Well, I ordered a GTX 295 ... another symptom of more money than brains. The plan was to put it into the Linux system I have and to see what the CPU load was and compare to the XP systems and decide where to go from there ...

Well, The Linux system did not see the card at all, as a GPU ... tried the 9800 GT and it was not seen as one either ... attempts to update the drivers defeated my limited linux abilities though I may take another shot at it when I have the energy to tackle something frustrating ...

So, back to the situation where I have the 9800 GT in the Q9300 consuming 22% CPU ...

I also have the GTX 280 and 295 in the i7 box and it is happily moving 3 tasks along ... I have compled a couple that had many restarts and they ended well ... if you look at them they have a mix of segments where part was done on one then the other processor. Not sure where they will come out when the two cards start pumping out results where the task runs all the way through on only the one class.

Had one Blue Screen when I tried to open the NVida utilities control panel ... not sure why, I installed the drivers from the GTX 295 CD ... later I updated to the latest driver off the support site, but have not tired again because I want to see if a couple tasks run to completion well ...

So, now I see 7% load on 3 CPUs to keep the three GPUs fed ...

Later I will try the utilities again to see if the newest drivers/utilities still fail .. or not ...

But it does seem that the 295's are not as well supported as one might like. But, that is the risk for the very latest and greatest cards ... In a couple hours I should have three more tasks to report and we shall see how they go, they all should, or at least two should be "pure" runs on just one of the processors ...

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I jus ttried an expirement that was suggested by ETA (I think) where the actual process prioirty is changed. I manually changed it to low on all three process on the i7 and yet the CPU load on the XP machine does not change ...

Which suggests that the raising of the priority is not the cause of my woes and may have little effect on the system performance ....

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attempts to update the drivers defeated my limited linux abilities though I may take another shot at it when I have the energy to tackle something frustrating ...

Here is how I updated the nvidia drivers on Fedora 10 (there are most likely better ways):

1. download the latest driver - in my case 'NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-180.22-pkg2.run'.
2. Edit (as root) /etc/inittab and change the line 'id:5:initdefault:' to 'id:3:initdefault:'. Do not comment out the existing line and make a separate updated line, init has a problem with this.
3. Reboot - you will be in the non-graphics mode.
4. Go to the directory with the driver file and (as root) enter:
'sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-180.22-pkg2.run' to run the updates.
5. I answered yes/ok to everything.
6. Edit (as root) /etc/inittab and change the line 'id:3:initdefault:' to 'id:5:initdefault:'.
7. Reboot - you will be in the graphics mode.
8. Log in, Run the nvidia configuration tool (In Fedora it's under 'System Tools') to check out the gtx 295.

The rebooting is not strictly necessary but when I switched runlevels directly, there was some flaky behaviour.

I could not change the clock settings without a system lockup.

Curt

Curt,

I did about that ...

The final failure told me I did not have the right libraries on the system and I need to get those packages. Something about re-compiling the kernal ... Ubuntu does not use init to turn off the x system and I did manage to do that ... but as I said, I needed the sources to do that ...

My ability to struggle ran out and without the energy to struggle I had to abandon the effort for this day. I still have the driver down and I can try again for the Nvidia card I have in that system so I can try again and maybe get a build later ...

Now all i have to figure out is how to get the needed libraries with the package manager ...

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The final failure told me I did not have the right libraries on the system and I need to get those packages. Something about re-compiling the kernal ...

This is a little misleading - you are not compiling the kernel, it is a module that links directly with the kernel. What is needed are the kernel 'c' header files and maybe some other stuff.

In your package installer, if you search for 'kernel', there should be a package (rpm?) that includes just these header files for compiling modules.

This is based on Fedora 10, your results may vary.

Curt

I also have the GTX 280 and 295 in the i7 box and it is happily moving 3 tasks along

I moved the 295 I have to a older Q6600 Box, Updated to the latest Drivers (181.22 -- What Driver Version did you use ??? for Windows XP Pro) but still can't get it to run 2 WU's @ once for more than a few seconds & then 1 of them will give a computation error. But @ least in the Q6600 Box 1 WU is running & is up to 40% done. When that WU gets done I'm going to move the 295 back to the I7 Box & try it again. When it was in the I7 Box the longest a WU would run was 20 Minutes.

Paul, do you have the PhysX GPU acceleration Enabled or Disabled in the NVIDIA Control Panel. I have it Disabled for now and also multi-GPU configuration set to Do not use the multi-GPU mode.

Also I see your running Service Pack 3, I'm still using 2 so maybe I need to Update to 3 ??? < Scratch that, I also see your running x86 while I'm running 64-Bit an all my Box's @ theres no Service Pack 3 for the 64-Bit XP Pro OS's.

On your Linux Box are you running Ubuntu 8.04 or 8.10, if your running 8.10 I can give you the instructions that work for me to install the Video Drivers & Client ...

