I wouldn't say this if it were BS. So Please look here: http://www.gpugrid.net/hosts_user.php?userid=54651

ID: 61666 Avg. credit 1,580.03
ID: 62706 Avg. credit 3,610.32

They are identical. ID: 61666 ran Win7 64bit Ultimate the 8800GT was OC & the Average already maxed out.

ID: 62706 runs Mint Linux 64bit the GPU isn't OC'ed & the Average hasn't yet maxed out.

Sabayon (Easy Alternative to Gentoo) promises even better performance.

I'm just saying...

If I can be so naughty as to promote the Team I'm on (as a member NOT Captain), please do join "Team Gentoo Linux Users Everywhere". BTW I guess I must be a point whore! ;-)

---

Just an added note. ID: 61666 was working 24/7 from 07/01 to 22/01 & reached a Total credit of 72,236 in that period. ID: 62706 has been running from 22/01 & as of 02/02 has reached a Total credit of 60,450. So after 15 days it should be up to over 90,000.

The World Wide Grid was running on ID: 61666 but has not been able to run on ID: 62706 for some reason. But ID: 62706 is running ibercivs ID: 61666 which ran from 17/01 to 22/01, & both ran rosetta@home. But still, not running The World Wide Grid on ID: 62706 & running ibercivis for 5 days on ID: 61666, can't account for a 25% on ID: 62706 improvement that wasn't OC'ed like ID: 61666 was by Core Clock 700MHz (vs. 600MHz standard) Shader Clock 1728MHz (vs. 1500MHz standard) & 2000MHz (vs. 1800MHz standard), can it???

---

As of 07/02 ID: 62706 had an Average Credit of 4,523.30 & a Total Credit of 91,779. After 15 days of 24/7 running BOINC Manager on Mint Linux 64bit VS a Total Credit of 72,236 on ID: 61666 running BOINC Manager on Windows 7 64bit also having run 24/7 for 15 days on the exact same PC that had the GPU OC'ed. That's roughly a 27% improvement on a GenuineIntel
Intel(R) Pentium(R) Dual CPU E2180 @ 2.00GHz [Family 6 Model 15 Stepping 13]
(2 processors) with a NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT (255MB) Just by using a different OS.

---

(Thanks for your PM)

Nice shot liveonc,
But did you use this computer during your test ? Or was it just a crunchbox ?
Did you have the same Wu ?
I think the best way to run such a comparative will be to run XX days on Linux, XX days on windows, without touching the computer, then take one type of WU, average them, and compare it with the other OS. (And without CPU Projet)
No ?

I know some people who are trying to optimize the Linux kernel for computing purposes, but I don't know if there is a significant improvement.

On some projects Windows 64b is quicker than Linux 64b (I guess it links to how they compile the app)

In my case, I got a crunch box without a proper GPU to crunch on, and as I'm using this one only to host my website and others stuff, I didn't install the graphic interface. (I have a significant gain on this machine).

Some ppl did a trick to crunch on GPUGrid without launching the graphic interface. (Thanks to some nodes). But it is not very convenient to do so.

Thanks liveonc for the test

It was used as a crunchbox, the only times I used it, was to check up on BOINIC & if nothing bad was happening fx PC hang or crash, etc. It did do the occasional browsing, but nothing else. As I said, it was only an estimate. I already explained that it was not a perfect comparison, only an estimate. Precise comparisons are useless, to my opinion, & would require that I had exactly the same WU's to reuse. So it's not even possible. Anyway, even if it was. What use would a precise test be for anyone who doesn't plan to have the exact same hardware?

---

Yeah sure !
[Partial Joke ON] And why do we need to prove that GNU/Linux is the best ? [Partial Joke OFF]

But it's still a good comparison. Thanks.

PS : BOINC ! (not BOINIC ^^)

Sadly the times Wii live in "requires" more than "pretty words & white lies".

Just because I read, or heard, or saw. That something was better, unless there is more than just the claim, I can't really trust that it's for real, or just part of the BS mountain that is piling up faster than the speed of light.

Wii have so much BS, that Wii don't even need oil any more! All Wii need is a car that can run on BS & Wii can use that instead!

---

Some ppl did a trick to crunch on GPUGrid without launching the graphic interface. (Thanks to some nodes).

Any links to info no this?

---

- da shu @ HeliOS,
"A child's exposure to technology should never be predicated on an ability to afford it."

Actually, one member of my team ([AF>Linux] Elgrande) did it. And he wrote a "how to":
http://linux.boinc-af.org/2009072676/Linux/Specifique-Distribution/Gpugrid-en-ligne-de-commande-Gentoo.html

Unfortunatly it is in french :p

The point is, Boinc has to recognize your cuda device without launching Xorg.
Then you have to create some nodes. (You can modify and use his script to do so)
But this seems to work only with GTX2xx cards.

And before shutting down your computer, you have to add a delay of 5s in order to avoid GPUGrid error.

Actually, one member of my team ([AF>Linux] Elgrande) did it. And he wrote a "how to":
http://linux.boinc-af.org/2009072676/Linux/Specifique-Distribution/Gpugrid-en-ligne-de-commande-Gentoo.html

Unfortunatly it is in french :p

The point is, Boinc has to recognize your cuda device without launching Xorg.
Then you have to create some nodes. (You can modify and use his script to do so)
But this seems to work only with GTX2xx cards.

