Posts by Jack Lightholder

1) Message boards : Cafe MilkyWay : Interactive MilkyWay Galaxy Image (Message 60510) Posted 3 Dec 2013 by Jack Lightholder Post: Just came across this cool rendering of the MW galaxy composed of 37,000 individual images. It's completely interactive with zoom and panoramic movement. Figured I'd share. Check it out here: http://media.skysurvey.org/interactive360/index.html ~Jack
2) Message boards : News : Milkyway@home paper Accepted for Publication! (Message 58718) Posted 11 Jun 2013 by Jack Lightholder Post: Congratulations! Any updates on this or estimated date of availability?
3) Message boards : Number crunching : 7850 & 7950 Build Issue (Message 58404) Posted 25 May 2013 by Jack Lightholder Post: I do...it would be a major pain to pull it apart though. I just tried it in the other slots in the computer I was setting up with no progress. I know the card worked about 6 weeks ago but it did sit out on my desk for about a month outside of an antistatic bag. Hopefully that didn't kill it.
4) Message boards : Number crunching : 7850 & 7950 Build Issue (Message 58395) Posted 24 May 2013 by Jack Lightholder Post: I was just doing that. Pulled the 7950 and put the 7850 in the 1st slot and I only get a black screen. Sounds like I've got some problems with my 7850 card. Very odd.
5) Message boards : Number crunching : 7850 & 7950 Build Issue (Message 58388) Posted 24 May 2013 by Jack Lightholder Post: Those solutions will only help him if he can get the computer to boot. What size is the PSU in that machine, it might be underpowered. Very true. Thanks Mikey, they will help when I finally get it booting. The PSU is a 1200 that is only a year old. Doubt it is that. I'm going to mess with the slot configuration now. Tricky board for it though, not many options available.
6) Message boards : Number crunching : 7850 & 7950 Build Issue (Message 58377) Posted 23 May 2013 by Jack Lightholder Post: Hi all, Just decided to move my 7950 & 7850 to the same case and am running into some snags. With just the 7950 everything works fine. Once I add the 7850 all I can get on screen is a black screen with a white underscore flashing in the top left corner. Has anyone else run into this issue and know of a fix? Should I be looking in the BIOS, slot positions, drivers?? Thanks!
7) Message boards : Number crunching : More efficient GPU usage? (Message 58102) Posted 3 May 2013 by Jack Lightholder Post: Awesome, the combination of those two things did the trick. Thanks guys.
8) Message boards : Number crunching : More efficient GPU usage? (Message 58028) Posted 26 Apr 2013 by Jack Lightholder Post: Hi mikey, Thanks for the code. Is this instead of an app_info file? I replaced my app_info file with this and tried tweaking the parameters for the number of WU' s running at any one time and I'm still only seeing 1-20% load on the GPU. The amount of time to finish the WU's appears to be relative to the number I have (ie. 1 WU = 1 min, 20 WU = 20 mins). However, I do see more "slugishness" in the computer when running 10-20 so I would assume that means it is working harder. That is not however paired with an increase in GPU load. Any other recommendations for optimizing?
9) Message boards : Number crunching : More efficient GPU usage? (Message 57951) Posted 20 Apr 2013 by Jack Lightholder Post: I recently downloaded the TechPowerUp GPU-Z software to analyze my GPU and found some interesting things. It appears my GPU load is only ~30% with two tasks running. I tried increasing/decreasing the number of tasks running and the number of CPUs available to those tasks. I have not been able to increase this 30%. Is there any way to get my GPU load above 30% through either a cc_config or app_info file? Thanks
10) Message boards : Number crunching : CPU upgrade roadmap? (Message 56399) Posted 6 Dec 2012 by Jack Lightholder Post: I recently updated my GPU (HD 7950) and have been having great success with it. It has gotten me thinking about my aging CPU infrastructure (1st gen i5) and the most practical upgrade roadmap. I prefer Intel CPUâ€™s so I started analyzing the LGA 1155 & LGA 2011 platforms. I was considering upgrading my CPU/MOBO to an i7 SandyBridge E (LGA 2011) platform now which would then allow me to upgrade again in about a year (or 1.5 years) to i7 IvyBridge E (LGA 2011?) once prices have dropped a bit. Has anyone heard anything, presumably speculatory at this point, about the Intel plan to release IvyBridge E and if it will in fact be LGA 2011? Or could anyone recommend more efficient ways to allocate my financial resources with respect to an upgrade roadmap? Thanks! No clue from me but just a thought, RARELY has Intel reused old technology when they didn't have to! Reusing the 2011 boards could be constraining the new cpu's to the old board architecture and that is NOT normally what cpu makers do. My opinion is what it is, just an opinion from a fellow cruncher with a TON of outdated mb's laying around not worth the effort to put them in the trash! My suggestion is to buy what you can afford now and not worry about upgrading the pc later on, just get to crunching with it now. I personally have LOTS of non upgradeable pc's laying around that I had hopes for one day but have long since become outdated! Most of mine are dual cores that I bought with the idea to upgrade to a quad cores, but with most mb's only allowing 4gb of ram max todays stuff will just laugh at that! Thanks for the great points everyone. I was hoping to squeeze two CPU updates out of one MOBO because I knew the suspected release date was close but failed to consider the constraint the old MOBO would put on a new CPU. I would imagine it has been asked before but how about the difference between a server component architecture and a desktop component architecture? Where does BOINC come down on the pros and cons of each of these systems? I would tend to think server components would be preferable because of their longer high stress life expectancy and increased error checking capabilities. Would these components be better for a BOINC based build? I am looking to build a new system to run a VPN off of with all other power going to BOINC. I am not really familiar with the server side of things though.
