HCC GPU Launched.

[[XC] hipno650]

ok guys today I went to the shop and grabbed the following: 7750, 7770 and 7850 I will be comparing them with some cards I have currently (a good lot of AMD and Nvidia cards) and giving you guys a full report with graphs and everything in a few days time. I have mid terms this week so I don't have much free time but I will get it done as soon as possible. I will be doing the following tests:

Average Total WU run time on two different systems (one new with a 4.7GHZ 2600k and one old with a stock E6750 C2D) to get an idea on what effect CPU speed has on total WU times
Average GPU only WU run time on both systems
Effect of CPU load on each system (IE running the rest of the CPU fully loaded for CPU WU's and GPU wu's also running)
Effect and times of running 2 WU's on the same GPU
Power consumption of both systems when running GPU (one and 2 WU's) only and when running CPU and GPU fully maxed compared to system idle power consumption
The effect of overclocking each GPU to it's max on times and power consumption
The cost's of power compared to points per day with my power prices (pretty high around here)

Like I said this will take me some time to finish but hopefully this time next week I will have this all done for you guys and hopefully we will get a good baseline of performance and such for a good portion of GPU's on the market

One thing that would save me allot of time is if someone could make me a "app file" or whatever that would allow me to full 2 WU's per GPU and run ALL of the CPU WU types on my CPU for both AMD and Nvidia cards.

I will try to keep you all updated

[hendermd]

Posted by Knreed

Here is the list of top GPU cards that have had returned results returned by at least 3 different users. They are ordered in increasing order by the average elapsed time.

Top Ten:

Elapsed Time Graphics Card
110 secs AMD Radeon HD 7900 series (Tahiti)
120 secs AMD Radeon HD 79x0 series (Tahiti)
160 secs AMD Radeon HD (unknown)
192 secs AMD Radeon HD 7700 series (Cape Verde)
194 secs GeForce GTX 580
206 secs GeForce GTX 480
210 secs AMD Radeon HD 6900 series (Cayman)
220 secs GeForce GTX 470
221 secs GeForce GTX 570
238 secs GeForce GTX 680

[Snow Crash]

I just transcribed the HCC CPU part to my app_info.xml and I get computation errors on the CPU WUs instantly. Message is 10/15/2012 9:34:06 PM | World Community Grid | Output file X0930069780341200605191747_1_0 for task X0930069780341200605191747_1 absent. Not really sure what to do, but I am just removing the code for now.

It's working fine on my 980x / x58/ GTX 670. You can pull the app details from your own rig to see if there is a difference ... from either the client_state or the sched_reply files. Please make a copy of these files before digging through them as BOINC needs to be able to write to them so if you have them open you can cause yourself problems.

Apparently I've returned just in time from over a year long hiatus. Enabled GPU's? Now this gives me a reason to start stock piling cards again. Running on a GTX480 right now lets see how this goes

EDIT: For nvidia cards what drives the WU gpu clock or shader clocks?

Shaders - but you don't have a choice on the 480 as core and shaders are locked together. Side note on older 2xx ... my GTX295 seems to be using a fair amount of core (20%-40%) and mem (1%-4%) along with the shaders (70%-76%) which I suspect is what Nvidia needed to do on those old cards in order to get decent performance for their OpenCL implementation. This is my next rig to apply app_info to!

[Conquistador SW]

Posted by Knreed


Top Ten:

Elapsed Time Graphics Card
110 secs AMD Radeon HD 7900 series (Tahiti)
120 secs AMD Radeon HD 79x0 series (Tahiti)
160 secs AMD Radeon HD (unknown)
192 secs AMD Radeon HD 7700 series (Cape Verde)
194 secs GeForce GTX 580
206 secs GeForce GTX 480
210 secs AMD Radeon HD 6900 series (Cayman)
220 secs GeForce GTX 470
221 secs GeForce GTX 570
238 secs GeForce GTX 680

Another interesting card on that list: the HD 57xx (probably 5770). It beats many high end Nvidia cards, does ~70,000 ppd WCG, same power consumption as 7770 and you can find them for less than half of what a 7770 would cost. I can buy a 5770 for €50 while the 7770 is at least €105. Factoring in that it produces half the point compared to a 7770 but uses the same power means that the 7770 in the end will still be cheaper, but the 5770 would be much better than any Nvidia card cost-wise.

[D_A]

Before people get head over heels into spending megabucks on ATi cards, this is just the first WCG app to use them. Others may be better suited to nVidia, there's no way of knowing until they hit. If a few video cards here and there doesn't matter to someone then it's all good, carry on. Making long term decisions based on one science app may be a risk for someone on a tight budget, however. Just be a little thoughtful is all I'm suggesting.

[Conquistador SW]

Before people get head over heels into spending megabucks on ATi cards, this is just the first WCG app to use them. Others may be better suited to nVidia, there's no way of knowing until they hit. If a few video cards here and there doesn't matter to someone then it's all good, carry on. Making long term decisions based on one science app may be a risk for someone on a tight budget, however. Just be a little thoughtful is all I'm suggesting.

I agree, that is why I am looking for the cheapest card cost and power wise. It seems like the 7770 is still the best, but I am going to wait on hipno650's results before making a decisions what to get. I don't want to buy a 7970 and come to the conclusion that it is not worth it or other project later on will be much better on Nvidia.

[pirogue]

Just for kicks, I looked up my points per hour for HCC GPU and it is 1964.02.
Remember the good ol' days of seeing 20-30ish as the norm?

[Movieman]

Just for kicks, I looked up my points per hour for HCC GPU and it is 1964.02.
Remember the good ol' days of seeing 20-30ish as the norm?

