I have M@H running on one machine with Win7 64 and a 5830 card with no problems. I have the same card running on an XP pro SP3 32 bit box that has issues. Whenever M@H is running it bogs down the computer so much as to make it unusable. I've tried a few different things to no avail.
i7-860
4 GB ram
Brand new Seasonic 620w PSU
POEM runs on this computer without problems. Is it because M@H requires a 64 bit OS?

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Could you be a bit more specific about "bogs down?" Just graphics lag? It shouldn't be different. I don't see any real difference between the timings of the GPU results from either of your system which is what I would assume your problem is

Could you be a bit more specific about "bogs down?" Just graphics lag? It shouldn't be different. I don't see any real difference between the timings of the GPU results from either of your system which is what I would assume your problem is

What I mean by bogs down is that opening and closing any programs, web pages, anything, takes minutes. Even trying to navigate the BOINC manager is VERY slow. It's not the run time. Like you said, they're about the same.
If I can't solve this issue than I will have to discontinue running M@H on this computer.

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If you use GPU-Z I bet it shows your GPU being used at 98+%. No wonder your switch between programmes and other applications is slow. You need an app_info.xml file to bring the GPU usage down to 90% to 95%.

That is what I did on my XP 32 bit box.

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Go away, I was asleep

If you use GPU-Z I bet it shows your GPU being used at 98+%. No wonder your switch between programmes and other applications is slow. You need an app_info.xml file to bring the GPU usage down to 90% to 95%.

That is what I did on my XP 32 bit box.

It was at 99% according to GPU temp. Can you post your app-info.xml file for me?
Thanks.

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He says it's fine on the other system but the timings are the same; maybe there's some XP thing here.

I raised the default gpu target frequency for the next version and you'll be able to change it via the project preferences.

FWIW the GPU was at 97% on the Win7 box.

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This aap_info file gave me 95% on Xp running 2 WUs onan HD5850.

<app_info>

<app><!-- GPU app v0.82 for MW Separation -->
<name>milkyway</name>
</app>
<file_info>
<name>milkyway_separation_0.82_windows_intelx86__ati14.exe</name>
<executable/>
</file_info>

<app_version>
<app_name>milkyway</app_name>
<version_num>82</version_num>
<plan_class>ati14</plan_class>
<flops>1.0e11</flops>
<avg_ncpus>0.05</avg_ncpus>
<max_ncpus>1</max_ncpus>
<coproc>
<type>ATI</type>
<count>0.5</count>
</coproc>
<cmdline>--gpu-target-frequency 75 --gpu-polling-mode 16 --process-priority 1</cmdline>
<file_ref>
<file_name>milkyway_separation_0.82_windows_intelx86__ati14.exe</file_name>
<main_program/>
</file_ref>
</app_version>

</app_info>

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Go away, I was asleep

This aap_info file gave me 95% on Xp running 2 WUs onan HD5850.

<app_info>

<app><!-- GPU app v0.82 for MW Separation -->
<name>milkyway</name>
</app>
<file_info>
<name>milkyway_separation_0.82_windows_intelx86__ati14.exe</name>
<executable/>
</file_info>

<app_version>
<app_name>milkyway</app_name>
<version_num>82</version_num>
<plan_class>ati14</plan_class>
<flops>1.0e11</flops>
<avg_ncpus>0.05</avg_ncpus>
<max_ncpus>1</max_ncpus>
<coproc>
<type>ATI</type>
<count>0.5</count>
</coproc>
<cmdline>--gpu-target-frequency 75 --gpu-polling-mode 16 --process-priority 1</cmdline>
<file_ref>
<file_name>milkyway_separation_0.82_windows_intelx86__ati14.exe</file_name>
<main_program/>
</file_ref>
</app_version>

</app_info>

Will this work on Windows 7 64-bit by just adding that command? Im running a radeon 7970 with nvidia's opencl app and I'd like the computer to be usable while crunching.

Will this work on Windows 7 64-bit by just adding that command? Im running a radeon 7970 with nvidia's opencl app and I'd like the computer to be usable while crunching

The frequency cmd will, Matt has raised it in his Beta OpenCL app (I think to 60, not absolutely sure), but yes the frequency cmd does work 7970/64bit.

