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GPU Confusion

MixManSC

MixManSC

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Okay - I've looked through the FAQs etc. and have come away more confused than helped. It's seems the bulk of the info is about tweaking your settings related to 3D, voltage, and other stuff using different programs. Here's my deal.

Machine I've recently been talking about here and there. I have zero need for 3D capabilities on the machine - as such it only has a fairly low end FireGL V3100 card in it. I just jumped on these

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102034
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186002

strictly to add the GPU client to this box. It's an x1950gt for $105 after MIR. I know there are better gpu's for folding but whatever, this was dirt cheap. The machine it's going into is a Dell Precision 690 running 32 bit Windows Server 2003 Enterprise. Dual, dual core xeons, running a single SMP client on it. Ideally I'd like to simply plug the card in, install current drivers that are known to work well with the GPU client, install and configure the GPU client, start the client up and forget about it. It does not seem that it's going to be quite that simple. It looks like I will need to at least monitor it for a week or so to make sure it's getting decent times and since it's a 256MB card I may possibly need to shut down the clent when I need to work on the machine due to a possible stuttering problem. The stuttering seems to be hit and miss and I cannot find that it's been confirmed to be an issue for this card or running this card under a server OS.

As mentioned I do not care at all about 3D on this machine and I really do not want to be installing and dicking around with tweaking utilities unless I absolutely have no choice. If I have no choice I may abandon this plan and simply sell the new card off. I just need solid 2D at a nice desktop resolution. For that matter I would even be fine with dedicating this card 100% to folding (not even connecting a monitor to it) and to continue using the FireGL card for my desktop and work as the machine does have a second PCIe x16 slot.

Cliffs
Got 256MB x1950gt coming
Want this to be EASY
Don't care at all about 3D
Only purpose for getting the card is folding
What's my plan and how do I get this going?
 
The GPU clients needs an empty core to run on due to its useing DX9 to poll the client.
So if your running the SMP client you dont have a spare core to run it on.

If you have a fast vid card then its possible to gain more points by locking the affinity of each client to their owns cores.
But thats not a set & forget setup.

I'm starting to play around with my dual-dual Opterons with twin X1950xtx in to see what gives me the best PpD.
Crunching p2604 with the SMP client gives me ~1,800 PpD

Luck .......... :D
 
Well the new video card came in and I have some results.

This is on the dual, dual core xeon dell I have.

The new video card is the only card in the system. The system is running Windows Server 2003 Enterprise SP2. I have all of the server specific functions disabled and desktop OS stuff enable such as themes, sound, 3D acceleration, etc. since this machine is used as a high end workstation.

New video card is the only one in the machine.
Sapphire ATI Radeon x1950gt 256MB PCIe
Installed ATI 7.4 Drivers
Installed the gpu console client
Machine has been running the SMP client already

Prior to the GPU client the SMP client was getting about 9 minutes per frame on and a 2652 WU. I am now running both the SMP client and the GPU client. Now the SMP client frame times have gone up to about 13 minutes per frame and the GPU client seems to be hitting about 18 minutes per frame on a 2738 WU. Both seem to be running fine and playing well together.

Thoughts on this configuration? I did expect a slight slowdown on the SMP client since I've read that the GPU client likes some CPU time. In the end I've added about 4 minutes extra time to the SMP client frame times but I've added a GPU client that's getting about 18 minutes per frame. I have no idea if this is break even, improvement over the SMP client by itself, or if I'm now actually worse off and should go back to the SMP client by itself. :confused:
 
I only know of one person that has 4 cores on one machine with a gpu also and that is Zim01. I know he could answer your question. Tigerbiten may also have a similar setup. PM Tigerbiten through this forum or you can PM Zim01 through overclockers forum since he is presently banned here.
edit: I did not see that Tigerbiten had already posted.
 
Honestly, it's not worth it with the SMP client. I tried to get two X1950XTXs running in my 690, what a pain in the ass. The SMP client will give you better results by itself then running with the GPU client, you're going to hurt the performance of the SMP client and not make up for it in points with a X1950GT. Best bet is stick the card in another box if you really want to fold with it.
 
Oh, and I can confirm the 256MB stuttering issue- my X1900GT (256MB) had it. I don't know about your X1950GT, but I don't see why it would behave any differently.
 
MixManSC said:
Well the new video card came in and I have some results.

Prior to the GPU client the SMP client was getting about 9 minutes per frame on and a 2652 WU. I am now running both the SMP client and the GPU client. Now the SMP client frame times have gone up to about 13 minutes per frame and the GPU client seems to be hitting about 18 minutes per frame on a 2738 WU. Both seem to be running fine and playing well together.
Click to expand...

p2652 is worth 1148 points.
At 9 mins a frame thats 1148x14.4/9 = ~1836 PpD
At 13 mins a frame thats 1148x14.4/13 = ~1270 PpD.
A graphic client @ 18 mins a frame will only net you 330x14.4/18 = ~264 PpD.
So you've dropped ~300 PpD.

When I've run the SMP & GPU client together I went from 15 mins a frame to 24 mins a frame on the SMP client by setting the affinity of of the client to core 1 on my C2D.
Then I ran the GPU client on core 0 @ 6:15 mins a frame.
This dropped me ~500 PpD on the SMP client but I gained ~750 PpD on the GPU one.
On my dual-dual Opteron's doing the same thing drops me ~900 PpD off the SMP client but gains me ~1300 on the two GPU clients.
But this type of setup is not a set & forget as the SMP client needs locking off the GPU cores as each protien starts it run.

Luck .............. :D
 
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