Help Me Get My 4830's Folding!

angelkiller · Post by **angelkiller** » Sat Jan 31, 2009 7:48 pm

Ok, I now have two 4830's ready to add to my folding effort.

So, I've been reading Stanford's site, and I'm confused about how to run two simultaneous clients. Ideally, I'd like to run two GPU Console clients. However, the link above talks of pointing a shortcut to two different directories, but I don't think the console version puts any files anywhere else except for the directory the executable is in...? How can I get two GPU clients working?

Crossfire has to be disabled, right? Is there a Windows command for doing this? I'd like to have a shortcut that could enable/disable Crossfire. I don't know if this is even possible...?

Second, can I run 2 GPU clients and 1 SMP client simultaneously? How much CPU usage does each GPU client require? If I had to chose though, I think two GPUs would be faster than 1 SMP.

Sorry for the (seemingly) basic questions, your help is appreciated. (Your help also helps SPCR's F@H team!

)

aristide1 · Post by **aristide1** » Sat Jan 31, 2009 8:14 pm

For my last dual GPU install there is an install directory and a working directory. I duplicated everything. Then I made 2 shortcuts. The first points to the first group of directories and has -gpu0. The second points to the second group and has -gpu1. Then I start everything with the short cut. Check the FAQ section on the download website for explicit instructions as well as the ATI section of the GPU section of the folding forums.

folding.stanford.edu

I can not tell you how much CPU you will need. In Vista all NVidia cards use almost zero CPU. With newer drivers in XP also almost zero CPU usage.

For now get one folding at let us know how much you use as well as which OS you are using. 50% of a dual core means you are using 100% of one core.

Congratulations and keep us informed, including points per day and electrical usage if possible.

Aris

angelkiller · Post by **angelkiller** » Sun Feb 01, 2009 8:09 am

Ok, I got a bit impatient, as I missed this page that explained exactly how to get 2 GPU clients working. However, the clients are the Systray ones, not the console ones that I wanted. But at least they're working. I'll play around later and see if I can get two console clients running.

Anyways, performance is a little lower than what I was expecting, but still relatively high. (I'm running XP btw) Each GPU client runs between 33% and 42% CPU load, the average being about 40%. One 4830 gets 2100 PPD and the other get 2800 PPD. I don't understand why there is such a difference in PPD. Both cards are at stock speeds.

The biggest con to running the GPU client is its high CPU usage. My SMP client is only getting 20% of the CPU. It only completed two percent of the work unit in the last nine hours.

Normally it completes one percent in less than a half hour.

That's also pretty bad in terms of power consumption because not only are both GPUs at 100% usage, the CPU is also pegged at 80%, and it's not even doing anything! I don't have a kill-a-watt so I can't say which is more efficient. (PPD/Watt) 4GHz 1.3v E8400 = ~2300 PPD. 100% 4830 + 40% CPU = 2800 PPD. The GPU + 40% CPU is probably less efficient.

aristide1 · Post by **aristide1** » Sun Feb 01, 2009 8:27 am

One 4830 gets 2100 PPD and the other get 2800 PPD. I don't understand why there is such a difference in PPD. Both cards are at stock speeds.

That's just different types of WUs. My cards finish WU sometimes in 2.5 hours, sometimes in 4 hours, it depends.

The biggest con to running the GPU client is its high CPU usage. My SMP client is only getting 20% of the CPU. It only completed two percent of the work unit in the last nine hours. Normally it completes one percent in less than a half hour.

I have no experience with ATI cards. I trust you have the latest drivers from whereever. For NVidia newer drivers have lowered CPU usage. I admit your CPU usage is high. It would pay to OC your CPU, not the video card. For your SMP unit, it will not finish by deadline, so you have to choose now, stop the video briefly and let SMP complete or let it expire. Or perhaps you can compromise and stop just 1 video card.

Given your high CPU usage I would not run SMP anymore on that PC. With XP and my GPU using the entire cpu I did not run SMP. You may run one instance of regular FAH fairly successfully.

It's up to you now from what you've posted so far.

A

angelkiller · Post by **angelkiller** » Mon Mar 09, 2009 5:00 pm

Ok, I recently tried to get 2 GPU console clients running. It didn't work.

I have unzipped them to two different directories in my Program Files directory. I configured one with the -configonly flag and copied the config.cfg file over to the other directory. Then I changed the Machine ID of the config file in the second directory. I made a shortcut that points to the FAH exe and the shortcut contains the flag -gpu 0 for the first directory and -gpu 1 for the second directory. My cards are not in CF atm. So I connected the DVI port of my monitor to one card, the VGA connection to the other and then I extended my desktop to 'both' displays. Initially, I tried just one client. Everything seemed to be working. Next, I tried adding the second client. That's where things stopped working. The second client downloaded the core and all, but eventually, I got an error. Something along the lines of "Unstable Core. FAH is shutting down".

Anyone know what's going on or where I messed up? I was following this instructions page, but since I'm using the console version, I didn't do all the steps dealing with the Application Data folder.

Thanks

aristide1 · Post by **aristide1** » Tue Mar 10, 2009 7:16 am

Aren't there 2 different directories in the shortcut? One where the exe is and the other a work directory?

I duplicated everything when I got mine running. I left it in the systray because I got tired of messing with it.

Check all your directory and file names again, one mistake and it's all over.

Otherwise the forums over at Stanford may offer more insight.