Project Update

[tazzduke]

Apologies Dataman, congrats on the new badge and badge colour.  +1 for da karma as well  :penguin:

Regards

[Dataman]

Gold today and doing my "finger & toe" math I will need 8 more days to blue. They are having trouble with stuck wu's on Linux machines. Currently they are limiting Linux to 1 wu/machine.

Just my 2 cents but their GPU project is terribly inefficient. It uses a big chunk of CPU and the GPU starts/stops/starts/stops/ etc. I can't imagine I would crunch it when it goes live.

:aus1: :US

[kashi]

Wondered why I was getting the "No tasks are available" message. Thanks for the heads up.

I'll swap to Windows this afternoon when I finish off the ones in my cache. Linux claimed and granted is going down and down anyway, surely Windows couldn't be any worse. FAAH claims 33 cr/hr and grants 37-45. CFSW is now down to 23.9 cr/hr claimed and 22.8 granted, inconsistent CreditNew strikes again. Haha, I'd just downloaded my first 2 tasks with single replication when the plug was pulled.;D

Running 2 GPU tasks concurrently would possibly fix it up a little, increase GPU utilisation and efficiency plus help to reduce the thermal cycling from the current single task stop/start operation. I made an app_info.xml straight away as soon as the beta was released, it's a corker with lots of <file_name>, <open_name> wrangling. Decided not to test it until the application is released to production though, anonymous platform tasks would probably muck up their testing at this stage. It's got promise if they can do some further development on more recent cards, my HD 5870 takes about 150 seconds to complete a HCC task with HT off which is pretty quick compared to my CPU.

Another karma for your Gold, congrats.

[Mike Mitchell]

Congratulations Dataman!   Plus two. (one now and another in an hour - hope I remember   ).

edit: Yay, I remembered!

[turbo0]

Has there been any word on how GPU cruching will be credited towards badges? Will it just use the same run time system as cpu or be reflective of points?

[danhtruong]

Dataman: Very inefficient GPU processing!

Beta Testing:
WCG Points: 18,086
Results returned: 14
Total Runtime (y:d:h:m:s): 0:001:02:03:28

Repeat: That's 18k WCG points... not BOINC points! So yeh... that's pretty bad.

That's one full day of processing all up on HD 6870's.
If my math is correct, compared to my CPU, that's 4 times faster, but still.... chews up the whole GPU.
Return on GPU power vs points is very low compared to my other Collatz project that I currently run.

[kashi]

OK, for CFSW Windows is faster and gives more consistent runtime than Linux on my box. After losing 3 hours crunching time when my Linux VM ran dry while I was sleeping, I switched to Windows. First 6 tasks on Windows are showing exactly the same progress percentage and should all complete in about 3 hours and 17 minutes.

Dan, I don't understand how your 6870 could take a day to complete 14 GPU tasks. 14 GPU tasks would take about 35 minutes on my 5870, something doesn't add up there. Regardless of that if the credit and (in)efficiency stayed the same as the last batch of betas, WCG GPU would be grudgingly yielding about 10% of what POEM GPU does on my setup.

turbo0, last I saw on the WCG forums before I was attacked and bailed out, the intention is to award badges for GPU work on elapsed time. Currently the beta GPU tasks are being counted as only CPU time, so any GPU time where the CPU is not also contributing is not being counted. A Sapphire badge takes about 3 months on an 8 core computer, but will take 2 years on a GPU if a single concurrent task is run. My GPU would do the the same amount of work that my 8 core computer would process for a Sapphire badge in about 15 days. GPU no  good for badges at WCG, but it avoids upsetting the applecart with CPU only crunchers.

[turbo0]

Thanks for the info guys, got excited when it was announced but might just have to stick to other GPU projects

[kashi]

I share your disappointment but I'm not giving up on it just yet. It's only the beta so far, there will hopefully be some changes before it is released.

In more pleasing news I have now completed 12 CFSW tasks on Windows.
They all completed in 3.2 hours and claimed 31 cr/hr which doesn't set the world alight but is heaps better than whatever CreditNew host scaling horror was happening with my Linux tasks. Wingmen will drag that down but not as far as some of the last Linux tasks I completed which claimed 23 cr/hr and were granted 21-22 cr/hr. Atrocious. Both OS on the same Nehalem @ 3.6GHz with only 7 cores loaded.

[Dataman]

I my case I have already crunched my target of 5 years for HCC. I have a lot of work to do for Shisto, Leish, Malaria & SWater. I'm keeping some GPU's busy maping the Galaxy but I am so above my electrical  use for this month.  :cry2:

I have ruby in SWater but they had the validator lock up for 6 hours last night and 2/3 of my wu's didn't validate. It should be a BIG night tonight. Maybe straight to emerald .... not likely thought.

:aus1: :US

[kashi]

+1 for your Ruby.

Well I was keeping a minimal cache of only enough work for each active core so I wouldn't end up with too many quorum of 2 tasks in my cache before it switches to single replication. So what happens: I go to bed and 1 hour later the tasks finish and the server is out of work. Wake up, have some fish, kiwi fruit and a cup of Precious Eyebrows then stroll back and check the computer. Arghh, idle for 6 hours. Servers have feelings too, after I have criticised the WCG one for slow validation it has decided to get back at me, "right, now he's  asleep we'll starve him of work, cackle, cackle". "We won't give him a proper server status page like other projects because he's too dumb/we can't be bothered/it's too hard."

Have switched to Docking, it's a relief actually, fair dinkum fixed credit again plus I've been neglecting other projects and doing so much badge hunting that I was at severe risk of turning into a badgeaholic.;D

[Dataman]

WCG is FUBAR this morning. Validator backed up and no SWater.  :furious:

[tazzduke]

Morning fellow members, too late for me, my name is Tazzduke and I have a mild case of badgeacolism, 

[kashi]

They're back.....

Haha couldn't stay away long, could I. New batch are finishing in 2.9 hours, are single replication and currently claiming/granting 34 cr hr. Now that's more like it.

[Dataman]

I have over 350 PV's (on a single quorum project), over 60 invalids and over 60 inconclusives. I turned it off and turned on Schisto. It was a nice project roll out and then the wheels fell off the bus.

:aus1: