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Windows7 64 bit, i7 920 only 50% cpu usage

K

k96gnome

Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 4, 2009
Messages
167
I decided to join the [H]orde last night and finally setup my i7 920 for folding, but I'm having a problem. I'm running the MPICH client and I followed the setup guide word for word using
- core priority [idle]
-CPU usage [100]
-verbosity 9
-work unit size [big]
-advmethods

The problem is, even when F@H is the only major process running on my machine, it still only peaks at 50% cpu usage. I'm not overclocking currently and I have HT on.

I don't like the idea that I'm only folding at 50% of my i7's capacity so if there's anything I can do to force 100% (or atleast close to it) I'd like to know.

I appreciate any help you can give me.
 
The Windows SMP client isn't capable of taking advantage of CPUs with more than two cores. If you want to make use of your CPU to its fullest extent, you'll either have to run Linux natively with the Linux SMP client, or you'll have to look into running instances of the Linux SMP client from within virtual machines. If you're willing to get that involved, we can help you set that up :).
 
What would be the performance overhead of running the required VM(s)? I'm willing to get that involved if there's a significant gain in productivity to be made :D
 
The massive gains in performance far outweigh the minimal overhead of running VMs.
 
Then I'm more than ready to tackle the setup with a little help. Are there any extensive guides out there? preferred linux distro? vmware clients?
 
alan2308 said:
The massive gains in performance far outweigh the minimal overhead of running VMs.
Click to expand...
It's a little more complicated than that, but yes, it is worth it. There is definitely overhead though, and it will be noticeable in more CPU-heavy situations. You may have to disable some of the VMs occasionally to free up some CPU cycles, but your overall production will be significantly higher than with the Windows client.

The guide to setting up the Linux SMP client in VMs is here: http://www.hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1033985823&postcount=19
 
I'm a little confused by the WinAFC setup part of that guide. when it says
Code: 
*\vmware-vmx.exe := PAIR0+PAIR1 [assign=2,priority=Idle]
and then specifies the valid cpu options for i7 as being
Code: 
CPU0, CPU1, CPU2, CPU3, CPU4, CPU5, CPU6, CPU7, PAIR0, PAIR1, PAIR2, PAIR3
Does that mean I would put the following to use all 4 cores +HT?
Code: 
*\vmware-vmx.exe := PAIR0+PAIR1+PAIR2+PAIR3 [assign=2,priority=Idle]
 
k96gnome said:
Does that mean I would put the following to use all 4 cores +HT?
Code: 
*\vmware-vmx.exe := PAIR0+PAIR1+PAIR2+PAIR3 [assign=2,priority=Idle]
Click to expand...
Yep, exactly. With an i7 CPU, you want to run four VMs to take full advantage of the processor, so you need to use all four pairs.
 
But will that code work since I can find no such "vmware-vmx.exe" after installing vmware player?
 
When you load up a VM, vmware-vmx.exe is the process that actually runs the VM. That code should work fine.
 
I'm having one last problem. I've got 4 VM's running with 2 cores per smp. They're clearly folding as my cpu is happily hitting 100% usage but I am having alot of trouble following fahmon installation instructions.

In location, type in the following: "\\fold-XXXX\C\etc\folding\1\" where XXXX is the host name you took note of from the VMWare Player Console. Change the folder alias to whatever you want. If monitoring via FaHMon, click "Client is on a virtual machine". Within a few seconds, it should update and provide you current information on your new VM!!!
Click to expand...

the directory where my smp folders containing the folding.vmk and .vmx are "C:\Users\Username\F@H\SMP1" respectively and i know the hostname the VM shows. but when I add a new client to fahmon with location: \\fold-xxxx\C:\Users\Username\F@H\SMP1 and the "client is in a virtual machine" box checked, fahmon doesn't appear to detect anything.
Am I supposed to use some other location I'm not aware of, a different formatting, or what?
 
Nevermind. I got it working and pointing at the right directories. They all say 0% for now but theres 8 of them and they haven't been going for more than 10 minutes so I'm hoping that's normal.

Thankyou for pointing me in the right direction and helping me setup :D I hope to be a contributing member of the [H]orde now!!
 
Argh. Now winAFC is spitting out a warning that it's unable to get a snapshot of the process (access is denied) despite me being admin and making sure all vm/folding processes are running under my username
 
Zero82z said:
The Windows SMP client isn't capable of taking advantage of CPUs with more than two cores. If you want to make use of your CPU to its fullest extent, you'll either have to run Linux natively with the Linux SMP client, or you'll have to look into running instances of the Linux SMP client from within virtual machines. If you're willing to get that involved, we can help you set that up :).
Click to expand...

I'm not sure this is exactly true. It is my understanding the SMP client is able to take advantage of more than 2 cores at a time. The problem arises in that it doesn't scale efficiently above two cores. As Zero82z indicates the VMs are definitely the best way to get the maximum performance out of your CPU. Another option (not as efficient as the linux VMs) is to run 2 instances of the WinSMP client in combination with affinity changer. You will get considerably more output than running 1 SMP client alone. On older versions of the WinSMP client if you ran 2 at once and then shut them down it might not save the work properly. The work around was to back up the work and queue files before shut down and then replace them after starting up. This could be automated (there are were posts on how to do this). I'm not sure if the newer SMP client still has this problem as I am just running 1 SMP per machine now as I don't have them running 24/7 like I use to. Good luck getting the max PPD out of that CPU.
 