I was remembering spending $4000.00+ on a dualie 3600/2mb/800 Xeon system in late 2005 that did 7500PPD..
My how times have changed..

[Origin_Unknown]

I've finally joined in with my 5850

[shoota]

And I've got my 6850 going.

[Movieman]

I've finally joined in with my 5850

And I've got my 6850 going.

[Rob_B]

I have just installed an ATI 7770 on my 3770 cruncher. But it doesn't work. In "Event log" I see this and would think the card is properly installed.

16/10/2012 18:45:11 | | ATI GPU 0: Capeverde (CAL version 1.4.1741, 1024MB, 984MB available, 3200 GFLOPS peak)
16/10/2012 18:45:11 | | OpenCL: ATI GPU 0: Capeverde (driver version CAL 1.4.1741 (VM), device version OpenCL 1.2 AMD-APP (938.2), 1024MB, 984MB available)

But under "Status" in BoincManager it reads "GPU missing, Ready to start"

Any idea what could cause this and how to get it working?

Thanks.

[Movieman]

I have just installed an ATI 7770 on my 3770 cruncher. But it doesn't work. In "Event log" I see this and would think the card is properly installed.



But under "Status" in BoincManager it reads "GPU missing, Ready to start"

Any idea what could cause this and how to get it working?

Thanks.

What version of BOINC are you using?
If not, update to ver 7+

[Rob_B]

Version 7.0.28

But I did restart it once more (did that 2 twice already) and now it is working.

[Movieman]

Version 7.0.28

But I did restart it once more (did that 2 twice already) and now it is working.

[masterg]

you need to download and install the CCC drivers for your card otherwise it will not run at all

[kjeldoran]

I'm going back to 7 CPU threads and 1 GPU thread. I have run into a problem where my GPU will not start the WUs (lost about 8 hours of crunching time during the night). Oh well, it looked promising, but GPU crunching just started.

[Bun-Bun]

Damn you all to hell. You got me hooked again.

I just ordered a 7850 to go along with my other 7850 (can later be crossfired so I dont feel so bad for spending the money)

But damn you all.

[Movieman]

I'm going back to 7 CPU threads and 1 GPU thread. I have run into a problem where my GPU will not start the WUs (lost about 8 hours of crunching time during the night). Oh well, it looked promising, but GPU crunching just started.

I'm not 100% sure yet but from little pieces here and there it "seems" that these GPU units:
1) Don't like hyperthreading
2) they LOVE it when no cpu tasks running
3) cpu speed is a factor, how big I'm not sure but it's there.

[Rob_B]

I have just installed an ATI 7770 on my 3770 cruncher. But it doesn't work. In "Event log" I see this and would think the card is properly installed.

But under "Status" in BoincManager it reads "GPU missing, Ready to start"

Any idea what could cause this and how to get it working?

Thanks.

Version 7.0.28

But I did restart it once more (did that 2 twice already) and now it is working.

And it stopped again.

But now I figured it out. I run this cruncher without monitor and keyboard and use Remote Desktop to contol it. And as soon as I connect to it, it loses the GPU. Even GPU-z doesn't show all info on the sensor tab.

Now without RDC connected I can see it working fine in BoincTasks. So, after all.

[kjeldoran]

I'm not 100% sure yet but from little pieces here and there it "seems" that these GPU units:
1) Don't like hyperthreading
2) they LOVE it when no cpu tasks running
3) cpu speed is a factor, how big I'm not sure but it's there.

I think my problem is related to something else. I was running 2 gpu wus at once with my CPU being totally free. Probably related to the app info.

2. I did free up one thread since I noticed a good drop in WU completion time.


3. I have my 2600k running at 4.5GHz so I think I'm pretty much at a wall CPU speed wise. I won't disable HT though. Maybe when Haswell comes out we will see a difference?

[bluestang]

Ok, I adjusted my 2D clocks to never go below 600/800 and I'm hoping that solves my OC issues I was having OCing this card. I think the low 2D idle state of 300/150 are just to low and cause problems on some systems.

So, I just upped my 7870 from stock clocks 1050/1250 to 1200/1400. Going to see what diff it makes. Max temps only go up 1 of 2C so that's no biggy and wattage is up 7-8W more than stock. Looks like I'll be able to shave 10-15s off depending on WU.

EDIT: MF'er. I guess that didn't work either, card crashed again. I can't get this card to OC for nothing ):

EDIT 2: I may just RMA this card and get 2x 7770 instead.

[OldChap]

I have 5 5870's but the only one I bought from new will not run..... rig re- starts with it fitted just after the point during the boot process where the screen turns on.

I took a look inside through the fan aperture and all I can see is corrosion. I know I live by the sea but this is ridiculous. Maybe worth stripping down... whadda u think?

[Sparky]

If it's busted there isn't anything to lose by taking it apart.

[werdwerdus]

And it stopped again.

But now I figured it out. I run this cruncher without monitor and keyboard and use Remote Desktop to contol it. And as soon as I connect to it, it loses the GPU. Even GPU-z doesn't show all info on the sensor tab.

Now without RDC connected I can see it working fine in BoincTasks. So, after all.

I have just installed an ATI 7770 on my 3770 cruncher. But it doesn't work. In "Event log" I see this and would think the card is properly installed.



But under "Status" in BoincManager it reads "GPU missing, Ready to start"

Any idea what could cause this and how to get it working?

Thanks.

you figured out that remote desktop switches to a software video driver. Also if you are on win vista/7 if you log off or even switch users it will stop the gpu driver and change to a microsoft driver. it's a sandboxing security feature as far as i can tell.