You could use GPUZ to see what PCIE speed the GPU is operating at. The PCIE performance impact isn't known for each WU type.

In this case I would suggest a move to the latest WHQL driver (320.18). I've had no problems with its Beta 320.14, and on Windows there doesn't seem to be any major issues.

I would not bother upgrading from Vista to Win7. I suggest you disable Aero, if it's running, and set the Windows Performance Options to Adjust for Best Performance, if they are not at that (computer properties, system properties, under performance click settings, adjust for best performance) [For me on W7 that frees up over 100MB GDDR]. Also do a restart, after suspending the CPU projects to see if it helps. I use CCleaner to control startup programs, to some effect. Might also be worth considering saying as it's taking 11min to start.

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You could use GPUZ to see what PCIE speed the GPU is operating at. The PCIE performance impact isn't known for each WU type.

In this case I would suggest a move to the latest WHQL driver (320.18). I've had no problems with its Beta 320.14, and on Windows there doesn't seem to be any major issues.

I would not bother upgrading from Vista to Win7. I suggest you disable Aero, if it's running, and set the Windows Performance Options to Adjust for Best Performance, if they are not at that (computer properties, system properties, under performance click settings, adjust for best performance) [For me on W7 that frees up over 100MB GDDR]. Also do a restart, after suspending the CPU projects to see if it helps. I use CCleaner to control startup programs, to some effect. Might also be worth considering saying as it's taking 11min to start.

Eventually the NOELIA finished in 20,9 hours so twice as fast than on the GTX550Ti but not as expected on the GTX660. I am waiting for Rosie to finish and will then install latest nVidia driver and boot. And run only GPUGRID overnight to see what happen.

I use CCleaner as well.
Aero is on I don't use it but cannot find to turn it off.
Secodn wen right click on computer and properties I don't get the option "system properties" and neither all the rest to adjust for best performance. I did a sear but find nothing yet. Will buy a book over Win Vista.

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Greetings from TJ

With not GPU task active, the system is very responsive, no blank pages and the lines in the BOINC Manager tray are not flickering.
So it must something having to do the the high use of the graphics card or some settings?

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Greetings from TJ

Aero is on I don't use it but cannot find to turn it off.

Right click "My Computer", left click "Advanced", click "Advanced System Settings", in the popup box under Performance click Settings, click adjust for best performance radio button.

How big is you're swap file?

Aero is on I don't use it but cannot find to turn it off.

Right click "My Computer", left click "Advanced", click "Advanced System Settings", in the popup box under Performance click Settings, click adjust for best performance radio button.

How big is you're swap file?

Thanks, I have Aero of and set for best performance.
The swap file size is 12578MB.

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Greetings from TJ

The swap file size is 12578MB.

That's plenty big enough, I thought maybe it might have something to do with you're lag problems, but it would seem not.

What did GPUZ say about the PCIE width?
What about other power options? Is anything set to reduce, especially the PCIE (Start, type Power, Power Options)?
Is Prefer Maximum Performance on, in NVidia Control Panel, Power Management Mode (Manage 3D settings).

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What did GPUZ say about the PCIE width?
What about other power options? Is anything set to reduce, especially the PCIE (Start, type Power, Power Options)?
Is Prefer Maximum Performance on, in NVidia Control Panel, Power Management Mode (Manage 3D settings).

I can not find the PCIE width.
I did a clean installation of nVidia drivers last night but got the error message that drivers did not install.
Then windows wanted to install some security patches that took more than 40 minutues so I went to sleep.
This morning power it down, so a cold start and removed the nVidia driver (I thought) and installed the new. Again error that they have not been installed.
I give in, I have the system switched off. Normally I don't give in that easy, but this system is causing a lot of pain.
I don't know what to to than smash it against the wall, but I don't do that things.
So perhaps next week a format c: and then completely install OS new.

All Dell's I have, have no problems, less memory, less CPU capacity and speed, weaker OS versions, but no issues all run Aero and respond while crunching with ATI cards or the GTX550Ti (that is my weakest system but flawless for 4 years 24/7.

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Greetings from TJ

GPUz now tells you the PCIE Bus interface details. In the example below it's operating at PCIE2.0 @ X16 rates,

The displayed bus speeds change while the GPU is in use/not in use. So if your system isn't set for maximum performance the GPU could drop to PCIE1.0. Anyway, its a useful feature for diagnosing issues. In W7 its the NVidia Control Panel, Manage 3D settings (left), Power Management Mode (right) that impacts this, rather than Power Options, but they might still be important in some circumstances. Not sure if that's the case with Vista and W8; in some respect Vista's Power Options were more powerful.
When trying to install the NVidia driver, download it to your desktop (security rights), then Right Click on it, and select Run as Administrator. Also, do an advanced, clean installation.
If it doesn't install, and your system is primarily for crunching, backup any files you have and reinstall the OS - it will save you a lot of stress knowing that you are working from a clean OS install.

