In every of my finished workunits I find the following text:

<core_client_version>6.3.10</core_client_version>
<![CDATA[
<stderr_txt>
# Using CUDA device 0
# Device 0: "GeForce 9800 GT"
# Clock rate: 1512000 kilohertz
MDIO ERROR: cannot open file "restart.coor"
called boinc_finish
</stderr_txt>
]]>

What I´m wondering about is the MDIO Error Message. What exactly is meant by that?
The restults are always valid and the credits are granted. But it seems, that 21.5h computing time on a GF9800GT is a little bit to slow, isn´t it?

What I´m wondering about is the MDIO Error Message.

The restart.coor file that the error mentions is created when the processing of the work unit is suspended and stores the state of the simulation so that it may be restarted later.

MJH

I have the same card, but mine needs ~58600 seconds for one work unit.

http://www.ps3grid.net/results.php?hostid=7528

The older ones at 61.000 seconds where done at a lower VRAM speed of only 500MHz, but finally I found the solution to force the highest Powermizer settings.

First think is to check if your card runs at designed speed while crunching, get yourself a copy GPUZ to find out =)

I totally agree with koschi.

And @ koschi: so you crunched with only ~50% of the stock VRAM clock and got about 4% slower? That's good to know.. I suspected mem speed would have little effect, but it's good to have a hard number.

MrS

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Scanning for our furry friends since Jan 2002

But it seems, that 21.5h computing time on a GF9800GT is a little bit to slow, isn´t it?

Yes, I think so. I have 10,5 h with a GF9800GTX+

Back in the old days (hmm, 2 weeks ago?) I once managed to force the card to Powermizer level 3, but then the improvement was only from 48.000 to 47.000. Those were the days of the faster Cuda 1.x 6.25 app.

I can't guarantee that the recent decrease in crunching time is only the result of the VRAM now running full speed, as I also updated from 177.68 to 177.70 almost at the same time.
So there might or might not be an impact from the graphics driver, but I doubt that, as no one else reported any improvements.

Following the folding@home GPU2 thread in our teams forum, it seemed that the biggest speedup can be achieved by overclocking the shaders. Core and memory had only little impact.

Should be the same here...

edit:

Well, there are some small differences between 9800GT and GTX+...
The GT is basically a relabeled 8800GT with the same (shader +12MHz) clock speeds and only 112 shader units. The GTX+ has 128 shaders at 1836MHz versus 1500/1512MHz on x800 GT side.

But still, more that 20h is way to long and needs to be investigated ;-)

Yes, his 9800GT is way too slow. Either the software is horribly broken / distrubed or it's not running at stock clocks (->GPU-Z).

@koschi: OK, I'll take the number with a grain of salt. And sure, the shader clock should be responsible for >95% of the speed on the hardware side. I already downclocked my core and this also reduced speed, not directly proportional (as it should be in the case of shaders) but much more than your VRAM-experiment.

MrS

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Scanning for our furry friends since Jan 2002

My 9800GT is running at stock speed:

600 / 900 / 1500 (looked it up in GPU-Z 0.2.7)
Driver is 177.83
PhysX is running OK

Shaders: 1512000 kilohertz is detected by the 6.43 Application (it´s in the text I posted - so the 1500Mhz Shaderclockspeed seem to be working)

running time is always around 78026.66 like that task.
http://www.gpugrid.net/result.php?resultid=49731


Very strange..


Thanks for your help, Kyle

My 9800GT is running at stock speed:

600 / 900 / 1500 (looked it up in GPU-Z 0.2.7)
Driver is 177.83
PhysX is running OK

Shaders: 1512000 kilohertz is detected by the 6.43 Application (it´s in the text I posted - so the 1500Mhz Shaderclockspeed seem to be working)

running time is always around 78026.66 like that task.
http://www.gpugrid.net/result.php?resultid=49731


Very strange..


Thanks for your help, Kyle

Update:

With the Shaders overclocked @1750Mhz -- a WU took ~ 68000s (~19h) on my GF9800.
Everything about that card seemd to be normal. GPU-Z detected 112shaders and the memorybus and clockspeed was OK, too.
I updated the Video Driver to 177.92, but crunching times didnßt change.

