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can I do better?

D

drgnfang

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Oct 13, 2007
Messages
1,085
Ok,
So I've turned in my first GPU WU, and I'm curious if I can push this further... First some info.

Win XP SP3
E8400@3.8
8800gt, 600/1825/900, 60C (fan @ 100%, and still quieter than the shuttle)
F@H Mon estimate of 4700 PPD

I'm using GPU-Z and the EVGA Precision tool. Is Riva Tuner better? Drivers are 177.35

I started by pushing the shaders to 1700 and left it there for a bit, then slowly increased it to 1825. Everything seems stable (so far).

Here's my first issue: With the shaders @ 1700 I was hitting at 1:34/Percent on average. With the shaders @ 1825 I'm hitting at 1:28/Percent on average. Is it worth trying to push the shaders higher? Should I try dropping the core or memory, and if so how much?

Second issue: While the desktop seems more or less responsive, anything that involves the GPU is laggie as hell. For example, I use RocketDock (think Apple dock bar) which uses alpha blending, and zooming and such and it is almost unusable. Another affected tool is the MS deskman powertoy (virtual desktops WTF).

 
On my 8800gtx - anything (mooderate - to heavy GPU) graphical takes a hit.Makes sense since it's folding.

Jacking shaders brought me a nice increase in PPD, once it had a day or so to settle down. Keep pushing until you get EUE's (E... Unit Error, if I recal correctly) then back it down a notch. Then let it go fod like crazy.

Not familiar with percentages - sorry.
 
Just the time to complete each percent of the WU.
For example:
[02:43:35] Completed 24%
[02:45:03] Completed 25%
[02:46:30] Completed 26%
[02:47:58] Completed 27%
[02:49:25] Completed 28%
[02:50:53] Completed 29%
[02:52:23] Completed 30%
[02:53:52] Completed 31%
Click to expand...

 
Actually, 4700PPD seems a bit low. I have the shaders on my 8800GT running 1800 and it does about 5100PPD for the most part. I get the same PPD on either Vista64 or XP32.

As far as the lagginess for graphics goes, there's not anything you can do about it when running XP. That's the only reason I switched back to Vista64. I couldn't take the lagginess at all since it would affect the Windows GUI, I couldn't play any videos and the GUIs of some apps were laggy to the point where I couldn't do anything with the program in a timely manner.

I doubt there is much that will be done for XP since it's on its way out to be replaced by Vista. Normally, this probably wouldn't be too much of a problem except that the driver model between XP and Vista is radically different. I would guess that the clients and cores are written in a way to take better advantage of the way drivers work in Vista.

 
I had to relearn how to function efficiently in XP after installing the GPU2 client. Anything that brings up a tooltip or menu while I'm watching something on my TV tuner card freezes the system for a couple of seconds. As long as I can avoid that, I'm OK. Using the keyboard whenever I can instead of the mouse helps in that regard because no 'mouse-hover' actions occur. However, if I want to see a video file like an mpg, forget it. Absolutely impossible. The system will totally freeze and I will be forced to reboot. Whenever I need to view video files I just stop the clients completely. :rolleyes: :mad:

 
Thankfully my media box will be rebuilt this week (no GPU client on that one, just a SMP).

F@HMon has been sitting nailed @ 4766.90 since I pushed the shaders to 1700+ and I haven't seen a lot of change in completion times. About 1/2 way done with my third unit, shader now @ 1850, everything else still stock.
[05:38:52] Completed 42%
[05:40:19] Completed 43%
[05:41:46] Completed 44%
[05:43:15] Completed 45%
[05:44:43] Completed 46%
[05:46:11] Completed 47%
Click to expand...
Just loaded it into F@HSpy and it is showing close to the same PPD (4767), with an average time per step of 1:27.

Maybe it's just cause I'm using the box? Will pushing up the Core and Memory help any?

 
drgnfang said:
Thankfully my media box will be rebuilt this week (no GPU client on that one, just a SMP).

