New Members Welcome & Advice Thread

[Trunks]

if you have to lock smp down to 3 cores, then dual smp is a no go. you'll lose about 1-2k ppd...
last time I used xp I had to run 1 smp with no affinity changer, lock it to 3 cores and run one gpu.
that's why I switched to vista last summer... I can run dual smp with AC on all 4 cores, and still run a gpu without it getting bottlenecked.. it only uses about 3-5% cpu in vista. 25% in xp.
but if I tried to run smp on 4 cores and a gpu in xp, then smp only allowed the gpu to have about 12% cpu and it choked the gpu ppd.
one of the xp guys needs to input here though, I haven't used xp in 6 months. and I heard nvidia came out with a new xp driver that allows gpu to turn full ppd without hogging a core to itself.

you'll have to try for your self to see... or else one of the xp guys here can chime in.
when I tried to run smp with gpu in xp, gpu turned low ppd unless you fed it an entire core.

but it's been 6 months since I tried, all the ppd you see in my sig is on vista.
(3 Q6600's below in Vista on dual smp w/AC and one gpu each- machines labeled x4,x5,x6)

thx
then vista will be

[OldChap]

I have been running 2*smp and 3 GPU successfully using xp by using a combination of 180.60 drivers and WinAFC ....The 180.60 (and later?) drivers have reduced the cpu requirement to almost nil, The use of WinAFC optimises the use to get maximum ppd.

If you use older drivers eg.179.84 for your GPU you will probably get an xtra 2-300ppd but using later 180.60 whilst reducing GPU increased smp by maybe 1000 when optimised

[Xanadu]

I paused the progress of my folding and adjusted my GPU's numbers. I then resumed the progress of the folding, and it started folding test proteins. Was changing the GPU's clocks in mid fold a bad thing?

[Kondik]

Not Really, it will finish where it stopped if it didn't took you 2 days , then the WU's are no good but if you just stopped the folding for some reason and started it later , it works without issues

[MikeB12]

I've changed my gpu clocks during folding and it's fine.. shader is the only thing that matters, core and ram oc has no effect.
when you get too high on the shader it will eue, but that's unavodiable.

that's actually how I find my max shader oc.
1. start the client, fahmon, and precision tool or riva tuner.
2. bump the shader up at one hop at a time and let it fold for 5-10 minutes while watching/refreshing fahmon.
3. when it eue's, back it down one or two hops and that's the max shader folding oc.

(a hop is about 45mhz on my nividia cards)

[=[PULSAR]=]

I know this is probably a dumb question but is there a gpu console client? I hate running the systray for the pure fact it taxes the cpu so much.

Never mind my uneducated butt found it.

[Sparky]

systray doesn't tax the CPU if it is kept in the tray. At least i didn't think it did
If it does maybe I should get off the systray clients

[MaK2000]

Which OS and driver are you using Pulsar?

[=[PULSAR]=]

Okay well issue is now I'm moving 3 9800GX2's over to an AMD machine running vista32. I only have one 9800GX2 in right now I set up the flags correctly but when I try to run the 2nd core, it says unstable machine and restarts the console. Could this be because I don't have a monitor hooked up to the 2nd dvi?

[MikeB12]

^^ what happens to mine when the desktop is not extended is it gets a popup message and won't start... but mine was eueing real bad on one client. and I finally figured out it pulled a ati core for some stupid reason.. maybe that's what yours did. try deleting the fahcore_11.exe file, work folder, and queue.dat... and see if it fixes it...

I only have one monitor, but it has 2 connections on the back, a vga and dvi. so I used those to extend the desktop. once it's extended, I can unplug the vga, but powersave has to be turned off so monitor is always on, or else that second card loses it's desktop extension overnight. and when I reboot, sometimes I need to plug the vga back in, or the second unconnected desktop is not extended again.

just some stuff that plagued me in the beginning of dual gpu folding.

[=[PULSAR]=]

I just decided to go back to winxp so I don't have to deal with this multiple monitor issue. I finally go to hook up my tri 9800GX2 but the brand new Corsair HX1000W and nothing so starting the RMA process with that. Does anyone know if the 9800GX2 throttles itself due to temps?

[jcool]

Hey guys,

quick question: I kind of feel bad having my 4870X2 idle all the time, but I can't find any GPU folding project except for this one - is there another? Anyway, as some might remember, a while back I tried to get FAH running on both my X2's cores. The results were not encouraging, to say the least. Got only 1 core running and the PPD was ridiculously low. Did something change in the meantime regarding PPD of ATI cards and the, well, "ease of setup" or would I still be wasting countless hours and 300W of power drain to get beat by a 9600GSO?

[Lowrez]

Hi everybody. I was hoping i could get some help on my smp client. On my quad I can only get it to run on 2 cores. I noticed it was only getting as many ppd as my dual core clocked the same. When i looked in the log it showed it only running on core 0 and 1. ?? any help would be appreciated

[=[PULSAR]=]

Did you install deino? or tried changing the affinity to all four cores?

[OldChap]

Set up a second instance to run on the other two cores Seriously that will give you the best ppd and if you use WinAFC for your affinity setting you could be talking almost 50% more.

One of the guys re-posted a (6?) step guide to setting this up but I don't remember where...anyone with a working brain help?

[Lowrez]

I cant install deino for some reason. If someone could get that guide it would be awsome. I have tried setting up 2 instances of the client but it says to me there are no more cores. I have this machine dual booting vista and windows 7 beta and I think it is causing some problems with some programs installing correctly. When I ran the installer for the new nvidia driver from the vista desktop it would not install. It keep telling me that this OS was not supported, but when I moved the installer to the vista C: drive it installed correctly. Maybe the 7 install has taken "possession" of all the files on the drives it sees.

[Sparky]

windows sees all 4 cores right?

[=[PULSAR]=]

When setting up clients it asks which projects you would like to download, its like small, normal, or large does that really have affect on how many ppd you earn?

[Kondik]

At CPU I usually select normal and bug for GPU ... but the difference .. hmm didn't notice any

[=[PULSAR]=]

I'm just messing around with the new cuda 2.1's and I have noticed a 10C drop in load temps over 2.0, and also a 5% decrease in power consumption. Can anyone confirm this?

[OldChap]

Set up a second instance to run on the other two cores Seriously that will give you the best ppd and if you use WinAFC for your affinity setting you could be talking almost 50% more.

One of the guys re-posted a (6?) step guide to setting this up but I don't remember where...anyone with a working brain help?

Lowrez, This was it:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/Forums/...d.php?t=199283

[p2501]

I'm just messing around with the new cuda 2.1's and I have noticed a 10C drop in load temps over 2.0, and also a 5% decrease in power consumption. Can anyone confirm this?

Without a drop in points? Do I get this right, you're running 180.60? I could use a drop of 10°C.

[=[PULSAR]=]

They are 181.2, Before I had system stability issues with Cuda 2.0 trying to run the card at stocks speeds. Now, running cuda 2.1 I have the core/shaders @ 700/1750 and running great so far. I just wish there was a way to OC just the shaders, but I haven't found a way yet while running 3 cards.

[p2501]

They are 181.2, Before I had system stability issues with Cuda 2.0 trying to run the card at stocks speeds. Now, running cuda 2.1 I have the core/shaders @ 700/1750 and running great so far. I just wish there was a way to OC just the shaders, but I haven't found a way yet while running 3 cards.

Okay, 181.20 don't work for me. But for your problem, what cards are you running? You can usually unlink core and shaders, to get more out of them. It worked for my GSOs and for the 295 too. Are you clocking with RivaTuner?

[=[PULSAR]=]

I have 3x EVGA 9800GX2's I've tried using rivatuner but will only let me OC one card, so I've been having to use nTune. Maybe a bios update?