Ubuntu does not use init to turn off the x system

Well it does in a round about way, at least on my Box's it does anyway:

sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop < is the proper command to stop the X system/server use start to re-start thr X system/server

If you will boot to recovery mode[press esc during boot]you don't have to do the init thing. When prompted go to root shell and install drivers.[ubuntu 8.04]

You need IA32-libs[synaptic] and "build essential"; in a terminal...

Do this Before Nvidia driver installation

sudo apt-get install build-essential, it will ask for pass word and then install.

mike

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mike

The final failure told me I did not have the right libraries on the system and I need to get those packages. Something about re-compiling the kernal ...

This is a little misleading - you are not compiling the kernel, it is a module that links directly with the kernel. What is needed are the kernel 'c' header files and maybe some other stuff.

But yes, there will be blood... er, compiling.
But only for system distributions that are not kept up to date with the latest third party drivers. Surely a system like Ubuntu can have pre-compiled kernel packages ready by now to match your Linux configuration. Two weeks have passed since the 180.22 driver release.

After all, we have systems like Ubuntu or Redhat so we don't have to compile. :-)

Thanks for the suggestions and tips. Sadly these days I can only do so much before I have to rest for a couple days... but I am going to give it another whack to see what I can get on the linux box.

I may be able to fiddle with it later today, I still have the download and I will try to suggestions on the getting the new drivers built.

I don't mind the compiling, I am just annoyed the system is not smart enough to be able to go get what it needs without me having to fumble with it ...

@PoorBoy,

The major difference tween us is that I am running 32 bit and you are doing 64 bit. I tried the drivers that came with the 295 card (not sure the exact version, one of my major annoyances with Nvidia the external driver version number is not the one you look up when you examine the drivers installed, GRRR). But since then I installed the 181.22 and it seems to be cranking along ...

Most interesting, I still get BSOD when I try to use the Nvidia control panel. I suspect that it is because of one or two causes, A) I have a 295 card, or B) I have it AND the 280 card and Nvidia never expected that someone would run with a mixed configuration. Yeah, MS tells me the device driver had STOP thread stuck in device driver ... blah, blah, blah ... idiots, I already have the latest drivers ...

Also interesting, it seems that tasks never run end to end on just one of the cards. The always seem to run on the 295 then on the 280 ... I am pretty sure that at least two of them should have run end to end on one card or the other. Most odd.

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Well, take two ...

I did an upgrade to the latest version of Ubuntu (8.10) which seemed to complete correctly. At least the system changed.

I then found this set of directions to install the drivers ... I went through the steps to get success at each sub-step only to get to the end where the nvidia control panel tells me that I am not using the nvidia drivers. I appear to be still using the installed restricted drivers.

The Nvidia card I have in there at the moment is an 8500GT and *SHOULD* show up as an accellerated/GPU capable card (if I read the list correctly) but the second try seems to be a strike out too ...

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Try this Paul, it's worked for me every time I've tried it on Ubuntu 8.10 ...

LINUX Ubuntu 8.10 CUDA Video Card Driver Installation Procedure:

*Download the drivers from the NVIDIA website

*set the Permissions through the Properties & Permissions of the installer

*Then put the installer into a directory (for instance /tmp)

* Then Press ctrl-alt-F1, a text login screen will appear

* login (Username > enter Password > enter)

* login as root (sudo -i > enter > Username > enter Password > enter)


* type > sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop < to stop the X server

* type > sh /tmp/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-180.06-pkg2.run < to install the driver from the directory where you had downloaded it (Modify the Driver name to the one you Downloaded)

* answer yes/ok to all questions from the installer (Make sure your answering yes/ok to all questions, this is where I had a hard time & goofed up until I got it right)

* type > sudo /etc/init.d/gdm start < to start the X Server again

NEXT THE TOOKIT & SDK INSTALLATION:

1. You don't need to install the Toolkit or SDK Files for the WU's to run !!!

NOpe ...

Same error ... I get the steps where it looks like it is building the package/driver ... I am carful about the Ok and yes answers ... it tells me it succeeded ... but then when I try to start gdm it tells me that there is no driver and will start in low res mode ...

If I then try the nvida control panel that has been installed, it too tells me that there are no Nvidia drivers installed.

running nvidia xconfig does not help ...

I double checked and the drivers should be good for the 8500GT card so it should in theory install correctly ... not sure if I have some driver remnant that needs to be removed or what ...

I wonder if because I am running the restricted driver already if that is causing an issue.

I will try that next I guess ...

Turn that off and try again ...

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Hmmmmm, okay, I'm going to install Linux Ubuntu 8.10 on my i7 (Something I need to do anyway) & see what happens with the Video Driver installation, it'll take me a few hours to get everything installed so I'll let you know then ...

