I have just started running this project yesterday. This is my config:
- GTX 260 graca
- Q9550 quad core CPU
- Vista 64 OS, BOINC 6.4.2 running GPUGrid on GPU and ABC project on 2 cores
- VMWare Ubuntu 64, BOINC 6.2.15 running ABC project on 2 cores

First I did a test running only the VMWare BOINC on 2 cores and GPUGrid in Windows. GPUGrid made good progress. CPU time counting up in steady pass and time left counting down in large leaps. Then I also started using the remaining 2 cores for ABC. From that moment on the CPU time for GPUGrid only updated every 5-10 seconds or so and the work progress slowed down considerably. The last couple of minutes it even seemed as if it was stuck until I suspended ABC. In all it has taken the WU 9-10 hours wall time to complete, which probably is much too long for a GTX 260.

Does anyone recognize what I have seen? Any recommendations? I could only run BOINC CPU projects on 3 cores and leave the 4th to controlling the GPUGrid process, but I'd rather not.

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BOINC.BE: For Belgians who love the smell of glowing red cpu's in the morning
Tutta55's Lair

Wow, wow, don't all answer my questions together. Give me some time to read the first replies. [/cynical mode]

Hi, this is well reported in other threads.
Under Linux, it does not happen. We are trying to improve it under Windows.

gdf

Under Linux, it does not happen. We are trying to improve it under Windows.

gdf

It has happened to me under Linux, using Ubuntu 8.10. Generally Linux uses only 3-4% of a CPU when running 4CPU +1GPU, however, there has been a few occasions recently where I have had to run it 3 + 1. It only seemed to happen when running some of the "shorter" 'USPME type' (1887 credits) WUs, where it was using 12%+ of a CPU.

But, as you say, the Windoze App still requires its own dedicated CPU to be most effective.

Thanks for the answers :)

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BOINC.BE: For Belgians who love the smell of glowing red cpu's in the morning
Tutta55's Lair

I have an AMD 64 X2 6000 running @ 3.127 Ghz and a dual XFX 9600 GSO running under Windos Vista 32 bit and it has the same problem. When CUDA is operating by itself on both vid cards it runs great, however when other BOINC apps work together the whole process slows down. The resources show (0.03 CPU, 1 CUDA) for each of the vid cards. It takes them between 8 and 35 hours (depending on the work unit) to complete the work unit.

Does it also happen now with application 6.61?

gdf

Yes, it continues to happen under 6.61. I must say that it only started a couple of days ago.

I see similar on my GT9600 / AMD 9850 BE quad
When the other processes start like abc / einstein / any other on the cpu's
Btw i found that it does not matter if its only 1 instance (cpu) or 4
Before i started the other processes the time and so on worked well after the start of gpu-grid all seem to go in slow motion.
Including typing and normal programs like winamp

So this needs some work :D

I see similar on my GT9600 / AMD 9850 BE quad
When the other processes start like abc / einstein / any other on the cpu's
Btw i found that it does not matter if its only 1 instance (cpu) or 4
Before i started the other processes the time and so on worked well after the start of gpu-grid all seem to go in slow motion.
Including typing and normal programs like winamp

So this needs some work :D

Um, the issue is that the GPU, I think, from the number is on the low end of the spectrum. If the memory is also low this will make things slower. In essence, the GPU can do only so much work and the slower the GPU the less it can do ... my 9800 GT desktop is slightly slower while running but I also have 1G memory on it so I have less of an issue there ... but the system is slower and less responsive than the ones with the GTX 280 or GTX 295 ...

You will also see similar issues with SaH ... Many suspend GPU processing when doing other work ...

As far as automatic suspend I am sure that will come in time, but, this is early days ... I mean, how long has it been since the introduction of GPU computing? 6 months? We are in early days ... We still don't have a BOINC Manager that manages the GPU as well as the CPU ...

I know that is cold comfort ... but, it would be like having a 1MHz 286 and being unhappy that it is not as fast in doing tasks as an i7 or Xeon CPU ...

Yes i am just stating that its a common issue and i think 512 Mb on the card is enough second my card is overclocked by the maker.
And outperforms my buddy his 9800 GT but ofcourse i have less shaders as u mine has 64 and yours probably has 112 like his.

Still when ABC or any other projects starts the timers stop also so it show 00:00:01 after 20 minutes work...
Thats what we are talking about i think, i also had huge problems with the new alpha 6.6.3 so i turned back to my 6.4.5 install.
Maybe the newest has less serious issues :D

Still when ABC or any other projects starts the timers stop also so it show 00:00:01 after 20 minutes work...
Thats what we are talking about i think, i also had huge problems with the new alpha 6.6.3 so i turned back to my 6.4.5 install.
Maybe the newest has less serious issues :D

I am not sure I understand what you are saying in the first part. That if you try to run any CPU project along with a GPU project that the CPU project seems to stay paused? OR that the display just does not update?

There are problems with both the BOINC Manager 6.6.3 and 6.6.4 versions ... one stops getting work after it screws up the LTD calculations and 6.6.4 does not seem to be able to request work from some projects.

I looked at the one task you completed and though the total run time is long it "looks" reasonable to me in both total time and in the step time ...