Should we migrate our Fermi cards to Cuda 4.2 compliant drivers? What drivers are required? Do we have a new recommendation on the driver version to be used?

The 301.42 drivers work well on one of my systems. Is it recommended that I upgrade all of my systems?

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Thx - Paul

Note: Please don't use driver version 295 or 296! Recommended versions are 266 - 285.

Should we migrate our Fermi cards to Cuda 4.2 compliant drivers? What drivers are required? Do we have a new recommendation on the driver version to be used?

Yes, if you can. The 4.2 app is fast. The latest drivers (301 series) are fine.

Matt

No, I had problems with my GTX570 SC card. More from the office.

Does the card feature a substantial factory-OC and is failing some tasks with 4.2? It has been observed that the new app is somewhat less tolerant to overclocking, or demands higherstability - however you want to look at it.

MrS

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Scanning for our furry friends since Jan 2002

MJH:

No doubt it's fast. First time I've ever seen that short queue get depleted so quickly ;)

Seems like the hopper needs more added in quite often now...


As a side note, any idea one when we can finally start taking a crack at those long queue tasks. Seems like, from what I read in the forums, that everything seems to being a-ok!!

Cheers

PS, Yours seem to have the greatest speed difference gain. Congrats!!

No, I had problems with my GTX570 SC card. More from the office.

Sorry I have not written during the day.

I transferred my GTX 570 SC to another computer to make room for my GTX670 SC in my most potent PC. At the same time I did up-date drivers on both computers to 301.42. All short work units Cuda 42 work well on both systems. However when I have attached the computer with the GTX 570 SC card to the long work queue, this long work unites (Cuda 31) failed. Means the computer shuts down randomly. I was able to restart computer as well as continuo the work unites, but the computer shuts down again after half an hour or so.

The GTX 570 SC card worked very well short and long work units with Driver 275.33 on the computer, which has actually the GTX 670.

The GTX 570 SC card works actually well with Primegrid Genefer (cuda32_13) and PPS (Sieve) (cuda23), as well with Einstein (BRP4cuda32nv301), so it is not the Cuda version.

The video cards are factory overclocked. I have only modified the fan speed, so the temperature of the cards is below 70º C.

I only see two workunits which have failed with energies have become nan. Maybe increase the voltage slightly and see if this helps stability? Or of energy usage is a concern you could try underclocking it as well.

I recently had some issues with work units causing the computer to hang or freeze. The only way to clear the condition was a reset of the computer (or power cycle). It happened a couple of times to one of my systems that never has issues. I did not change drivers or any of the OC settings on the system. I assumed it was a couple of bad work units.

Try the 570 SC with the new drivers again. I bet you will find it was bad work units and nothing to do with the driver.

Best of Luck!

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Thx - Paul

Note: Please don't use driver version 295 or 296! Recommended versions are 266 - 285.

Paul i had/have that too with some nathans rps ( perhaps it was nathan too in your case??) at the time, some units freeze the machine in a special way. Desktop with no icons but windows is running. Often @ the beginning of a new computation while he uploads the finished wu. Good to hear they are the wus perhaps but itcomputes to finishing line after reboot. Strange. Changed fan to manual to bring it from 90 to 80 degrees. Will see how it works over weekend bacause this is litle annoing on a unaatended machine.

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DSKAG Austria: http://www.dskag.at

I recently had some issues with work units causing the computer to hang or freeze. The only way to clear the condition was a reset of the computer (or power cycle). It happened a couple of times to one of my systems that never has issues. I did not change drivers or any of the OC settings on the system. I assumed it was a couple of bad work units.

Try the 570 SC with the new drivers again. I bet you will find it was bad work units and nothing to do with the driver.

Best of Luck!

Probably haven't made the apps threadsafe which is why you need to reboot the machine. I know Richard asked the same question back in March but never got a reply. See this message

Edit:
Found the original message with code snippets here

Maybe GDF or one of the other developers can confirm Acemd 6.16 (cuda42) does use the above logic (ie its threadsafe)

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BOINC blog

Wow - 90 is hot! I flashed my EVGA GTX cards with the newest BIOS and it unlocks the fans to 100%. I have them set at 90% at 70C and my 580s are down to 72C - 74C

This summer is going to be a challenge to keep these systems cool.

Dry Ice could be a solution!

BTW - is dry ice safe for the computers?

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Thx - Paul

Note: Please don't use driver version 295 or 296! Recommended versions are 266 - 285.

I only see two workunits which have failed with energies have become nan. Maybe increase the voltage slightly and see if this helps stability? Or of energy usage is a concern you could try underclocking it as well.

