Welcome to MilkyWay@home

Posts by Chooka

1) Message boards : News : Separation Project Coming To An End (Message 75636)
Posted 17 Jun 2023 by Profile Chooka
Post:
I do use Boinctasks (when the bugger connects to some of my pc's.)
I've always got 2 pc's that I just can't seem to connect. But I'm a novice at pc stuff so it's not a surprise really.
2) Message boards : News : Separation Project Coming To An End (Message 75619)
Posted 16 Jun 2023 by Profile Chooka
Post:
That's why you setup multiple instances on the same computer. One for N-Body and one for Separation (GPU). Running both projects on the same computer is not only possible, but very easy to do.
Running multiple instances is pot luck if it works. It's not for the faint hearted. I did it once to make only one half of Boinc pause for another program (the idiot Boinc programmers don't realize we might want to pause the CPU and leave the GPU running), but it wasted a whole afternoon fiddling about. I copied the command line (a 20th century thing) exactly from another user, but some of my computers decided they just didn't want to start a second instance.

I doubt many people were doing that.


Yep. I do a fair bit of crunching but have never bothered with more than 1 BOINC running.
Too complicated for me and I don't have the time to manage it across multiple pc's.
3) Message boards : News : Separation Project Coming To An End (Message 75576)
Posted 16 Jun 2023 by Profile Chooka
Post:
I don't care if I am using GPU or CPU. My aim is not any sort of badges or rewards, just do the most I can to help all projects under BOINC to
obtain the required data for their successful processing leading to new discoveries in science. The cost of electricity has been increasing
remarkedly in Australia (we pay highest rates in the world, amazingly) and I have cut my hours of processing on my 5 computers from 24 x 7
to 16 x 7 (which has saved me $30 per seek), but it is still high for a pensioner to pay. BOINC is like a hobby for me (though I do not have to do
much!...LOL)


I hear you Chris! Likewise I've had to cut back. Electricity is killing me.
Even with a 6Kw solar, my last bill from Jan to Apr was $1700 ($1200 with the discount) From the first of July, that bill would be over $2200 (without the discount)
That's insane!
Admittedly, the air con is no longer running at least here in QLD.
{33.46c jumping to 45.37c/kWh + daily connection fee going from $1.17/day to $1.26/day}

See AGL's result today?

"AGL said "sustained periods" of higher wholesale electricity prices mean underlying earnings for FY24 are forecast to surge to $1.875b and $2.175b and profits more than double from $580m to $780m."

Meanwhile people are having to choose between food or keeping the lights on.
Should never have privatised a basic necessity like electricity. It shouldn't be a money making machine for shareholders.
4) Message boards : News : Separation Project Coming To An End (Message 75554)
Posted 15 Jun 2023 by Profile Chooka
Post:
https://sech.me/boinc/Amicable/
http://asteroidsathome.net/boinc/
https://einsteinathome.org/
https://www.gpugrid.net/
https://numberfields.asu.edu/NumberFields/
https://www.primegrid.com/
https://srbase.my-firewall.org/sr5/
https://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/
https://foldingathome.org/
http://boincvm.proxyma.ru:30080/test4vm/ invite code is "PrimeGrid"
http://gerasim.boinc.ru/


While those projects do use GPUs, none of them benefit from having high FP64 compute. Which means the P100s would be essentially wasting electricity running those projects when there are far better alternatives that can crunch more work with the same amount of power used.

So unless Separation continues then there are no other projects that benefit from FP64. Which would ultimately mean any old GPU that has good FP64 would most likely not run other projects that well. Such as the AMD 200 series cards, S9000 series cards and the P100s. The Titan Vs still do pretty decent at other projects, but for the price of them newer GPUs would be a better option.


I've been switching over to NGREEDIA gpu's anyway lately. They are now pretty good at Einstein and excellent at Primegrid. Quite power efficient the 40 series as well.
I wrote a while ago on this forum if anyone was worried about crunchers dropping off as newer GPU's don't use FP64 like the old days. I don't even bother with Milkyway & NVIDIA cards. Not worth it.
5) Message boards : News : Separation Project Coming To An End (Message 75553)
Posted 15 Jun 2023 by Profile Chooka
Post:
??
All the ones you are using Crashtech :)
6) Message boards : News : Separation Project Coming To An End (Message 75508)
Posted 14 Jun 2023 by Profile Chooka
Post:
I bought much of my hardware with Separation's rather unique FP64 requirements in mind. It's a shame that it is ending.
Is there an expected time frame for tasks to run out?