I don't mind the compiling, I am just annoyed the system is not smart enough to be able to go get what it needs without me having to fumble with it ...

Actually, with Debian 5.0 beta and an older video card, I recall that system automatically setting up the display for the Nvidia card. The catch is that it used the open source driver, rather than the proprietary and closed driver that Nvidia develops, the only driver that supports the latest cards along with CUDA and 3D acceleration.

Debian GNU/Linux has a habit of favoring free and open software for the default system. So... we end up having to go to the "non-free" section of Debian for the Nvidia drivers released by Nvidia. Since Nvidia appears to not directly support Debian in the form of easy to install packages, the latest drivers supporting the latest cards are not always available in the easy form.

Sometimes walking away for a time, gives the solution an opportunity to present itself without so much annoyance. But for the impatient...

With packages built, I will confirm that the Nvidia Linux drivers 180.22 include support for the GeForce GTX 295, even though the card is not included in the official support list.

It's so fast! :-o
Look!
Today my test machine is already number one on GPUGRID! ;-)

(Tops hosts on GPUGRID)

J.D. are you running 32 or 64 Bit Linux ??? I'm begining to think thats where my problem is that I'm using 64-Bit Windows & Linux & can't get the 295 to finish a WU all error after just a few minutes at the most ...

J.D. are you running 32 or 64 Bit Linux ???

64-bit, what else? :-)

I also used nvclock_gtk (0.8 Beta4) to increase the duty cycle of the fan to 80% to keep the GTX 295 cores below 70 C.

Since the GTX 295 install I noticed one failed task, but the history of that work unit indicated it was also failing with errors on non-GTX 295 systems.

@JD

Ubuntu is the same. BUt you can click on a "Restricted Driver" button to get a pre-built driver that is usually "better" than the open driver. However, that driver is also usually pretty old and in this case seems to pre-date the onset of CUDA capability.

Though I do not recall ever trying the 8500GT (1G VRAM) with XP and a late driver it is in the list in the Q&A section as a barely passable card. It is not that I think that it would be that suitable as a processor for this project I was just going to use it at this time to verify that the updated drivers installed and then try one of my better CUDA cards there ...

As to fast, well, it does look like I am going through lots more work It looks to me like it is the same speed, maybe slower, than the 280, but it does two tasks at the same time ... so ... but it is hard to tell for sure as it seems that every task get partly done on the 295 card and partly done on the 280 card... no idea why ...

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if I am reading the numbers right there seems to be two basic types of task Ascme and SH ...

My threee cards seem to be doing about like this

          Ascme         SH
295    52ms          34ms
280    28ms          31-34ms
9800  73-78ms   96ms

Not sure if this is meaningful for anyone ... no overclock beyond what the mfgr put on the cards ...

Not a hard data point in that I did not try to go back and collect specific data, but 6.61 is no faster than 5.55 ... I think I read that ETA said that the problems are harder, in which case then there is a speed up, but it is swamped by the increased complexity ...

Or he is just feeding us a line to keep the peoples satisfied ... :)

On a lighter note, 81 more cosmology tasks and I can move on to concentrating on ABC until the end of the month when it is SIMAP time again ...

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Paul, I have the GTX 295 running 2 WU's in Linux Ubuntu v8.10 @ the moment, so far it hasn't erred out any WU's. I had to use the 180.60 Video Drivers because the 181.22 Drivers didn't take I guess when I installed them so I tried the 180.60 Drivers & they worked. I ran a GTX 260 overnight & then this morning I put the GTX 295 in the Box. It booted up with the Video Drivers that were installed so I tried running some GPU WU's, 1 @ first & then I started another one & their both running now & have been for 40 min's so far.

So @ the moment I'm running 2 GPU WU's & 8 PrimeGrid Sieve WU's on the i7 Box, Video Temps seem to be holding @ 77c to 78c but that will go up I'm sure as the Temps in the house go up. I don't know how to install the nvclock Beta4 & the nvclock Beta3 doesn't do anything but give you a little information on the Card. Since the 180.60 Drivers worked in Linux I'm going to try some older Drivers in Windows & see if they will work later today, more like tonight as I want to run a little in Linux to make sure it stays running 2 GPU WU's without erring any WU's.

Paul, I have the GTX 295 running 2 WU's in Linux Ubuntu v8.10 @ the moment, so far it hasn't erred out any WU's. I had to use the 180.60 Video Drivers because the 181.22 Drivers didn't take I guess when I installed them so I tried the 180.60 Drivers & they worked. I ran a GTX 260 overnight & then this morning I put the GTX 295 in the Box. It booted up with the Video Drivers that were installed so I tried running some GPU WU's, 1 @ first & then I started another one & their both running now & have been for 40 min's so far.

Well, this stinks ... they have the 171 driver archived but not the 180.60 ... hmmm, found a 180.06 ...

Maybe the version numbers are different for 64 bit?

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