And before shutting down your computer, you have to add a delay of 5s in order to avoid GPUGrid error.

Hope your friend doesn't mind I translated via Babelfish & added it here. BTW, I don't speak French & Babelfish was terrible, so I'm doing lots of guessing, but the script I didn't change.

Gpugrid command line in (Gentoo)
Writing by Elgrande71
26-07-2009
Hello to all,

following many requests, I finally decided to draft an article related to the use of GPUGrid in command line. For those who would ask why, concerning this matter. It is simply a question of making it possible for the GPUGrid project to function without launching the graphic server Xorg. This reduces the memory use of your crunchbox. Lastly, I specify that this article is valid only for cards of the GTX2xx series (to be exact, the script below did not function on a card using the 8800GTS512 chip).

The easiest way lies in the creation of “nodes” for use before launching BOINC so that it detects the CUDA graphics cards present on your PC.

Here the file named nvidia will make it possible to create the nodes for your graphics cards to use before launching the Boinc client:

#!/sbin/runscript



depend () {

before boinc

}



start () {

ebegin "Nvidia nodes creation"

if [ [ ! -f /dev/nvidia0 ] ]; then

einfo "nvidia0 node not existing, creating now."

mknod -m 660 /dev/nvidia0 c 195 0

chown root:video /dev/nvidia0

fi

if [ [ ! -f /dev/nvidia1 ] ]; then

einfo "nvidia1 node not existing, creating now."

mknod -m 660 /dev/nvidia1 c 195 1

chown root:video /dev/nvidia1

fi

if [ [ ! -f /dev/nvidiactl ] ]; then

einfo "nvidiactl node not existing, creating now."

mknod -m 660 /dev/nvidiactl c 195 255

chown root:video /dev/nvidiactl

fi

eend $?

}

This script is valid for two graphics cards. If you only have one card, you can withdraw the section concerning the creation of the node nvidia1.

And here it is enough for you to place the file nvidia in the /etc/init.d/ repertory for those which have Gentoo and to make rc-update add nvidia default in order to make it launch prior to starting the Boinc client.

On the other hand, if you shut down your PC, think about adding a delay of approximately 5 seconds so that the GPUGrid units do not end in an error when you restart your PC.

Last update: (26-07-2009)

Taken from the original http://linux.boinc-af.org/2009072676/Linux/Specifique-Distribution/Gpugrid-en-ligne-de-commande-Gentoo.html

---

Nice job !
Thanks for the translation.
And thank you Elgrande for this guide !

I did a rewrite of the runscript above to make it more generic. The message board eats the indentation, though.

#!/sbin/runscript
depend () {
        before boinc
}

start () {
        err=0
        ebegin "Initializing Nvidia card(s)"
        if ! $( lsmod | grep "nvidia" &> /dev/null ); then
                modprobe nvidia || ( eerror "Error loading module \"nvidia\". Aborting." && err=2 )
        fi
        n=0
        if ! [ -f /proc/driver/nvidia/cards/$n ]; then  #modprobe should fail if there really is no card
                ewarn "Did not find an Nvidia GPU."
        fi
        while [ -f /proc/driver/nvidia/cards/$n ]; do   #card numbers should be contiguous
                if ! [ -e /dev/nvidia$n ]; then
                        if [ "$n" -eq "255" ]; then     #Charactor device 195 255 is reserved for /dev/nvidiactl
                                eerror "Nvidia card device 255 exists. This shouldn\'t happen. Exiting."
                                err=1
                        fi
                        veinfo "Node \"/dev/nvidia$n\" does not exist, creating now."
                        mknod -m 660 "/dev/nvidia$n" c 195 "$n"
                        chown root:video "/dev/nvidia$n"
                fi
                n=$[ $n + 1 ]
        done
        veinfo "Found $n GPU(s)."
        if ! [ -e /dev/nvidiactl ]; then
                veinfo "Node \"/dev/nvidiactl\" does not exist, creating now."
                mknod -m 660 /dev/nvidiactl c 195 255
                chown root:video /dev/nvidiactl
        fi
        eend $err
}

It should work with up to 255 cards, if that is possible.

Relating to the comments about Gentoo being faster, when set up properly, Gentoo is somewhat faster as an operating system. It will not, however, improve crunching speed any more than another linux distro. The code for the nvidia driver and the code for the GPUGrid applications is precompiled. The bytecode won't be any more efficient than it was when you downloaded it. There may be less running on the system which could be a small benefit.

Please pay attention, that if you use the script, and restart the X server (later), the X server can hang. Without starting X, everything is OK...

One last trick.

In addition to the big advantage you get by NOT running X, you get better performance from the card if it is not your primary display. I have the onboard video as my main display and do not run X. This dedicates the GPU 100% for CUDA. I recall reading you can do the same with a cheap PCI video card if your motherboard does not have onboard video.

I should have specified. The script is meant to be run instead of X. I not sure how either script could cause X to hang, though. They only create device nodes. X servers can be finicky at times, so maybe.
PS I missed something when I wrote the script. It shouldn't say "Aborting" because it doesn't. It tries to create the nodes even when modprobe fails.