hi,

so if these inhancement apps dont enhance at all whats the point of their existance ?
are there alot of people around this project not getting anymore work done using these apps than they would do anyway ?

this just seems a bit surprising to me ?

Ian

The apps used to be faster, but I believe all the relevant changes were merged into the official build. But the unofficial versions can still be updated more quickly.

When the tasks are short such as some previous ones that took only about 10 seconds on a HD 5870 then some people choose to use the manually downloaded application to run 2 tasks concurrently. This gives a more even load on the GPU without it stopping and starting all the time. It also increases total daily throughput because the GPU is never idle between finishing one task and starting the next.

When the tasks are longer in length such as the current ones that are granted 417.48 credits and take 2-2.5 minutes on a HD 5870 then there is much less on and off cycling of the GPU. Therefore the need to run 2 tasks concurrently for a more consistent GPU load is reduced and also the extra throughput is also less.

There are other configuration options available in the manually downloaded versions that some people use to enhance performance, increase stability, improve desktop responsiveness or reduce GPU temperature.

For the majority of people however there is very little benefit to be gained by using the manually downloaded version as the application is the same. There's just a few adjustments available for those who like to tweak things or need to overcome certain problems.

Please read the readme file again more thoroughly. <cmdline>n2</cmdline> will not work with an ATI-aware BOINC version. If you wish to run 2 tasks concurrently with an ATI-aware BOINC version you need to have:

<coproc>
<type>ATI</type>
<count>0.5</count>
</coproc>

hi,

so if these inhancement apps dont enhance at all whats the point of their existance ?
are there alot of people around this project not getting anymore work done using these apps than they would do anyway ?

this just seems a bit surprising to me ?

Ian

For a while they were the only way to use a gpu here, the cpu apps are still faster. Eventually they were turned into the stock gpu app. Unless you want to tweak something the gpu stock app is just as good.

---

Doesn't expecting the unexpected make the unexpected the expected?
If it makes sense, DON'T do it.

hi,

thanks for bearing with me on that i get the picture now why these apps were needed at one point i'll just stick to the default app and leave well alone


one last question

if you crossfire a pair of 4890's does each one card do seperate wu's or do the combine reourses and do each wu twice as fast ?
the reason i ask is if they do do two seperatly then you would expect to get double the work done but as is the case in most cases if you lump two peices of electronic equipment together and ask for double the output it very rarely works like that and a percentage of the output is lost for whatever reason

just wondered :)

Ian

Hello,
I suggest to everybody with sluggish desktop and abnormal wu crunching time on ati gpu concerning new wu's to check their catalyst version. In my case, upgrade from 10.1 to 10.2 miraculously cured the problem.

I crossfire my cards, twin 5970's.

Each WU runs on a separate GPU. The reason for Crossfire in Crunching is just to tell Windows use all the GPU's available to it.

The alternative, to Crossfire, is to use dummy plugs in the other card or the VGA cable if present.

---

I also have big problem with De_XX_3S_free on my 4GPU system (2X5970)
Gpu are idle or less than 50% and computer become very very slow
the worst WU de_13_3s_const_1_341667_1268484025 compute in 5,619.85s (150s normally and 100s for standard one)
http://milkyway.cs.rpi.edu/milkyway/results.php?hostid=143091&offset=0&show_names=0&state=3

MilkyWay@Home v0.21 (ati13ati)(X64 GPU)
Ati Catalyst 10.2 64b
Win 7 Pro

Exactly the same problem.
If you go to see this WU the runtime is 2829.4893 seconds!!!
For a 5970, it's a bit long!
When this happens, all the system is slow, and i just can delete the WU only with a remote computer.
I try to downclock the cards, change the drivers, but i have always the same problem.
If i let the WU go to the end, my computer run as smoothly as before this problem.
The problem is not solve by the new app.
You can see in my host several WU with the same problem at different time.

edit : this problem is only with 5970.

my worst time: 8000s

a picture to see what appened


if stop and restart -> no problem

Downclocking might create problems. I encountered the same problem as yours ([AF>HFR>RR] Jim PROFIT) with my twin 5970. Downclocking memory for example created blue screen after 2 days of continuing crunch and it happens within the same time interval of maximum 3 days, always. Currently, I crunch with default clocks.

Since the problem is very significant in 5970s, I presume the updated stock application (0.22) will regulate the problem.

Despite my previous post, the problem persists.
On my 1st rig - i7-920 + HD4770CF, Win Server 2k8 R2, all new ..de_1x.. WU's run sluggish, often for 2-3 hours, with heavy overload to the desktop.

On 2nd rig - i3-530 + HD5850, Win Vista SP1, then SP2 - everything run fine, ..de_1x.. WU's run 4-6 min counting forth to ca 140% and back and scoring 400+.
Computer is fully usable during crunching.

I have no idea what to do next, both systems are hardware and software wisely pretty similar, but they behave quite differently, and theoretically worse is doing fine. I probably drop mw in favour of collatz on i7/47CF.