which of the projects has high RAM usage?

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Erich56

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Message 68389 - Posted: 19 Mar 2016, 17:54:39 UTC
Last modified: 19 Mar 2016, 17:55:06 UTC

I recently got a new PC which I'd like to mainly dedicate to Grid Computing.
So far, the projects I have installed (also on some other of my PCs long time ago) do not use much RAM at all.
My new PC has 32GB RAM, the CPU is a 6-core (+ 6 cores Hyperthreading).
Could anyone recommend a Project, out the many offered, which would use a fairly high amout of the RAM available?
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Profile Jord
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Message 68392 - Posted: 19 Mar 2016, 18:36:27 UTC - in response to Message 68389.  

Why would you want to use a lot of memory?
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Erich56

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Message 68394 - Posted: 19 Mar 2016, 18:56:49 UTC - in response to Message 68392.  
Last modified: 19 Mar 2016, 19:01:00 UTC

Why would you want to use a lot of memory?

simply because I have it available;
or, in other words - there may be a lot of people with 16GB or even 8GB, hence those tasks that can use or need more will not be run on these PCs.
On the other hand - my PC could run them; so I would just need to know which projects can make use of much RAM
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Message 68395 - Posted: 19 Mar 2016, 19:02:52 UTC - in response to Message 68394.  

Well, in that case you may want to look at the ATLAS project, which uses applications running in VirtualBox. It can easily gobble up a lot of memory.
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Erich56

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Message 68397 - Posted: 19 Mar 2016, 19:57:33 UTC - in response to Message 68395.  

thanks for your hint. Sounds very interesting.
There is a question now with regard to the VirtualBox: I had installed the BOINC Version without VB, and I would prefer NOT to download and re-install BOINC including the VB, as one the GPUGRID specialists made some adaptions to my BOINC installation in order to optimize BOINC to process GPUGRID on two high-end GPUs. So I'd not like to touch this installation.
Can I download any VB from one of the many download sources and use that for Atlas as well? If yes, any points I would have to give special attention?
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Message 68398 - Posted: 19 Mar 2016, 20:07:33 UTC - in response to Message 68397.  

Preferably not any VirtualBox, but a more up-to-date one. Depends also on your Windows version, if Windows 10 a minimum of 5.0.10 is required for compatibility reasons.

Also, the newest available from the VirtualBox download page is not always the best as it may not be compatible with all the projects using VBox. But that's then best asked at the projects in question.

At the moment BOINC 7.6.22 ships with 5.0.10, test-versions of BOINC 7.6.23 and higher ship with 5.0.12, VirtualBox has 5.0.16 out. But you can get older builds easily from https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Download_Old_Builds_5_0.

Don't forget to enable Virtualisation VT-x/AMD-v in your computer's BIOS.
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noderaser
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Message 68404 - Posted: 20 Mar 2016, 3:24:14 UTC

BURP (http://burp.boinc.dk/) can always use another host with high memory... Although many of the sessions are lower in the RAM department, there are some that require 8-12 GB or (theoretically) more. However, it does not have constant work as the queue depends on community submissions.
My Detailed BOINC Stats
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Erich56

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Message 68406 - Posted: 20 Mar 2016, 7:48:38 UTC

I installed Virtual Box and Atlas@home, it works well.

However, as all WUs together (Atlas, Rosetta, GPUGRID) are using only 51% of my 32GB RAM, I initiated BURP in addition in the BOINC manager. Some work units were downloaded right away, but when computation started, the WU crashed after 8-9 seconds, saying "computation error". I tried this several times, always same error.
So, BURP doesn't seem to run on my computer, for whatever reason :-(

Hence, I'd like to try some other projects from which I've red that they like to use much RAM.
Most of them run under a Virtual Box, though. What does this mean for me now: I am currently running Atlas under a Virtual Box. For any other projects, do I need to install additional Virtual Boxes? Sorry if my question may sound dumm, but so far I have not made any experience with VBs.
So, in order to avoid any crashes, I'd rather ask the specialists before.
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Erich56

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Message 68414 - Posted: 20 Mar 2016, 15:01:41 UTC - in response to Message 68406.  

Hence, I'd like to try some other projects from which I've red that they like to use much RAM.
Most of them run under a Virtual Box, though. What does this mean for me now: I am currently running Atlas under a Virtual Box. For any other projects, do I need to install additional Virtual Boxes?

okay, I've found out that Installation of VB only needs to be done once.
So I am running now Virtual HC@Home beside Atlas, but it doesn't really use much RAM. I still have some 40% of RAM free.