Time to flog off those P100's :D
7) Message boards : News : Separation Project Coming To An End (Message 75507)
Posted 14 Jun 2023 by Profile Chooka
Post:
Well that's a disappointment.
Oh well.... one less gpu project I guess.

I personally disagree with Ian & Steve. Whilst having someone who's good at code, it has kinda destroyed any team challenges when the playing field becomes even more distorted by having people who are good at writing code. From a team & challenge perspective, it's one reason I have lost a bit of interest in team challenges. There's no point.

From a personal perspective, good on the GPU users team for being able to help each project to achieve more and more results. Science wins there.
I'll just keep chugging along until power prices completely cripple me (which isn't far off when you have a mortgage & family to support) Prices are rising again by something like 30% on 1st July :( On that basis my next bill would be about AUD$2200 for the quarter which is ridiculous.

Thank you for keeping the project up and running for so many years. It will be sorely missed.
8) Message boards : Number crunching : Future of Milkyway@Home (Message 74969)
Posted 31 Jan 2023 by Profile Chooka
Post:
Agreed it depends on those who wish to target Milkyway@Home over other projects that don't require DP.
Not sure about people (ie - the masses) buying Tesla's & Instinct cards. I guess time will tell.
I can't dedicate my NVIDIA cards to M@H though. The credits are just too low and those cards for me personally are better used elsewhere.

Great discussion. Thank you
9) Message boards : Number crunching : Future of Milkyway@Home (Message 74964)
Posted 30 Jan 2023 by Profile Chooka
Post:
Does anybody crunch Milkyway on their CPU?
Not me personally. Credits are too low.

It will be interesting to see how the credits pan out. I'd say the handful of big hitters skew these figures a bit.
I just know that from my point of view, future GPU's I buy will not perform as well at Milkyway@Home due to the DP gimping of consumer cards.

I was just curious what others though.
10) Message boards : Number crunching : Future of Milkyway@Home (Message 74954)
Posted 29 Jan 2023 by Profile Chooka
Post:
Yes.... what is the alternative?
I assume that nothing will change but over time people will upgrade their GPU's but that will result in less work being completed for this project.

I'm hoping my Radeon VII's kick on for a while longer but any replacement card, won't be as good for M@H.
11) Message boards : Number crunching : Future of Milkyway@Home (Message 74951)
Posted 28 Jan 2023 by Profile Chooka
Post:
Yes but that's kinda my point.
Sure.... I'd love to buy an old (old because the Titan days are gone) Titan because it's smashes Milkyway, but it gets left behind in other projects and newer cards.
Unless I'm specifically targeting Milkyway@Home, I'm no longer buying GPU's that have great FP64 performance.

As these great FP64 cards become old, there are no new FP64 cards really coming through at the consumer level. That's why I wonder if this project will slowly produce less results.

If I had infinite money $$ sure, I'd load up on all the Titan V's I could find and plant them with pc's and smash out Milkyway until I reached my desired rank. Then I'd rip them all out, put them into storage & plug in shiney, new high end GPU's to smash other gpu projects.

That's what I'd do. (I'd also be retired and have time to do all that sh^te)
12) Message boards : Number crunching : Future of Milkyway@Home (Message 74946)
Posted 28 Jan 2023 by Profile Chooka
Post:
I'm just curious if anyone else has the same thoughts that I do around this project in the years to come. And by that I'm referring to newer GPU's.

For the first time in decades, I will have not 1 but 2 NVIDIA gpu's and as we all know..... they SUCK at Milkyway. I'll be losing an old stalwart in the old 280X which is probably capable of doing a few thousand less credits than a newer NVIDIA gpu I'm gussin.

Is it possible that Milkyway@Home could slow down in future if the best GPU's become project specific? Radeon VII's, Titans.
I find that NVIDIA cards finally do well on Einstein so for me personally, I gain on Primegrid & Einstein.

