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Jumping back into the [H] fold

T

tkam

[H]ard|DCer of the Month - Dec. 2012
Joined
Dec 18, 2007
Messages
436
Hey guys, I used to fold for the [H] a few years ago and I'm starting to get back into it. Don't have a ton of hardware to add into the mix yet, right now I'm just getting caught up on all the new guides and tools available to us folders.

One question, and this might be a stupid one but I remember that at one point to have a multi-gpu setup you either needed a monitor or dummy plug attached to each card. Is this still the case?
 
welcome back, judging from your sig it isnt exactly a small amount :D


And to answer your question, it is driver dependent now i believe, however I couldn't tell you which to go for, as I haven't GPU folded in over a year
 
Thanks for the welcome and nice catch I hadn't updated my sig so that's what I had running before. Updated the sig to what I really have running right now.

What I'm thinking of doing if I don't need a monitor or dummy plugs for the nvidia fermi based cards is have two boxes running 4 x GTX 460s.
 
NVidia based cards with the latest NVidia Driver and cuda package do not require anything to be plugged in.

Welcome back too :)
 
NVidia based cards with the latest NVidia Driver and cuda package do not require anything to be plugged in.
Click to expand...
That's right, 402 and I just leave our Nvidia cards lying on the desk. Don't even need power. We simulate cooling fan sounds though, because it's fun!

Welcome back to Folding, tkam!
 
402blownstroker said:
NVidia based cards with the latest NVidia Driver and cuda package do not require anything to be plugged in.
Click to expand...

For the record, neither do ATI cards. I've folded on both recently and have run both types of GPU headless with no problems.

Just throwing this out there in case... Be aware that there is currently an issue that a few people are running into with NVidia GPUs where if you're running the current driver, work units may fail when Windows shuts your monitor off. If you disable the option to allow windows to shut down your display in your Power control panel, then everything should run fine after that.
 
Welcome back!

Just an FYI: If power costs and cooling are an issue. SMP folding is proabaly a better choice if you plan on buying new hardware.
 
Kendrak said:
Just an FYI: If power costs and cooling are an issue. SMP folding is proabaly a better choice if you plan on buying new hardware.
Click to expand...

I can vouch for this one as well. I dumped my GPU client and upgraded that particular system for SMP folding. That system now uses about 30W less and I get, on average, about 3x as many PPD out of it.
 
Hmm that's very interesting. The only reason I was looking at the GTX 460s was because they are relatively inexpensive. Any suggestions on a good dual socket config for SMP folding?
 
Speaking of power...
@ 460s will give you about 25 to 30K ppd
Where one I7-2600K will generate about 25K with half the power usage.
 
A single 460 will not give 25k - 30k PPD. More like 10k - 13k PPD.

Also make sure you don't use Windows Remote Desktop Connection to remote into the boxen, it will disrupt the video driver for the GPU client and cause it to not start a new WU once it has finished the current.
 
Skillz said:
A single 460 will not give 25k - 30k PPD. More like 10k - 13k PPD.

Also make sure you don't use Windows Remote Desktop Connection to remote into the boxen, it will disrupt the video driver for the GPU client and cause it to not start a new WU once it has finished the current.
Click to expand...

There is a hack to fix that.... now where was that post....
 
tkam said:
Hmm that's very interesting. The only reason I was looking at the GTX 460s was because they are relatively inexpensive. Any suggestions on a good dual socket config for SMP folding?
Click to expand...

Unless you're asking because you're interested in actually building a multi-CPU rig, a regular multi-core processor will do SMP folding just fine. As long as you have more than 1 processing core, you can do SMP. An i7, for instance, is seen by the OS (either Windows or Linux) as having 8 separate CPUs available (4 physical cores, plus 4 logical cores from hyperthreading).
 
Hey guys thanks for the great suggestions - I actually am looking to build a new rig so I'm thinking maybe a dual 16-core AMD box. Unless I can find a decent deal on those 4 socket g34 boards.
 
That's a heck of a good price much lower than any prices I'm seeing. Also any recommendation on a power supply?
 
There is an open box 4P in the hot deals thread on newegg.
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1437760&page=48
Post #956

If you wana go big, Grab It! There is also some nice info in the posts after about total cost of system.

