two GPUs seen but one is "ignored by config"
8 Nov 2014 18:53:13 UTC
Topic 197788
(moderation:
As I discussed in Cruncher's Corner recently I just placed two GPUs in one PC for the first time.
Both are GPUs which have run singly in this same box successfully in the last few days, using the same driver (344.60, quite new). One is a shiny new 750 Ti, and the other an experience GTX 660.
I uninstalled the Nvidia driver before opening the box, then moved the 750Ti to the short slot, and added the 660 back in the only PCIe slot used until today.
GPU-Z sees both cards, but says the 660 is running at very low clock, so most likely not in active service.
The BOINC messages during startup that seem most relevant are these:
11/8/2014 11:40:07 AM | | CUDA: NVIDIA GPU 0: GeForce GTX 750 Ti (driver version 344.60, CUDA version 6.5, compute capability 5.0, 2048MB, 1947MB available, 1606 GFLOPS peak) 11/8/2014 11:40:07 AM | | CUDA: NVIDIA GPU 1 (not used): GeForce GTX 660 (driver version 344.60, CUDA version 6.5, compute capability 3.0, 2048MB, 1965MB available, 2107 GFLOPS peak) 11/8/2014 11:40:07 AM | | OpenCL: NVIDIA GPU 0: GeForce GTX 750 Ti (driver version 344.60, device version OpenCL 1.1 CUDA, 2048MB, 1947MB available, 1606 GFLOPS peak) 11/8/2014 11:40:07 AM | | OpenCL: NVIDIA GPU 1 (ignored by config): GeForce GTX 660 (driver version 344.60, device version OpenCL 1.1 CUDA, 2048MB, 1965MB available, 2107 GFLOPS peak)
I've tried a forum search here (even using Google) for the phrase "ignored by config" I've found no advice on this situation.
Any ideas?
I did not flush my queue of old work before the change. Do I maybe need to do so? Or perhaps actually uninstall BOINC, reboot, then reinstall?
two GPUs seen but one is "ignored by config"
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Quick answer: I needed to add the use_all_gpus line to my cc_config.xml
Longer discussion:
While I got no hits on searches here at Einstein, a search at SETI showed me a post by Claggy, and some others, all pointing to a necessary line in cc_config.xml.
I don't know if this would apply if one did not have an active cc_config.xml in service, but I did, for other purposes. In my (default configured Windows 7, boincmgr 7.3.11) host this file lives at c:\ProgramData\Boinc
I added the prescribed use_all_gpus line in the options section.
With this addition, my personal complete cc_config.xml file currently reads:
[pre]
0
0
0
0
0
0
90
1
20000000
10000000
[/pre]
When I restarted boinc with this edit in place (simply the addition of one line in the options section of my existing file) the startup messages listed both GPUs without adverse comments, like this:
and two more Perseus CUDA jobs promptly started up.
GPU-z shows both GPUs to be active as indicated by all three of clock rate, temperature, and GPU load.
So for the moment I think I'm started on the trail. I don't intend this to be my final configuration, which I expect to be two GPUs, most likely one 750 plus one 750 Ti, or a 970 plus the 7560 Ti.
I don't currently plan to buy another 750 Ti, preferring the non Ti model, as I have been unable to find meaningfully more performance for this 750 Ti in this box than I get from a regular 750 in another box on Einstein Perseus Arm survey, which is my application of interest.
In case of doubt, always keep
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In case of doubt, always keep a link to client configuration handy.
In this case of doubt you
)
In this case of doubt you can't rely on the documentation. It says BOINC does not use all GPUs unless explicitly configured, but I think the current recommended version 7.2.42 does. 7.2.47 does for sure. Obviously 7.3.11 does not. You'll just have to try for yourself.
On top of that, "ignored by config" is misleading at least, if not plain wrong. It's ignored by default actually, in this case. "Ignored by config" is what you should get from setting ignore_*_dev.