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I found the problem with not installing the drivers it was a right problem i deleted the Administer when I changed the rights to got BOINC installed.
I have also get to system to set to best performance.
But more questions:
1. Now the system is best performance I get see true windows, meaning that I can see the background picture, or lines in windows disappear. I have to make them go the the taskbar and backt to get the lines in?

2. Only BOINC and EVGA NZ is running and only one project. GPUGRID with a NATHAN. GPU load still not high, around 50%. Has done 10% in 1 hour. Is this normal for a NATHAN on a GTX660?

3. Can some tell me how I can isert a picture here like skgiven did in the threat below? I can show the EVGA screen so that you perhaps get an idea.

A NOELIA is running on this system with a GTX550Ti at constant 95-96 GPU load.

Thanks as always for the highly appreciated input and needful help.

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Greetings from TJ

On the hardware front, what is the clock speed of your i7-940 (CPUZ) and what is the PCIE Bus Interface listed as (see GPUZ picture in previous post), for example, PCIE2.0x16 @X16 2.0.

12GB of RAM and only using 4GB. Shouldn't be any issue there, even if it was badly setup; I can get 99% GPU usage on a system with an old dual core using DDR2 (albeit XP).
770W PSU - If it was able to power a GTX285 it is sufficient (and then some).
The lack of primary HDD space might still be an issue, or indicative of some problem.

I found the problem with not installing the drivers it was a right problem i deleted the Administer when I changed the rights to got BOINC installed.

Installing the latest driver is some progress, but I'm not clear on the security changes you made. When you installed Boinc you didn't do it as a service did you? Is it set to run under your existing user account?

I have also get to system to set to best performance.

That removes some of the WDDM overhead. Is NVidia presently set to max performance?
It would also be useful to be able to see your computer, and the tasks that it returns. I know you have already posted most of the info we have asked for but the first page of the logs is an easy way to post most of the info we need to see.

But more questions:
1. Now the system is best performance I get see true windows, meaning that I can see the background picture, or lines in windows disappear. I have to make them go the the taskbar and backt to get the lines in?

This is normal in this mode, but you can make individual changes to suit your preferences (user defined).

2. Only BOINC and EVGA NZ is running and only one project. GPUGRID with a NATHAN. GPU load still not high, around 50%. Has done 10% in 1 hour. Is this normal for a NATHAN on a GTX660?

It's good to run with nothing else, so we can eliminate other apps as being a source of interference. I still think 50% is probably too low. There are two types of WU from Nate; NATHAN_dhf35 and NATHAN_KID_c22. On my W7 system the NATHAN_KID_c22 takes about 15.5h on a GTX660 and the NATHAN_dhf35 takes ~6.1h.

3. Can some tell me how I can isert a picture here like skgiven did in the threat below? I can show the EVGA screen so that you perhaps get an idea.

You would need to upload a screen grab of CPUz to an image host provider (imageshack, photobucket, tinypic, postimage...). When you have the CPUZ app open, you can press Alt+PtrScn to just capture the open window as an image (without the background). You then need to past it into a photo app such as paint and save it as a .jpg file. After that upload it.

A NOELIA is running on this system with a GTX550Ti at constant 95-96 GPU load.

Thanks as always for the highly appreciated input and needful help.

If you don't get anywhere, you might want to try the GPU in your other system,

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So let's add some more numbers:

runtime in ks | theoretical performance in TFlops | TFlops*runtime
GTX 580: 39.49 | 1.58 | 62.4
GTX 570: 41.92 | 1.40 | 58.7
GTX 480: 46.00 | 1.34 | 61.6
GTX690: 30.22 | 2.81 | 84.9
GTX 660Ti: 38.07 | 2.46 | 93.7
GTX660: 42.21 | 1.88 | 79.3
GTX 560Ti: 67.71 | 1.26 | 85.3

OK, GTX650TiBoost: 49.85 | 1.51 | 75.3

255px13x4-NOELIA_klebe_run2-2-3-RND0242_0 4473004 24 May 2013 | 21:20:02 UTC 25 May 2013 | 12:13:07 UTC Completed and validated 49,848.80 21,179.21 127,800.00 Long runs (8-12 hours on fastest card) v6.18 (cuda42)

This GTX650Ti has a middling FOC, but it's in a PCIE2.0 system supported by a skt775 2.66GHz CPU, old dual channel DDR3 (1066), and I rounded up it's TFlops slightly.
A fairly brutal demonstration of the self-inflicted GF600 GDDR Bus problems!

