Folding on ATI HD5xxx cards

[jcool]

A long overdue thread if you ask me. Yes, it finally seems to work now.
No, it does not work out of the box with an HD5xxx - this is FAH remember

Steps needed to get the 6.23 Systray client to work:

1. After install & startup, you will notice it says "your GPU is not supported" even though the website claims "ATI 5xxx" as supported - to fix this, right-click the FAH icon in the system tray (while the error message is displayed), and hit "configure".
In the "advanced" tab, add "-forcegpu ati_r700" (without the "") to the command line on the bottom.
2. Now that the client is kind enough to start up, we need to adjust some environmental tables in order to stop the client from taking up a whole CPU core
There is a great explanation on how to do that here. Adding those variables dropped CPU usage for my HD5870 from 8% (1 HT core of a 12-thread hexa) to 3-4% which is acceptable, I guess.

Right now I am using the following values:

BROOK_YIELD: 2
CAL_NO_FLUSH: 1
CAL_PRE_FLUSH: 1
FLUSH_INTERVAL: 256

No idea whether they are correct, fast, or even stable, we'll see I guess

Report your results & findings with recent ATI cards here, and also tell me if you would do anything different.

[Burninator]

Little late jcool They've worked since day one with the forcegpu flag, AFAIK

Those variables should work well for you, I use the same ones on my 4890.

FWIW I did hear a rumor about a new GPU3 client coming this month... Guess we'll see

[Sparky]

GPU3 this month? Heh I'll believe it when I see it... I'm a little bit cynical when it comes to FAH release dates I've been folding since 2006, and they've never really been on-time.

jcool post up what the ppd ends up being. I've heard it won't be much different from the 4870 because GPU2 won't use the card to its potential (hence the need for GPU3). Not sure how true that is.

[jcool]

Little late jcool They've worked since day one with the forcegpu flag, AFAIK

Those variables should work well for you, I use the same ones on my 4890.

FWIW I did hear a rumor about a new GPU3 client coming this month... Guess we'll see

No, they haven't. I tried a few months back, with the flag. It kept crashing after 10 seconds

GPU V3 would be awesome...

[Burninator]

No, they haven't. I tried a few months back, with the flag. It kept crashing after 10 seconds

GPU V3 would be awesome...

Odd, I could've sworn I saw 5870's working with that flag back in october-ish

I agree, a client that can actually take advantage of ATI cards would be nice...

[ajaidev]

i also had tried these flags on our milkyway@home system that has 4*5850 and it crashed i tried again today and it crashed.

GPU v3 is needed

[jcool]

i also had tried these flags on our milkyway@home system that has 4*5850 and it crashed i tried again today and it crashed.

GPU v3 is needed

It definitely works for me now - ran fine through the night.
I'm using Win 7 64bit and Cat. 10,3 official. I deleted the ATI dll's in the program's folder and set the above environmental tables instead.
For multi-GPU you have to have the desktop extended to all 4 cards, meaning that you have to hook up a monitor, KVM or dummy plug to each card
You also need to configure 4 different clients using the parameter "-gpu 0" "-gpu 1" etc for cards 1, 2... 4

Running 950/1300 core mem at 1,1V VGPU (undervolted to save power), it claims at an average rate of ~5500PPD. Not too bad for ATI I guess, here's the FAHmon benchmark logs:

Projekt : 4756
Core : GPUv2 Gromacs
Frames : 100
Gutschrift : 477 Punkte


-- HD5870 --

Minimale Frame-Dauer : 1mn 13s - 5645.59 ppd
Gemittelte Frame-Dauer : 1mn 13s - 5645.59 ppd
Aktuelle Frame-Dauer : 1mn 15s - 5495.04 ppd
L3F-Frame-Dauer : 1mn 14s - 5569.30 ppd
Effektive Frame-Dauer : 1mn 14s - 5569.30 ppd

Projekt : 5737
Core : GPUv2 Gromacs
Frames : 100
Gutschrift : 511 Punkte


-- HD5870 --

Minimale Frame-Dauer : 1mn 32s - 4798.96 ppd
Gemittelte Frame-Dauer : 1mn 32s - 4798.96 ppd
Aktuelle Frame-Dauer : 1mn 34s - 4696.85 ppd
L3F-Frame-Dauer : 1mn 33s - 4747.35 ppd
Effektive Frame-Dauer : 1mn 39s - 4459.64 ppd

Projekt : 5741
Core : GPUv2 Gromacs
Frames : 100
Gutschrift : 384 Punkte


-- HD5870 --

Minimale Frame-Dauer : 1mn 00s - 5529.60 ppd
Gemittelte Frame-Dauer : 1mn 00s - 5529.60 ppd
Aktuelle Frame-Dauer : 1mn 01s - 5438.95 ppd
L3F-Frame-Dauer : 1mn 01s - 5438.95 ppd
Effektive Frame-Dauer : 1mn 00s - 5529.60 ppd

