Whoops, too much CPU, can't get GPU

[Peter_Hucker]

Whoops! I just set this machine up and turned on both GPUs and the CPU to all 4 cores in the settings. First thing it did was ask for work for 2 GPUs and 4 CPUs. It got a 3 CPU task (looks like it was only keeping a core free for one GPU, not two). Then it asked for work for the remaining 2 GPUs and 1 CPU, and got the GPU task. Now it's got a GPU and no CPUs left, and can't get work, since all GPU work needs a CPU. How did it manage this and how do I tweak it? I can only adjust the total number of CPUs in use, reducing this from 4 would just make matters worse!

So now I try starting from scratch, I dumped all the work and told it to use 2 GPUs and 2 CPUs. It got a 2 CPU task. ARGH!

3rd attempt: start slowly. Ask it to use 1 GPU and 1 CPU. It gets a task for 1 CPU! This is weird. This computer was fine until I had to reinstall it due to windows corrupting my password so I had to wipe it.

[muziqaz]

This should not be too complicated. Tick the GPUs you want to fold and set the slider to number of your CPU threads minus how many GPUs are folding on your system. in your case if you have 4 thread CPU, leave CPU slide on 0, since you have 2 GPUs trying to fold
p17636 is a GPU WU.

There shouldn't be any work available for 1 and 2 threads anymore

[Peter_Hucker]

"if you have 4 thread CPU, leave CPU slide on 0, since you have 2 GPUs trying to fold" - don't you mean slider to 2? 4-2=2.

Anyway that's not how the slider works. Folding subtracts a core for each GPU anyway. For example my 24 core machine I set to 24 cores and 1 GPU. It actually runs 23 core task and 1 GPU/1 CPU task. If I set it to 23, it would run 22.

There is work for 2 threads. I have a 4 core computer with Einstein running on the Intel GPU, which needs a couple of cores. So I set folding to 2. I occasionally see it waiting for work but it runs 90% of the time.

[Peter_Hucker]

I've now tried ticking the three GPUs, with 0,1,2,3,and 4 CPUs, and the problem refuses to go away. It insists on filling the CPU cores with a task first, then getting GPU work for.... oops no CPU cores free. Even if there is no 1 core CPU work, it just keeps trying to get it. CPU is first before GPU by the looks of it.

[muziqaz]

"if you have 4 thread CPU, leave CPU slide on 0, since you have 2 GPUs trying to fold" - don't you mean slider to 2? 4-2=2.

Anyway that's not how the slider works. Folding subtracts a core for each GPU anyway. For example my 24 core machine I set to 24 cores and 1 GPU. It actually runs 23 core task and 1 GPU/1 CPU task. If I set it to 23, it would run 22.

There is work for 2 threads. I have a 4 core computer with Einstein running on the Intel GPU, which needs a couple of cores. So I set folding to 2. I occasionally see it waiting for work but it runs 90% of the time.

There is no (or should not be from few days ago) CPU work for 2 threads or less.
Slider works how you set it to work. If you set it to 22, it will run 22
It runs 23 thread task for a CPU and 1 task for your GPU. There is no need to set 1 CPU for a GPU, and you will not get any CPU tasks for that setting anyways.
As I said, this is not a rocket science.
tick your GPU, and leave slider on whatever client selected it to be for best results. If you are running other programs, move the slider to the left to release CPU number whatever that other program is demanding.
If you leave 23 threads and you run Einstein with 2 threads, FAH will slow down significantly. Best to set fahclient slider to 21 threads to release 2 threads for Einstein. That way everything will run optimally

[Peter_Hucker]

Two of my machines are running 2 thread tasks right now, maybe using up dregs, retreads maybe:



I have had folding refuse to get GPU work if I say 0 CPUs. Folding likes to know the total CPUs you want to use for both tasks, not just CPU work. So setting 24 with 1 GPU present means it gets a 23 core task and 1 GPU task. And especially on the problem machine, setting to 0 CPUs and ticking the GPUs causes folding to sit with the red waiting bar looking for work for "3 GPUs, 0 CPUs".

I have an idea I will try tomorrow. Folding may be getting confused with having AMD and Intel GPUs on the same machine. I don't think this is wise. Nvidea and AMD drivers fight. Even two different AMD drivers fight. Shortcoming of windows? Not sure. But my other motherboard disables the intel GPU if a graphics card is present. I did get an AMD driver crash (just the once) when I tried to run all of them in Boinc, but then it worked anyway.

[Peter_Hucker]

Idea failed. I (eventually) managed to turn off the onboard graphics in the BIOS. I had to disable IGPU multimonitor support, which revealed a hidden setting to use PCI express first, which in turn revealed another hidden setting to disable intel GPU.

But the same problem exists. I don't know what's changed now. I had reinstalled Windows when it got corrupted, but it is still the same hardware now - one 4-core CPU and 3 Tahiti GPUs. With no tasks in folding, I told it to use all 4 cores and all three GPUs. I get this (it immediately downloads a 4 core CPU task then can't get any GPU work):



Perhaps the removal of under 4 core tasks has prevented it getting a small task (in this case it needs 1 core), so it gets a 4 core task and finds itself unable to get GPU work. This is a very severe bug and must be seen to!

[Peter_Hucker]

Turning off the CPUs in Folding settings also does not work:

[muziqaz]

You seem to be multiplying your GPUs at an alarming rate. Plus, you do remember that your GPU rarely gets any work by design?

[Peter_Hucker]

It's always had 3 GPUs. And you're wrong, the Tahiti gets work all the time, I have loads of Tahitis on other computers, they never ever sit on red with no work, the HAWAII is the one which rarely gets work. These are DIFFERENT GPUs.

[muziqaz]

They used to get work all the time, things change. As I said I don't remember last time when I enabled anything below species 4 for AMD side.

[Peter_Hucker]

As I said, I get Tahiti work ALL THE TIME. Look:



This computer does not EVER sit on red even once.