I want to say welcome!

I will let others help you with more experience with i7 chips and VMs.

Enjoy the addiction. ;)
 
HighYield said:
I'm not sure this is exactly true. It is my understanding the SMP client is able to take advantage of more than 2 cores at a time. The problem arises in that it doesn't scale efficiently above two cores.
Click to expand...
It can use up four cores, but won't take advantage of them. When I used to run WinSMP on my quad, it gave me the same production running on four cores as it did while running on two. Now that I'm running VMs, I get about 1.5 times the performance per client compared to WinSMP (from 2000PPD with WinSMP to 3000PPD with LinSMP).
k96gnome said:
They all say 0% for now but theres 8 of them and they haven't been going for more than 10 minutes so I'm hoping that's normal.
Click to expand...
You should be running four two-core VMs, not eight. Running eight will decrease performance and unnecessarily use up RAM.
k96gnome said:
Argh. Now winAFC is spitting out a warning that it's unable to get a snapshot of the process (access is denied) despite me being admin and making sure all vm/folding processes are running under my username
Click to expand...
Even if you're running under an administrator account, you may still need to set WinAFC to run as administrator if you have UAC enabled. To do this, find the WinAFC EXE file, go into its Properties, go to the Compatibility tab, and check off the option entitled "Run this program as an administrator". Hopefully that will solve your problems.
 
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Hazaa! WinAFC is cooperating and fahmon is showing steady progress at what appears to be ~2600ppd.
Zero82z said:
You should be running four two-core VMs, not eight. Running eight will decrease performance and unnecessarily use up RAM.
.
Click to expand...

I am but each VM appears to have 1 WU per core so I set fahmon to show me all 4 pairs of folding/1 and folding/2. So I see 8 WU's progressing. Is this not normal?

xprimt.png
 
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k96gnome said:
I am but each VM appears to have 1 WU per core so I set fahmon to show me all 4 pairs of folding/1 and folding/2. So I see 8 WU's progressing. Is this not normal?
Click to expand...
No, it's not normal. Each instance should run one workunit. I suspect that your VMs are running instances of the uniprocessor client instead. Reboot each VM and type in fold64 manually when they first start up. See if that will fix it. If not, go into your BIOS and make sure that hardware virtualization is enabled.

With everything set up properly, you should see around 8000PPD from all the clients combined.
 
Code: 
boot:fold64
Loading kernal64..................................................
Loading initrd.....................................................................
Ready.
This kernal requires an x86-64 CPU, but only detected an i686 CPU.
Unable to boot - please use a kernal appropriate for your CPU.

Say what?! Alright where did I go wrong now? I have virtualization enabled in bios and there is no doubt I'm running windows 7 64bit on my i7 920. I however did not enable virtualization until AFTER my initial boot of the VM's. Should I just wipe the slate clean and try reinstalling everything (folding related not my whole OS) again?
 
k96gnome said:
Should I just wipe the slate clean and try reinstalling everything (folding related not my whole OS) again?
Click to expand...
Delete the VMs and redownload the files from notfred's site. Now that you've got hardware virtualization enabled, just set them up the same way you did the first time. You don't have to do anything with VMWare or WinAFC; just set up the VMs, and it should work fine.
 
Zero82z said:
Delete the VMs and redownload the files from notfred's site. Now that you've got hardware virtualization enabled, just set them up the same way you did the first time. You don't have to do anything with VMWare or WinAFC; just set up the VMs, and it should work fine.
Click to expand...

Done. Aside from one of the smp's showing 1717986% completion while the rest are 0%, it looks like it's working. 1 smp instance per VM, successful booting with fold64. Now I'll just cross my fingers and wait for it to tick past 1%, get a ppd calculation, and hope that glitched percentage goes away.
 
It should take a bit under 14 minutes per frame per VM assuming your CPU is at stock speeds.
 
Yeah fahmon was showing two of the smp's as having 1717987% completion after 15minutes so I'm trying to reinstall fahmon and hope that fixes that.
 
percentage glitch fixed. Settling at 7070ppd at the moment. I hate to jinx it again but I think I'm in the clear :D I eagerly await my first wu's to be uploaded and to join the [H]orde and thanks for all the help despite my clumsy setup!!
 
Welcome!! I'm glad everyone was able to help you. Been heads down at work (80+ hours per week) and haven't had time to pop in for a visit.

The i7's can put out some serious PpD.
 
If you go ahead and overclock that chip, you could get as much as 10k PPD out of it as well :).
 
Zero82z said:
If you go ahead and overclock that chip, you could get as much as 10k PPD out of it as well :).
Click to expand...

I plan to but I'm still using the stock heatsink until I have the funds to pickup the megahelems. I'm hitting 84C full load but at all stock voltages so I could probably get 3Ghz at a lower voltage and minimal temperature gain. As it stands right now I'm at 2.8Ghz b/c of Turbo-mode and barely squeezing out 6800ppd :(. This feels low compared to the ~8000ppd I'm seeing most others getting with similar configurations.
 
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