The changes will be mostly on usability for GPUGRID users. Planned changes (we cannot guarantee to have them all, but we will try):

1) Project preference for running the app at higher priority than normal (higher speed)

2) Project preference for using 1 core to control the GPU (equivalent to current SWAN_SYNC=0)

3) Having two applications, acemd_long and acemd. acemd_long will have longer workunits, you can opt out of it in project preferences. Longer WUs will give relatively more credits per hour.

4) All new WU will be shipped with the same options of the current DHFR1000, so they will be generally faster.

5) Higher GPU usage in general (closer to 99%)

Planned release in mid February.

GDF

That sounds really nice - thumbs up!

MrS

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Scanning for our furry friends since Jan 2002

great to hear!

The changes will be mostly on usability for GPUGRID users. Planned changes (we cannot guarantee to have them all, but we will try):

I presume this will be a cuda 3.2 app? Meaning we'll need to make sure we have 260.89 or later drivers?

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BOINC blog

No. we will stay to cuda3.1.

gdf

Points 3),4),5) are now ready to go.

gdf

Points 3),4),5) are now ready to go.

gdf

Great

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I see the 'long' option under GPUgrid preferences now. When will the long tasks be released?

I guess they will start feeding them into the system when they make them. I completed an et today, so I expect they have tested to the extent that they are setup correctly and ready to go with large tasks.

It's worth noting that the present adc5-IBUCH tasks take almost twice as long as the KASHIF_HIVPR and more than twice as long as the GIANNI_DHFR1000 tasks, so I expect when new tasks are produced they will include the new and faster routines.

I have already set my GTX470's to accept long tasks, and set my GT240's to only pick up short tasks, so when the long tasks are released I won't have to do anything.

Great to hear.
All of those planned changes make sense.
I am looking forward to the improved GPU usage and set my 460 and 470s to accept long tasks.

So what about GPUs like GTS250 or close to this? Not all of volunteers have GTX4xx, 5xx-class cards... But is their hardware completely useless for the project?
If only "short" WUs (at least) could run normally on non-top GPUs!.....

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From Siberia with love!

On my FX580 (32 shaders), adc5-IBUCH takes around 100h.
Will the time decrease when Point 2) will be available?

I have already set my GTX470's to accept long tasks, and set my GT240's to only pick up short tasks, so when the long tasks are released I won't have to do anything.

skgiven, how do you do that. I mean adapt the type of GPU to the length of the task. It would make sense indeed to switch long tasks to the most powerful GPUs, and the short ones to the others.

In Your account, under GPUGRID preferences create two (or up to 4) profiles (default, home, work and school). Set one to crunch short tasks and the other to crunch long tasks. Add each of your systems to one of the profiles. You can do that by going to Your computers, clicking Details and changing from default.

It has not yet been announced that there are short and long tasks.

On my FX580 (32 shaders), adc5-IBUCH takes around 100h.
Will the time decrease when Point 2) will be available?

Actually I'm doing 67h for 141-GIANNI (with the SWAN_SYNC option working apparently). Any chance for smaller WUs or code improvements?

Well, something's definitely changed for the better - at least for my GTX275s. I hadn't run them since the beginning of January; they produced around 35-40K ppd each at that time. Started 'em back up the other day, and they now seem to be getting 50K+ ppd each. Utilization is higher on most (but not all) WUs for that machine. Too early to tell if the 570 has seen any increase yet.

I didn't make any changes to my preferences, but when I looked at them yesterday, the "long" option was already checked...is this by design? I would've opted in anyways, but shouldn't one have to proactively select this option?

In any case, great to see the improvements! Now if only something could be done about GTX460 performance... ;-)

I have a gainward gtx 460 768MB and the gpu usage is just horrible sometimes: 44%.
and it usually stays at around 60%.
the gpu usage problem for gtx 460 is really urgent and important because a lot of people will buy gtx 460 video cards. which would mean A LOT of power wasted.

Performance changes with different tasks, but this should generally improve soon*.

All CC2.1 cards, including the GTX460, have a somewhat incomplete ability at GPUGrid due to shader access problems, mostly down to the ACEMD application, I think. This is why I advise people to get CC2.0 cards if possible. Perhaps the remaining third of the shaders will be usable in a future ACEMD edition. It would be a very nice boost to the project.

It’s down to the project managers to say what is urgent for GPUGrid (an ATI app, new faster routines*, long tasks, server or website maintenance, support, presentations, publications...), and they can’t do much in some areas (tools and drivers) other than wait. Unfortunately this is the situation with CC2.1 cards.

All we crunchers can do is report problems, make suggestions and optimize our systems as best we can; using swan_sync=0, freeing up a CPU core for every GPU, configuring your preferences, reporting tasks immediately and using a fast operating system - due to the WDM overhead Vista and Win7 are slower than XP and Linux, though this may not be apparent from looking at GPU Utilization, but rather through task performance.


Good luck,

what i know is that someone messed up big time(if it is nvidia then the gpu grid people should communicate the problem so that nvidia can fix it or give a solution how to go around the bug). and that this problem with the gpu usage needs to be fixed fast.

what i don't know is why games are able to use 100% of my card and gpu grid can't.

on other thought... some of the games run with 60% gpu usage while having 40fps and that's odd.. so maybe this problem affects the games too and nvidia will solve it later.
another odd thing is that if i overclock from 650mhz to 850mhz the gtx 460 768mb when the game has 60%gpu the fps does not increase.