Can't understand CPU/GPU workload - not using 2nd GPU, not multiple GPU tasks, etc.
28 May 2014 11:30:22 UTC
Topic 197595
(moderation:
Hi - Well ever since the OpenCL apps came out my machines (3 of them) are doing all kinds of weird, unexplained things with scheduling/running tasks for einstien@home, and I only get like 1/3 to 1/2 as much credit, it's very very annoying.
I am using BOINC version 7.2.42.
Right now I'd like it to fully use my GPUs, it's NOT happening, nor does it really use all Hyperthreaded cores of the CPU (sometimes, unexplained why).
What is wrong? It's driving me crazy, can't tell what the problem is, so to recap
a) Why doesn't it currently use the 2nd NVIDIA GPU
b) Why do I only get a single GPU task?
Currently it's running 8 GW S6 Directed Search (CasA) 1.05 (SSE2) tasks, and 1 FGRPopencl-nvidia which says (1 CPU + 1 Nvidia GPU (device 0))
I used to get 3 tasks running on a single GPU, and for as many GPUs as I had. And if I have a 4-core CPU, I'd get 8 threads with hyperthreading enabled.
Now I'm lucky if I get 1 task per GPU and 7 CPU tasks (right now it's running 8 on THIS particular computer, not all 3 computers act exactly the same for some reason), and doesn't use all GPUs installed.
So right now my problem is, won't use 2nd GPU at all, and 1st GPU uses only a single task. 1st GPU less than 45% loaded, and almost no memory load.
First - I only use einstein@home, no other apps.
I have a cc_config.xml that looks like (and no other special config files, no app_config.xml, etc.):
1
From the output below you can see I'm using general prefs and for "home", here's what they're set to in my account:
Resource share
Determines the proportion of your computer's resources allocated to this project. Example: if you participate in two BOINC projects with resource shares of 100 and 200, the first will get 1/3 of your resources and the second will get 2/3. 100
Use CPU
Enforced by version 6.10+ yes
Use ATI GPU
Enforced by version 6.10+ yes
Use NVIDIA GPU
Enforced by version 6.10+ yes
Use INTEL GPU
Enforced by version 7.0.27+ yes
Is it OK for Einstein@Home and your team (if any) to email you? yes
Should Einstein@Home show your computers on its web site? yes
Default computer location home
Graphics setting: frames per second (FPS)
Warning: affects CPU consumption! Default value: 20 20
Graphics setting: render quality
Warning: requires hardware 3D acceleration! Default value: low low
Graphics setting: window width (pixels)
Default value: 800 1200
Graphics setting: window height (pixels)
Default value: 600 600
Run only the selected applications (all applications)
Run beta/test application versions?
This helps us develop applications, but it may cause jobs to fail on your computer. no
Run CPU versions of applications for which GPU versions are available yes
GPU utilization factor of BRP apps
DANGEROUS! Only touch this if you are absolutely sure of what you are doing!
Wrong setting might even damage your computer! Use solely on your own risk!
Min: -1.0 / Max: 1.0 / Default: 1.0, negative values will disable GPU tasks of this type 1
GPU utilization factor of FGRP apps
DANGEROUS! Only touch this if you are absolutely sure of what you are doing!
Wrong setting might even damage your computer! Use solely on your own risk!
Min: -1.0 / Max: 1.0 / Default: 1.0, negative values will disable GPU tasks of this type 1
GPU utilization factor of GW apps
DANGEROUS! Only touch this if you are absolutely sure of what you are doing!
Wrong setting might even damage your computer! Use solely on your own risk!
