IS there a way of getting the WU's to finish faster on one of my computers they are taking 36 hrs and the other 13 hours
Your AMD machine is doing them almost twice as fast as your Intel, could your Intel be swapping back and forth between another project or doing something else at the same time? It also has to do with the L2 cache size, the smaller it is the more 'swapping back and forth to memory' has to be done, ideally each unit should fit inside the L2 cache to prevent that. Your can view how much memory each unit is using by opening the Task Manager and clicking the process tab and finding the units and looking across the line, it will tell you. For instance I am running Cosmology units on my laptop and each one is taking as much as 686k of memory, with a 1 meg L2 cache for each cpu core I am good to go.
Your Intel is a Core 2 Quad from 2008. It was a good CPU back then, but is showing its ago now. Einstein particularly loves memory bandwidth, which is something those CPUs don't have as much as modern ones. They are still using an architecture with a front side bus between the CPU and the chipset northbridge, through which the memory traffic has to be routed. Modern CPUs integrate the memory controller into the CPU, which is significantly faster.
And the software side you can't do much to change this. You could run a mix of different projects, so that at any point in time there are hopefully 1 or 2 tasks needed less bandwidth than Einstein, which leaves more bandwidth for the remaining 2 to 3 einstein tasks.
Hardware-wise there are a few things you can do:
Check that your memory is running in dual channel mode (on both machines). Download and open CPU-Z and go to the "Memory" tab. "channel #" should read "Dual" and not "Single".
Make sure the memory runs at least at the rated speed (reported in the same tab). What this speed is depends on your modules.
The memory timings have lesser impact, but could steal you a few % performance if set wrong in the BIOS. They are listed in the same tab and should again correspond to what your memory is capable of (tab "SPD").
You can always overclock, but that's not recommended unless you know what you're doing.
You could add a modern GPU to increase the throughput significantly.. but anything below 100€ is not worth it, so we are talking about additional costs and runtime costs through increased power consumption here.
... on one of my computers they are taking 36 hrs ...
Your Intel machine has a Q8300 quad core processor. I have a number of very similar machines with Q8400 processors. The difference is a stock speed of 2.66GHz as opposed to your 2.5GHz. I'm also running mine overclocked at around 3.0GHz. I wouldn't imagine a huge difference in crunch time due to the different clock speed - maybe an hour or two overall.
From the tasks list of one of my slower machines, you can see my host is doing these tasks in around 50-55ksecs as opposed to close to 150ksecs for your host. There must be something very sub-optimal with the configuration of your machine. Unfortunately, I don't really know what that could be. You would need to provide the details of all your hardware and what software (apart from BOINC stuff) you may be running if you expect anyone to be able to hazard a guess.
The only thing I can really think of to make this big a difference is thermal throttling. Is your CPU fan running at full speed and when was the last time you cleaned out all the dust and fluff from the CPU heat sink? If you remove the covers from your case and direct a room fan at the CPU, does the crunching speed up?
Good point regarding the fan. CPU-Z can also show the current CPU clock (1st tab). Is it 2.5 GHz or something less? You can also check CPU temperature with the small utility "CoreTemp". If it shows around 90°C the CPU is in trouble.
Good point regarding the fan. CPU-Z can also show the current CPU clock (1st tab). Is it 2.5 GHz or something less? You can also check CPU temperature with the small utility "CoreTemp". If it shows around 90°C the CPU is in trouble.
MrS
Here is a "tool" for you Linux Ubuntu/Mint users that I just came across I-Nex. Windows users have CPU-Z and maybe us Linux users have I-Nex. I have not yet had the opportunity to download it so I cannot vouch for its useability, but it looks promising. Will give it a try later today.
For instance I am running Cosmology units on my laptop and each one is taking as much as 686k of memory, with a 1 meg L2 cache for each cpu core I am good to go.
Good point regarding the fan. CPU-Z can also show the current CPU clock (1st tab). Is it 2.5 GHz or something less? You can also check CPU temperature with the small utility "CoreTemp". If it shows around 90°C the CPU is in trouble.
