Nice and renice issue

[ronnieross]

Hello,

I'm trying to refresh my Unix skills (from 30 years ago) in order to slow down my CPU that is working at 80/90°C during fah calculations, on my linux Mate PC, even with Folding Power set to "light" in Fahcontrol.

I do remember there was a tool called nice (and another called renice) build to set a process with modified scheduling priority: yes! it's here yet!

But I can't see any differences using it or not (nice -n 10 '/bin/FAHClient'), neither trying to set all as administrator.

Any ideas about this issue?

TIA
(sorry for my bad english writing)

[ipkh]

Process priority is not a fix for thermals. If the main thread is fah it will still peg the cpu durring its runtime.
You can reduce the cores used to reduce the overall load on the cpu. Bear in mind that 90 degrees is well within spec for Intel and AMD processors.

[JimboPalmer]

Nice is going to lower the priority of a process, if it is the only process, it will use the same amount of CPU as before you niced it, as no other process wants that time.

nice helps background process not interfere with user processes, that is why F@H already sets its priority as low.

[MeeLee]

aside from reducing cores in a WU slot manually, you can also go to the Bios, and undervolt, or just disable turbo boost frequencies (this is the easiest to do).
It will reduce temperatures.

Other than that, you can optimize airflow in the case, and make sure your fans and heat sink are dust free.
You can also wipe off the thermal paste with isopropyl alcohol, and apply new paste on the CPU.

[PantherX]

Welcome to the F@H Forum ronnieross,

Assuming that changing the priority of the process will not change the thermal, what's your use case? Once we know that, we can potentially help you.

Please note that by default, F@H will use idle priority which you can configure to low.

If you wanted to share your system configuration and F@H settings, you can post the log file. Details are here if you need it: viewtopic.php?f=24&t=26036

[gunnarre]

Edit: Please ignore. See below.

[Joe_H]

As an alternative to reducing the number of CPU threads to run, you can also use a setting in Folding at Home to use only a certain percentage of CPU time (the cpu-usage option). Whether it's best to reduce the number of CPU threads, or use the CPU usage setting, would be up to testing to confirm. Note that CPU folding benefits quite a lot from running many threads rather than just one.

Don't. The cpu-usage option is a holdover from the past and worked with an old single-core folding core that has been out of use for years. Its effect on the newer A3 and A4 multicore processing was to slow down a single thread, the load imbalance made them run very inefficiently. Both these cores are also out of service, and the newer A7 and A8 cores were not programmed to use that option either.

Best is to reduce the number of CPU threads assigned to folding or use BIOS settings to avoid use of turbo mode on the processor.

[ronnieross]

Thanks ALL.

Can't quote but I have read that 80-90°C seems not to be an issue for my CPU . Good.

Anyway I want to challenge myself finding the way to regulate the charge on the CPU (I've just bought a Barebone Intel NUC NUC10i7FNH I7-10710U, Intel UHD Graphic - running on Ubuntu Mate 20.04LTS).

I'm starting reading PantherX links.

I'll be back soon.

[ronnieross]

Welcome to the F@H Forum ronnieross,

If you wanted to share your system configuration and F@H settings, you can post the log file. Details are here if you need it: viewtopic.php?f=24&t=26036

I've take a look in /var/lib/fahclient as mentioned in the site but the directory is empty: where have I to search the log file?

[PantherX]

...I've take a look in /var/lib/fahclient as mentioned in the site but the directory is empty: where have I to search the log file?

Have you installed FAHControl?

Also, can you please describe how you think you have setup your system? Please note that the instructions are for default settings with the assumption being that those who change the default, are knowledgeable enough to "map" the information presented here to their own system.

[ronnieross]

Also, can you please describe how you think you have setup your system? Please note that the instructions are for default settings with the assumption being that those who change the default, are knowledgeable enough to "map" the information presented here to their own system.

Yes, fahcontrol is up and running (with "folding power" set on "light", if it helps) and my installation is absoultely "by default".

[PantherX]

Okay, in that case, you can get the log file from FAHControl. Instructions are provided in the aforementioned topic. Once you post it here, we can see what's happening

[MeeLee]

Thanks ALL.

Can't quote but I have read that 80-90°C seems not to be an issue for my CPU . Good.

Anyway I want to challenge myself finding the way to regulate the charge on the CPU (I've just bought a Barebone Intel NUC NUC10i7FNH I7-10710U, Intel UHD Graphic - running on Ubuntu Mate 20.04LTS).

I'm starting reading PantherX links.

I'll be back soon.

While 80-90C isn't high for a CPU, it is for the other parts inside a nuc.
The nuc is basically your restriction.
Sometimes, when removing the top of a nuc, a 120-140mm case fan can be mounted on top of some NUC cases, to provide extra airflow (a 12V fan plugged into a USB port, operating at 5V is pretty quiet).
But the issue is a small and cramped space, and little airflow. The fan doesn't do justice to NUCs.

[ronnieross]

While 80-90C isn't high for a CPU, it is for the other parts inside a nuc.
The nuc is basically your restriction.
Sometimes, when removing the top of a nuc, a 120-140mm case fan can be mounted on top of some NUC cases, to provide extra airflow (a 12V fan plugged into a USB port, operating at 5V is pretty quiet).
But the issue is a small and cramped space, and little airflow. The fan doesn't do justice to NUCs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mke5i2H07dY

This seems to be a workaround for the CPU and maybe all of the NUC... :-O

[ipkh]

You could probably go into the bios and raise the fan curve. A modern intel cpu can handle up to 105C before being forced to thermal throttle so Intel sees no problem letting the CPU get until the 90s. You can set the fans higher at the expense of sound.