Min: -1.0 / Max: 1.0 / Default: 1.0, negative values will disable GPU tasks of this type 1
Edit Einstein@Home preferences
----------
The event log on one machine currently looks like (I started it without a cc_config.xml this morning, then created one, then re-read configs while running, then changed the name to uppercase and didn't recognize it (good), then went back each time re-reading configs:
5/28/2014 6:55:04 AM | | cc_config.xml not found - using defaults
5/28/2014 6:55:04 AM | | Starting BOINC client version 7.2.42 for windows_x86_64
5/28/2014 6:55:04 AM | | log flags: file_xfer, sched_ops, task
5/28/2014 6:55:04 AM | | Libraries: libcurl/7.25.0 OpenSSL/1.0.1 zlib/1.2.6
5/28/2014 6:55:04 AM | | Data directory: C:\ProgramData\BOINC
5/28/2014 6:55:04 AM | | Running under account jjamulla
5/28/2014 6:55:04 AM | | CUDA: NVIDIA GPU 0: GeForce GTX 660 Ti (driver version 320.49, CUDA version 5.5, compute capability 3.0, 2048MB, 1960MB available, 2810 GFLOPS peak)
5/28/2014 6:55:04 AM | | CUDA: NVIDIA GPU 1: GeForce GTX 660 Ti (driver version 320.49, CUDA version 5.5, compute capability 3.0, 2048MB, 1915MB available, 2810 GFLOPS peak)
5/28/2014 6:55:04 AM | | OpenCL: NVIDIA GPU 0: GeForce GTX 660 Ti (driver version 320.49, device version OpenCL 1.1 CUDA, 2048MB, 1960MB available, 2810 GFLOPS peak)
5/28/2014 6:55:04 AM | | OpenCL: NVIDIA GPU 1: GeForce GTX 660 Ti (driver version 320.49, device version OpenCL 1.1 CUDA, 2048MB, 1915MB available, 2810 GFLOPS peak)
5/28/2014 6:55:04 AM | | OpenCL CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3770K CPU @ 3.50GHz (OpenCL driver vendor: Intel(R) Corporation, driver version 3.0.1.10878, device version OpenCL 1.2 (Build 76413))
5/28/2014 6:55:04 AM | | Host name: Win7Prof64PC
5/28/2014 6:55:04 AM | | Processor: 8 GenuineIntel Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3770K CPU @ 3.50GHz [Family 6 Model 58 Stepping 9]
5/28/2014 6:55:04 AM | | 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 aes syscall nx lm vmx tm2 pbe
5/28/2014 6:55:04 AM | | OS: Microsoft Windows 7: Professional x64 Edition, Service Pack 1, (06.01.7601.00)
5/28/2014 6:55:04 AM | | Memory: 15.89 GB physical, 31.77 GB virtual
5/28/2014 6:55:04 AM | | Disk: 119.14 GB total, 24.10 GB free
5/28/2014 6:55:04 AM | | Local time is UTC -4 hours
5/28/2014 6:55:04 AM | | VirtualBox version: 4.3.6
5/28/2014 6:55:04 AM | Einstein@Home | URL http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/; Computer ID 10938065; resource share 100
5/28/2014 6:55:04 AM | Einstein@Home | General prefs: from Einstein@Home (last modified 01-Jan-2014 12:25:58)
5/28/2014 6:55:04 AM | Einstein@Home | Computer location: home
5/28/2014 6:55:04 AM | Einstein@Home | General prefs: no separate prefs for home; using your defaults
5/28/2014 6:55:04 AM | | Reading preferences override file
5/28/2014 6:55:04 AM | | Preferences:
5/28/2014 6:55:04 AM | | max memory usage when active: 14641.25MB
5/28/2014 6:55:04 AM | | max memory usage when idle: 15454.65MB
5/28/2014 6:55:04 AM | | max disk usage: 20.64GB
5/28/2014 6:55:04 AM | | (to change preferences, visit a project web site or select Preferences in the Manager)
5/28/2014 6:55:04 AM | | Not using a proxy
5/28/2014 6:56:59 AM | Einstein@Home | General prefs: from Einstein@Home (last modified 01-Jan-2014 12:25:58)
5/28/2014 6:56:59 AM | Einstein@Home | Computer location: home
5/28/2014 6:56:59 AM | Einstein@Home | General prefs: no separate prefs for home; using your defaults
5/28/2014 6:56:59 AM | | Reading preferences override file
5/28/2014 6:56:59 AM | | Preferences:
5/28/2014 6:56:59 AM | | max memory usage when active: 14641.25MB
5/28/2014 6:56:59 AM | | max memory usage when idle: 15454.65MB
5/28/2014 6:56:59 AM | | max disk usage: 20.64GB
5/28/2014 6:56:59 AM | | (to change preferences, visit a project web site or select Preferences in the Manager)
5/28/2014 7:00:29 AM | | Re-reading cc_config.xml
5/28/2014 7:00:29 AM | | Not using a proxy
5/28/2014 7:00:29 AM | | Config: use all coprocessors
5/28/2014 7:00:29 AM | | log flags: file_xfer, sched_ops, task
5/28/2014 7:11:34 AM | Einstein@Home | Sending scheduler request: To report completed tasks.