The point is, when I upgrade my cards as they get older, it doesn't look like the newer cards are doing so well with M@H due to the FP64 gimping.
Thoughts.

ps
I see the 7900XTX is still gimped 3.838 TFLOPS (1:16) vs a Radeon VII 3.360 TFLOPS (1:4)
For reference, my 3070Ti - FP64 (double) performance 339.8 GFLOPS (1:64) (urgh)
13) Message boards : Number crunching : Top GPU models (Message 73604)
Posted 19 May 2022 by Profile Chooka
Post:
That's what I though Keith.
Surely it must be this then - AMD FirePro S9150 as the top card.
Doesn't really matter.... I was just curious. The page isn't that helpful if it can't list the correct GPU's. PG do a great job of that.
Thx
14) Message boards : Number crunching : Top GPU models (Message 73526)
Posted 15 May 2022 by Profile Chooka
Post:
Just curious... why doesn't the Radeon VII show up in this list?

https://milkyway.cs.rpi.edu/milkyway/gpu_list.php
15) Message boards : News : Nbody WU Flush (Message 73287)
Posted 4 May 2022 by Profile Chooka
Post:
Well.... the up side is I'm saving money on my ever increasing power bill while I wait for Milkyway to come back online :) That's a silver lining if ever there was one.
16) Message boards : News : Server Trouble (Message 73074)
Posted 22 Apr 2022 by Profile Chooka
Post:
Seems to have come good now.
Thank you.
17) Message boards : News : Server Trouble (Message 72987)
Posted 18 Apr 2022 by Profile Chooka
Post:
I haven't been getting any work for hours. Run dry.

ps.... could someone please confirm this app config is still correct? I'm unsure about the modified fit part.

<app_config>
<app>
<name>milkyway</name>
<max_concurrent>16</max_concurrent>
<gpu_versions>
<gpu_usage>0.33</gpu_usage>
<cpu_usage>0.2</cpu_usage>
</gpu_versions>
</app>
<app>
<name>milkyway_separation__modified_fit</name>
<max_concurrent>16</max_concurrent>
<gpu_versions>
<gpu_usage>0.33</gpu_usage>
<cpu_usage>0.2</cpu_usage>
</gpu_versions>
</app>
</app_config>
There are only two app names, "milkyway" (the seperation (also called modfit) one), and "milkyway_nbody" (the multicore nbody one for CPU only).

Remove all this, it doesn't do anything but won't be causing a problem:

<app>
<name>milkyway_separation__modified_fit</name>
<max_concurrent>16</max_concurrent>
<gpu_versions>
<gpu_usage>0.33</gpu_usage>
<cpu_usage>0.2</cpu_usage>
</gpu_versions>
</app>


The rest is correct, you're allowing up to 16 at once on the whole machine, three per GPU, and allocating a fifth of a CPU core per task.


Thank you :)
It seems others are having trouble getting work as well.
18) Message boards : News : Server Trouble (Message 72961)
Posted 18 Apr 2022 by Profile Chooka
Post:
Hi!
Yes, its an old config and might not be relevant anymore. I'm not 100% sure.
Log shows no work retrieved. It is asking for work though.
Restart of pc made no difference. No work on all pc's now. I'm sending 1 gpu over where it excels best.... Primegrid.
I'll just maintain some patience :)
19) Message boards : News : Server Trouble (Message 72956)
Posted 18 Apr 2022 by Profile Chooka
Post:
I haven't been getting any work for hours. Run dry.

ps.... could someone please confirm this app config is still correct? I'm unsure about the modified fit part.

<app_config>
<app>
<name>milkyway</name>
<max_concurrent>16</max_concurrent>
<gpu_versions>
<gpu_usage>0.33</gpu_usage>
<cpu_usage>0.2</cpu_usage>
</gpu_versions>
</app>
<app>
<name>milkyway_separation__modified_fit</name>
<max_concurrent>16</max_concurrent>
<gpu_versions>
<gpu_usage>0.33</gpu_usage>
<cpu_usage>0.2</cpu_usage>
</gpu_versions>
</app>
</app_config>
20) Message boards : Number crunching : opencl_nvidia_101 on RTX 3060 Ti (Message 72554)
Posted 7 Apr 2022 by Profile Chooka
Post:
I found the following with my 3070Ti -
1 x wu = 148 sec
2 x wu = 120 sec
3 x wu = 114 sec
4 x wu = 112.5sec

Any which way you cut it, these cards SUCK at Milkyway. (I bought this card for Primegrid where they do very well)

For comparison, my 7990 = roughly 46sec running 3 wu's.
Radeon VII is about 45sec running 4 wu's.


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