(Tyans won't let you put a modest OC on the chips by using tears coustom bios, but for ~$300 cheaper it is hard to argue)
 
That 4P board is tempting but I have a few midtower cases (w/ psu's) lying around the office. I think I'll get those stuffed with i7-2600k's before I start looking at buying anything else.
 
I have a 2P G34 socket board on the way from a fellow [H]'er - so the question now which cpu's to get. I was thinking of the 16-core Opteron 6274 (2.2ghz). But would the higher clock of the 12-core 6238 (2.6ghz) be a better option (it's also quite a bit cheaper).

Also have several other parts on the way for 3 or 4 boxes - 3 x i7 2600K and a gtx 670
 
I don't have the specifics but pretty much everyone I have seen says don't do Interlagos for folding, so shoot for a 6174 or something like that, or get a couple of 6128s for ~200, but you probably won't be able to finish BigAdv with the 28s. Happy Folding!
 
My 2p 6272 get about 150kppd with p6904 few months ago. These cpus are both Interlagos, so it is comparable with simple math. Folding performance is almost linear so 32 cores is +33% of 24 cores, and 2.6GHz is +18% of 2.2GHz. I will go with 32 cores.
 
I have a pair of 6274's on the way. Today I was able to get two i7-2600k boxes up and running. I'm running ubuntu and the linux fah client, is -smp the only flag I should run with them? Also can anyone recommend a decent cli tool for monitoring fah on linux?
 
I run hfm.net on my daily windows box, it monitors all my fah clients from LINUX to windows gpus, all in one Lil program.
 
Hey Pocatello - nice to see you again as well!

Kendrak - yep the farm is growing, got those two i7-2600k boxes up yesterday. Still have my dual 6274 box to get up this weekend. I'll also be replacing my q9450 + gtx 275 rig with a i7-2600k + gtx 670.
 
Why all the new i7 boxes? Put the money into two more 6274's and a Supermicro 4P to go with it.
 
Already had most of the parts needed for the i7 boxes - just needed the cpu's and mobo's. No plans on doing a 4P box, only doing the dual 6274 because I was able to pick up a mobo for them at a really good price.
 
Skillz said:
I run hfm.net on my daily windows box, it monitors all my fah clients from LINUX to windows gpus, all in one Lil program.
Click to expand...

+1 to this, I have a windows box with HFM and Apache that monitors the farm and serves a web page so I can see what's happening from any browser. Works with v6 or v7 clients and as Skillz said windows or linux. It can also be configured to email you if a client does an EUE pause or hangs (v6 only, I believe).
 
rhavern said:
+1 to this, I have a windows box with HFM and Apache that monitors the farm and serves a web page so I can see what's happening from any browser. Works with v6 or v7 clients and as Skillz said windows or linux. It can also be configured to email you if a client does an EUE pause or hangs (v6 only, I believe).
Click to expand...

Yeah I have it update stats on a web page as well.

http://redlined.org/fah/summary.html

So I can check it anywhere/anytime I have an Internet connection. It even has a "mobile" version that I check on my phone frequently.
 
402blownstroker said:
NVidia based cards with the latest NVidia Driver and cuda package do not require anything to be plugged in.

Welcome back too :)
Click to expand...

There a bug in some of the nVidia, where the monitor sleep function halts the client or prevent it from getting another WU.. Problem appears to be resolved for 301.24 and newer.
 
I took a look at hfm.net but ended up just going with the simple command line utility qd - it works for me.

Also big day today - just finished getting my dual 6274 box online. Yay for 32-cores :)
 
tkam said:
I took a look at hfm.net but ended up just going with the simple command line utility qd - it works for me.

Also big day today - just finished getting my dual 6274 box online. Yay for 32-cores :)
Click to expand...

Sorry for digging up a couple of month old thread but do you have any photos of your setup? Would be nice with some picture porn :)
 
Not really, though I did just add a 3rd 560ti too my new dedicated gpu folding rig and a snapped a quick pick of that:

IMAG0124.jpg
 
I see you have a similar case to a few of my rigs ;)
 
With the way that some of the latest workunits are heating up the cards, folding nekkid seems to be the way to go. Especially with three blower style cards.
 
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