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Second gpu

L

lehmann

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Feb 8, 2005
Messages
1,362
today after pluging in my monitor. I only have 1 to share with my 3 folders. i have a black screen. its happend before and i had to reload windows. booted into safe mode removed video drivers. now i can see my desktop again. new drivers except this time i cant extend my desktop to make my second video card fold. any other tricks to this win7-64
 
I usually use a VGA based KVM to help with this. I have a 4 port which allows me four PCs on one screen, plus I can use the DVI connector for a fifth if need be.

You can utilize the -forcegpu nvidia_g80 or -forcegpu nvidia_fermi switch to force folding@home to utilize that second GPU for folding if you are unable to extend the desktop.

So if it's the second gpu you would add the flags -gpu 1 -forcegpu nvidia_xxxxx (g80 or fermi) to the client's shortcuts or additional switches to force it to fold as nVidia CUDA without requiring desktop extension.
 
You don't need to extend your desktop with the latest drivers. Just be sure to add "-forcegpu nvidia_fermi" or "-forcegpu nvidia_g80" to your shortcuts, depending on the type of card you have.

Sometimes Windows gets confused about which video output is primary. I suggest installing LogMeIn on headless boxen, because it makes debugging this stuff a lot easier. It will show you all of your desktops, so you can get to the primary and into the Display control panel to make adjustments.
 
Thanks 10e i figured out to exdend my desktop. gtx 260 which force flag do i use?
 
Uninstall drivers, boot in safe mode, run driver sweeper (free on guru3d).
Reinstall current drivers (258.96).

Put -gpu 0, -gpu 1 in each client. You don't need any other flags unless you're mixing 400 series with older cards, if that's the case put -forcegpu nvidia_g80 in the older ones and -forcegpu nvidia_fermi in the newer one. Might want to also put -advmethods in with the Fermi one for the bigger/new WU; I would not put -advmethods in any older cards.

Don't need to extend desktop, don't need dummy plugs. :)
 
I recently upgraded to GPU3 and the latest NVIDIA drivers on my XP box, and I was able to stop extending the desktop across all 8 GPUs. I don't know if it helped F@H performance, but it made interacting with the machine much snappier. I highly recommend using the forcegpu flag instead of extending your desktop.
 
Im using gpu2 client as gpu3 cost me points unless that has changed? just using gpu-0 and gpu-1 is not enough. havent tride -forcegpu nvidia_g80 extending the desktop works. ill try the force method
 
-forcegpu nvidia_g80 works like a charm. now i dont have to worry about losing my mouse. thanks you all!
 
With GPU2 the forcegpu flags are required in Win7. GPU3 apparently is smart enough to detect things by itself. I'm using the flags on XP just to ensure that I get (mostly) Core 11 WUs.

I haven't noticed any speed issues on my 9800GX2s moving from GPU2 to GPU3, even when they pull the occasional Core 15 WU. I've heard GTX 2xx are different, and mine are still running GPU2.
 
I am struggling with this,

I have two GTS250 cards, (both 1GB cards)
running window7 professional X64
Nvidia drivers 258.96 installed and working,
When i start the GPU3 client just stock, it works, crunches, and goes

when I try using any flags,

I created a shortcut to the GPU folding client, added -gpu 1 -forcegpu nvidia_g80
to the string, so the run looks like:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Folding@home\Folding@home-gpu\Folding@home.exe" -gpu 0 -forcegpu nvidia_g80

start client and it goes
"GPU - F@H downloading new core error (#5) waiting before retry"


if I right click on the running client what about putting the " -gpu 1 -forcegpu nvidia_g80 " flags in the Advanced tab of the configuration menu (right click on the running client icon -> configure

to create a second GPU folder I tried copying the Folding@home-gpu folder to Folding@home-gpu2 and tried starting the client from there, with no dice.
 
I go tit!!!

wow, hear them fans spinup...
have to duplicate the appdata folder too for second client and change the machine id in the config file,
C:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\Folding@home-gpu2

Not sure if this is correct but here is what I did,

Installed GPU3 client,
fired it up, configured it, got it crunching,
Shutdown client,

Copied the program folder-
C:\Program Files (x86)\Folding@home\Folding@home-gpu
to
C:\Program Files (x86)\Folding@home\Folding@home-gpu2

copied the appdata folder
C:\Users\%user%\AppData\Roaming\Folding@home-gpu
to
C:\Users\%user%\AppData\Roaming\Folding@home-gpu2

created a shortcut to the program in original folder and put the following string in-
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Folding@home\Folding@home-gpu\Folding@home.exe" -gpu 0 -forcegpu nvidia_g80
set the start in Target to:
C:\Users\%user%\AppData\Roaming\Folding@home-gpu\
(if you do not change the start in target for 7 the shortcuts you make will not work)

did another shortcut-
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Folding@home\Folding@home-gpu2\Folding@home.exe" -gpu 1 -forcegpu nvidia_g80

set the start in Target to:
C:\Users\%user%\AppData\Roaming\Folding@home-gpu2\

started both clients, but got a Machine ID error so I had to stop all, and change the machine id in the configuration to #3 (CPU is ID1, GPU0 is ID2 and GPU1 is ID3...)

\%user%\ == a place holder for your Folding user
after starting both up both clients, and making sure they worked, I put both the Shortcuts into the startup folder.
 
Last edited:
You don't need to copy the program directory, but it looks like you figured it out. The multi-GPU setup instructions are in the sticky thread here.
 
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