Possible to run two cores out of four?

rbanzai

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 12, 2007
Messages
446
Now that I have the single core version running properly on my quad I was curious if the multicore version can be configured to use two cores, and only two. It looked like an all or nothing proposition. I was a bit intimidated by the instructions for the two multi core installs and was unclear on if they offered that kind if flexibility, and which one to use.
 
2 SMP clients will be used to saturate a quad core.
A single SMP will use all 4 cores just not to full effect.

Why do you only want to use 2?
The client will only use spare cycles and if you load a program that needs a full core 1/2 a core or all 4 cores, the SMP client will only use what is not in use from the other programs.

You can get a program to set affinities and bind each instance to a select core. My guess is though you wont need to do this.
 
i believe you can also run 2 single cpu clients to use 2 cores.. but i think the smp clients more efficient or gets better ppd.. i cant remember exactly..
 
i believe you can also run 2 single cpu clients to use 2 cores.. but i think the smp clients more efficient or gets better ppd.. i cant remember exactly..

Yes, the SMP clients are more efficient than running a pair of single clients.
 
Can someone explain the difference between the two SMP clients? If they're well behaved in terms of quickly responding when I'm using the machine then I won't be concerned about the core limiting.

Thanks for the info! I may soon be grinding out some really good numbers.
 
What do you mean by the two SMP clients? And they respond very quickly to dynamic loading. You won't even notice that they're there.
 
Hmm sorry. In the DC guide it really looked like there were two different SMP clients. I guess I misread it.
 
Well, there are two versions, so to speak; there are the DEINO and MPICH variants. However, DEINO doesn't work on 64-bit operating systems.
 
If you want to lock the SMP to two cores, I use something called Bill2's Process Manager. You can setup affinity rules in it to automatically set .exes to lock to cores, or spread them out across whatever cores.

For example, since I'm running different things on my quad, I have an SMP client locked to cores 1&2, a standard client locked to 3 and a GPU2 client locked to 4. Using Bill2's, I basically just have to set the rules once, and it will take care of everything for me when launching the FAH programs, which is especially important when the cores restart on WU completion.
 
Good luck with the SMP client. It has gotten pretty stable in my opinion in some of the latest releases.

I do not have a quad core so my advice may not be quite as useful as someone with first hand experience, but even with the dual core, you really don't notice that it is there, so I wouldn't worry too much about it making your computer run slow. If you are concerned, as they said, just run one instance of the SMP client and you should be fine.

Good luck and feel free to ask questions. I know if you search for all of my questions about the SMP you will find quite a few threads.

 
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