Opposite to my first post above, I have encountered problems now. I have very high cpu-usage with 1.00 and 1.02 app and two 5850 GPU.

Do you actually have high CPU usage, or is BOINC just telling you it is using 0.98 CPUs? I see that one one of my systems (Using BOINC 7) and not on another (Using 6.12)

No, it is really high cpu-usage according to the windows task-manager which shows usage up to 25 % on my quad-core for each milkyway process. Boinc shows 0.05 as expected. Please show also in my example wu in the original post. The cpu-time is very high!

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I'm using Nvidia but CPU usage is still quite high.

Where do I put --gpu-wait-factor and --gpu-polling-mode, and how to lower CPU usage even more?

Matt Arsenault wrote:

In the <cmdline></cmdline.

I found out where to put it, but what numbers should I use to lower CPU usage?

mikey wrote:

BTW upgrading to the 7 series of Boinc means you have a whole other set of problems with your cache levels! And NO you cannot downgrade without wiping out all your existing units

Can I upgrade to BOINC 7 without wiping out all of mine existing/cached/running WU's?

Anthony.

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The longer I live, the more reasons I develop for wanting to die.

I have not had a problem upgrading, its downgrading back to 6.X.X thats the problem because 7.X.X deals with files differently, and when thats presented to 6.X.X it dont like it and wont play. Going up to V7, BOINC V7 does all the conversions necessary, dont happen the other way as BOINC V6 knows nothing about it.

.... but so far, going up to 7.X.X has been trouble free for me

Regards
Zy

I found out where to put it, but what numbers should I use to lower CPU usage?

Raising the GPU wait factor (--gpu-wait-factor ) and/or changing the polling mode (--gpu-polling-mode ). The default wait factor is 0.75, to wait for 75% of the estimated kernel run times before waiting. Raising it towards 1 should lower CPU usage. If you want to play with that try raising the wait factor first.

Can I upgrade to BOINC 7 without wiping out all of mine existing/cached/running WU's?

I think I saw that it wipes it if the version changes, so no.

I found out where to put it, but what numbers should I use to lower CPU usage?

Raising the GPU wait factor (--gpu-wait-factor ) and/or changing the polling mode (--gpu-polling-mode ). The default wait factor is 0.75, to wait for 75% of the estimated kernel run times before waiting. Raising it towards 1 should lower CPU usage. If you want to play with that try raising the wait factor first.

Can I upgrade to BOINC 7 without wiping out all of mine existing/cached/running WU's?

I think I saw that it wipes it if the version changes, so no.

No, it is fine going up to version 7 from version 6, it is only a problem if you want to go back to version 6.

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No, it is really high cpu-usage according to the windows task-manager which shows usage up to 25 % on my quad-core for each milkyway process. Boinc shows 0.05 as expected. Please show also in my example wu in the original post. The cpu-time is very high!

I know the AMD drivers had the high CPU problem in 11.7 and 11.8 but I guess that could be different on different hardware. Does it happen with the current 12.1 drivers for you?

Matt,
I have two computers with ATI GPU's
Q9400 - ATI5850 recently doing poem OPEN_cl app
17-920 - ATI4850 recently doing Milkys CAL app

The i7-920 -ATI4850 stopped getting milky so I went to the forum and read the latest posts.

Consequently I upgraded Boinc to 7.0.12 and the ATI CCC to 11.9 I still could not get the new WU for Open_cl

I switched the q9400 - ATI5850 from POEM to Milky By by suspending poem and hitting update.
The new app was downloaded to:
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\BOINC\projects\milkyway.cs.rpi.edu_milkyway
APP:milkyway_separation_1.02_windows_intelx86__opencl_amd_ati
and the app started immediately
the Q9400 has boinc 7.0.12 and ATI CCC 11.9 identical to the setup to the i7-920

Confused , I restarted the i7-920 and updated the project and tried again (no luck)
I reset the project (no luck)
I restarted (no luck)
I removed milky and re-installed using boinc manager and updated the project (no luck)
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\BOINC\projects\milkyway.cs.rpi.edu_milkyway directory is now empty.

