SPCR Folds Team Blog

[aristide1]

Pfft, after installing the latest drivers from my GTX260 I know longer have access to the shader speed in the EVGA precision tool, it's been greyed out. Now my GTX260 only runs at stock speed.

This is why I hate new drivers, they fix one thing and break another. Now I feel like going back to my prior drivers.

Idiots.

[frenchie]

YEAH !!



First time I see Fahmon display more than 10K PPD... usually I'm closer to 8000. I guess I'm lucky with the work unit today

[aspd]

aristide1: EVGA Precision v1.9.1 (01-21-2010)

* Added workaround for overclocking bug of ForceWare 196.21. Please take a note that the workaround is applied only to 196.00 - 196.21 driver versions range in order to ensure compatibility with future fixed NVIDIA drivers.*

So continue your updating.

[aristide1]

Thank you aspd.

Alternative was to go to CUDA drivers 190.21. Here I can still set the shader speed.

[aristide1]

Wow, I got the latest EVGA Precision tools with the 196.21 drivers. The shader control works and I have really good 2D performance as well.

It's been qiute a while since my PC was this snappy. Thanks again aspd.

[aristide1]

March may be quite interesting:

http://www.fudzilla.com/content/view/17612/34/

[aristide1]

A CPU roundup:

http://www.behardware.com/articles/778- ... ssors.html

Nice list. Changes as mouse over it.

[aristide1]

NUMBNUTS! One folding pc was disconnected from my network

[cordis]

Hey, so is everyone back to normal (or close to it) after the big gpu WU problem over the weekend? I started getting WUs again yesterday, but I did some non-upgrade hardware work over the weekend, and I'm still working through some issues with that. But at this point, hfm.net is giving me a ppd in the high 60s, so that's a big improvement than the weekend. From the team score and some of the individual scores, it looks like we hit rock bottom on the 14th, then started bouncing back yesterday a little, and today it seems almost back to normal (although still a little sluggish getting new WUs). There seems to be a more hopeful buzz on the foldingforums site, but it still seems to be coming in and out. Oh well, hopefully it will stabilize soon.

[dereksbelanger]

There was a problem? I didn’t even notice Of course I only fold about 10 WU per day so I would be less affected.

By the end of the week I should have 10 A3 WUs complete. Can’t wait to see some bonus credits! Looks like the bonuses will raise my production about 700ppd (~6000ppd total). Not bad for a few horrible old P4 computers!

[cordis]

Yes, if you only run folding on cpus, then you wouldn't have seen the problems. All us gpu folks have been hit fairly hard. You can see the dip graphically on our team summary page in the EOC stats:

http://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/ ... s=&t=31574

You may notice the dip in the graph. Scrolling down further you can see the list of the top 20 producers (congrats on making it to the list!) and click on a few names to see the individual drops, seems like everyone took at least some kind of hit. In my case, it looked like my gpus couldn't get new WUs, so they just sat idle for a day and a half or so. There may also be some problems with gettting results sent back, so there may be a compensatory upwards spike sometime in the future, but for now, it's all just pain.

[aristide1]

All us gpu folks have been hit fairly hard. You can see the dip graphically on our team summary page in the EOC stats:

I actually thought my remote PC had stopped. I was shocked when I got home and found it was still going.

I wouldn't be surprised if a number of people simple stop folding because of this silliness.

[aristide1]

Why?

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/cpu/displa ... _Sale.html

Because they can.

[cordis]

Hey, check it out:

http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/22/nvid ... g-march-2/

So it's March 26th for the new cards, no real specs or anything on them as far as I can tell. Still, always good having a date to plan for!

[aristide1]

Nvidia's efforts to make things clear.

http://www.behardware.com/news/lire/22-02-2010/

Not.

[frenchie]

How do I know if I'm getting bonuses ? I'm a little confused...
I installed the latest version of the GMPU and SMP clients, with a passkey... So I should be fine right ?

[aristide1]

You need to complete I believe 10 A2 units before bonuses will start.

I'm guess the only way to know for sure is to record what WUs you complete and how many points you get for them.

There is a tool like FAHMon that will predict your bonus score, but so far FAHMon is not capable of doing that.

[aspd]

Bonus point requirements:

1) At least 10 Core A2 work units must be completed. (1920 or 25403 pt units qualify)
2) At least 80% of Core A2 work units must be completed in time.
3) A passkey must be used.

Folding@home Bigadv Bonus Point Calculator.

Source; and a great read: EVGA Forums.

[dereksbelanger]

How do I know if I'm getting bonuses ?

It’s just about impossible: http://foldingforum.org/viewtopic.php?f=58&t=13578

My opinion - the best thing to do is use HFM: http://code.google.com/p/hfm-net/

Check Tools\Benchmarks to see if you've finished the required number of WUs in the projects that qualify for bonuses.

