PrimeGrid's 2023 Challenge Series

[motqalden]

The PrimeGrid Challenge Series is an annual competition based on the results of monthly challenges. The purpose of the Challenge is to spotlight a specific project within PrimeGrid's family of projects as well as to offer a little "healthy" competition for PrimeGrid's participants. It is also an opportunity for people to learn more about each specific project and have fun doing it. Below is a tentative schedule for 2023.

2008 Final Standings | 2009 Final Standings | 2010 Final Standings | 2011 Final Standings | 2012 Final Standings | 2013 Final Standings | 2014 Final Standings | 2015 Final Standings | 2016 Final Standings | 2017 Final Standings | 2018 Final Standings | 2019 Final Standings | 2020 Final Standings | 2021 Final Standings | 2022 Final Standings

	2023 Challenge Series​
	Date	Time UTC	Project(s)	Challenge	Duration	Results
1​	22-25 January​	12:00:00	PPS-MEGA GFN-17-MEGA	A Prime Chinese New Year Challenge	3 days	Individuals | Teams
2​	8-9 March​	15:00:00	SGS	International Women's Day Challenge	1 day	Individuals | Teams
3​	16-23 April​	16:00:00	PSP	Gotthold Eisenstein's Birthday Challenge	7 days	Individuals | Teams
4​	19-24 June​	20:00:00	321	Blaise Pascal's Birthday Challenge	5 days	Individuals | Teams
5​	8-15 July​	21:00:00	CW-Sieve	Math 2.0 Day Challenge	7 days	Individuals | Teams
6​	15-18 August​	02:00:00	AP-27	Chant at the Moon Day Challenge	3 days	Individuals | Teams
7​	13-23 September​	11:00:00	SoB	World Peace Day Challenge	10 days	Individuals | Teams
8​	31 October - 5 November​	13:00:00	ESP	Christmas Challenge	5 days	Individuals | Teams
9​	10-20 December​	19:00:00	GFN-18 GFN-19 GFN-20	Chris Caldwell Honorary Challenge	10 days	Individuals | Teams
	Current Overall Standings​

 

[motqalden]

The first event in the annual PrimeGrid Challenge series is about to kick off so I figured I would post a thread to get this going and to alert anyone that may not be aware and who may want to participate.

I was thinking I would try to run every event in the series this year so I can get a personal best result for "individual score".
A number of people who were running this last year have indicated they may not be doing so this year so we are probably not going to really be chasing much of a team score but who knows!

The first event kicks off in about 18 hours time from now so I am starting to get this up and running on my rigs:
Welcome to A Prime Chinese New Year Challenge

The first challenge of the 2023 Series will be a 3-day challenge on the PPS-MEGA and GFN-17 MEGA applications, beginning 22 January 12:00 UTC and ending 25 January 12:00 UTC.

Project thread: https://www.primegrid.com/forum_thread.php?id=10115#159335

 

[motqalden]

If you want to run this new years challenge then you will want to select one or both of the following projects as desired:
Proth Mega Prime Search LLR (MEGA) (CPU only and supposedly multi threading of work units is recommended. I am running this with multit threading set to 4 to test)

AND / OR :
Generalized Fermat Prime Search n=17 Mega (GFN-17-Mega) ( This can be run with both CPU and GPU but I have selected only GPU to run for this and will run Proth Mega on my CPU's)

 

[motqalden]

This is just a short 3 day contest to start the challenge series. Word of warning is that primegrid is about the only boinc project that bunkering is not supported for the contests. Basically only tasks that are downloaded after the contest start will be included in the points for the project. IE: don't load up a bunch of work now but you can run it with 0 cache to test it and then when the contest starts make sure to get fresh work at that time.

 

[wareyore]

I'll be tossing a few cores at these challenges but not like last year. That was my year to run the numbers personally. Looks like I'd have to rent servers to break the top 5. No doping here. All natural.

 

[motqalden]

Yeah I am not renting anything myself. Ended up running the GPU tasks 2 up and trying the CPU tasks 2 threads. Seems a bit faster

I am in the top 10 (barely) this morning but I there always seems to be people that come up from behind so we will see how that holds...

 

[wareyore]

I'm only going to run the PPS Mega on a few CPU cores. Good luck!

 

[motqalden]

Still holding steady in the top 10 after the first day and have actually managed to move up to 8th spot overall.

Wareyore and Skylaar are 66 and 81 respectively:

As a team we are also hanging in the top 10 so far

 

[Gilthanis]

I don't know how much help it will be but I will have a few systems doing some Mega (cpu) work units. Don't even know if they will complete in time. Most of them had to finish up other work as well....

 

[motqalden]

Down to the last 12 hours of the comp.
I have been bumped down 2 spots and am sitting at 10th place
Wareyore is sitting at 63rd
Skylaar is 79th
Gilthanis is 370th

Overall as a team we are sitting at 10th place after being passed by EVGA.

 

[motqalden]

Looks pretty likely i will get bumped out of 10th. Another user blasting up the ranks on rented computers....

 

[wareyore]

Good for the projects. Not so much for pure competition. GJ on getting top 10. Looks like his dance card got filled up.

 

[motqalden]

I found a "Titan Prime" during the competition!

Dear Primefinder,Congratulations! Our records indicate that a computer registered by you has found a unique prime number. This computer is running BOINC, is attached to the PrimeGrid project, and is assigned to the Generalized Fermat Prime Search n=17 Mega (GFN-17-Mega). What makes this prime unique is that it's large enough to enter the Top 5000 List in Chris Caldwell's The Largest Known Primes Database.Since you have auto-reporting selected, the following prime was submitted on your behalf:Added 134888 : 135623220^131072+1 (1065922 digits)

That also earned me my first "megaprime" badge

https://www.primegrid.com/primes/primes.php?project=MEGA&user=1012750

 

[wareyore]

Running a few CPU cores on today's challenge.

It's only one day, CPU only, so a quick one.

 

[motqalden]

Running a few CPU cores on today's challenge.

It's only one day, CPU only, so a quick one.

View attachment 554504

Thanks for the reminder!

 

[Randall_Pink]

Running a few CPU cores on today's challenge.

It's only one day, CPU only, so a quick one.

View attachment 554504

Didn't realize there was already another challenge, got a couple machines spun up on it as well!

I did get us on the board for Tour de Primes with a GFN-16 though.

 

[Gilthanis]

Yeah...I overlooked it as well. This is one of them I would have tried running a bunch of due to a low level badge...hehe.

 

[MN Scout]

I got my one old 1950X cpu working on this, since 12AM.

 

[Gilthanis]

The team finished 16th on this one. Too many of us forgot it was coming up...haha.