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Stuart

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Message 54716 - Posted: 8 Jun 2012, 4:14:10 UTC
Last modified: 8 Jun 2012, 4:22:23 UTC

I have an AMD 6870 CF setup using the latest drivers off AMD's website at this time 12.4, and I am running BOINC 7.0.25 I saw the 6870 isnt listed in the double precision cards, but I have found many websites out there that say this card does support double precision.

this website says
"Either way, the bulk of a HD 6870 1GB looks very familiar to anyone who knows their ATI hardware – there’s a huge bank of SIMD (Single Instruction, Multiple Data) engines with 80 stream processors each. These stream processors follow the VLIW5 (Very Long Instruction Word, 5:1 ratio) configuration of having a super stream processor for every five basic units, with this unit capable of double-precision floating point operations and other high-precision maths."

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2010/10/22/ati-radeon-hd-6870-review/2
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Message 54717 - Posted: 8 Jun 2012, 5:48:39 UTC - in response to Message 54716.  

I have an AMD 6870 CF setup using the latest drivers off AMD's website at this time 12.4, and I am running BOINC 7.0.25 I saw the 6870 isnt listed in the double precision cards, but I have found many websites out there that say this card does support double precision.

this website says
"Either way, the bulk of a HD 6870 1GB looks very familiar to anyone who knows their ATI hardware – there’s a huge bank of SIMD (Single Instruction, Multiple Data) engines with 80 stream processors each. These stream processors follow the VLIW5 (Very Long Instruction Word, 5:1 ratio) configuration of having a super stream processor for every five basic units, with this unit capable of double-precision floating point operations and other high-precision maths."

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2010/10/22/ati-radeon-hd-6870-review/2


Nope that card does not have double precision capability. If it was a 5870 it would, but AMD changed the DP qualifications to only the 69xx series.

The 7xxx series has DP across the board so far, but the 77xx and 78xx only has 1/16th DP as opposed to the 1/4th of the 79xx series.
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Message 54718 - Posted: 8 Jun 2012, 10:39:40 UTC - in response to Message 54716.  

I have an AMD 6870 CF setup using the latest drivers off AMD's website at this time 12.4, and I am running BOINC 7.0.25 I saw the 6870 isnt listed in the double precision cards, but I have found many websites out there that say this card does support double precision.

this website says
"Either way, the bulk of a HD 6870 1GB looks very familiar to anyone who knows their ATI hardware – there’s a huge bank of SIMD (Single Instruction, Multiple Data) engines with 80 stream processors each. These stream processors follow the VLIW5 (Very Long Instruction Word, 5:1 ratio) configuration of having a super stream processor for every five basic units, with this unit capable of double-precision floating point operations and other high-precision maths."

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2010/10/22/ati-radeon-hd-6870-review/2


According to my local pc store AMD went thru and relabeled all of their 5xxx series cards to 6xxx series cards, even those already shipped! That means that SOME 6870's WERE DP because they were in fact just relabeled 5870's. BUT all NEWLY made 6870's do not have DP, seems silly to me too!
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Antoine Trifonov

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Message 54793 - Posted: 16 Jun 2012, 15:32:30 UTC - in response to Message 54718.  

You should not trust your local store because they seem to be incompetent. The 5700 series and downwards have been relabeled. I am sure they do not advise you to buy AMD products in general either.

By the way, wouldn't it be possible to pass some of the work to a SPFP GPU?
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Message 54846 - Posted: 22 Jun 2012, 19:57:32 UTC

I agree with Antoine, there is no way they relabeled the 5870 into 6870.

Even the 67xx which are known to share the same chip with 57xx aren't just relabeled, but are actually different cards, though the difference is very small.

And yes, the local stores do hire often incompetent people. I always know more about the product that I buy, than the guy which is selling it to me.

Try this, it's one of my favorite articles:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_AMD_graphics_processing_units
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Message 54861 - Posted: 23 Jun 2012, 11:51:38 UTC - in response to Message 54846.  
Last modified: 23 Jun 2012, 11:58:13 UTC

I agree with Antoine, there is no way they relabeled the 5870 into 6870.

Even the 67xx which are known to share the same chip with 57xx aren't just relabeled, but are actually different cards, though the difference is very small.

And yes, the local stores do hire often incompetent people. I always know more about the product that I buy, than the guy which is selling it to me.

Try this, it's one of my favorite articles:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_AMD_graphics_processing_units


Thanks guys
I saw this on the chart:
Radeon HD 5770 Juniper XT 850 1200 800:40:16 13.6 34 76.8 1360 18 108 12.59 Oct 13, 2009

Radeon HD 6770[64] Juniper XT 850 1200 800:40:16 13.6 34 76.8 1360 18 108 12.59 Apr 28, 2011 (retail)

Other than the release dates they seem identical to me, my 5770's work just fine in 64 bit environments but I guess the newer one could be native 64bit built in.
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Message 59166 - Posted: 29 Jun 2013, 17:08:45 UTC

I just received the "GPU lacks necessary double precision extension" message. I am running on a Mac with a 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo and an NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT 256 MB. Is there anything I can do to modify this computer, or the settings, in order to run the Milkyway WU's properly? Also, does this mean I can't run the program on this computer?
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Message 59177 - Posted: 30 Jun 2013, 14:43:54 UTC - in response to Message 59166.  

