this might not be boinc related, but I am not getting anywhere with dnetc or distributed.net, so maybe it boinc. if answered elsewhere, please provide a slap and link. thanks.

BM: 6.10.36. I have yet to upgrade because I hear recurring moaning regarding dual ati cards and boinc. minus this problem, which is probably not boinc, 36 works great.

crunching with 2x5870 in no cpu mode I sporadically have WUs with these indicators:

at 100% gpu completed crunching, the cpu kicks in yet not crunching. on an i7 one core hits 100% for 3-5mins. that might not sound like much but the WU is crunched by gpus in ~7min. lots of wasted time. again, no crunching going on during this time and for minutes for an i7.

if I catch said WUs in cpu only state, I suspend/resume, the WU is backed up to say 98% and the gpus crunch and the WU processes normally.


is it possible this problem, costing 25-35k per day, is boinc related?

I would try an upgrade but the hw list for 58 stops at 4870.


thanks.

Try an update to 6.10.58 anyway. Don't stare yourself blind at hardware lists. BOINC will detect newer GPUs without problems, as it does this by reading a file that's in the videocard's drivers.

As for your CPU being used, the general advice on systems with more than one GPU is to allow BOINC to use all CPUs minus one. That CPU will then be used by the GPUs. (As all GPU programs still use the CPU for task translation into something the GPU can understand and transfer to and fro of this data).

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Try an update to 6.10.58 anyway. Don't stare yourself blind at hardware lists. BOINC will detect newer GPUs without problems, as it does this by reading a file that's in the videocard's drivers.

As for your CPU being used, the general advice on systems with more than one GPU is to allow BOINC to use all CPUs minus one. That CPU will then be used by the GPUs. (As all GPU programs still use the CPU for task translation into something the GPU can understand and transfer to and fro of this data).

first off, thank you for the time.

I agree with your position regarding hw lists but hesitate because I hear some mumbling with dual ati and later boinc versions. I neglected to mention later in initial post.

for the more important point, I was not clear. I am not running cpu usage, by choice. this issue does not happen for the most of the WUs, but enough to ding the daily total. but mysteriously, the cpu usage starts after WU crunched by the gpus. it is dead usage, the cpu appears active but actively doing nothing for the completed WU.

example of cpu time added at end of completed WU:

6977000 5903828 2874 2 Sep 2010 0:52:25 UTC 3 Sep 2010 10:43:04 UTC Completed and validated 479.40 1.48 0.01 3,284.40 DNETC@Home v1.29 (ati14)
6976723 5903566 2874 2 Sep 2010 0:45:21 UTC 3 Sep 2010 10:43:04 UTC Completed and validated 637.40 182.37 0.98 3,091.20 DNETC@Home v1.29 (ati14)
6975870 5902751 2874 2 Sep 2010 0:38:14 UTC 3 Sep 2010 10:43:04 UTC Completed and validated 424.55 1.37 0.01 3,091.20 DNETC@Home v1.29 (ati14)

you can see that 3mins of wasted cpu usage was tacked on a 7min WU.

edit: ooops, 10min WU.

in short, I have no desire to involve the i7 anymore than the minimum which for most WUs is indistinguishable activity.

I will upgrade and report.

thanks.

Those columns are Run time and CPU time.
Then run time column shows the complete time a task takes from start to finish, including everything it has done in between. The CPU time column only shows the amount of time that the CPU was used.

So it's 479.40 1.48, 479.40 seconds total run time of the whole task, with only 1.48 seconds CPU time used. Which can be correct as most of the time is spent in GPU memory, calculations being done by the GPU.

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Those columns are Run time and CPU time.
Then run time column shows the complete time a task takes from start to finish, including everything it has done in between. The CPU time column only shows the amount of time that the CPU was used.

So it's 479.40 1.48, 479.40 seconds total run time of the whole task, with only 1.48 seconds CPU time used. Which can be correct as most of the time is spent in GPU memory, calculations being done by the GPU.

I am not sure what you are saying. I presented three WUs to provide two normally crunched WUs and then the problem child that is the middle WU. I get about 20 of these issues a day. I provided one example of the unwanted cpu activity. an activity that is not crunching as the WU crunched by gpu. again, no cpu selected.

I am working with the wrapper and distributed.net to push them to resolve this annoyance as I think boinc eliminated as the cause. ftr: I upgraded and no problems.

I remember a time when I was thrilled with 5k per day. losing an hour+ over this matter costs me more than 4Xs my previous daily total. maybe I should drop it, but it does irk me the thought that I lose more than an hour a day.


thanks for the help.