This is going to sound kinda crazy, but, can I run this project if I don't currently have a GPU card in my box?

Edit: apparently not ^_^

[slight punn on] Only if UR Wonder Woman! ;-) [slight punn off]
The Multicore CPU thread has been dead for 122 days http://www.gpugrid.net/forum_forum.php?id=3

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Unfortunately no.
The tests with CPU work here on GPUGrid proved that the science is so complex that a CPU does not produce usable results in a reasonable amount of time so they have stopped developing in that direction.
If you are not already familiar with World Community Grid, I beieve they are perhaps the best CPU crunching project not only for stability but also for the work the are doing (multiple different disease related subprojects)
http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org

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Thanks - Steve

Yep, already figured that out. Next question: if I have two processers (not that GPU Grid uses even one), and I put this and another CPU-heavy project on 100% resource share each (equal resource share), both will run at the same time right? Or will BOINC timeshare? :(

There's really no point to timeshare, since they use different crunching resources. I want to figure this out before I buy my GPU card.

Next question: if I have two processers (not that GPU Grid uses even one), and I put this and another CPU-heavy project on 100% resource share each (equal resource share), both will run at the same time right? Or will BOINC timeshare? :(

There's really no point to timeshare, since they use different crunching resources. I want to figure this out before I buy my GPU card.

Each core of your CPU(s) can run a project (or WU) while each NVidia GPU runs an instance of GPUGRID. An exception is AQUA for the CPU which will use all CPU cores on the current WU. GPUGRID will still run on the GPU.

Yep, already figured that out. Next question: if I have two processers (not that GPU Grid uses even one), and I put this and another CPU-heavy project on 100% resource share each (equal resource share), both will run at the same time right? Or will BOINC timeshare? :(

There's really no point to timeshare, since they use different crunching resources. I want to figure this out before I buy my GPU card.

GPU projects for the most part have minimal load on the CPU side (Einstein is one exception) so that running GPU Grid, Collatz, MW, etc, have minimal to no impact on running projects like WCG. If you run WCG at RS 100 and GPU Grid at RS 100 both should run full time (work being available of course), if you run Rosetta, WCG, and GPU Grid at the same RS then you will spend about half the CPU time doing RaH tasks and half doing WCG tasks ... OVER TIME ... that means that you can and **WILL** have instances where two RaH tasks run or two WCG tasks run at the same time ... add in more projects and it gets more interesting ...

I am at the far end of the spectrum in that I attach to pretty much every project and donate time to them ... sometimes I have used unbalanced RS to allocate the time based on how much I like project A over B and at other times have done other things ...

Last point, the actual RS numbers themselves have no meaning ... it is the ratio of the numbers and the number of projects that have that RS number that is meaningful ... so, if I am allocating based on interest I would set the most interesting projects to 100, less interesting to 50, 25, or 10... but, even 10 RS projects on fast and wide (8 core or more) systems have a chance to be run once a day... Though not properly shown in BOINC Manager, the RS is actually split along resource types (ATI, CUDA, CPU, etc.) so ... in my system with an ATI card and a CUDA card it can get interesting ... :)

So if I understand correctly, then:

1) four CPU cores + 1 GPU core = five tasks being executed in parallel (assuming 100% CPU availability, and connection to WCG and CPUGRID)
2) I should put RS to 100 for both to achieve #1

Is that right?

[Edit] read those posts again and it looks right. Cheers dudes.

Now, can anyone recommend a low-end (on the cheap, $50 or less) GPU card to wet my feet? :D

Mostly I've read that the GT240 with DDR5 is both cheap, low power, & popular. Read many writing that many Online stores sell it with rebates.

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So if I understand correctly, then:

1) four CPU cores + 1 GPU core = five tasks being executed in parallel (assuming 100% CPU availability, and connection to WCG and CPUGRID)
2) I should put RS to 100 for both to achieve #1

Is that right?

[Edit] read those posts again and it looks right. Cheers dudes.

Now, can anyone recommend a low-end (on the cheap, $50 or less) GPU card to wet my feet? :D

That would be correct... 5 tasks, one on the GPU and 4 on the CPU ... With only one CPU project and one GPU project the machine would, in theory, always be working on the tasks from the appropriate projects. You *MAY* want to consider setting up a back-up project for each "side" so that the system will not go idle ... but you may also want to leave that for another day ... when the feet are a little more wet. WCG is a good project in that they do have a fantastic up-time and almost always have work of one sort or another on a variety of sub-projects ... the only way they suck from a user's perspective is that they are one of the lower paying projects ... if that becomes of interest ...

As to RS, with just WCG and GPU Grid (or the other projects as GPU only selections (Note: for Collatz you would have to change the on-lline settings to not send you any CPU side work as I have done)) the RS can be left to 100 as it will not matter. If you add additional projects on either "side" you will have to decide on what you want ... if you connect to WCG, GPU Grid and Rosetta at RS 100 the GPU will be full time on GPU Grid and the CPUs will run about 50/50 WCG and Rosetta tasks ...