I just received the "GPU lacks necessary double precision extension" message. I am running on a Mac with a 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo and an NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT 256 MB. Is there anything I can do to modify this computer, or the settings, in order to run the Milkyway WU's properly? Also, does this mean I can't run the program on this computer?


No it is a hardware thing and it cannot be changed. You might try Collatz as a possible place to be able to use it, but your problem is that with 'only' 256mb of ram you are running into areas where it is not always possible to fit the whole workunit into the onboard gpu memory, making the efficiency not worth the effort. Unless the whole unit can fit into the onboard gpu memory then it is always swapping to ram or the harddrive, and that is just a killer to the speed gained by using a gpu.
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Message 59523 - Posted: 5 Aug 2013, 22:19:59 UTC

Not being a geek, I have very little idea what the previous threads were about. However, like the original poster, I need an answer to the question. So far, despite the lack of a double precision extension messages, this project has run 13,445 cobblestones on my iMac, possibly even quicker than the other two projects I support. Could this be related to my 12Gb of RAM?
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Message 59525 - Posted: 6 Aug 2013, 11:15:21 UTC - in response to Message 59523.  

Not being a geek, I have very little idea what the previous threads were about. However, like the original poster, I need an answer to the question. So far, despite the lack of a double precision extension messages, this project has run 13,445 cobblestones on my iMac, possibly even quicker than the other two projects I support. Could this be related to my 12Gb of RAM?


That and the L2 and L3 cache sizes built into the cpu. The smaller L2 and L3 cache sizes result in more swapping and slower crunching, the larger ones mean faster crunching. Think of the L2 and L3 caches as the index in the back of a book, the bigger the index the easier it is to find something. But if you get too big of an index, then it makes the book too big. Happy mediums are a good thing, if the whole workunit can fit into the L2 cache then you will be crunching at max speed. Most project try to fit a unit into the area between 512k and 1000k size so it can fit in the L2 and L3 caches. That is alot of why machines with Celeron or Sempron cpu processors are slower.
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Message 59527 - Posted: 6 Aug 2013, 17:54:21 UTC - in response to Message 59525.  

My L2 cache is 3Mb and my graphics card is Geforce 9400 (which according to the original post in the GPU requirements post "doesn't work"!). Seems to work fine to me.
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Message 59530 - Posted: 6 Aug 2013, 18:36:28 UTC

Robin,

When I look at the jobs that you have completed, it looks like they are all CPU jobs. When running a GPU job, BOINC Manager/Tasks tab/Status column should say something like "Running(1 CPU + 1 ATI GPU)".

If you go to the Milky Way web site, click on "Your Account", then click on "Tasks | View", you can see all the tasks that have processed on your computer within the past week or so. If a task ran on the GPU, the name of the task in the "Application" column will have "(opencl_amd_ati)" appended to the end of the task name.

Hope that helps,
CaptainJack
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Message 59537 - Posted: 7 Aug 2013, 14:22:24 UTC - in response to Message 59530.  

Hi Capn Jack

Thanks for that very useful reply. If you're right, and it's only using the CPU, why send the GPU message at all? Is it maybe because it would have run a different task, but decided not to?
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Message 59540 - Posted: 7 Aug 2013, 20:28:45 UTC

Robin,

It may just be letting you know that GPU tasks are available for download but they will not run on your GPU.

If you want to know specifically, please post the message that you are getting.

BTW, if you want to see some examples of the GPU job names I have described,
> In the author column of the posts is my user-id "captainjack" in blue text. It is a clickable link, click on it.
> At the bottom of the top left box is a title for "Computers" with a blue clickable link for "view". Click on "view".
> There are two computers shown, one is named BigUnit. In the column titled "Computer ID" for the BigUnit, there is a blue clickable link for "Tasks". Click on Tasks. It should bring up a page with recent tasks. In the far right column are the "Application" names that I was trying to describe.

Hope that helps.
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Message 59545 - Posted: 8 Aug 2013, 10:37:22 UTC - in response to Message 59540.  

Robin,

It may just be letting you know that GPU tasks are available for download but they will not run on your GPU.

Hope that helps.


BINGO, Boinc is FULL of 'helpful' messages that are often more misleading then helpful! It's like the guys went to the Microsoft school of error writing!!
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Message 59568 - Posted: 10 Aug 2013, 21:58:49 UTC - in response to Message 59540.  

BTW, if you want to see some examples of the GPU job names I have described,
> In the author column of the posts is my user-id "captainjack" in blue text. It is a clickable link, click on it.
> At the bottom of the top left box is a title for "Computers" with a blue clickable link for "view". Click on "view".
> There are two computers shown, one is named BigUnit. In the column titled "Computer ID" for the BigUnit, there is a blue clickable link for "Tasks". Click on Tasks. It should bring up a page with recent tasks. In the far right column are the "Application" names that I was trying to describe.


