Folding Forum

Per the install guide:

GPU Slot Requirements
Windows XP SP3 or newer for NVIDA GPUs, 32 or 64 bit
Windows Vista SP2 or newer for AMD GPUs, 32 or 64 bit

It looks like XP is no longer supported for AMD GPUs. Is that correct?

The rest of the story:

I just upgraded to an R9 Fury. I have a leftover R9 270. We have an ancient HP Compaq dx2200 Microtower that has a PCIE slot. So... I ordered a bigger power supply, ordered 2G of ram to max it out, slapped in the 270 and... "openCL.dll was not found"

After reading the install guide, it looks like I may have wasted my money. Specs for the "Ancient Folding Machine" are in my profile. Am I out of luck trying to put the 270 to good use in that old XP machine? Would switching to Linux work, and what flavor? Thanks for reading, and for any assistance!

P.S. Been folding for almost 15 years.

The newest FAHcore (core 21) is not supported on XP. Also, almost everyone (Microsoft first, but other software providers are following) is dropping support for this ancient system.

I think you should get better luck by running Linux on this machine which should support core 21 fine.

Well, at least my cash did not go to waste. Thanks toTow! I've checked out Ubuntu a bit before. From what I've read, that seems to be the best flavor for folding. Unfortunately, I'm more of a gui kinda guy, and this looks more command-line based. Time to do some researching.

Check out the Fah Linux install guide. It is all gui based.

savatage wrote:Thanks toTow! I've checked out Ubuntu a bit before. From what I've read, that seems to be the best flavor for folding. Unfortunately, I'm more of a gui kinda guy, and this looks more command-line based.

Like most Linux distros, Ubuntu comes as a GUI edition and as a "server" edition (non-GUI) ... and of course the command-line is available in both.

The GUI will work fine for web stuff and for the simpler things you currently do in Windows. [It's unlikely that you'll be able to play your Windows games.] For more exotic management things you may be relegated to the text window.

For example, the librarian and installer for add-on programs that a lot of people use is text-based, but folks have written a GUI-based front-end that does the same things. Almost anything in any OS is written and tested as a text-based program before a GUI front-end is added, and being open-sourced, there are a lot of front-ends that get written by folks who know what they're doing.

Wow, thanks for all the input!

I did a little reading, and had kind of given up on Linux. All your info has me reconsidering it. This old computer is rather pitiful. The processor is 64 bit, but hyper-threading is disabled through the motherboard. I have been unable to figure out if the motherboard can handle a 64 bit OS. I would not be surprised if it could not. The mobo is an MSI 0A48. Finding any info about it is pretty sketchy.

I had checked out Linux back around the Heron days, then again in the Jackalope days. Being mainly a gamer, Linux didn't do much for me. It was nice that it was a free OS. I set up a couple of machines on it for my sisters kids and for a neighbor, but I didn't really have a use for it. No 3D game support? Meh. That was mind mindset.

The FAH install guide says it requires 64 bit Ubuntu 11.04. It also says "Folding on AMD GPUs is problematic in linux due to poor OpenCL driver support from AMD". That sounds familiar! I'll only be running a GPU slot, the CPU is just too wimpy.

Being that this is an AMD R9 270, it looks like it's going to be "problematic". I'll backup the XP install (I'm not sure why, lol) and install Ubuntu. That'll be the fastest way to see if the mobo can run a 64 bit OS. Heck of a lot faster than trying to track the info down on the web!

So again, thank you for all the responses. I will jump into this tonight, and keep you posted. Crossing my fingers...

OK, I got 14.04.4 LTS. The 64 bit version worked fine. I downloaded the linux driver from AMD. At least the one I thought would work (out of 8 choices?). Reboot... black screen. Wiped drive, reinstalled, and let Ubuntu choose the driver to download. Up and running.

Before going any further, I want something to monitor my temps. Doesn't look like there are any gui type monitoring programs out there. Everything seems to require command line installation. This is like learning a new language! Pretty difficult to wrap my head around. I'm a hardware kind of guy, my buddy is a software/programmer kind of guy, so I think I'll hit him up for some help with getting a monitoring program and installing it.

Have not installed FAH yet. I do have the client downloaded, along with fahcontrol. Ain't doin nuthin till I can see what my temps are, though. Hopefully I'll be up and running this evening. Wish me luck!

