CPU priority for GPU workloads

[larek]

So not really new to F@H, but as I haven't used F@H in about a decade I figured this is as good of a place as any.

So I installed v7, got some WU, and watched how F@H preformed. And to my surprise my GPU was not at a stable load, jumping all over the place. The average of which is about 50% utilization.

Now I've as of late been using BOINC, and BOINC has been saying for a while now that the CPU-WUs can strangle the little CPU usage needed to support the 10-20x time better preforming GPU-WUs. So I found the running process (FahCore_11.exe) that seemed to be coordinating the GPU work loads, and gave it "AboveNormal" priority. FahCore_11.exe still is using less than <1% of my CPU, but my GPU is now running stable at 93% usage, and my time to complete GPU-WU fell.

So I went to find out how to set this up in the Configuration, Read the FAQ, the Proformanc FAQ..... And could find nothing.

The Only thing I can find is how to slightly elevate both CPU and GPU priority, which isn't the point.


How to I set GPU work loads to have a Slightly higher priority than CPU work loads?

[P5-133XL]

Project lasso works

[larek]

Project lasso works

Pardon My ignorance but that is meaningless in reference to the question. Please enlighten me, as it appears to be some third party log utility.

[7im]

The current recommendation is to reserve one CPU core to feed the GPU for better performance. The current clients do not have the ability to change priority settings.

Also, core 11 projects were announced as going end of life a while ago. Any gains using a third party priority changer like Lasso will be relatively short lived. A GPU upgrade is in your future.

[P5-133XL]

Project lasso works

Pardon My ignorance but that is meaningless in reference to the question. Please enlighten me, as it appears to be some third party log utility.

Sorry, Process lasso is the correct 3rd party tool I was referring to. It allows you to assign a priority to a core and it will stick between runs.

[larek]

The current recommendation is to reserve one CPU core to feed the GPU for better performance.

Well I could do that by hand too, but its considerably more CPU cycle wasteful. How does one do that in the Client? I know that Threads=CPUcores - 1 does not free up enough CPU to unbind the CPU (it was the first thing I tried)

So how does one set that up using the client?

Also, core 11 projects were announced as going end of life a while ago. A GPU upgrade is in your future.

Gee sorry for donating the use of my not-that-long-ago state-of-the-art, and still under warranty, and still supported by the manufacture, GPUs.

Yes I know 7im didn't decide that, and no I not looking for an argument/discussion on obsoletion policies, This just hit me by surprise, I run WU on MUCH older GPU's for other projects, and still think of my cards as Near state-of-the-art, and that they can more than push my 2560x1600 display just fine.

It was since been pointed out that my OS is obsolete (XP) and that core_11 maybe used to to GPU+OS and that a different core_XX is used with my GPU+NewerOS. Is there a link I can get pointed to about GPU's, OS's and Core_XX support?

[bruce]

FahCore_11 and {_15 /_16} support two types of GPUs: NVidia and ATI(AMD) using some pretty old supporting code. GPU drivers are updated much more frequently than drivers for other hardware both because the hardware upgrade cycle is frequent and because they're always finding things that can be improved. Unfortunately, that means FAH's ability to depend on drivers which go out-of-date frequently provides a variety of challenges not encountered elsewhere.

FAH decided to migrate to OpenCL for two reasons.
1) That's the only API code supported by AMD(ATI)
2) It's supposedly supported by all GPU manufacturers (though the reliability of their support varies widely.)

Recent FAH developments for GPUs have been aimed at the top-of-the-line hardware and the ability to contribute with low-end GPUs has suffered. I know the Pande Group is aware of this trend and that there is an untapped (or at least poorly tapped) resource of low- to medium-end GPUs. I've chatted with the FAH principals about this several times. I'm hopeful something will come of those chats but unfortunately I'm not able to make any promises about when (or even "if") something might happen.

On the other hand, we have to accept a degree of realism. I don't expect any Gamer would be interested in buying any of my HD 5450 GPUs so I do have my doubts about whether Stanford will either. After all, they're approaching 5 years old now, and in dog years, that's past retirement age.

[PantherX]

Welcome to the F@H Forum larek,

...It was since been pointed out that my OS is obsolete (XP) and that core_11 maybe used to to GPU+OS and that a different core_XX is used with my GPU+NewerOS. Is there a link I can get pointed to about GPU's, OS's and Core_XX support?

Please note that while Microsoft has ended support for Windows XP, the current F@H Client does run on Windows XP along with some FahCores. However, future releases may or may not support Windows XP. Depending on the OS and the hardware you want to use, here are the requirements along with brief details:
Windows (http://folding.stanford.edu/home/guide/ ... ide/#ntoc4)
Linux (http://folding.stanford.edu/home/guide/ ... ide/#ntoc4)
OSX (http://folding.stanford.edu/home/guide/ ... ide/#ntoc4)