Can anyone please tell me a project which is a real RAM-eater?
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Richard Haselgrove
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Message 68415 - Posted: 20 Mar 2016, 15:42:21 UTC - in response to Message 68414.  
Last modified: 20 Mar 2016, 15:45:23 UTC

Can anyone please tell me a project which is a real RAM-eater?

You could try having a browse through

http://wuprop.boinc-af.org/results/ram.py?plateforme=all&tri=13&sort=desc

(I've sorted that view on the Windows column, though you haven't actually mentioned yet which OS you're running)
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Coleslaw
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Message 68417 - Posted: 20 Mar 2016, 20:43:31 UTC

You could always create a ramdisk and put your BOINC data directory into it so that your work units run quicker. That would utilize your RAM better and give projects a little speed boost. But then again, you probably wouldn't want to run both virtualbox apps and a ramdrive with that amount of RAM, so it would have to just depend on your project of choice.
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Erich56

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Message 68422 - Posted: 21 Mar 2016, 8:44:32 UTC - in response to Message 68415.  

Can anyone please tell me a project which is a real RAM-eater?

You could try having a browse through

http://wuprop.boinc-af.org/results/ram.py?plateforme=all&tri=13&sort=desc

(I've sorted that view on the Windows column, though you haven't actually mentioned yet which OS you're running)


many thanks for the list; that's exactly what I was looking for :-)
You were guessing right: I'm running Windows 64-bit.
Too bad that Beauty@LHC is not active at the moment, and GW Inspiral CBC seems to be dead.
Garli (I've found out) is part of "The Lattice Project" which I joined in BOINC right now (even with a GPU version available), but there are no WUs for download :-)

So, for the time being, I will increase in BOINC the number of Atlas tasks (by pausing some other projects) in order to make better use of my 32GB RAM.

Thanks again for the interesting list, anyway :-)
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Erich56

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Message 68425 - Posted: 21 Mar 2016, 11:33:52 UTC

Meanwhile, Lattice WUs were downloaded by the BOINC manager; however, right when it starts crunching, it crashes and says "computation error". This has happened several times, so it seems that these WUs cannot be crunched on my PC, for what reason ever.

Anyone around with similar experience?
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Profile Jord
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Message 68426 - Posted: 21 Mar 2016, 11:43:47 UTC - in response to Message 68425.  
Last modified: 21 Mar 2016, 11:54:54 UTC

When you click any TaskID with a computation error, you'll get into details of what the error is.
But I suspect that the problem in this is your Windows XP Professional 64bit SP2.
You probably best ask at the projects involved if they support this OS.
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Erich56

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Message 68433 - Posted: 21 Mar 2016, 14:52:54 UTC - in response to Message 68426.  

When you click any TaskID with a computation error, you'll get into details of what the error is.
But I suspect that the problem in this is your Windows XP Professional 64bit SP2.
You probably best ask at the projects involved if they support this OS.


The details say: couldn't start app - Create Process () failed - unknown error

Unfortunately, I cannot participate in any of their forums yet for asking re the OS, as one has to have credits first (which is a dumm policy)
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Message 68435 - Posted: 21 Mar 2016, 16:36:51 UTC - in response to Message 68433.  

Most projects have two kinds of forums, one for active users with a RAC higher than one, and a Help Desk section for those without credit or a RAC lower than one.

In the case of Lattice, those are called Questions and Answers, and can be found (also from their menu) at http://boinc.umiacs.umd.edu/forum_help_desk.php.

For BURP these are called Problems and Help at https://burp.renderfarming.net/forum_forum.php?id=5.
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Erich56

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Message 68438 - Posted: 21 Mar 2016, 19:07:01 UTC

On the Lattice homepage, I found a contact e-Mail address which I used for contacting them. Shortly thereafter I received a reply in which they said that they will look into the matter and that they are confident that the issue can be solved :-)
This sounds good - so let's hope
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Erich56

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Message 68519 - Posted: 25 Mar 2016, 7:41:50 UTC - in response to Message 68438.  

On the Lattice homepage, I found a contact e-Mail address which I used for contacting them. Shortly thereafter I received a reply in which they said that they will look into the matter and that they are confident that the issue can be solved :-)
This sounds good - so let's hope

just a short update: although the people at Lattice said that they believe to have found the reason for failure and fixed it, it still does not work (on my System).

Is there anyone else having "computation errors" right at the start of a task?
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