As I have said, the problems are only with the cuda 31 app, not with cuda 42. In the night the computer failed with two cuda 31 apps. The strange thing: When I restarted the computer again, blue screen with warning message and the GPUGRID project was detached afterwards, so I attached anew and got one new work unit with cuda 42. Hope this works out just fine. The other two are just lost, and won´t be finished ever.

Side note: I am running malariacontrol.net at all computers at the moment and this writes heavily on hard disks, so this might also cause the observed problems. Also my co-workers experience problems with this project, whereas with climateprediction,net - my normal CPU load - I normally do not have problems.

The CPU tasks may be the source of some of your problems.

On your 6core all the failures were 'Aborted by user'.
On your GTX670 system, one nan failure might have been as a result of the CPU projects, the other failure happened because you started running the task on a GTX570 and then continued to run it on a GTX670.
The 9800GT error was the old cufft issue, common with CC1.1 cards.

How many CPU cores are you using to crunch CPU tasks? I know you have a 6core, an 8core and an 8thread system.
Generally it's more stable to use one less CPU core/thread than the total. This also tends to expedite the GPU tasks and even the other CPU tasks slightly, so you gain stability and GPU task performance at a very limited CPU expense.
It's better to run a mix of CPU task types, for lots of reasons.
It's advisable to increase you write to disk times on anything more than a dual core. I use 600 to 900sec.
It's also beneficial to use a second drive for the Boinc data directory, where possible.

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Yes it might be that the CPU task cause the problems. Unfortunately my computer knowledge is very limited, so what goes behind Boinc Manager, will have to be explained step by step. So I will be able to try it on my own, which I would be willing to do.

The GTX670 on the 8-core does not worry me that much, because it is true, I changed the GPU, and the other might happen ones in a while.

The 9800GT will not crunch GPUGRID anymore as intend to use only GTX570 and GTX670 for this project, lower end cards I will use for Primegrid, as these do not work very well with GPUGRID.

Which really worries me is the GTX570 on the 6core computer.

All CPU cores are crunching CPU projects, I have seen that you disable one core for the GPU with Svan_sync (I think), which I am willing to do but I do not see how. However with climateprediction.net (my main focus) I never had any issues with using GPUs, as well as write to disk times.

That said I normally running climteprediction.net on all computers, malariacontrol.net is only my “back-up” project, if the first runs out of work.

So if you are willing to guide me, you are welcome!

8core, has solid state disk and normal hard disk – but if I remember correctly I am writing boinc to solid state disk as I assumed this will improve speed. 6core has a small solid state disk for the programs as all data is loaded to an external disk.

When you reattached to the project you lost any GPU tasks that were running. These must just appear as 'Aborted by user'.
Did you reattach twice?

I suggest you configure Boinc to use one less CPU core on your 6core system, and write to disk less frequently:
Boinc Manager (Advanced View),
Tools Tab,
Computing Preferences,
Processor Usage Tab,
On multiprocessor systems use at most 99% of the processors,
Disk and Memory Usage Tab,
Tasks Checkpoint to Disk at most every 900 seconds,
OK.

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FAQ's

HOW TO:
- Opt out of Beta Tests
- Ask for Help

When you reattached to the project you lost any GPU tasks that were running. These must just appear as 'Aborted by user'.
Did you reattach twice?

No, I reattached once.
It is: Task 5522912 and Task 5522851. Both are still marked in Progress on GPUGRID Homepage. But are not mentioned any more in Boinc Manager.

Should i have something besides boinc 7.0.25 and 301.42 drivers to get cuda 4.2 tasks

Currently the CUDA 4.2 app is only being used for the Standard WUs and it looks like you are only processing the Longs. Hopefully GDF will release it next week? for the Longs also.

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Thanks - Steve

Should i have something besides boinc 7.0.25 and 301.42 drivers to get cuda 4.2 tasks

I have the same problem ^^ Hope somebody tells us if we need to reattach or something ^^ (an nooo i tried short/standart units and it worked on a fermi card, only not on the 285gtx)

I must wait until a WU is finished AND im in the room where the machine is, then i will try a reattach, could need a few days :)

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DSKAG Austria: http://www.dskag.at

Hi all,
my pc is running first longqueue WU with Cuda 4.2 (a Paola RND).
The expected time on GTS450 (with GF116) under windows xp will be 17 hours !
Here the result of Gpu-z
url]http://gpuz.techpowerup.com/12/06/25/3aa.png[/url]
Good work, great !
K.

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Dreams do not always come true. But not because they are too big or impossible. Why did we stop believing.
(Martin Luther King)