PrimeGrid - Makar Sankranti Challenge (1 of 9 in the challenge series)

Gilthanis

[H]ard|DCer of the Year - 2014
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1/7-1/15 - PrimeGrid - Makar Sankranti Challenge - 18:00:00 UTC time - http://www.primegrid.com/forum_thread.php?id=6583#90771

This is the first of the 2016 PrimeGrid challenge series. It will run for 8 days.
The following apps are the only work units that will count. Keep in mind the world record work units are monsters and so will probably only complete on time with top of the line GPU's and are double precision. AMD cards typically outperform nVidia in the sub-project.

GFN-17-Mega
GFN-18 -
GFN-19
GFN-20
GFN-21
GFN-WR

These GFN-projects are NOT part of the challenge:
GFN-15
GFN-16
GFN-17 LOW


For those new to the PrimeGrid challenge series. To participate:
1. Attach to PrimeGrid in the BOINC client
2. Make sure you are joined with our team here: http://www.primegrid.com/team_display.php?teamid=1710
3. Go to the PrimeGrid preferences under your account (at the PrimeGrid website not BOINC Manager)
4. Choose the profile you are running your computers under. The default is..... Default
5. uncheck all other work units except the GFN work that you want.
6. uncheck the send work from other projects if no work is available option. Shouldn't be an issue, but just in case...
7. You don't want to download work until the challenge starts because ONLY the work units you download during the challenge AND returned before the end of the challenge will count for the challenge. There is absolutely NO bunkering in these challenges.

If you are running work on your CPU's, remember that Intel's typically run much faster than AMD's due to the AVX extensions being tons better in Intel chips.
If you are running CPU work, most people see better over all results turning Hyper Threading OFF for all LLR based work units. Sieving typically works fine with Hyper Threading on. In this challenge, it is considered LLR. You may want to do some testing in advance for your setup.
 
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Awesome. This is a competition I can get behind even though I only have one AMD 270X.
 
I will change the comps for this challenge. I took the 8350 to work so it can run there and serve as my desk unit. :)
 
I am noticing that my points are way down when I switched to just the GFN stuff. Does this give less points than PPS Sieve? Currently BOINC says Running (0.116 CPU's and 1 NVIDIA GPU).
 
What GPU's are you running? You will see that nVidia does not score as well as PPS Sieve as these work units are double precision and PPS are not.
 
That answer is subjective. Since the challenge is for just the GFN's, then the 970 will be better than what I have to bring to the table....lol. Just don't expect to be in first place. Also, you and the team game challenge points based on where you end up at the end of each challenge. So, we could come in third place in every challenge and theoretically come in first depending on what other teams do. So, I wouldn't sweat it too much.
 
From my experience (see my sig for the GPU's I use), my Nvidia GPU's run the GFN15 - GFN18 WU's much faster than my AMD GPU's. For GFN19 - GFN WR WU's, the AMD GPU's (at least those with great DP performance, like the 280/7950 and 280X/7970) rule. I don't know what the difference is, but on my systems and GPU's, this has been consistent for me.
 
Thanks 17mega and 18 it is then.

With a 970, you could try the GFN19's and see how long they take. On my 770's, they take just under 3 hours. On my 980Ti, they take about 1 hour 15 min. I'd guess the 970 would be right around 2 hours, or so.
 
I was looking closer at my stats last night and saw that 19 and 20 give much more credit for the time than the lower ones for this challenge.

For the noobs like myself, In BOINC click Primegrid->Your Results->Click on each GFN at the top middle of webpage to see how long it takes in relation to credit.

GFN 19 gives just about 1 credit per second of time run. Whereas 17Mega gives 1/4 credit per second on my 970.
 
Typically the sub projects that take longer to run get a bonus as incentive to run them. Otherwise people would stick to the smaller work units to reduce risk of losing the whole work unit and they get their credits sooner.

and the challenge begins in 14 minutes... so don't download new work until it starts or those work units wont count for the challenge
 
I am throwing all of my GPU's in my sig at this challenge and plan to have one more computer with an R9-280 GPU up and running in the next 24 hours.

Update: Ugh, looks like my R9-280 won't fit in the case I'm using, so I have to throw in my 7870 instead.

Update II: Got the old rig up and running with a 7870 in it. Should be good for some points.
 
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Bad news. I just discovered my 780Ti no longer likes running Genefer WU's and every WU is ending in an error. :mad:

Looks like I have to switch that box back to running PPS (Sieve) WU's, since the 780Ti has no problem running those, until I can figure out what is wrong with the 780Ti running Genefer. I probably just need to under-clock it a bit.
 
Looks like the team is currently sitting in 6th place.
 
We have dropped to 11th. This doesn't surprise me as our team tends to be CPU heavy. Many of the other teams were loading up on the long running WR work units to knock out a few before end of the challenge. Those score the highest and so will have large jumps in points when they get turned in. Keep up the good work because every little bit helps in the over all challenge.
 
I just threw a couple of BOINC hosts behind this effort including a couple of GPUs.
 
The team has been holding steady in 11th place for the last couple of days. Not too shabby, considering there are only 7 team members contributing to the challenge. Keep up the good work!
 
Current team member standings:

Rank Name Team Score
16 RFGuy_KCCO [H]ard|OCP 5186675.37
152 brilong [H]ard|OCP 547581.54
170 travanx [H]ard|OCP 410513
173 HighTech67 [H]ard|OCP 393107.02
201 Coleslaw [H]ard|OCP 257095.05
383 grim4593 [H]ard|OCP 22447.22
494 [H]agrid [H]ard|OCP 457.77
 
Looks like we finished 11th.

Leaderboard for Team [H]

19 - RFGuy_KCCO
142 - brilong
181 - HighTech67
222 - travanx
223 - Coleslaw
445 - grim4593
584 - [H]agrid

Next challenge of the series will be in March.
 
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