Back in the Fold

A forum just for SPCR's folding team... by request.

Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee

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warriorpoet
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Joined: Wed Jul 20, 2005 10:56 am
Location: USA

Back in the Fold

Post by warriorpoet » Sat Jul 16, 2011 12:48 pm

I've been out for a while. Had a GTX280 die and haven't had a decent GPU to fold with until now. Hopefully my contribution will be helpful :)

Any suggestions for a guy out a while?

System:
CPU: i5 2500k @ 4.2-4.8GHz
GPU: GTX570 945/1890/4500
HDDs: various SSDs and a mechanical

Clients:
1x SMP (as service, -advmethods and -smp flags)
1x GPU3 (tray client)

Monitor:
FAHMon (tells me I should expect 22k PPD? That can't be right...)

NeilBlanchard
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Re: Back in the Fold

Post by NeilBlanchard » Sun Jul 17, 2011 2:46 am

Welcome back! I am not the person to answer questions about the GPU client; so I'll let others do this.

cordis
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Re: Back in the Fold

Post by cordis » Sun Jul 17, 2011 9:12 pm

Welcome back! Well, first suggestion would be to get the new client, here's the installation instructions https://fah-web.stanford.edu/projects/F ... de#Windows although those are for windows, I'm assuming that's what you're running. The new client will allow you to control gpu and smp jobs at the same time, so that might make things easier. And new projects are coming out for the new client only, so keeping up to date could be a good thing. Now with the i2500k, you'll be limited to smp folding and not bigadv, so you won't be getting a bonus for that. But 22k ppd sounds a little low, so you may want to check some options. Try running the smp job with -smp 7, leave a core free to run the gpu jobs, that might speed up both. It also depends on whether your version of fahmon is the latest one that takes bonuses into account. Check your stats on EOC stats (http://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/ ... s=&t=31574) and see if what you're getting there matches what fahmon is giving you.

warriorpoet
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Location: USA

Re: Back in the Fold

Post by warriorpoet » Mon Jul 18, 2011 9:09 am

cordis wrote:Welcome back! Well, first suggestion would be to get the new client, here's the installation instructions https://fah-web.stanford.edu/projects/F ... de#Windows although those are for windows, I'm assuming that's what you're running. The new client will allow you to control gpu and smp jobs at the same time, so that might make things easier. And new projects are coming out for the new client only, so keeping up to date could be a good thing. Now with the i2500k, you'll be limited to smp folding and not bigadv, so you won't be getting a bonus for that. But 22k ppd sounds a little low, so you may want to check some options. Try running the smp job with -smp 7, leave a core free to run the gpu jobs, that might speed up both. It also depends on whether your version of fahmon is the latest one that takes bonuses into account. Check your stats on EOC stats (http://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/ ... s=&t=31574) and see if what you're getting there matches what fahmon is giving you.
I didn't know any of that, so thank you. I tried using ye olde method of smp (-advmethods) on 3 cores + 1 core GPU (GPU3) and only ended up with about 13k PPD, so your tips are much appreciated. The only problem I have now if figuring out where to point my fahmon to get up to date readings...

cordis
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Re: Back in the Fold

Post by cordis » Mon Jul 18, 2011 11:12 am

Ah, that's right, I was thinking that you had 8 cores instead of four. Well, you may want to keep -smp 3, but you'll probably want to do a little checking first. Try running just the gpu with no smp folding for an hour or so, keep an eye on cpu usage. If it's nowhere near 25%, then just run with -smp and no number. But if it's anywhere between 7-25% or higher (and I'm guessing here, so grain of salt) then you may want to do -smp 3. You should be getting 12k-15k ppd from gtx 570, and I'm guessing at least that much from smp. It's a little harder to predict smp though, with the bonuses there's a non-linear point value. Oh, and make sure you're running with a passkey setup, that's very important, you must have one to get the bonuses.

As far as fahmon goes, you may have some problems with it. I think that the latest version does calculate bonuses, but I'm pretty sure that they haven't updated for the new client. That was a fairly big change, so no one has really caught up to that yet. If you stick with the previous clients, you should still be able to use fahmon. So if it's a deal breaker, then I'd say stick with the old clients. I'm actually running the old clients myself, since I have 3 machines running, it's easier to keep track of them with an old monitor (I'm using HFM.net). The new client does give you a monitor, so that may be enough info for you, although it notably doesn't do any ppd estimates. But definitely keep an eye on your stats, and make sure you're getting credit for stuff that you're doing.