I think they may still be a bit pricy for you but the 9800GT is a fair card though in my opinion barely adequate for GPU Grid (as would be the GT240)... GPU Grid is not that "friendly" to the lower end cards because of the heft of the computation task... my personal recommendation would be to consider Collatz to start with a low end card (or DNETC)... if you are too low end of a card you will not be able to consider MW due to the need for double precision ...

Awesome! Thanks for all the help. I placed my order last night (!) for the GT240. It rang in at just a couple bucks over $100 after rebate.

To be honest, WCG has been amazing for me, and I'll stick to GPUGRID -- because these are the projects that interest me :)

Looking forward to getting it in two weeks!!

I think that the earlier posts are excellent and explained it quite well.

I thought that I should share since I have a machine (win7 64bit, gtx480, i7 930) for running gpugrid and wcg for about a week or 2 now. (well, its running gpugrid/wcg when my kid is not playing games)

Boinc - Preferences settings: (as suggested by other users on this forum)
checkmark - While computer is in use
checkmark - Use GPU while computer is in use
On multiprocessor systems, use at most 99% of the processors
Use at most 100% cpu time

So, basically, it ends up that 7 of the threads are running wcg, and 1 thread is running gpugrid. Task manager is flatlined at 100% (for all threads).

imho... I would not suggest adding more than 2 projects to a box, since it gets interesting on how boinc schedules projects/etc.

imho... I would not suggest adding more than 2 projects to a box, since it gets interesting on how boinc schedules projects/etc.

2 CPU projects is fine. It may not be optimal all the time (as Paul would argue) but it usually gets the job done without wierd stuff happening. And you get the benefit of not running dry if one project fails.

MrS

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Scanning for our furry friends since Jan 2002

imho... I would not suggest adding more than 2 projects to a box, since it gets interesting on how boinc schedules projects/etc.

2 CPU projects is fine. It may not be optimal all the time (as Paul would argue) but it usually gets the job done without wierd stuff happening. And you get the benefit of not running dry if one project fails.

Running only two project not optimal? Or BOINC not running optimally?

I have no complaint about the first thought ... in fact I recommend at least two projects... Those that are super-adicted to SaH for instance these last couple of weeks have been having a really tough go of it as the project is having one of its rough patches... that is why I suggested WCG with an alternative of Rosetta as they are both projects that concentrate on the disease area and both have decent up-times and reliable flows of work ...

The second way of reading your assertion is correct in that I do argue that after 5 years of development BOINC does not serve the user communities well, not the single project fanatics, nor the reasonable 5-10 project group, and least of all the oddballs that run them all (only about 3,000 of us)... what makes this so astounding is that Dr. Anderson wrote a paper on this aspect, but his actions are of those of a man that has never read the very paper he wrote ... very strange ...

Didn't have anything specific in mind, just didn't want to sound overly enthusiastic and leave the debate to others ;)

MrS

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Scanning for our furry friends since Jan 2002

I have seen times where work was 'Ready to start' but cores were idle.

The greatest frequency of my observation was on a 8core (8thread) box with wcg, aqua, and rosetta. Normally, it would have 8 'running' (with only or a mix of wcg/rosetta), except when Aqua wanted all 8cores.

It was not rare for me to see a few cores idle when there was plenty of wcg or rosetta work 'ready to start'.

However, on another box, I have only the wcg project. I have not seen this 'idle core' behavior.

so, hence, why I suggested to not have more than 2 projects.

The effect you describe here is in fact a side effect, a bug, typical for multi CPU projects like AQUA. In fact you should report it on the AQUA site since it was supposed to have been taking care of,

With single CPU projects this phenomenon of idle cores never occurs unless of course the number of active cores/threads has intentionally been limited for some reason.

Kind regards

Alain

Continuing that thought, this is also partly a design decision of UCB wherein the "desire" of the multi-CPU project for all available resources will override the rule of no idle resources. Until all the running applications have check-pointed more and more resources will be idled until the MP task can be started.

As Alain noted, this issue was supposed to be addressed to make the effect minimal so, yes, reporting it on Aqua and the development boards is indicated if it is still occurring with the later generations of the BOINC and Aqua applications ...

Ok, I will post on Aqua. Thanks

I am currently looking at the boinc manager on a box not mentioned above. On this box, it has 4 cores/threads: running wcg, rosetta and aqua. (the video card is only a 8600gt so why no gpugrid).

rosetta: 8 ready to start, 1 running, 4 ready to report
wcg: 7 ready to start, 1 running, 1 waiting to run
aqua: 1 waiting to run
so, 2 cores idle.

I had already checked that memory/disk storage is sufficient.

minor update. since, installing the latest boinc, I have not observered that issue with idle cores.