Which graphic card
I have suspected this for a while. Now I'm convinced. For GPUGrid, the really sweet GF600 GPU is unfortunately an OEM card - the GeForce GTX 660 (OEM) 1152:96:32/256B 130W. Anyone got one? - Thought not!
Alas, we will have to settle for the GTX660, or until the GTX650TiBoost prices equilibriate for the more mid-range crunchers. While I would obviously like to see a non-OEM version of the 660/256 GPU, and other mid to high end GPU's with a 256bit bus, the GTX680 is bound to be struggling with a 256bit limitation. To progress the GF700 needs width!

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Skgiven thanks for all your help that is very useful to me.

I have make my PC's visible so have a look.
I have also set the nVidia to maximum power, but that did not change a thing.
Something is making my system very slow (since the new GTX660, but that can't be it) and after booting there is 20GB more space on the C-drive. But when it runs a few minutes approx. 18 GB is "gone".
All I can think of is PCAngel, this seems to be a backup tool that is registering all changes on the pc. I will remove it, but have to boot and will wait until Rosie en Milkyway finished. There was no new work here so.

There is also no change in using FF, IE or none active. Rosetta on 5 cores or none and leave all 8 for GPU. Even now MilkyWay is only using 40-50% GPU.

Also best performance or with the aero on seems no difference in GPU and CPU load.
Also the times are flickering in the BOINC tray under both conditions.

If PCAngel removing has no result and I get no tips for setting the graphic card, I will do a complete new installation of the OS over the weekend.

Will try to get some pictures posted later today.

Edit: this is the first result of the new GTX660
6897606 4477493 136981 25 May 2013 | 21:28:26 UTC 26 May 2013 | 18:36:15 UTC Completed and validated 75,259.05 56,067.41 127,800.00 Long runs (8-12 hours on fastest card) v6.18 (cuda42)

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Greetings from TJ

PCAngel performs "real time backups"! Perhaps you can exclude everything Boinc, but I would still take it off. Such backup strategies are generally not needed, unless its a mission critical server. I bet you don't create hundreds of files every day. The most simple backup strategy for most users is to backup files to an external hard drive once every month or so. Anything more than that is an unnecessary chore.

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PCAngel performs "real time backups"! Perhaps you can exclude everything Boinc, but I would still take it off. Such backup strategies are generally not needed, unless its a mission critical server. I bet you don't create hundreds of files every day. The most simple backup strategy for most users is to backup files to an external hard drive once every month or so. Anything more than that is an unnecessary chore.

I will remove it shortly, perhaps this is one reason of the long booting.

One thin I forgot to mention: I have installed BOINC on the D-Drive with the data as a sub-directory, and did not thick any of the boxes in the installation process. I have this done always like this on all rigs. Not good?

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Greetings from TJ

It might be the case that some cached files are continuously being backed up onto the primary drive or that PCAngel also backs up the D: drive, but I'm not familiar enough with that software to know exactly what it's doing. I think it's probably the culprit though.

The task you listed shows a Run time of 75,259sec and a CPU time of 56,067sec. That's almost 75% CPU usage to GPU usage. I think others are reporting less while running NOELIA_kleb tasks. I'm seeing ~41% on an i7-3770K@4.2GHz for a GTX660Ti (W7), 42% on a 560TiBoost 2.66GHz skt 775 CPU (Linux) and similar on my GTX660. My 470 is ~8%, but that's a different architecture. Anyway, that high CPU usage would tie in with the idea that PCAngel is the issue.

If all the Boxes are unchecked then that's fine, and if the last box is checked that's fine too. Just don't install as a service on Vista, W7, W8, 2008 or 2013 servers (otherwise you won't be able to crunch on the GPU).

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One thin I forgot to mention: I have installed BOINC on the D-Drive with the data as a sub-directory, and did not thick any of the boxes in the installation process. I have this done always like this on all rigs. Not good?

I have always run BOINC from a separate drive (like D: for instance). It has never caused any problems so you can eliminate that as an issue. I'd say it IS good to keep it off the system dive (usually C: in windows).

The PCAngels is removed, it has deleted the recovery partition as well.
The rig is booting 6 minutes faster, and the approx. 22GB is still free on the C-drive. The system is performing quite well. I have now a NATHAN and 5 Rosetta WU's so I gues plenty of CPU free. But not, so have set Rosie to no new work.

I see the GPU load is still going from 4 % to 48%, not what others report with a GTX660. So what can I set with the card to get it run better?
If that is an easy bit then perhaps a new install of the OS is not needed and would safe a lot of time.
The rigs are visible and I will give the main information from BOINC.
Thanks again.

28/05/2013 14:25:47 | | No config file found - using defaults
28/05/2013 14:25:47 | | Starting BOINC client version 7.0.64 for windows_x86_64
28/05/2013 14:25:47 | | log flags: file_xfer, sched_ops, task
28/05/2013 14:25:47 | | Libraries: libcurl/7.25.0 OpenSSL/1.0.1 zlib/1.2.6
28/05/2013 14:25:47 | | Data directory: D:\Science\BOINC\DATA
28/05/2013 14:25:47 | | Running under account TJ
28/05/2013 14:25:47 | | Processor: 8 GenuineIntel Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 920 @ 2.67GHz [Family 6 Model 26 Stepping 5]
28/05/2013 14:25:47 | | Processor features: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss htt tm pni ssse3 cx16 sse4_1 sse4_2 popcnt syscall nx lm vmx tm2 pbe
28/05/2013 14:25:47 | | OS: Microsoft Windows Vista: Ultimate x64 Edition, Service Pack 2, (06.00.6002.00)
28/05/2013 14:25:47 | | Memory: 11.99 GB physical, 23.91 GB virtual
28/05/2013 14:25:47 | | Disk: 831.51 GB total, 814.11 GB free
28/05/2013 14:25:47 | | Local time is UTC +2 hours
28/05/2013 14:25:47 | | CUDA: NVIDIA GPU 0: GeForce GTX 660 (driver version 320.18, CUDA version 5.50, compute capability 3.0, 2048MB, 1889MB available, 2032 GFLOPS peak)
28/05/2013 14:25:47 | | OpenCL: NVIDIA GPU 0: GeForce GTX 660 (driver version 320.18, device version OpenCL 1.1 CUDA, 2048MB, 1889MB available, 2032 GFLOPS peak)
28/05/2013 14:25:47 | rosetta@home | URL http://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/; Computer ID 1514311; resource share 100
28/05/2013 14:25:47 | fightmalaria@home | URL http://boinc.ucd.ie/fmah/; Computer ID 17196; resource share 100
28/05/2013 14:25:47 | Docking | URL http://docking.cis.udel.edu/; Computer ID 132258; resource share 100
28/05/2013 14:25:47 | Einstein@Home | URL http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/; Computer ID 5987483; resource share 100
28/05/2013 14:25:47 | LHC@home 1.0 | URL http://lhcathomeclassic.cern.ch/sixtrack/; Computer ID 10010265; resource share 100
28/05/2013 14:25:47 | Milkyway@Home | URL http://milkyway.cs.rpi.edu/milkyway/; Computer ID 109183; resource share 100
28/05/2013 14:25:47 | GPUGRID | URL http://www.gpugrid.net/; Computer ID 136981; resource share 100
28/05/2013 14:25:47 | Docking | General prefs: from Docking (last modified 14-Apr-2013 15:45:55)
28/05/2013 14:25:47 | Docking | Computer location: work
28/05/2013 14:25:47 | Docking | General prefs: no separate prefs for work; using your defaults
28/05/2013 14:25:47 | | Reading preferences override file
28/05/2013 14:25:47 | | Preferences:
28/05/2013 14:25:47 | | max memory usage when active: 9822.61MB
28/05/2013 14:25:47 | | max memory usage when idle: 11050.44MB
28/05/2013 14:25:47 | | max disk usage: 300.00GB
28/05/2013 14:25:47 | | max CPUs used: 5
28/05/2013 14:25:47 | | suspend work if non-BOINC CPU load exceeds 25 %
28/05/2013 14:25:47 | | (to change preferences, visit a project web site or select Preferences in the Manager)
28/05/2013 14:25:47 | | Not using a proxy
28/05/2013 14:29:31 | GPUGRID | project resumed by user
28/05/2013 14:29:32 | GPUGRID | Starting task I75R5-NATHAN_KIDc22_2-3-8-RND8519_1 using acemdlong version 618 (cuda42) in slot 0
28/05/2013 14:29:36 | GPUGRID | work fetch resumed by user
28/05/2013 14:33:04 | rosetta@home | work fetch resumed by user

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Greetings from TJ

two screen dumps:




What does it mean as in Windows task manager, the kernel (red) is almost the same as the CPU (green line)?

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Greetings from TJ

After reading the thread about Low GPU useage. Here is my two cents worth. Please forgive if this has already been covered or is not relevant.
After having the same issues with GPU levels I found that setting the CPU Time and Number of Processors to %100 in Boinc Manager under Computer Preferences fixed it for me, both my GPU's now run @ %85-%90.
Hope that helps..
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