Oh, and by the way, is your handle in folding the same as your name here? Thought I'd try to take a look and see if you're getting credits.

warriorpoet
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Location: USA

Re: Back in the Fold

Post by warriorpoet » Mon Jul 18, 2011 4:39 pm

cordis wrote:Ah, that's right, I was thinking that you had 8 cores instead of four. Well, you may want to keep -smp 3, but you'll probably want to do a little checking first. Try running just the gpu with no smp folding for an hour or so, keep an eye on cpu usage. If it's nowhere near 25%, then just run with -smp and no number. But if it's anywhere between 7-25% or higher (and I'm guessing here, so grain of salt) then you may want to do -smp 3. You should be getting 12k-15k ppd from gtx 570, and I'm guessing at least that much from smp. It's a little harder to predict smp though, with the bonuses there's a non-linear point value. Oh, and make sure you're running with a passkey setup, that's very important, you must have one to get the bonuses.

As far as fahmon goes, you may have some problems with it. I think that the latest version does calculate bonuses, but I'm pretty sure that they haven't updated for the new client. That was a fairly big change, so no one has really caught up to that yet. If you stick with the previous clients, you should still be able to use fahmon. So if it's a deal breaker, then I'd say stick with the old clients. I'm actually running the old clients myself, since I have 3 machines running, it's easier to keep track of them with an old monitor (I'm using HFM.net). The new client does give you a monitor, so that may be enough info for you, although it notably doesn't do any ppd estimates. But definitely keep an eye on your stats, and make sure you're getting credit for stuff that you're doing.

Oh, and by the way, is your handle in folding the same as your name here? Thought I'd try to take a look and see if you're getting credits.
Yep, same handle, though it seems I have yet to complete an smp unit with the new delio. The smp projects are taking a LONG time- any particular reason for this? I'm running ~13k PPD on my 570, but roughly .8 units a day on an OC'd i5 2500k. Something fishy here...

Oh, and I read some FUD that bonus points don't begin to calculate until smp #10; that true?

warriorpoet
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Re: Back in the Fold

Post by warriorpoet » Mon Jul 18, 2011 7:09 pm

Just a thought: now that we have a PS3, can I add that to the team as well?

edit: nm. I added the PS3. Another machine for Team SPCR!

cordis
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Re: Back in the Fold

Post by cordis » Tue Jul 19, 2011 9:54 am

A ps3, ok, that'll help a little. Your gpu sounds about right, but yeah, your smp folding does seem a little slow. You might want to check for background processes, see if there's something eating your cpu time. I always used to notice a drop if I left a web browser open. Oh, and make sure to deactivate any screen saver you might have. I hope the gpu run isn't eating up too much cpu time, but you'll have to get into it and see. Oh, and yeah, you will have to do 10 smp runs before getting bonuses, it's annoying but true. Hope that doesn't take too long. ;)

warriorpoet
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Location: USA

Re: Back in the Fold

Post by warriorpoet » Tue Jul 19, 2011 1:04 pm

Figured out part of the CPU problem- it was giving way to everything (and I mean EVERYTHING), so I elevated importance and PPD estimates tripled. Since I'm not sure how to set core affinity with the new client, I went ahead and set GPU's core affinity to core_3 using ye olde process lasso. PPD estimates doubled.

Hopefully everything's sorted enough on the CPU side to turn some decent PPD now. ~100 PPD for a 2500k is more than a bit ridiculous...

cordis
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Re: Back in the Fold

Post by cordis » Tue Jul 19, 2011 1:11 pm

Wow, you were getting 100 ppd? Yeah, that ain't right. Glad it's going more smoothly now. But on the bright side, the stats are listed only for the last 4 days, and it looks like you're already #12 in production! I look forward to seeing how much higher you end up! :D

warriorpoet
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Re: Back in the Fold

Post by warriorpoet » Tue Jul 19, 2011 1:35 pm

cordis wrote:Wow, you were getting 100 ppd? Yeah, that ain't right. Glad it's going more smoothly now. But on the bright side, the stats are listed only for the last 4 days, and it looks like you're already #12 in production! I look forward to seeing how much higher you end up! :D
Hopefully high enough to provide a great deal of assistance to the researchers at Stanford. FWIW, my PS3 shows 900 PPD atm- all at 96w. Not too shabby. :)

re: contribution rank

Looks like my humble critters should end up in the 7-8 range.

BTW, cordis, what are you running? That's quite a number 8o

frenchie
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Re: Back in the Fold

Post by frenchie » Tue Jul 19, 2011 5:05 pm

Hey, welcome back warriorpoet !!!
And there is no such a thing as humble critters, every little bit counts !

Your ppd is going up nicely, enjoy :)

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