11) Message boards : Number crunching : CPU upgrade roadmap? (Message 56341) Posted 2 Dec 2012 by Jack Lightholder Post: I recently updated my GPU (HD 7950) and have been having great success with it. It has gotten me thinking about my aging CPU infrastructure (1st gen i5) and the most practical upgrade roadmap. I prefer Intel CPUâ€™s so I started analyzing the LGA 1155 & LGA 2011 platforms. I was considering upgrading my CPU/MOBO to an i7 SandyBridge E (LGA 2011) platform now which would then allow me to upgrade again in about a year (or 1.5 years) to i7 IvyBridge E (LGA 2011?) once prices have dropped a bit. Has anyone heard anything, presumably speculatory at this point, about the Intel plan to release IvyBridge E and if it will in fact be LGA 2011? Or could anyone recommend more efficient ways to allocate my financial resources with respect to an upgrade roadmap? Thanks!
12) Message boards : Number crunching : app_info file for Gigabyte Radeon HD 7950 GPU (Message 56334) Posted 30 Nov 2012 by Jack Lightholder Post: Ah- great info thanks. I did not consider the CPU time between WU's as a place to increase efficiency. As I watch the WU's crunch I do see a different between no app_info and app_info file. Excellent point too about the heat and dust. I always make sure to keep an eye on those! Thanks for all the help everyone in getting this set up. ~Jack
13) Message boards : Number crunching : app_info file for Gigabyte Radeon HD 7950 GPU (Message 56327) Posted 29 Nov 2012 by Jack Lightholder Post: Thanks for the info. It's working great and crunching away! Out of curiosity what makes an app_info file so desirable? I started with 1 WU/min and now with the file I'm doing 2 Wu's/2 mins.
14) Message boards : Number crunching : app_info file for Gigabyte Radeon HD 7950 GPU (Message 56267) Posted 22 Nov 2012 by Jack Lightholder Post: Just purchased a 7950 and am looking to add an app_info file. If someone has one could you please post and explain briefly how to integrate it. Thanks!
15) Message boards : Number crunching : GPU card update? (Message 56262) Posted 21 Nov 2012 by Jack Lightholder Post: AND with an app_info file you can run 2 units at once, PROVIDING you have GOOD cooling!!! Very interesting...how would I go about doing this? :)
16) Message boards : Number crunching : GPU card update? (Message 56249) Posted 20 Nov 2012 by Jack Lightholder Post: Jack, The Nvidia cards don't have very good double precision throughput. They are fine single precision crunchers, but MW requires DP calculations. AMD cards are much superior for DP work. I would recommend an HD 7950 for the price range you quoted. Joe That's great information thanks. I cant imagine the speed differential I will see going from Nvidia to AMD and a ~1000 benchmark to a ~4000 benchmark. I am already running tasks around 16 mins. Those will be really short WU's.
17) Message boards : Number crunching : GPU card update? (Message 56245) Posted 20 Nov 2012 by Jack Lightholder Post: Hi all, I have been crunching with a GTX 260 for the past two years but think it is finally time to upgrade. I settled (pending community input) on a GTX 660ti. GTX 660 ti model: http://www.microcenter.com/product/397952/02G-P4-3660-KR_NVIDIA_GeForce_GTX_660_Ti_2048MB_GDDR5_PCIe_30_x16_Video_Card Will this card meet the requirements for crunching Milkyway@Home & is it by best option in the 200-300 price range? Thanks!