In the main window credit for these WUs will be shown with bonuses added. For example, right now I'm folding Project: 6015 (Run 1, Clone 53, Gen 21) with a base credit of 484 (you can see this you open queue data in HFM) but the main window shows credit for this WU as 1425 - that’s a bonus of about 1000.

[aristide1]

Anbody notice our team is once again in position 50?

I believe a while back we were in 51st place.

[cordis]

Yeah, we were at 49 for a while, but we just got passed by the Vietnam Global Team. Might get back up there in 7.4 months, but those team numbers change a lot, so it's hard to predict. I think the big jump from aspd is helping a lot. I dropped a little, I shut down 2 machines recently, but I've held off on shutting down a 3rd machine because of the randomness from the 6.29 upgrade. On my i7 860, if I get an A3 wu it goes at up to 9000 ppd, but if I get an old a1/a2 wu then it drops to 2000 ppd, and with 6 machines running smp I've seen swings of 10k ppd from day to day, and I want to stay above 66k. I'm really going to have to get a 1366 board and start folding bigadv wus like aspd, then I should definitely be able to shut down a machine or two.

[cordis]

Hey, I just checked fah-addict, and it looks like the upcoming new stuff is getting priced, here's something about a cheaper hex core i7:

http://en.fah-addict.net/news/news-0-16 ... curate.php

gtx 480 pricing:

http://en.fah-addict.net/news/news-0-16 ... umours.php

and upcoming opterons:

http://en.fah-addict.net/news/news-0-17 ... vealed.php

Wish I knew when those new processors are supposed to come out, I've been eyeing 1366 motherboards, but maybe I'll wait a little bit now.

[dereksbelanger]

How do I know if I'm getting bonuses ?

shows credit for this WU as 1425 - that’s a bonus of about 1000.

I was able to track the finish of this WU and I was credited 1448 points for it - so the HFM prediction was pretty darn close!

[dereksbelanger]

Hey, I just checked fah-addict, and it looks like the upcoming new stuff is getting priced

I've been thinking of building a dedicated folding rig. So far, I cant seem to justify the cost of i7 - especially not 1366 i7.

PPD/$ is better on other platforms. I think we should start a couple threads like

Best PPD for $500
Best PPD for $1000

[dereksbelanger]

5400ppd for $90

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814134094

[NeilBlanchard]

Hi Derek,

Do you have this card (or one like it) -- is it reasonably quiet? Can you tell how much power it uses?

[dereksbelanger]

Dont have one - dont know anything about it.

This review says "Cons: Fan is a bit loud under load, but not unbearable"

http://www.dragonsteelmods.com/index.ph ... mitstart=3

So far thats the only review I've found.

[cordis]

Yeah, with 250 cards they tend to vary, some are quieter than others and there doesn't seem to be much rhyme or reason. I usually check the reviews on newegg and see if anyone complains about noise, if not then it's probably ok. Certain brands should usually be avoided, PNY springs to mind, others are better, BFG is usually ok, ASUS can go either way, Palit is usually pretty good if you can find them. Not sure about ECS, and not having any user reviews and one online review which complains about the noise is a little troubling. I'd check some other ECS cards and see how they do. I try to put things in cases with some noise foam and place them as far away from me as I can, but sometimes you still get some noisy cards. Like that 295, no matter where I put that I can still hear it.

But as far as ppd for cost goes, you also really want to consider the power used too. From what I've been able to read, if you run bigadv jobs on the more costly i7s, you can get around 20k ppd, and imagining a system with just the processor and maybe on-board video, that would burn maybe 200W worst case, giving you 100 ppd/W, and that's really good. My most efficient machines now are around high 50s ppd/W. With the new A3 stuff and the bigadv units, it might make more sense to run more SMP folding than gpu folding. I need to do a test build at some point, but I'm really intrigued. From a silencing perspective, it's usually a lot easier to make a cpu quiet than a video card, and if the efficiency is really there, then the power savings will more than pay for it in the long run. And if you have a dedicated folding rig or two, the power really adds up. Take my word for it.

But yeah, for a cheap boost in a system, the 250 is a good way to go, I have a couple of those. No real trouble with them, pretty steady at around 5k ppd.

[frenchie]

5k per day.... isn't that on the low side ?
my 9800gtx+ does 5200 ppd minimum (according to FahMon) and that's on a bad day.
I'd have guessed the 250 be a little better...

[cordis]

Yeah, you're probably right, my 250s are currently at 6354ppd and 6778ppd, those are both those high ppd 353pt wus though, so that isn't really typical, but yeah, I guess it's a little higher than 5000ppd, mabye 5800ppd is more average.