Messages in boinc read:
Host Project Date Message
xp-pro-i7 Milkyway@Home 11/02/2012 1:48:27 AM Sending scheduler request: To fetch work.
xp-pro-i7 Milkyway@Home 11/02/2012 1:48:27 AM Requesting new tasks for ATI
xp-pro-i7 Milkyway@Home 11/02/2012 1:48:29 AM Scheduler request completed: got 0 new tasks
xp-pro-i7 Milkyway@Home 11/02/2012 1:48:29 AM No tasks sent
xp-pro-i7 Milkyway@Home 11/02/2012 1:48:29 AM Tasks for CPU are available, but your preferences are set to not accept them

On restart the boinc manager reports this:
Host Project Date Message
xp-pro-i7 --- 11/02/2012 12:54:44 AM Starting BOINC client version 7.0.12 for windows_intelx86
xp-pro-i7 --- 11/02/2012 12:54:44 AM log flags: file_xfer, sched_ops, task
xp-pro-i7 --- 11/02/2012 12:54:44 AM Libraries: libcurl/7.21.6 OpenSSL/1.0.0d zlib/1.2.5
xp-pro-i7 --- 11/02/2012 12:54:44 AM Data directory: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\BOINC

xp-pro-i7 --- 11/02/2012 12:54:44 AM Processor features: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss htt tm pni ssse3 cx16 sse4_1 sse4_2 nx lm vmx tm2 popcnt pbe

xp-pro-i7 --- 11/02/2012 12:54:44 AM ATI GPU 0: ATI Radeon HD 4700/4800 (RV740/RV770) (CAL version 1.4.1546, 512MB, 471MB available, 2000 GFLOPS peak)
xp-pro-i7 --- 11/02/2012 12:54:44 AM OpenCL: ATI GPU 0: ATI RV770 (driver version CAL 1.4.1546, device version OpenCL 1.0 AMD-APP-SDK-v2.5 (732.1), 256MB, 471MB available)
xp-pro-i7 --- 11/02/2012 12:54:44 AM ATI GPU 0 is OpenCL-capable

From this end it looks like the 4850's are not being recognised as supportable.

EDIT:
I found a difference in open cl versions
OpenCL: ATI GPU 0: Cypress (driver version CAL 1.4.1546, device version OpenCL 1.1 AMD-APP-SDK-v2.5 (732.1), 512MB, 945MB available)

No, it is really high cpu-usage according to the windows task-manager which shows usage up to 25 % on my quad-core for each milkyway process. Boinc shows 0.05 as expected. Please show also in my example wu in the original post. The cpu-time is very high!

I know the AMD drivers had the high CPU problem in 11.7 and 11.8 but I guess that could be different on different hardware. Does it happen with the current 12.1 drivers for you?

I tried 11.11c, 12.1, 12.2 preview. Every driver showed the high cpu-usage.

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Where can I download the latest Boinc 7 version? The Boinc site only show the 7.0.8 version?

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The longer I live, the more reasons I develop for wanting to die.

You can find the version here: http://boinc.berkeley.edu/dl/?C=M;O=D

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I was getting high CPU usage (one CPU core per WU) with 11.9 drivers but it is ok with 12.1, I just hope it doesn't BSOD again like it did before with 12.1

I'am fucked up with all the mW versions, why not keep it to simple 1.
Some host got work and some not, all running on same old boinc and almost same GPU!

Please admins, put a email to all of us next time before upgrading:

We are upgrading next week separation to 1.00, please upgrade
your boinc client to x.xx and min gpu driver to x.xx.

It depends on the driver version and GPU. The most problematic GPU are Radeon 4xxx series. There are only 4 driver releases in the past year that I'm certain work (11.7, 11.8, 11.9 and 12.1+) so unless you're using one of those you won't get work for it.

Indeed it does -- also the version of Boinc Manager.

With 11.8 (which also works with Collatz -- a critical constraint for me), and Vista 32 bit and Windows 7 64 bit, it does work -- with one of the 6.x Boinc managers. With 11.8 and XP 32 bit and BM 7.0.8 it does not get work, go figure.

It depends on the driver version and GPU. The most problematic GPU are Radeon 4xxx series. There are only 4 driver releases in the past year that I'm certain work (11.7, 11.8, 11.9 and 12.1+) so unless you're using one of those you won't get work for it.