5/28/2014 7:11:34 AM | Einstein@Home | Reporting 1 completed tasks
5/28/2014 7:11:34 AM | Einstein@Home | Requesting new tasks for NVIDIA
5/28/2014 7:11:37 AM | Einstein@Home | Scheduler request completed: got 33 new tasks
5/28/2014 7:11:40 AM | Einstein@Home | Started download of PB0016_00681_276.bin4
5/28/2014 7:11:40 AM | Einstein@Home | Started download of PB0016_00681_277.bin4
5/28/2014 7:11:43 AM | Einstein@Home | Finished download of PB0016_00681_276.bin4
5/28/2014 7:11:43 AM | Einstein@Home | Finished download of PB0016_00681_277.bin4
5/28/2014 7:11:43 AM | Einstein@Home | Started download of PB0016_00681.zap
5/28/2014 7:11:43 AM | Einstein@Home | Started download of PB0016_00671_32.bin4
5/28/2014 7:11:44 AM | Einstein@Home | Finished download of PB0016_00681.zap
5/28/2014 7:11:44 AM | Einstein@Home | Finished download of PB0016_00671_32.bin4
5/28/2014 7:11:44 AM | Einstein@Home | Started download of PB0016_00671_33.bin4
5/28/2014 7:11:44 AM | Einstein@Home | Started download of PB0016_00671.zap
5/28/2014 7:11:45 AM | Einstein@Home | Finished download of PB0016_00671.zap
5/28/2014 7:11:45 AM | Einstein@Home | Started download of PB0016_00611_176.bin4
5/28/2014 7:11:46 AM | Einstein@Home | Finished download of PB0016_00671_33.bin4
5/28/2014 7:11:46 AM | Einstein@Home | Started download of PB0016_00611_177.bin4
5/28/2014 7:11:47 AM | Einstein@Home | Finished download of PB0016_00611_176.bin4
5/28/2014 7:11:47 AM | Einstein@Home | Finished download of PB0016_00611_177.bin4
5/28/2014 7:11:47 AM | Einstein@Home | Started download of PB0016_00611.zap
5/28/2014 7:11:47 AM | Einstein@Home | Started download of PB0016_00651_74.bin4
5/28/2014 7:11:48 AM | Einstein@Home | Finished download of PB0016_00611.zap
5/28/2014 7:11:48 AM | Einstein@Home | Started download of PB0016_00651_75.bin4
5/28/2014 7:11:49 AM | Einstein@Home | Finished download of PB0016_00651_75.bin4
5/28/2014 7:11:49 AM | Einstein@Home | Started download of PB0016_00651.zap
5/28/2014 7:11:50 AM | Einstein@Home | Finished download of PB0016_00651_74.bin4
5/28/2014 7:11:50 AM | Einstein@Home | Finished download of PB0016_00651.zap
5/28/2014 7:11:50 AM | Einstein@Home | Started download of PB0016_003A1_306.bin4
5/28/2014 7:11:50 AM | Einstein@Home | Started download of PB0016_003A1_307.bin4
5/28/2014 7:11:52 AM | Einstein@Home | Finished download of PB0016_003A1_306.bin4
5/28/2014 7:11:52 AM | Einstein@Home | Started download of PB0016_003A1.zap
5/28/2014 7:11:53 AM | Einstein@Home | Finished download of PB0016_003A1_307.bin4
5/28/2014 7:11:53 AM | Einstein@Home | Finished download of PB0016_003A1.zap
5/28/2014 7:11:53 AM | Einstein@Home | Started download of PB0015_00851_266.bin4
5/28/2014 7:11:53 AM | Einstein@Home | Started download of PB0015_00851_267.bin4
5/28/2014 7:11:55 AM | Einstein@Home | Finished download of PB0015_00851_266.bin4