Thanks for that Capn. Most interesting. Particularly as your "BigUnit" is about x1,000 quicker than mine! Makes my contribution seem somewhat insignificant!

I also notice that whereas your OS get described as "Windows" or "Unix", my Mac OSX 10.8.4 gets described as Darwin 10.4.0, which is actually the kernel version. Not that I'm alleging anti-Mac bias in BOINC or anything .... ;)

By the way, is your surname Sparrow or Harkness?

And >Mikey<, until people like me ask questions and get replies, BOINC's geeks don't realise their explanations need to be even simpler. Conversation is good for everyone.
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Message 59569 - Posted: 10 Aug 2013, 22:23:10 UTC - in response to Message 59568.  

BTW, if you want to see some examples of the GPU job names I have described,
> In the author column of the posts is my user-id "captainjack" in blue text. It is a clickable link, click on it.
> At the bottom of the top left box is a title for "Computers" with a blue clickable link for "view". Click on "view".
> There are two computers shown, one is named BigUnit. In the column titled "Computer ID" for the BigUnit, there is a blue clickable link for "Tasks". Click on Tasks. It should bring up a page with recent tasks. In the far right column are the "Application" names that I was trying to describe.


Thanks for that Capn. Most interesting. Particularly as your "BigUnit" is about x1,000 quicker than mine! Makes my contribution seem somewhat insignificant!

I also notice that whereas your OS get described as "Windows" or "Unix", my Mac OSX 10.8.4 gets described as Darwin 10.4.0, which is actually the kernel version. Not that I'm alleging anti-Mac bias in BOINC or anything .... ;)

By the way, is your surname Sparrow or Harkness?

And >Mikey<, until people like me ask questions and get replies, BOINC's geeks don't realise their explanations need to be even simpler. Conversation is good for everyone.


At least we can tell in a heartbeat which version of OSX you are running, with Linux it is much harder and almost impossible to figure out if they are running a 32 or 64 bit system.

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Message 59570 - Posted: 11 Aug 2013, 0:58:11 UTC

Hey Robin,


Thanks for that Capn. Most interesting. Particularly as your "BigUnit" is about x1,000 quicker than mine! Makes my contribution seem somewhat insignificant!


Every little bit helps and I'm sure that the scientist appreciate all the help they can get.

BTW, the computer is named after a major league baseball pitcher named Randy Johnson. He was 6 feet 10 inches tall and his nickname was the Big Unit. He was a rather imposing figure on the pitchers mound and he could throw a fastball like no other.

By the way, is your surname Sparrow or Harkness?


HAHAHAHAHA, it took me a while to figure this one out. Actually, I earned the nickname of Captain Jack several decades before Captain Jack Sparrow hit the silver screen. I got it during the days that I was doing a lot of boating and bass fishing. Ah the good old days.

Keep on crunchin'
Captain Jack
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Message 59571 - Posted: 11 Aug 2013, 11:31:50 UTC - in response to Message 59568.  


And >Mikey<, until people like me ask questions and get replies, BOINC's geeks don't realise their explanations need to be even simpler. Conversation is good for everyone.


I really do agree but when asked, many years ago, the programers said...'you don't have to use the software if you don't want to'!! I mostly ignore the messages now and just keep on crunching! I have been this this since before Boinc and therefore have seen lots of 'issues' come up and can pretty much figure out how to solve them on my own. If not I can always detach and then reattach, that seems to fix ALOT of the problems, even though the projects don't like that so much.

I am a goal oriented cruncher, but will jump from one project to another in a heartbeat if I think I am not being treated like some other project does. I am NOT looking for special treatment or anything like that, just fair for everyone at a given project. If for instance my gpu's rac starts dropping I will restart the pc and go thru the units to see what has changed. If I can't find anything wrong and it keeps dropping 'too far', then the gpu is off to another project at least for the time being!! In fact I recently brought some here because of that, they were elsewhere and their rac started dropping for no apparent reason, I brought some of the gpu's here and I am now soaring again!!
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Message 59883 - Posted: 11 Sep 2013, 20:37:12 UTC - in response to Message 59568.  


(...)

I also notice that whereas your OS get described as "Windows" or "Unix", my Mac OSX 10.8.4 gets described as Darwin 10.4.0, which is actually the kernel version. Not that I'm alleging anti-Mac bias in BOINC or anything .... ;)

(...)


Just a bit offtopic, but it also says UNIX/Linux and not X-Windows.
Darwin 10.4 = Kernel same as Linux/UNIX/whatever flavor you like is the Kernel name. That also is same for Windows7, where kernel-Name and graphical OS name are same for the reason of no real kernel...

MacOS 10.8.4 is the name for the graphical OS as like X-Windows/KDE/...
You can even let KDE run on a Mac!

Just my $.02 and I dont say a word against any of the mentioned operating systems nor against any of the machines running it!
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