Simon .... answer this please?

[Azzitude]

how does this actually see the L2 Cache? is there something I can edit to show it?



I have tried V2 sse and it shows the same as V1.41 SSSE4

[Simon]

Ben Herndon coded a CPU identification program which he then included in the S@H source code.

That checks out what kind of CPU you have, how much cache and how many CPUs, how quick the L1, L2 and RAM are and what SIMD level is supported.

No, you can not edit what it prints, that comes with the optimized app. You could recompile it and change what it prints, or the table it gets its info from by modifying the source code.

Regards,
Simon.

[Azzitude]

so  does boinc see and use the L2 or no?

just a little confused at how 2 almost identical machines have an 800-900 rac difference

[Simon]

BOINC does not "see" the cache because the stock BOINC app doesn't really measure cache, it has a fixed value set (because until now 5.4.x at least, cache detection just wasn't implemented). So every Windows host using stock BOINC lists exactly the same amount in the online stats (BenHer built a version that does correct cache detection and future/current beta stock BOINC versions should have code that does this).

However, that's got nothing to do with whether it gets used for crunching. Your CPU's L1 & L2 cache definitely gets used fully, that's for sure - and all crunching is done by the science app, not BOINC directly.

L1 & L2 cache get filled with stuff before it's needed in current generation CPUs (like your Core 2 system) most of the time because of "prefetching" logic built into the CPU hardware itself. Some of the optimized code also uses prefetching commands to fill the cache with necessary data and speed up execution.

What systems are you talking about, and can you provide a CPU-Z report for both? I'd like to compare the components, maybe I can figure out what's the matter then.

Regards,
Simon.

[msattler]

so  does boinc see and use the L2 or no?

just a little confused at how 2 almost identical machines have an 800-900 rac difference

Azzy, which 2 nearly identical machines are you referring to?  Boinc doesn't define using the L cache.  That's strictly a processor thingy.  I gotta problem with my core 2 using the hard drive all the time, but I haven't really found the problem yet.  To page or not to page, that is the question...........

[Azzitude]

well, Ive narrowed it down to being the OS .... one has Win2k (fast one) and the other is XP (slow one).

just did some tweaking on the XP box so I will wait and see what happens ....


as for continous hard drive activity - what board and ram you got? and ram manuf?

I have no drive activity when only boinc is running ...... I have 2GB of serious ram and a 4gb pagefile on a seperate drive ... 1 150 is for os the other holds some data and my swap file , I read somewhere that it was better to put the swapfile on a seperate drive .... so I do.

No complaints, the machine is wicked fast even in gaming with seti running a 100% I have no lag at all.

[msattler]

well, Ive narrowed it down to being the OS .... one has Win2k (fast one) and the other is XP (slow one).

just did some tweaking on the XP box so I will wait and see what happens ....


as for continous hard drive activity - what board and ram you got? and ram manuf?

I have no drive activity when only boinc is running ...... I have 2GB of serious ram and a 4gb pagefile on a seperate drive ... 1 150 is for os the other holds some data and my swap file , I read somewhere that it was better to put the swapfile on a seperate drive .... so I do.

No complaints, the machine is wicked fast even in gaming with seti running a 100% I have no lag at all.

Aw, Criminy, now wer're getting down to the brass tacks.  My XP rig flashes the HD light every second or so.  Drive me nuts, 'cuz I got 2Gig of RAM, and Seti still wants to use the bloody pagiing file.  What's up with that??

[Azzitude]

Aw, Criminy, now wer're getting down to the brass tacks. My XP rig flashes the HD light every second or so. Drive me nuts, 'cuz I got 2Gig of RAM, and Seti still wants to use the bloody pagiing file. What's up with that??

have you done any advanced registry tweaks for XP yet? IE: large cache and Large Memory.


I just clocked mine up to 3550 .... I can go to 3800 stable but heat becomes an issue with these Core2's and a max of 60c although my buddy has a 6700 and his heat is at 70c+ at times and he say's it runs great.

[msattler]

Aw, Criminy, now wer're getting down to the brass tacks. My XP rig flashes the HD light every second or so. Drive me nuts, 'cuz I got 2Gig of RAM, and Seti still wants to use the bloody pagiing file. What's up with that??

have you done any advanced registry tweaks for XP yet?

 

Such as....??
Tried ditching the paging file, system crashed.  I don't know how to tell the thing that I got tons 'o ram, faster that ####, dont page to disk, dammit.  I don't know if this is a Seti app thingy, or more likely an OS issue.

[Azzitude]

its a windows problem, just like the dual cpu optimization that is available for download from microsoft but they don't advertise it.

http://www.kwsnforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=7096 this will explain that part and link you to the download.


as for the rest you need to google "XP registry tweaks" and just find a site that lists them and what they are for.


XP memory tweaks

Below are some Windows XP memory tweaks. They are located in the windows registry at: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Control/ SessionManager/MemoryManagement

DisablePagingExecutive - When enabled, this setting will prevent the paging of the Win2k Executive files to the hard drive, causing the OS and most programs to be more responsive. However, it is advised that people should only perform this tweak if they have a significant amount of RAM on their system (more than 128 MB), because this setting does use a substantial portion of your system resources. By default, the value of this key is 0. To enable it, set it to 1


LargeSystemCache - When enabled (the default on Server versions of Windows 2000), this setting tells the OS to devote all but 4 MB of system memory (which is left for disk caching) to the file system cache. The main effect of this is allowing the computer to cache the OS Kernel to memory, making the OS more responsive. The setting is dynamic and if more than 4 MB is needed from the disk cache for some reason, the space will be released to it. By default, 8MB is earmarked for this purpose. This tweak usually makes the OS more responsive. It is a dynamic setting, and the kernel will give up any space deemed necessary for another application (at a performance hit when such changes are needed). As with the previous key, set the value from 0 to 1 to enable. Note that in doing this, you are consuming more of your system RAM than normal. While LargeSystemCache will cut back usage when other apps need more RAM, this process can impede performance in certain intensive situations. According to Microsoft, the "

• setting is recommended for servers running applications that do their own memory caching, such as Microsoft SQL Server, and for applications that perform best with ample memory, such as Internet Information Services

IOPageLockLimit - This tweak is of questionable value to people that aren't running some kind of server off of their computer, but we will include it anyway. This tweak boosts the Input/Output performance of your computer when it is doing a large amount of file transfers and other similar operations. This tweak won't do much of anything for a system without a significant amount of RAM (if you don't have more than 128 MB, don't even bother), but systems with more than 128 MB of RAM will generally find a performance boost by setting this to between 8 and 16 MB. The default is 0.5 MB, or 512 KB. This setting requires a value in bytes, so multiply the desired number of megabytes * 1024 * 1024. That's X * 1048576 (where X is the number, in megabytes). Test out several settings and keep the one which seems to work best for your system



try those
 

[Simon]

Good tips

Regards,
Simon.