Is ther anyway to limit GPU usage on NATHAN WU's which have a 90% usage and make video miss frames. I don't want to have to suspend GPU taskes everytime I want to watch video.

This only applys to NATHAN units. A limit of 75% would do it and the video and GPU Grid could run happily together. It really is getting annoying. BOINC is supposed to be about using spare resources not hogging resources.

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BettingSlip,

There is no way to specifically tune down the gpu usage. I suggest you try the following steps:

1) Attempt to play with CPU usage settings in the boinc manager, or alternatively set SWAN_SYNC=0 environment variable. That should be particularly helpful for Fermi cards. We use it on our systems and have found it to be very helpful in avoiding performance/video problems. However, I believe for older systems/cards it does not help (2XX series, older CPUs with one or two cores).

2) Set boinc to pause when running certain applications, such as games and video players. I believe there is a standard way to do this. From another forum:

In the BOINC Manager Preferences is a setting "Use GPU while the computer is in use". Just uncheck this one and it should do the trick for older BOINC versions.

Also keep in mind that nothing may help for systems with 2 or fewer CPUs. Let us know if you find a solution.

n

This may also be relevant: from http://boinc.berkeley.edu/wiki/Client_configuration

<exclusive_gpu_app>important.exe</exclusive_gpu_app>
    BOINC will suspend use of GPUs whenever the executable is running. 

I agree with Betting Slip, this would be a nice feature to have. It would be an alternate to TThrottle to keep the card from overheating. How could this be accomplished? Would boinc need to be upgraded or could it be done within work unit itself?

I don't agree. But I have 2 GPU's. I want the other tasks to also get above 90% utilization so my card gets utilized fully so the workunits are done faster and more work can be done.

Anthony.

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If we could specify the number of shaders we want to use then we could control this properly, and keep everyone happy by giving them the choice of how much to use their GPU. It would also be card/user-need specific, so someone using a GTS550 for example might want to use 144 of the 192shaders so they could watch video. A game might run well enough if the running task was restricted to 384shaders of the 512 on a GTX580.

The only way to ensure users can run high performing task is by allowing task selection. This has been repeatedly rejected by the researchers, for logistical/research reasons. With the increase in task types its even less of a possibility now.

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I have 3 computers, and for energy purposes I surf the web on the weakest of the 3. I Still run boinc on all of them and folding@home for the cpus, well except the laptop because its turbo boost leaves it very weak for folding with cpu. Anyways the thing I have found is to put use 99% under processor usage for both % of processor and also % cpu time which frees up a core. I only have to do this until I upgrade the ram, but it does let me run boinc on the 48 cuda core gpu. I know 48 cores isnt alot but I bought it for its i7 processor to do more in depth work than a gpu and with less energy usage.

I run my GTX-550TI at 99% utilization. When I start Media Center I can watch TV/DVDV's/movies without a single hitch. I think it comes down on how much memory you have free while running your project WU. I don't know how it is for games though as I don't play them and I know they want to use shaders and a lot of video memory. I don't know if Media Center makes use of the shaders (probably not I guess) or only makes use of the video engine which is not used by the projects I run (checked with GPU-Z).

Anthony.

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