Yesterday I kicked the GT9800 and put in a GTX260.
It´s a pity the 6.45APP was out on that day, so I couldn´t test a WU on 6.43 with it.
With the 6.45 a WU takes ~10h -- that seems to be OK -- not as fast as some reported with the 6.43 (7-8h), but not such a big difference as my 9800GT did show.

It seems there wasn´t anything wrong on my system, but the grafixcard was at fault.
The 9800GT was a Gainward Bliss 9800GT (no golden sample -- just a normal standard card)


Happy Cruning... Regards, Thorsten

I also have a Gainward Bliss 9800GT 512MB, but mine is 20000 fas^ter than yours was. No idea why yours was so slow...

Kyle, do you have another PC to put the 9800 in? If it's also slow there we can surely blame a "dodgy" card.

MrS

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Scanning for our furry friends since Jan 2002

No, I have taken them by their word on the 14day returning right and sent the 9800GT back .... :)
I have a GTX260 now - just wanted to let you know.


110€ for the 9800GT
210€ for the GTX260

and the Leadtek GTX260 is MUCH more silent than the Gainward 9800GT (but gets ~20° hotter - 73° vs ~53°)
The 9800GT was a lot louder than the 7800GT I had before -- the GTX260 is better in that way, too, so I won´t complain about the upgrade. Should have gone with the GTX260 from the beginning :)


Regards, KyleFL

- GTX280 has 933 GFlops for 350€ -> 2.66 GFlops/€

GTX280 350€ in the April of 2008?

Can I soon after the Christmas of 2008 buy passively cooled GTX280 with just 300 €? Is it completely impossible to have passively cooled (and stable) GTX280 with 100% GPU load 24/7?

Merry Christmas!

HTH.

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Can I soon after the Christmas of 2008 buy passively cooled GTX280 with just 300 €? Is it completely impossible to have passively cooled (and stable) GTX280 with 100% GPU load 24/7?

Maybe GeForce GTX 285. It should run cooler, shouldn't it? :)

Henri.

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GTX280 350€ in the April of 2008?[quote]

I posted this on the 29th of august, so I'm pretty sure I was not referring to the price back in April, when this card was not yet released.

[quote]Can I soon after the Christmas of 2008 buy passively cooled GTX280 with just 300 €? Is it completely impossible to have passively cooled (and stable) GTX280 with 100% GPU load 24/7?

If you find that fairy tell her I'll also take one of those.. but I'd like mine to be 100€. No seriously, Kokomiko was right when he said you can totally forget about cooling a GTX 280 passively (under load and in a computer case).. that's why noone else commented.

You can easily handle 50W passively, but 70 - 80W gets painful, i.e. the card runs very hot and fails without sufficient case ventilation (which negates the benefits of running passive..). A GTX280 has 150+W power consumption.. do I need to say more? And, btw., 55 nm isn't going to help much.

MrS

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Scanning for our furry friends since Jan 2002

A GTX280 has 150+W power consumption.. do I need to say more? And, btw., 55 nm isn't going to help much.

Ok. Are those fans too noisy on those cards? I don't want to buy a card that screams so much I never ever want to have a 100% GPU load again...

PS. Water cooling is out of business. I don't want to mess with water and electricity.

Henri.

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Henri,

The ASUS cards have fairly quiet fans in my experience. My 9600 GSO has one of the big "glaciator" fans, and the noise increase over the power supply fan is negligible at most (I really can't tell a difference to be honest).

The ASUS cards have fairly quiet fans in my experience. My 9600 GSO has one of the big "glaciator" fans, and the noise increase over the power supply fan is negligible at most (I really can't tell a difference to be honest).

Ok. Thanks, Scott and everyone!

Henri.

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Look here for further information about cooling. I suppose the stock GTX 260 cooler would still be to noisy for my ears, but any card with an Accelero S1 and 2 slow 120 mm fans is *cool*.

MrS

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Scanning for our furry friends since Jan 2002