5/28/2014 7:11:55 AM | Einstein@Home | Finished download of PB0015_00851_267.bin4
5/28/2014 7:11:55 AM | Einstein@Home | Started download of PB0015_00851.zap
5/28/2014 7:11:55 AM | Einstein@Home | Started download of PB0016_005D1_156.bin4
5/28/2014 7:11:56 AM | Einstein@Home | Finished download of PB0015_00851.zap
5/28/2014 7:11:56 AM | Einstein@Home | Started download of PB0016_005D1_157.bin4
5/28/2014 7:11:58 AM | Einstein@Home | Finished download of PB0016_005D1_156.bin4
5/28/2014 7:11:58 AM | Einstein@Home | Finished download of PB0016_005D1_157.bin4
5/28/2014 7:11:58 AM | Einstein@Home | Started download of PB0016_005D1.zap
5/28/2014 7:11:58 AM | Einstein@Home | Started download of PB0016_00581_130.bin4
5/28/2014 7:11:59 AM | Einstein@Home | Finished download of PB0016_005D1.zap
5/28/2014 7:11:59 AM | Einstein@Home | Started download of PB0016_00581_131.bin4
5/28/2014 7:12:00 AM | Einstein@Home | Finished download of PB0016_00581_130.bin4
5/28/2014 7:12:00 AM | Einstein@Home | Finished download of PB0016_00581_131.bin4
5/28/2014 7:12:00 AM | Einstein@Home | Started download of PB0016_00581.zap
5/28/2014 7:12:00 AM | Einstein@Home | Started download of PB0009_00591_236.bin4
5/28/2014 7:12:01 AM | Einstein@Home | Finished download of PB0016_00581.zap
5/28/2014 7:12:01 AM | Einstein@Home | Started download of PB0009_00591_237.bin4
5/28/2014 7:12:02 AM | Einstein@Home | Finished download of PB0009_00591_236.bin4
5/28/2014 7:12:02 AM | Einstein@Home | Finished download of PB0009_00591_237.bin4
5/28/2014 7:12:02 AM | Einstein@Home | Started download of PB0009_00591.zap
5/28/2014 7:12:02 AM | Einstein@Home | Started download of PB0016_00651_8.bin4
5/28/2014 7:12:03 AM | Einstein@Home | Finished download of PB0009_00591.zap
5/28/2014 7:12:03 AM | Einstein@Home | Finished download of PB0016_00651_8.bin4
5/28/2014 7:12:03 AM | Einstein@Home | Started download of PB0016_00651_9.bin4
5/28/2014 7:12:03 AM | Einstein@Home | Started download of PB0016_00541_238.bin4
5/28/2014 7:12:04 AM | Einstein@Home | Finished download of PB0016_00651_9.bin4
5/28/2014 7:12:04 AM | Einstein@Home | Finished download of PB0016_00541_238.bin4
5/28/2014 7:12:04 AM | Einstein@Home | Started download of PB0016_00541_239.bin4
5/28/2014 7:12:05 AM | Einstein@Home | Finished download of PB0016_00541_239.bin4
5/28/2014 7:14:22 AM | | Re-reading cc_config.xml
5/28/2014 7:14:22 AM | | Unrecognized tag in cc_config.xml:
5/28/2014 7:14:22 AM | | Not using a proxy
5/28/2014 7:14:22 AM | | log flags: file_xfer, sched_ops, task
5/28/2014 7:14:57 AM | | Re-reading cc_config.xml
5/28/2014 7:14:57 AM | | Not using a proxy
5/28/2014 7:14:57 AM | | Config: use all coprocessors
5/28/2014 7:14:57 AM | | log flags: file_xfer, sched_ops, task
Can't understand CPU/GPU workload - not using 2nd GPU, not multi
)
Does your cc_config.xml file have this line in it?
