How do I setup automatic usage when GPU is idle

[ianm_ozzy]

Hello alll
I updated my graphics adapter. I want to use it to run folding on the GPU but have been having problems.

The problem firstly is that when folding, the fan becomes loud.
In the folding@Home control panel in the advance tab there is 'cpu usage percent'. I reduced that to about 50% but the GPU load always runs at 99% when running the software.
I cannot run it at 100% capacity.
Also there is a problem that when I try to choose the 'pause work' option then the Gpu usage is still 99%.
Only when I quit the application does the GPU usage go down.

Here are the details of my system:
Video card: MSI gtx 560 ti hawk
OS: Windows 7 ultimate 64 bit
Nvidia drivers: 295.73
The folding client is Version 6.41r2 from the 'About folding @ home' box.
I use EVGA precision to measure the GPU usage.

I know there are later nvidia drivers. I installed the latest. My screen would go purple and about a minute later would get errors saying the display driver was not responding and recovered. I rolled back the drivers and solved the problem. It means I will be sticking with those drivers until nvidia provides not buggy ones.

Can anyone help.
Am I using the right software version?
If not exactly which one should I use.
I do not wish to use the CPU version.
How exactly do I limit the GPU usage when folding to a level that does not couse my FPU fans to run to loud?
I have not changed any gpu clock or voltage settings and do not want to do that as it may cause warranty issues with the gpu.

I am a student so do work on my PC at home where I want to run the folding application without the noise.

Please help

[bruce]

The current versions of FahCore_11/FahCore_15/FahCore16 do not work correctly with the setting for partial GPU processing. The FAH development group is aware of the problem but there's no information about when it might be fixed. Since it does not work, it has been remove from more recent clients.

[{RaW}Eagle1]

If temperature is the overall problem (and I'm guessing this is causing your fan speed to raise so high as to make a noise) then please consider using MSI Afterburner to under-clock your graphics card. This will lower workload, temperatures and therefore fan speed. MSI Afterburner will also give you live feed from GPU usage, temperature and fan speed and allow custom settings for fan speed as well as allowing you to save up to 5 different clock states for your card, allowing you the freedom to switch when you wish to do so (gaming etc).

If you plan to reduce the clock speed of your graphics card by 50% please only reduce voltage by around 40% in order to avoid de-stabalising the GPU.

Hope this helps

Eagle1

[7im]

Reducing the CPU slider will slow down the data feed, also reducing loads and temps. Doesn't work for every setup, but worth a try.

Edit by Mod: The slider is a feature of the V7 client.
ianm_ozzy, you should seriously consider updating to a current version of the client.

[{RaW}Eagle1]

. . .I know there are later nvidia drivers. I installed the latest. My screen would go purple and about a minute later would get errors saying the display driver was not responding and recovered. I rolled back the drivers and solved the problem. It means I will be sticking with those drivers until nvidia provides not buggy ones. . .

Are you running MSi approved drivers or the ones downloaded from NVidia? This is unlikely to be at the source of the GPU usage problem, but is not generally a good idea and may be causing the driver failures you have mentioned. Please visit the support page for your card here:

http://www.msi.com/product/vga/N560GTX- ... ver&os=All

You will need to perform a clean install of the driver in order to ensure the old one is removed completely.

[mayaa]

I agree with 7im, if you bring down the cpu slider then the data feed will slow down and ultimately the temp. This is worth a shot as it doesn't take much effort.

[ianm_ozzy]

Hi
To start I will put my PC specs:

CPU: Intel i7-3770k @ 4.4 GHz MEM: (16 GB), 4 x 4 GB 1600 MHz Corsair Vengance
MOBO: ASRock Z77 Extreme6 CPU COOLER:Arctic Freezer 13
PSU: Antec Truepower Classic 750W CASE:Antec 300
AUDIO: ASUS Xonar DGX HEADSET Corsair Vengeance 1300
DRIVES: 4 x 1TB (RAID 0) , 2 x 60 GB SSD (RAID 0)
GPU1 :Leadtek GTX 670 + Arctic Accelero Twin Turbo 2 - SLI
GPU2: Gigabyte Windforce GTX 670 OC - SLI
GPU3: Zotac GT640 - CUDA/PHYSX
MON: 27 inch VX279 @ 1920x1080
OS:Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit

The computer is not on 24/7.
When it is on then it is usually folding using the gt 640.
I use the computer for general things and a fair amount of gaming.
I have encountered a problem.
When I try to play some games using Physx then it is severely hindered as I use the gt 640 as a dedicated physx card.
The other two cards are overclocked a lot. They are fine as graphics cards but unstable running cuda applications.

I thought the folding application was able to run in the background without causing issues.
Is there some setting that can do this.
Ideally when the card is needed for something else then the state is saved and turned on when the load is back to zero.
I was folding a few years ago and this was the main thing that made me decide to stop it. I was unable to configure it to do this.
If the only option is to turn off then on folding, I will likely forget to do this and no folding will likely get done.

I understand there is some advanced option that runs when the computer is idle. I need an option so it runs on a particular GPU when it is idle.
Ideally it turns off automatically when the gpu is used.

I already tried putting the setting from 'FULL' to 'MEDIUM' with no difference. If on low it halts completely.

I need a solution that is done automatically needing no further input once setup.
I will not be using the other graphics cards for folding.

My PC is setup as I like it so wont be modifying an settings/overclocks for folding. I am looking for the folding software to work around this.
The Gt 640 is at stock speed and seems perfectly stable at 100% load.

Any useful input appreciated ideally from those running the project.

[bruce]

Welcome to foldingforum.org, ianm_ozzy

The default V7 installation should have created a slot for each GPU plus a slot for the remaining CPU and set the slider to Medium. (Of course that assumes you are running FAH V7.)

It sounds like you want to delete 3 of those slots (after doing a FINISH on them), leaving only the slot for the gt 640. Please provide the information noted below in the signature of this post and we can give you more precise answers.

You might want to leave the CPU slot and allocate some of your CPU threads to FAH. FAH for CPUs does run in the background, getting out of the way nicely for foreground processes.

GPUs do not share resources well, and there's nothing that can be done about that GPUs have no operating system, so concepts like background and priority mean nothing and there's no provision for interrupting one GPU process for another. The GPU essentially things processes FIFO, so if there's a PhysX and a FAH request that need the same resources and the same time, whichever arrives second will have to wait until the first releases those resources. SInce both probably make use of a high percentage of the resources much of the time the performance of both tasks will be reduced significantly.

What I do not understand is why FAH's use of the GPU is not suspended (like a screensaver) whenever your computer is idle. That's the default behavior when MEDIUM is set. I don't think you're trying to use PhysX once a screensaver would have started (when it can be dedicated to FAH). See ClientPerformanceLevels

You can manually pause FAH and later un-pause (FOLD) but you shouldn't have to do that.

As we've said elsewhere, none of this will solve the deadline problem you've mentioned in other posts unless you allow your GPU to supply enough resources to meet the deadlines. Unlike the GPU, CPU folding could probably find enough idle time when it's not being preempted by forground activity to complete some WUs.

[bruce]

The CPU scheduler works well for CPU folding. There is no corresponding scheduler for GPU folding so the setting <idle v='true'/> is the next best thing if you are running V7 on a supported GPU.

In fact, since most servers have slots that will support GPUs and they'd be idle most of the time, that's a good way to process FAH, even without using the idle setting.