?

Is Wine a type of Linux....like ubuntu, kubuntu, etc? Or is it a client/agent/whatever that is installed into linux? Is Wine and Wine HQ the same thing?

I have a pc worth of components collecting dust. No need to setup a dual boot--I can just set it up and install linux straight up. Installing the ubuntu was very easy.......but it got complicated from there!

Truely fixed this time I hope?

Its certainly looking that way. The only issue that I'm seeing right now is that both cards are running 5000-5100 PPD and at this OC each is capable of running 5400-5500 PPD. But that may just be the "give" of running Multi-GPUs. I deal with that later. But, Yes, so far everything is just clicking a way as it should.

[Shadowtester]

Ok you want to download Kubuntu 8.04 amd64 or 64 bit edition as for Wine it a software emulator to allow Linux user to run Windows software its basically a software interface layer which can be installed though the update manager inside of most Linux distributions.

Here is a link to the Kubuntu download page http://www.kubuntu.org/getkubuntu/download
You want to select the following options

"Kubuntu 8.04 - Featuring the mature KDE 3 and supported until October 2009"
"64bit AMD and Intel computers"

And then select a download locations close to you to download the CD. Once you have done that just burn it to a 700mb cdr or cdrw and after you have windows install and setup the way you want boot off that cd and use the free space you left on your hdd to install Kubuntu it will also install the grub boot loader which will allow you to choose which OS you want to boot into at startup. Any more questions feel free to ask I will be glad to answer them if I know the answers

[Naja002]

Do I Have to install windows? I already have a 2nd copy of Vista 64 on the way and that key is going to be used as soon as it gets here. There's no point in me even fooling with Linux--unless its 100% free. Yes, just to "learn" it/become familiar with it, but otherwise--none.

[Shadowtester]

Only reason to install Windows is if you want a back up crutch to work with while your getting used to Linux if the computer is going to be used only for folding or your comfortable with using Linux then no windows is required. I was telling you about the dual boot option to help ease you into the world of Linux so you would not have to jump in cold turkey. You could install Linux on your main computer as a dual boot where you already have windows and play with it on that one to help get familiar with it as well so it would not be a new windows install. Windows is not needed for folding at all especially now with the wine GPU setup instructions I am sure you would find out that the SMP clients generate more points with the exact same hardware running Linux vs Windows and it has also been reported to be the same with Wine and the GPU client as well and Linux has no BSOD

[Naja002]

Ok, thanx. There's no need for a dual boot setup here. I can run straight linux. I'll start doing some reading and looking around.....

[Marvin_The_Martian]

Hi everyone, didn't read every post, I think the issue is finished just though this should still be posted.

No one has mentioned -forcegpu while in some cases it can help getting a system runnig it seems. For ati cards the current codename is ( for every ati client ) r600, for the Nvidia's it's G_80 or G80 ( can't remember, UF has talked about this on the fah forums ).

It will force the check to be 'skipped' so if you're sure your device id is correct, and the you're using the correct code, it should avoid anyone else getting stuck.