I got Open Hardware Monitor for monitoring temps. With a little help from my friend, I got it installed and running. Also installed the client and monitor and everything is running. The problem I have is the client says I have a Pitcairn GPU, but it is actually Tahiti XT.

GPUs.txt has Tahiti XT in it, but for some reason the client doesn't recognize my card correctly. Any Ideas as to how to fix that? Is that something I can set manually?

Your attempts to alter FAH's hardware recognition techniques will be unsuccessful. The actual binary identification codes in the GPU are validated on the server, no matter what the local copy of GPUs.txt says.

If FAHClinet is installed, run "FAHClient --lspci" in a text window. It'll report your actual hardware. Search through the output for you GPU. (You may also obtain this information from a GPU monitoring application.) What's critical are the two hexadecimal codes of the form 0x1002 0x6***.

Which GPU drivers are installed?

Sorry if you got the wrong idea, but I was not attempting to "alter FAH's hardware recognition techniques". I'm trying to figure out why FAH doesn't recognize my hardware. After reading posts for a good few hours here I saw it was important to have a GPUs file (some did not have one), and that the file included the GPU I am using (it does). What did I say that made you think I was trying to alter anything?

lspci:

VendorID:DeviceID:Vendor Name:Description
0x1002:0x5a33:Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI]:
0x1002:0x5a34:Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI]:RS4xx PCI Express Port [ext gfx]
0x1002:0x4379:Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI]:
0x1002:0x4374:Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI]:
0x1002:0x4375:Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI]:
0x1002:0x4373:Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI]:
0x1002:0x4372:Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI]:
0x1002:0x4376:Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI]:
0x1002:0x437b:Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI]:
0x1002:0x4377:Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI]:
0x1002:0x4371:Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI]:
0x1002:0x6811:Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI]:Pitcairn []
0x1002:0xaab0:Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI]:
0x10ec:0x8139:Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.:

As for the drivers, after installing Ubuntu, I used the Additional Drivers tool to search for, download and install "Video driver for the AMD graphics accelerators from fglrx (proprietary)". Now that I have pulled up "Software and Updates", it shows at the top "[AMD/ATI]: Pitcairn". I think I read that you said you use X.Org drivers. Should I switch to that one?

Getting pretty frustrated here at the moment. Haven't had much sleep, as usual, I think I'm going to bed. At almost 11 AM.

savatage wrote:Sorry if you got the wrong idea, but I was not attempting to "alter FAH's hardware recognition techniques". I

Is that something I can set manually?

Maybe i worded it wrong. I was just saying that you can't set it manually.

It is in fact a Pitcairn GPU. The Tahiti XT was used in the 280X

AMD has more than a dozen variations and chip names associated with the 0x6811 chip ID. For simplicity, the GPUs.txt file typically lists the first model released to the market. There is little need to change it after that. Chip name has no impact on function. This is a list from their latest driver. As bruce noted, only the 6811 Device ID matters.

AMD6811.1 = "AMD Radeon (TM) R9 370"
AMD6811.2 = "AMD Radeon (TM) R9 370 Series"
AMD6811.3 = "AMD Radeon (TM) R9 370 Series"
AMD6811.4 = "AMD Radeon (TM) R9 370 Series"
AMD6811.5 = "AMD Radeon(TM) R9 370 Series"
AMD6811.6 = "AMD Radeon R9 370 1024SP"
AMD6811.7 = "AMD Radeon (TM) R7 370 Series"
AMD6811.8 = "AMD Radeon(TM) R9 370 Series"
AMD6811.9 = "AMD Radeon (TM) R9 370 Series"
AMD6811.10 = "AMD Radeon (TM) R7 370 Series Graphics"
AMD6811.11 = "AMD Radeon(TM) R9 370 Series"
AMD6811.12 = "AMD Radeon (TM) R9 370 Series"
AMD6811.13 = "AMD Radeon(TM) R9 370 Series"
AMD6811.14 = "AMD Radeon (TM) R9 370 Series"
AMD6811.15 = "AMD Radeon (TM) R9 370 Series"
AMD6811.16 = "AMD Radeon R9 200 Series"
AMD6811.17 = "AMD Radeon (TM) R9 200 Series"
AMD6811.18 = "AMD Radeon (TM) R7 370 Series"

But that doesn't help with the GPU drivers in Linux or the black screen stuff. Someone wrote a good AMD Linux driver install post a while back. Maybe someone can find that post to help you.

you got any points?