F@HMon has been sitting nailed @ 4766.90 since I pushed the shaders to 1700+ and I haven't seen a lot of change in completion times. About 1/2 way done with my third unit, shader now @ 1850, everything else still stock.Just loaded it into F@HSpy and it is showing close to the same PPD (4767), with an average time per step of 1:27.

Maybe it's just cause I'm using the box? Will pushing up the Core and Memory help any?

Click to expand...

Core and Memory speeds don't affect folding much. However, if you are doing other things on the box, then it can lower the GPU PPD. When my system is left totally alone I'll get up to almost 5400PPD now that I'm using the new GPU console client on Vista. However, that doesn't happen much. When watching a movie or something, the PPD on the GPU client drops to around 4400-4500PPD and the dual VMs drop from around 2200PPD to around 1800-2000 depending on what the movie is encoded with and the resolution.

 
Yeah, when I woke up this morning F@HMon was showing 5260 and F@HSpy was showing 5180. Within a couple of minutes of unlocking windows it dropped back into the 4700-4800 range. I'll probably try to see how high I can push the shaders tonight, maybe I can get 1900.

The true test will be if the system is still running when I get home from work today. High's around 108 expected in Dallas.

 
How come I never see a drop in GPU PPD no matter what I do on my computer or how many applications are run concurrently?

 
^^ Shhhhh... now you've gone and done it.


 
Are you running on a dual or quad core? Do you have locked to a core, or let it float? OS? Magic beans?

 
drgnfang said:
Are you running on a dual or quad core? Do you have locked to a core, or let it float? OS? Magic beans?
Click to expand...
I am a Magus, but it's no mojo. I'm running a dual Opteron (4 cores) and isolated the GPU clients to core 1, but I also included the entry to have them locked to that core in environmental variables.
 
Perhaps not playing any games helps in that regard as well...? ;)
 
No gaming here... Haven't even watched any movies/videos since the reinstall. I think it is just a combo of WinXP + Dual core CPU.

 
drgnfang said:
No gaming here... Haven't even watched any movies/videos since the reinstall. I think it is just a combo of WinXP + Dual core CPU.
Click to expand...
Ahh but there's the rub, in XP you can't watch any video file and GPU fold, at least I can't. I have to stop all my GPUs folding in order to watch any file, otherwise my system freezes. So, whatever my system grants as an advantage elsewhere, I totally lose by being forced to stop my GPU clients on occasion. :(
 
Do I have to leave evga precision up? Just checked and it's suck up like 10-15% CPU...

 
drgnfang said:
Do I have to leave evga precision up? Just checked and it's suck up like 10-15% CPU...
Click to expand...
If it's like Riva Tuner (it's based on it) then you can close the app. The OC should stick.
 
If like Apollo says, it's like Rivatuner, there should be a method (there's a checkbox in RT) to apply your OC and fan settings when Windows starts too. Only rub I found about that is it won't do the second card (if you have multi-gpu) unless you have the desktop extended to it.

Either way no need to leave it running all the time.


 
It does have a check box, and the OC did stick when I shut down the app. Thanks for the help with this. Eagerly awaiting the arrival of my 9800gx2 on Wednesday.

 
Eagerly awaiting the arrival of my 9800gx2 on Wednesday.
Click to expand...

Enjoy. May be a whole new set of issues trying to get both cores folding. But you're better prepared this time with all the experience gained so far.

Luck!


 
Are you going to have a lonely 8800GT that needs a home in a few days... or do you have a home for it? :D

 
The 9800gx2 is going into a "new" boxen (really salvaged, but it works), E6600+Asus P5K Deluxe. The 8800gt is in my newly rebuilt daily (needed new mobo+case to support storage needs). I should be pretty close to 20K by end of the week. Figure that way there shouldn't be anything to interfer with the 9800gx2 running full tilt, while the 8800gt may occasionally loose a few points while I do things.

 
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