1
The use all gpus line tells Boinc to use every gpu it sees and is needed on some systems. Other systems need one of these:
http://www.overclock.net/t/384733/the-30-second-dummy-plug
You can get the resistors at a local electronics store for under 2 bucks for 5 of them. The other option would be to plug in a second monitor when the machine boots up as Windows often turns the 2nd gpu off if nothing is plugged into it during the boot up process, it thinks it is saving resources. After the machine is up and running you can unplug the 2nd monitor.
As for why some cpu cores are not running individual units it is probably due to the kinds of units you are running here. SOME Einstein units use BOTH a cpu core AND a gpu to run ONE SINGLE UNIT, so while it may look like nothing is running, in fact it could be being used. BUT be sure to leave one cpu core free for EACH physical gpu you have so the gpu is not waiting on a cpu core to feed it data. A gpu is MUCH faster at crunching then a cpu core is, so keeping the gpu's fed is critical. Check your times both ways and do what works best for your pc.
RE: a) Why doesn't it
)
You said that you started Boinc without a cc_config.xml. When adding the tag one has to restart Boinc for it to take effect. A simple reread won't do. The detection of GPUs and decisions about what to use is only done at startup and can't be forced again.
Because the default settings and the settings you posted is set to run only 1 GPU task per GPU.
This can be changed in 2 ways, either by editing the Einstein@home prefs and setting the GPU utilization factors to less then one, 0.5 = 2 tasks, 0.33 = 3 tasks. These utilization prefs will not get updated and used until new work for that type of task is downloaded.
The other way to control this is by creating a app_config.xml in the project directory, this allows one to control both how many tasks to run at a given time and the changes take effect as soon as one does a reread of the config files in Boinc.
This is an example app_config.xml that will run 2 GPU tasks at any given time, for the BRP4G and BRP5 tasks it will reserve 1 CPU core for 2 tasks but for the FGRP3 tasks it will reserve 1 CPU core per task.
BRP4G = Binary Radio Pulsar Search (Arecibo, GPU)
BRP5 = Binary Radio Pulsar Search (Perseus Arm Survey)
FGRP3 = Gamma-ray pulsar search #3
[pre]
einsteinbinary_BRP4G
0.5
0.5
einsteinbinary_BRP5
0.5
0.5
hsgamma_FGRP3
0.5
1
[/pre]
If you want to try it then copy everything between and including to into notepad, then save the file as app_config.xml in C:\ProgramData\Boinc\projects\einstein.phys.uwm.edu and make sure it's not called app_config.xml.txt. Then open Boinc and do a reread of the config files and it should work.
You can then edit the to control how many task to run, 1=1, 0.5=2, 0.33=3.
The controls how many CPU cores to reserve, once the fractional values adds up to 1 then one less CPU task will be started by Boinc.
Take not that the FGRP3 app really needs a full CPU core as support because the app only runs some of the computations on the GPU a major part of it still needs to be run on a CPU.
Recently moved over from SETI
)
Recently moved over from SETI but Einstein is only using 1 gpu and also not hyperthreading the cpu's. Need an example cc_config.xml for Einstein and some advice on forcing use of hyperthreading the cpu's. Thanks.
Hi Bill and welcome back to
)
Hi Bill and welcome back to Einstein!
You've managed to dig up a thread from 2014 and anything discussed in it will probably not be applicable to how things work today.
I encourage you to start a new thread to get help with what you want to achieve.
In that new thread try to give some more info on what you want to achieve.
A quick look at your computers reveals that you have 3 attached, which of these are you having trouble with?
If I understand your goals then you should be able to accomplish most of it without using extra configuration files.
cc_config.xml is not project specific, it's a Core Client Configuration file and adjusts how Boinc on your computer behaves in general.
Only you can see what's actually running on your computer.
Please start a new thread and tell us what you do see running and what you expect or want to see running.