MrS
Here is a "tool" for you Linux Ubuntu/Mint users that I just came across I-Nex. Windows users have CPU-Z and maybe us Linux users have I-Nex. I have not yet had the opportunity to download it so I cannot vouch for its useability, but it looks promising. Will give it a try later today.
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![[B^S] madmac](https://einsteinathome.org/sites/default/files/imagefield_default_images/default-avatar.png?1347855344 "[B^S] madmac"){kind=avatar}
Gerring work done quicker
)
Your AMD machine is doing them almost twice as fast as your Intel, could your Intel be swapping back and forth between another project or doing something else at the same time? It also has to do with the L2 cache size, the smaller it is the more 'swapping back and forth to memory' has to be done, ideally each unit should fit inside the L2 cache to prevent that. Your can view how much memory each unit is using by opening the Task Manager and clicking the process tab and finding the units and looking across the line, it will tell you. For instance I am running Cosmology units on my laptop and each one is taking as much as 686k of memory, with a 1 meg L2 cache for each cpu core I am good to go.
Your Intel is a Core 2 Quad
)
Your Intel is a Core 2 Quad from 2008. It was a good CPU back then, but is showing its ago now. Einstein particularly loves memory bandwidth, which is something those CPUs don't have as much as modern ones. They are still using an architecture with a front side bus between the CPU and the chipset northbridge, through which the memory traffic has to be routed. Modern CPUs integrate the memory controller into the CPU, which is significantly faster.
And the software side you can't do much to change this. You could run a mix of different projects, so that at any point in time there are hopefully 1 or 2 tasks needed less bandwidth than Einstein, which leaves more bandwidth for the remaining 2 to 3 einstein tasks.
Hardware-wise there are a few things you can do:
Check that your memory is running in dual channel mode (on both machines). Download and open CPU-Z and go to the "Memory" tab. "channel #" should read "Dual" and not "Single".
Make sure the memory runs at least at the rated speed (reported in the same tab). What this speed is depends on your modules.
The memory timings have lesser impact, but could steal you a few % performance if set wrong in the BIOS. They are listed in the same tab and should again correspond to what your memory is capable of (tab "SPD").
You can always overclock, but that's not recommended unless you know what you're doing.
You could add a modern GPU to increase the throughput significantly.. but anything below 100€ is not worth it, so we are talking about additional costs and runtime costs through increased power consumption here.
MrS
Scanning for our furry friends since Jan 2002
RE: ... on one of my
)
Your Intel machine has a Q8300 quad core processor. I have a number of very similar machines with Q8400 processors. The difference is a stock speed of 2.66GHz as opposed to your 2.5GHz. I'm also running mine overclocked at around 3.0GHz. I wouldn't imagine a huge difference in crunch time due to the different clock speed - maybe an hour or two overall.
From the tasks list of one of my slower machines, you can see my host is doing these tasks in around 50-55ksecs as opposed to close to 150ksecs for your host. There must be something very sub-optimal with the configuration of your machine. Unfortunately, I don't really know what that could be. You would need to provide the details of all your hardware and what software (apart from BOINC stuff) you may be running if you expect anyone to be able to hazard a guess.
The only thing I can really think of to make this big a difference is thermal throttling. Is your CPU fan running at full speed and when was the last time you cleaned out all the dust and fluff from the CPU heat sink? If you remove the covers from your case and direct a room fan at the CPU, does the crunching speed up?
Cheers,
Gary.
Good point regarding the fan.
)
Good point regarding the fan. CPU-Z can also show the current CPU clock (1st tab). Is it 2.5 GHz or something less? You can also check CPU temperature with the small utility "CoreTemp". If it shows around 90°C the CPU is in trouble.
MrS
Scanning for our furry friends since Jan 2002
RE: Good point regarding
)
Here is a "tool" for you Linux Ubuntu/Mint users that I just came across I-Nex. Windows users have CPU-Z and maybe us Linux users have I-Nex. I have not yet had the opportunity to download it so I cannot vouch for its useability, but it looks promising. Will give it a try later today.
RE: For instance I am
)
A bit OT, but Cosmology has a big backlog. I have disabled it for now.
http://www.cosmologyathome.org/forum_thread.php?id=7208
http://www.cosmologyathome.org/server_status.php
RE: RE: Good point
)
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