Specifically on the other two cmd line in the app info you posted, dont know, cant see any reason why not, but slight caution there as I am no cmd line expert. Its the frequecncy one that will make the difference on screen response by decreasing packet size and therefore decreasing the time it spends elsewhere before turning its attention back to the screen.

Regards
Zy

Thanks for the file. It worked for 1 task but the GPU still runs at 98% with 2 tasks running at the same time. I tried it with settings from 60-85 in the file but it still ran 2 @ 98%. With you file settings the GPU runs @ 81% and each WU takes 2 minutes. I can live with that. Thanks again.

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That problem has 2 parts.

1) The gpu needs time to redraw the screen. Using a higher gpu-target-frequency (default 30 for v.82), the chunks are smaller and giving the gpu more often time to redraw the screen.

2) The cpu needs to back off from polling the gpu and take care of the other processes. Win7 seems to handle it better than WinXP. That's why I am running MW on WinXP with gpu-polling-mode 16 (default 1) and process-priority 1 (default 2), with gives processes with normal priority enough time to jump in and do their thing.

Since it depends a lot on hardware and software of a machine, there is no "one setting for all". Use the app_info given as a start and play with the settings for frequency and polling.
<count>0.5</count> runs 2 WUs. First set it to <count>1</count> for 1 WU at a time until you get a feeling on how to play with the params.
Leave the priority at 1 (below normal) as long as you don't see any major problems with feeding the gpu; still try to fix it with the other 2 params first. A lower polling mode is feeding the gpu faster. A higher frequency (smaller chunks of data) needs a faster polling (lower number). A lower frequency (bigger chunks of data) can go with a slower polling (higher number).
It needs a couple of tries to balance it for your system with the responsiveness you want to see.

My gpu-polling-mode and process-priority are set the same as yours but I can't run 2 WUs simultaneously without bogging the system down. What settings would you suggest I try to help with this issue? Here is my current app-info xml file.

<app_info>

<app><!-- GPU app v0.82 for MW Separation -->
<name>milkyway</name>
</app>
<file_info>
<name>milkyway_separation_0.82_windows_intelx86__ati14.exe</name>
<executable/>
</file_info>

<app_version>
<app_name>milkyway</app_name>
<version_num>82</version_num>
<plan_class>ati14</plan_class>
<flops>1.0e11</flops>
<avg_ncpus>0.05</avg_ncpus>
<max_ncpus>1</max_ncpus>
<coproc>
<type>ATI</type>
<count>1.0</count>
</coproc>
<cmdline>--gpu-target-frequency 75 --gpu-polling-mode 16 --process-priority 1</cmdline>
<file_ref>
<file_name>milkyway_separation_0.82_windows_intelx86__ati14.exe</file_name>
<main_program/>
</file_ref>
</app_version>

</app_info>

Cant help with the detail of the settings as I dont use the cmd line arguements, but whilst waiting for someone who does .... its going to help them if you describe a little more what you mean by bogging down.

eg mouse gittery, screen slow to redraw, scrolling inside individual windows juddery, juddery when moving a window, screen blemishes, active BOINC window not refreshing the counters.... others ...

all the above rofl :)

Regards
Zy

Cant help with the detail of the settings as I dont use the cmd line arguements, but whilst waiting for someone who does .... its going to help them if you describe a little more what you mean by bogging down.

eg mouse gittery, screen slow to redraw, scrolling inside individual windows juddery, juddery when moving a window, screen blemishes, active BOINC window not refreshing the counters.... others ...

all the above rofl :)

Regards
Zy

My definition of bogging down is everything is slow to react to mouse, left or right click, scrolling. opening any programs, launching browser and of course the BOINC window lagging way behind on the counters. Pretty much everything you described.

Stop all cpu projects first.
Now find a low gpu frequency where your screens redraws fast enough again.
Increase that number a little (+5 should be enough).
Next is polling mode.
You need the task manager to find a setting you will be comfortable with.
Look at the system tab and let it show the kernel times (shown in red) for your cpu cores. What you want are low cpu kernel times with high gpu use.

As a last reserve you can still set the priority to 0 (low) but that will most likely kill your gpu run times as soon as something else with higher prio runs on your computer.