Please, help to balance CPU MB + ATI GPU MW on host under BOINC 6.6.36

[Raistmer]

Actually I don't want to touch ncpus.
What I need is to run both projects simultaneously.
changing ncpus value will allow to run more than 4 tasks at once, yes, but it could be 8 SETI only tasks or complete bunch of 24 MW tasks... ncpus option can't govern what project will use all these virtual CPUs (this was main problem of running my first "teamed" apps w/o cuda plan...).

Currently, I reached stable execution for both projects, but only because BOINC can't start more than 24 MW tasks at once (no more tasks in queue).
Surely it's suboptimal state.

[Raistmer]

I have a 4830 in my Quad, it averages about 33000 RAC on the GPU only. My other 2 computers do not have compatible GPU's.

I just checked my STD and it is up to 64.93 currently.

I also use a 0.1 and 3 for network settings.

But do you have sometimes situation when no MW tasks active (running) at all ?
With MW share lowe than SETI one i'm afraid to get GPU idle. DO you have idle GPU time to time with your config?

[sunu]

changing ncpus value will allow to run more than 4 tasks at once, yes, but it could be 8 SETI only tasks or complete bunch of 24 MW tasks... ncpus option can't govern what project will use all these virtual CPUs (this was main problem of running my first "teamed" apps w/o cuda plan...).

Using for example ncpus=6 with avg-max-cpus=1.50 or 1.51 for seti you force boinc to run only 4 seti tasks (4*1.50=6, 4*1.51=6.04) while really using 4 cores of its supposedly 6 available. Experimenting with MW avg-max-cpus I think you can accomplish the desired effect.

[Raistmer]

Ok, will try , looks reasonable... Thanks!

[Raistmer]

changing ncpus value will allow to run more than 4 tasks at once, yes, but it could be 8 SETI only tasks or complete bunch of 24 MW tasks... ncpus option can't govern what project will use all these virtual CPUs (this was main problem of running my first "teamed" apps w/o cuda plan...).

Using for example ncpus=6 with avg-max-cpus=1.50 or 1.51 for seti you force boinc to run only 4 seti tasks (4*1.50=6, 4*1.51=6.04) while really using 4 cores of its supposedly 6 available. Experimenting with MW avg-max-cpus I think you can accomplish the desired effect.

Hm... after more thinking:
What will prevent MW from taking whole CPUs (beside that limit of 24 tasks available)?

[sunu]

Hm... after more thinking:
What will prevent MW from taking whole CPUs (beside that limit of 24 tasks available)?

What do you mean?

[Raistmer]

Hm... after more thinking:
What will prevent MW from taking whole CPUs (beside that limit of 24 tasks available)?

What do you mean?

I mean if MW task takes less than 1 CPU what will prevent BOINC not to run SETI tasks at all (or run less than 4 of them) and fill all remaining CPU capacity with MW tasks?

For now it wants run almost as many MW tasks it could find zero to 2 MW tasks are "ready to run", all others are running, most part in "high priority state"
What I currently need is to decrease number of MW taks running not changing number of SETI tasks running at the same time.
So, if more CPUs will be available (from BOINC point of view) it will try to run even more MW taks.
If I increas avg_cpu for MW task BOINC could decide to run less SETI tasks but still allow as many MW tasks as fin in increased ncpus to run.
I.e., I don't see how increased ncpus number can help in reducing number of running MW tasks (not sacrificing SETI)....

[sunu]

What I currently need is to decrease number of MW taks running not changing number of SETI tasks running at the same time.
So, if more CPUs will be available (from BOINC point of view) it will try to run even more MW taks.
If I increase avg_cpu for MW task BOINC could decide to run less SETI tasks but still allow as many MW tasks as fin in increased ncpus to run.

Well, resource share should also play a role here.

I.e., I don't see how increased ncpus number can help in reducing number of running MW tasks (not sacrificing SETI)....

I'm not saying that this will solve your problems, just experiment with it and see if it does. My own experience with boinc tells me that boinc likes values of avg-max-cpus >=1.0000 more than <1.0000.

[Raistmer]

I see,will try then...

[arkayn]

I have a 4830 in my Quad, it averages about 33000 RAC on the GPU only. My other 2 computers do not have compatible GPU's.

I just checked my STD and it is up to 64.93 currently.

I also use a 0.1 and 3 for network settings.

But do you have sometimes situation when no MW tasks active (running) at all ?
With MW share lowe than SETI one i'm afraid to get GPU idle. DO you have idle GPU time to time with your config?

The only time I have an idle GPU is when I am uploading work and getting new.

I am going to experiment with 700/300

[Raistmer]

The only time I have an idle GPU is when I am uploading work and getting new.

I am going to experiment with 700/300

Well, sometimes my config starts to work in that mode too.
I.e. reciving work from server only after all MW work is uploaded and reporting. It surely decrease effectiveness.
Yesterday, after extended brook AP benchmarking NW server started refuse fetch requests with messages like "BOINC running 90% of time, computationa enabled 100% of that, not completed in time." How it could not be completed in time if MW has bigger share, SETI has no debt and each MW task took (even from BOINC's own point of view) less than 1,5h - it's beyond my understanding 

I switched to 6 ncpus and 1,51+0,01 avg_cpus - MW tasks were not started at all. Then I switched to 1,5+0.01 - situation resemble that was before: 4 SETI tasks running + ~20 MW tasks, some of them in high priority mode.


At evening I changed project sheres to 10000(SETI)+9500(MW) in hope that will reduce MW debt and number of running MW tasks.
STD of MW now (after whole night crunching) in ~86k sec, almost all available MW tasks in running state.
Apparently I should decrease MW share even more, but I don't quite understand why debt still increases.
How STD is calculated? I have project with lower share, it runs bigger number of tasks (i.e. consumes more elapsed time) than project with higher share, but still BOINC things that lower share project needs to work more. How is this possible? Or SDT calculations based not on elapsed time bu CPU time instead (in this case avg_cpu == 0.01 setting will tell BOINC that almost no work done by MW, correct? )

[sunu]

I switched to 6 ncpus and 1,51+0,01 avg_cpus - MW tasks were not started at all. Then I switched to 1,5+0.01 - situation resemble that was before: 4 SETI tasks running + ~20 MW tasks, some of them in high priority mode.

Well if it starts 20 MW tasks with 0.01 avg_cpus  then increase avg_cpus.

You might get a better feeling of all the dynamics involved by leveling things of. Zero your debt and put ncpus=8 and avg-max-cpus=1.0000 to both seti and MW. Playing with resource share you should be able to get the desired 4+4 effect. Then try to replicate that with ncpus=4.