GPU2 client for nVidia cards

[ThunderRd]

Originally Posted by Samuknow

Thanks guys for staying on top of things.

Our pleasure as always, m'man

BTW: what happens when you get those 8800s in SLI? Just curious. I will have a similar setup when the RMA'd MAXIMUS arrives and was wondering about that, although I haven't tried the client as yet on the lone 8800 Opteron setup. It might be more prudent to abandon SLI and get my 3 8800s in different machines for folding purposes...

[Samuknow]

I will try it without the CPU client running today.

If I am folding on CPU and try running in SLI on the GPU it goes upside down.

I imagine this should make some good points if I got a quad and this running at the same time.

[ThunderRd]

Ahh, now I see why. Sam, that's an E6400 and it's a dual. You can't run the GPU client and a CPU client at the same time on a dual. Period. Don't waste your time trying.

You can do it on a quad, though. Check through the earlier posts, there's some info there.

[Samuknow]

It does run. It is running now. Now sure how well but it does work. Just not in SLI. I will turn off SMP and try later.

[ThunderRd]

It shouldn't.

Keep your eye on it. All the reading I've done tells me that the GPU client will eat up 1 of the 2 cores, making the SMP client impossible to run. Check out this thread:

Folding Forum • View topic - smp & gpu2 [with a quad core]

[gedon]

I tried SMP and GPU2 at the same time for 5min or so. Problem was that the gpu client got only 1/2 core and the time for one % doubles.

and the server is down again

[Samuknow]

That might be what is happening. It is pretty slow. i will run the GPU only for a bit.

[dabaerman]

I'll have to keep an eye on this as I have a quad/sli ready mb. just when you think you can relax.

Ron

[ccperf721p]

In a limited run with a Q9450 @ 3.4 and vid card at stock speeds it did 4700 points in under 18 hours. I will go to max stable clocks on Sunday and give it a serious run throughout the week so we can have some kind of numbers.

[gedon]

@sam

try two gpu clients, one for each card. maybe you have to disable sli first

[Samuknow]

I am not sure how to do that. I have been trying. I have SLI off most of the time. I am not sure how to assign one to the other card.

[gedon]

hmm... I know I've run two clients on one card. I couldn't see any advantages so I went on with one client. Now I'm trying to get the second client to work again, because only one client needs ~27min for calculations and ~3min for other stuff (send/receive wu).

you'll need a new shortcut. look here Folding@home - FAQ-NVIDIA "How do I make a new shortcut?"
add the "-gpu 1" flag behind the target (0 is the first gpu, 1 the second)
choose a different start-in folder for the second client, i.e. C:\...\Folding@home-gpu2

Edit: I found my mistake. There are three dll files inside the start-in folder. You have to copy them to the new client-folder

[ThunderRd]

Updates have begun already:

Originally Posted by Vijay Pande

GPU2/NVIDIA auto-core upgrade

We've forced a core upgrade to version 1.05 for GPU2/NVIDIA. We did this since there is important new code there. In particular, there's code that will better handle unstable or incorrectly configured machines. This core now generates an UNSTABLE_MACHINE error and the 6.12beta6 client will trap this error, leading to a 24 hour sleep for the client if 5 such UNSTABLE_MACHINE errors are reached.

If you are having problems running your client after this forced core upgrade, it most likely means that there's a problem with the client installation, most likely with startup aliases. If this is the case, please check out the FAQ and in particular note that the Start In and Target directories have to be different:

In Windows XP:
Target: "C:\Program Files\Folding@home\Folding@home-gpu\Folding@home.exe" -verbosity 9
(or whatever flags you use instead of -verbosity 9)
Start in: "C:\Documents and Settings\<your_windows_username>\Application Data\Folding@home-gpu\"

In Windows Vista:
Target: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Folding@home\Folding@home-gpu\Folding@home.exe" -verbosity 9
(or whatever flags you use instead of -verbosity 9)
Start in: "C:\Users\<your_windows_username>\AppData\Roaming\ Folding@home-gpu\"

Please see our FAQ for more details:
Folding@home - FAQ-NVIDIA

[gedon]

@ThunderRd: once you solved the problem restart the client/pc to fold on

@all
Two clients on one card seems to work. Once a client finished a wu, the second one uses the whole gpu.
I did some exact calculations for my daily production

one client: 4610ppd
two clients: 4840ppd

230ppd more plus you'll need a second CPU core
I clocked my X2 down to 2GHz@1V, so it's not so much heat/electricity more
What will be the average production of a normal CPU client on that machine?

[Samuknow]

I will try this with the SLI setup. DID you just start another client?

[gedon]

ok, lets try do write down what I did.

1. create a new directory for the client. I named it "Folding@home-gpu2"
Put it in the "Application Data" or "AppDATA" folder, it depends on the OS you are runnung

In Windows XP:
"C:\Documents and Settings\<your_windows_username>\Application Data\"

In Windows Vista:
"C:\Users\<your_windows_username>\AppData\Roaming\ "

there should be a folder called "Folding@home-gpu", this is the original one

2. copy all dll-files from "C:\...\<your_windows_username>\...\Folding@ho me-gpu\"
to "C:\...\<your_windows_username>\...\Folding@ho me-gpu2\"

3. create a shortcut to the "Folding@home.exe" located in "C:\Program Files\Folding@home\Folding@home-gpu\"

4. edit the shortcut
target: add the "-gpu 1" flag to the end (0 - first gpu, 1 - second gpu,...)
it should look like this: "C:\Program Files\Folding@home\Folding@home-gpu\Folding@home.exe" -gpu 1

start in: choose the directory you've created in step 1

5. add the shortcut to the autostart folder

[gedon]

there is another problem, the machine id. it's always 2. I watched my stats and logs and wonder why my points are so low. the question is, is it allowed to change it or not?

[noob]

Big question.

I only have a 3500+, but I do also have a 8600GT. The Question is that I run Ubuntu not windows, so can I possibly run this somehow?

[dabaerman]

Originally Posted by noob

Big question.

I only have a 3500+, but I do also have a 8600GT. The Question is that I run Ubuntu not windows, so can I possibly run this somehow?

winders only, not out for Linux yet. btw, I like Ubuntu.
looks like I'll put the Quad Core on the back burner and go for an 8600 or 8800GT.

Ron

[noob]

Originally Posted by dabaerman

winders only, not out for Linux yet. btw, I like Ubuntu.

Thats a pity. Ubuntu has definately been treating me right.

Originally Posted by dabaerman

looks like I'll put the Quad Core on the back burner and go for an 8600 or 8800GT.

Ron

The 8600GT was a nice upgrade from a 6600 vanilla