Projekt : 5746
Core : GPUv2 Gromacs
Frames : 100
Gutschrift : 384 Punkte


-- HD5870 --

Minimale Frame-Dauer : 1mn 00s - 5529.60 ppd
Gemittelte Frame-Dauer : 1mn 00s - 5529.60 ppd
Aktuelle Frame-Dauer : 1mn 00s - 5529.60 ppd
L3F-Frame-Dauer : 1mn 00s - 5529.60 ppd
Effektive Frame-Dauer : 1mn 00s - 5529.60 ppd

Projekt : 5747
Core : GPUv2 Gromacs
Frames : 100
Gutschrift : 384 Punkte


-- HD5870 --

Minimale Frame-Dauer : 1mn 00s - 5529.60 ppd
Gemittelte Frame-Dauer : 1mn 00s - 5529.60 ppd
Aktuelle Frame-Dauer : 1mn 01s - 5438.95 ppd
L3F-Frame-Dauer : 1mn 02s - 5351.23 ppd
Effektive Frame-Dauer : 1mn 01s - 5438.95 ppd

[jcool]

One more thing to mention:

FAH makes my 5870 whine like no other program out there. No game, benchmark, or even Milkyway causes that bad of a coil whine.
Annoying as hell really, guess I'll only run it at night to avoid severe headaches

[ajaidev]

Hey Jcool i tried your advice for the 4*5850

"For multi-GPU you have to have the desktop extended to all 4 cards, meaning that you have to hook up a monitor, KVM or dummy plug to each card "

and it worked but now it starts and just does not respond after that the computer gets stalled. I'll try reinstalling Vista 64b again "have not bought Win 7 till now " and will try again.

About the whine its because of the temps right or something else because milkyway really murders my ears....

[jcool]

Errr.. you did set it up properly for multi-GPU use right?
Meaning an extra folder for each GPU, and extra shortcut with the "-gpu 0", "-gpu 1" etc parameter?
Try running 1 card first. If that works, add the 2nd and so on.

Milkyway doesn't whine at all for me, just FAH. Can't be because of temps, I'm running on chilled water, GPU temps below 20, VRM temps around 35.

[ColonelCain]

Until GPU3 comes out, there isn't any real reason to fold on 5xxx series cards... just a waste of power.
Considering I can get the following from a 4890 OC'd to 900 core:
-- ATI GPU2 - 4890 --

Min. Time / Frame : 1mn 18s - 4253.54 ppd
Avg. Time / Frame : 1mn 18s - 4253.54 ppd

[jcool]

Well, considering the 4890 doesn't really use less power than a 5870, "waste of power" depends on your POV.
Of course you get almost twice as much PPD with a GTX280, but 5500 is still better than nothing right?
5870 has a TDP of 188W which isn't bad at all. Half a GTX 480

[theystolemyname]

Maybe by the time I switch the heat back on in October, there will be a functioning F@H client for my 5870.

[jcool]

Let's hope so.. Currently I'm only running FAH at night while I'm asleep.. since that whine coil is so annoying. Here's to hoping for GPU v3...

[ajaidev]

Let's hope so.. Currently I'm only running FAH at night while I'm asleep.. since that whine coil is so annoying. Here's to hoping for GPU v3...

+1 for GPU v3

[ColonelCain]

Let's hope so.. Currently I'm only running FAH at night while I'm asleep.. since that whine coil is so annoying. Here's to hoping for GPU v3...

I've always wondered what that sound was... is there any actual explanation to it?

[Benjiprice]

Hello guys,

Im new on the forum but i always wanted to reply in this post, it just took me a while to be able to post anything

Ok, i have a 5970, a XFX Black Edition, and i recently entered the folding universe..

i've been able to run a GPU client in my 5970, its doing 4200 PPD depending on the WU, as expected..

But i have 2 issues here, and i was hoping that somebody could help me if possible..

At the moment the GPU client is eating 1/2 cores of my i7, and i cant find the environment tables to adjust..

Does anyone knows how to run 2 clients in this card?

im running one client and its running in my 2nd core, while the 1st one is in half usage if i put the display on lol..

i tried to use different -gpu flags and even disable the A.I , but when i run both displays of both clients, one works and the other says that core is not running now..

i think i said everything, but if i miss any information, please tell..

thanks in advange

[ahu]

What OS and driver version you have Benjiprice?

At least with Windows 7 and Catalyst 10.6 you don't have to disable Catalyst AI or Crossfire, at least if you use dummy VGA plugs. This is what I found out (to my surprise) after a long hiatus from GPU folding. I remember this was different earlier with my two 4870X2's. Now using 2 x HD5970 and three dummy VGA plugs.

And I'm not even sure about the dummy VGA's. I thought there was already a driver fix long time ago for both ATI and Nvidia for Vista that would remove the need for those.