With 11.8 (which also works with Collatz -- a critical constraint for me), and Vista 32 bit and Windows 7 64 bit, it does work -- with one of the 6.x Boinc managers. With 11.8 and XP 32 bit and BM 7.0.8 it does not get work, go figure.

that's my dilemma too - i need to be setup so that both Milkyway and Collatz will run...and unfortunately my platform is WinXP 32-bit like yours. on the other hand, i'm running a different driver and BOINC version, so i suppose there's a chance it'll work if i try it. i just haven't been able to make the time to play around with it all. i'm thinking i'll tackle it sometime next week after the Valentine's Day bonus.

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Indeed it does -- also the version of Boinc Manager.

With 11.8 (which also works with Collatz -- a critical constraint for me), and Vista 32 bit and Windows 7 64 bit, it does work -- with one of the 6.x Boinc managers. With 11.8 and XP 32 bit and BM 7.0.8 it does not get work, go figure.

today matt implemented a fix for the scheduler. I think that now it should work also in your "11.8 with BM 7.0.8" configuration, because you're in what he called and discarded previously (wrongly) a "pure cl_amd_fp64" extension situation

Those having apparent work-fetch problems with 7.X.X .... at present it works in a different way, I suspect - only that, no definitive knowledge - that its being designed to reduce cache sizes at the user end, particularly massive days long ones due to the problems that can give servers.

At present, the cache will reduce down without being refreshed. At the point when its almost at dry, it will then download what you set in the cache preferences all the other supply constraints being equal. Often had 200 WU downloads on other projects in one lump after apparent famine. Its feast or famine and will not play unless the cache is near zero.

Work in progress .... will they change that .... I have no idea, but meanwhile be aware of the behaviour - its easy to get the perception it will never refill, it will (usually), but it does it at the last minute.

Regards
Zy

I saw that and was hopeful, but...

I tried this on a Win64 system with an HD 4850 and BM 7.0.8

1) Uninstalled Catalyst 11.4
2) Rebooted, installed Catalyst 11.8
3) Rebooted, removed MW from BM 7.08
4) Reattached to MW

See messages below:

2/10/2012 1:57:54 PM | Milkyway@Home | Master file download succeeded
2/10/2012 1:57:59 PM | Milkyway@Home | Sending scheduler request: Project initialization.
2/10/2012 1:57:59 PM | Milkyway@Home | Requesting new tasks for CPU and ATI
2/10/2012 1:58:00 PM | Milkyway@Home | Scheduler request completed: got 0 new tasks
2/10/2012 1:58:00 PM | Milkyway@Home | No tasks sent
2/10/2012 1:58:00 PM | Milkyway@Home | Message from server: Catalyst driver version is not OK for OpenCL application with this GPU
2/10/2012 1:58:00 PM | Milkyway@Home | Tasks for CPU are available, but your preferences are set to not accept them
2/10/2012 1:58:00 PM | Milkyway@Home | New computer location: home

Indeed it does -- also the version of Boinc Manager.

With 11.8 (which also works with Collatz -- a critical constraint for me), and Vista 32 bit and Windows 7 64 bit, it does work -- with one of the 6.x Boinc managers. With 11.8 and XP 32 bit and BM 7.0.8 it does not get work, go figure.

today matt implemented a fix for the scheduler. I think that now it should work also in your "11.8 with BM 7.0.8" configuration, because you're in what he called and discarded previously (wrongly) a "pure cl_amd_fp64" extension situation

The other thing to note, with the earlier BM (6.10.58 or 6.12.32) which do get work with the 11.8 Catalyst -- they get .82 separation work units -- which process fine.

I think the 7.0.8 BM 'wants' the 1.0 separation work units with OpenCL, but MW doesn't 'like' this.

The deal here which might be interesting, POEM GPU *requires* the BOINC 7.x series (and seems picky about sub versions there), and runs an OpenCL application there.

So at the moment, I have an either/or -- POEM GPU or MW GPU. I don't run much for POEM GPU (it is new for those guys and so has some issues AND is a CreditNew (bad, bad) house these days.

Also, as long as .82 separation works with work units I will be OK for now on all the 6.10.58 and 6.12.32 BM + 11.8 Catalyst combinations I have deployed. When .82 no longer works, unless things are fixed, I will be 'MW-less'.

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