Linux/Overclocking

[Untitledone]

Sometime next week when I get some time I would like to install Ubuntu Linux on my dedicated folder. I installed Ubuntu 11.04 on a laptop and got everthing setup so I know it wont be hard.

I was just wondering what a general performance increase would be had from Win 7 pro x64 to Ubuntu on the SMP client (no -bigadv). From a few posts around that I have read, it could be anywhere from 10% or more.

Also on the overclocking side of things. I have mostly been staying on stock voltages with a slight overclock to keep the power consumption in check. Since the whole curve of clock speed and voltage vs power consumption has a steep curve after you start leaving stock clocks/voltages.

I know that performance increases relatively linear to clock speed, and subsequently TPF would lower near linearly with clock speed. However PPD does not scale linearly with clock speed and TPF but dramatically as the TPF lowers. This ends up with a processor with a relative 2x performance getting 4x points, and a 4x faster processor getting nearly 10x the points. These are just some observations and I understand that time is very important when it comes to these calculations and that is why the points are weighted this way.

So it goes to show that overclocking as it pertains to PPD/watt is more beneficial as compared to the actual increase in processor throughput for a given increase in wattage.

I can see that this can be a good and a bad thing. For a small folder with only a few machines and limited recources overclocking can help bridge the gap between them and a large borg/farm of stock clocked machines. However I can see that those with significant funds can make one uber machine that makes a large amount of points.

I am not bitching or anything. This post started off as just some questions on linux/overclocking and I got carried away. So I pretty much answered my own questions on overclocking so thats what I will be tinkering with next week!

Any answers/comments welcome!

Thanks!!!

 

[W.Feather]

i can say from experience with my 1090T on -smp going from windows to Ubuntu 10.10 was ~10% increase

now are you asking at one point to figure out stability? I know Tobit has a stress tester based on an older gromac's core......

other than that, it seems you have answered your own questions

 

[Untitledone]

i can say from experience with my 1090T on -smp going from windows to Ubuntu 10.10 was ~10% increase

now are you asking at one point to figure out stability? I know Tobit has a stress tester based on an older gromac's core......

other than that, it seems you have answered your own questions

Stability testing would be useful. Would you happen to know what thread has Tobit's stress tester? I will probably use prime 95 for a good portion of it. However It would be very helpful to use a derivative of the F@H core so that I can see a more realistic representation of power consumption, stability, and possibly performance.

 

[may i be worthy]

Is there Linpack for linux?

That was the fastest way to judge general stability. However, nothing beats FAH itself. On SR2s, the project that would make me BSOD was the 6701 - you can run a captured one from Musky's benchmark. It is not current anymore, but it was dramatically harder than any other unit.

But you have Win7 running on it now? Just use IntelBurnTest2.5 to get it stable before you go to Linux. I am still a Linux newb, so I do not know all the error codes, but windows bluescreen errors are very informative. Because all my rigs were proven stable on Win7, moving to linux has been painless (for stability.)

Have fun tinkering

 

[Untitledone]

Is there Linpack for linux?

That was the fastest way to judge general stability. However, nothing beats FAH itself. On SR2s, the project that would make me BSOD was the 6701 - you can run a captured one from Musky's benchmark. It is not current anymore, but it was dramatically harder than any other unit.

But you have Win7 running on it now? Just use IntelBurnTest2.5 to get it stable before you go to Linux. I am still a Linux newb, so I do not know all the error codes, but windows bluescreen errors are very informative. Because all my rigs were proven stable on Win7, moving to linux has been painless (for stability.)

Have fun tinkering

Thanks for the input! I will look into musky's bench. I think I am going to go dual boot with linux for F@H and windows for the rare occasion that I need the computer for other tasks.

 

[may i be worthy]

I forgot - link to Muskys bench :

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1568586&highlight=musky

It is a series of captured Windows work units - wont run on Linux. Use it to run the 6701, then kill the benchmark window so the FAH window will just run.

If you bork a unit I think you might have to reinstall it - which is dead easy, just unzip again. But much better than messing up live units.

If you can pass several hours of Linpack/Interlburntest and 6701, you should be fine for other SMP units, which are much more forgiving.

 

[Untitledone]

Thanks, I searched for musky bench and I found it pretty quick. I have been reading through the posts for the past hour. Looks like I will have something to do next week after finals to get ready for the contest in june! Thanks for all the help! This will be cool to see what my weaksauce processor can do on a -bigadv!

 

[W.Feather]

Tobit did not post the tester on any thread, i got it from him on IRC

It is based off an older Gromacs core though, i dont remember the name of it either But it did stress the CPU well for me