Seti@Home optimized science apps and information

Optimized Seti@Home apps => Windows => Topic started by: Geek@Play on 16 Jun 2010, 10:54:33 pm

Title: A non-believer's story.............
Post by: Geek@Play on 16 Jun 2010, 10:54:33 pm
Ok.........I'll admit it...........I was a non believer!   :o

During the long outage I became discouraged and since I didn't have any work going I deleted everything in the setiathome.berkeley.edu folder which effectively made Boinc revert to the Seti non-optimized apps.  All 4 of my boxes!

Finally today when the project came back up my boxes downloaded some work.  Not all the boxes got 609 work but they all got 603 work.  Well the computer screen response was terrible! And I mean really, really bad!!!  Even with some weird number something like (0.64 CPUs + 1.00 NVIDIA GPUs(device 1))  (forgot the actual decimal number but it was big) And using one full cpu core to service the GPU's.  Totally unsatisfactory!

Ended up by installing the optimzed app's  using Lunatics_Win32v0.36_AP505r409_AKv8b_Cuda.exe.  Now everything is back to normal and have even downloaded more work.

You guy's keep up the excellent work.  Berkeley's science app's are crapola.   ;D
Title: Re: A non-believer's story.............
Post by: Jason G on 16 Jun 2010, 11:09:00 pm
Ok.........I'll admit it...........I was a non believer!   :o
...
  Well I'd say that classifies you as a sceptic rather than an unbeliever  ;), which is supposed to be the default scientific position anyway, so you're in good company here.

You've tested the theories & found what works for you , Good. Indeed be wary of knee-jerk reactions and FUD comments which seem to flourish in times of crisis.  It's easy to blame the established 'third party' when things go awry, rather than accept the beloved project may be having some teething trouble introducing new code.

As always, we encourage the considerations 'Use At your Own risk' and 'Your mileage may vary' ... and by all means appreciate the feedback  ;D.

Cheers for your support, and we hope to continue getting better over the coming months.

Jason
Title: Re: A non-believer's story.............
Post by: cristipurdel on 17 Jun 2010, 01:12:30 am
Lunatics_Win32v0.36_AP505r409_AKv8b_Cuda.exe

Where did you get this?
I also don't find the lunatics unified installer on the download page.
What is the difference between the above app, and the builds with vlar kill and no vlar kill?
Title: Re: A non-believer's story.............
Post by: Jason G on 17 Jun 2010, 03:28:25 am
Where did you get this?
I also don't find the lunatics unified installer on the download page.
What is the difference between the above app, and the builds with vlar kill and no vlar kill?

Geek@Play is of course referring to the Unified Installer v0.36, found here http://lunatics.kwsn.net/index.php?module=Downloads;catd=9 , rather than some specific application.  It  contains the CUDA builds you mention, along with CPU applications. 

Note, that this installer was considered a MINOR update, and so not released with the usual fanfare. If your system is already functioning you may not need to update, unless you process a lot of Astropulse, in which case it is recommended that you do for future build compatibility task migration reasons. (There was a checkpoint incompatibility for Astropulse tasks in progress, in the previous installer release, that is mitigated & corrected in this one.)

Jason
Title: Re: A non-believer's story.............
Post by: cristipurdel on 17 Jun 2010, 05:06:00 am
I just took a look 'inside' with...universal extractor :P...and all the files are there.
Apparently on my quadro 580, vlarkill is better than novlarkill, but not 100% perfect.
Title: Re: A non-believer's story.............
Post by: Geek@Play on 17 Jun 2010, 08:34:40 am
I now have AK_v8b-win_ssse3x.exe installed.  Where can I find a version without the last x?  As I remember the version without the x ran better.  Still having bad display lagging problems.
Title: Re: A non-believer's story.............
Post by: Jason G on 17 Jun 2010, 08:47:42 am
I now have AK_v8b-win_ssse3x.exe installed.  Where can I find a version without the last x?  As I remember the version without the x ran better.  Still having bad display lagging problems.

Depending on your RAM subsystem / clocks, is whether the 'x' runs better (or not).  If your machine supports SSE4.1, then that build (which is built without the 'x' modification) CAN be appropriate on a machine with fast bus speed & low latency/ highly clocked RAM.  On all 65nM Core2's prior to SSE4.1 coming (in 45nM Core2s onward), that means ssse3x is the only choice.  For newer models it means there is a choice to make, which may require some hair splitting & maybe a coin toss.

No idea which is better on i7(etc..)

Jason

[Edit:] If encountering issues, it might be an idea to give me a link to the host to look at, so that I can see if there's anything obviously strange/wrong.  For one thing, I'm going to be needing to fine tune some prototype builds soon, and some idea of what issues are occurring with older builds, on what hardware & OSes, would be helpful.
Title: Re: A non-believer's story.............
Post by: Geek@Play on 17 Jun 2010, 10:06:32 am
Thanks Jason........

I rolled back the video driver from 257.21 back to 191.07 and seems better now but still not like I had it before.

I wish I had left everything alone now.  I had it working great.
Title: Re: A non-believer's story.............
Post by: Jason G on 17 Jun 2010, 10:14:11 am
Thanks Jason........

I rolled back the video driver from 257.21 back to 191.07 and seems better now but still not like I had it before.

I wish I had left everything alone now.  I had it working great.

Yeah, which machine was that Don ?  I may have some suggestions.
Title: Re: A non-believer's story.............
Post by: Geek@Play on 17 Jun 2010, 10:32:08 am
Right now I'm running............

AK_v8b_win_SSSE3x.exe
MB_6.08_CUDA_V12_noKill_FPLim2048.exe
ap_5.05r409_SSE.exe

Video drivers 191.07

Response is slightly slower to what I had before the outage.

Next time there is an extended outage would someone please remind me NOT to mess around with my setup!!

All my machines are intel quad cpu's.  3 are Q6600 and one is a Q6700.  If you have any suggestions I am listening.

My main driver is http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/show_host_detail.php?hostid=3378680, you should be able to see them now.
Title: Re: A non-believer's story.............
Post by: Jason G on 17 Jun 2010, 11:07:52 am
Right now I'm running............

AK_v8b_win_SSSE3x.exe
MB_6.08_CUDA_V12_noKill_FPLim2048.exe
ap_5.05r409_SSE.exe

Video drivers 191.07

That's Great!, Except you're supposed to be in the development area running either a Cuda 3.1beta, Cuda3.0 or Cuda2.3 'X Series' build, and telling me if they are any good (or even work or not!). 

*Slaps Don around the face with a dead fish with a picture of David Anderson on it*

.... My guess is, like me, you're getting hosed by this weird run of tasks coming through, that looks a bit suspiciously like it's supposed to deliberately throw Boinc into epileptic fits, and render everything completely dysfunctional.  :D

[Edit:] Remove flops estimates from app info & restart Boinc!
Title: Re: A non-believer's story.............
Post by: Geek@Play on 17 Jun 2010, 11:47:13 am
Will remove lines for flops....

I have used the rescheduler tool.  Is that a no-no now?
Title: Re: A non-believer's story.............
Post by: Geek@Play on 17 Jun 2010, 11:52:54 am
Will remove lines for flops....

I have used the rescheduler tool.  Is that a no-no now?

Swithching to x31 build!

Title: Re: A non-believer's story.............
Post by: Jason G on 17 Jun 2010, 11:55:50 am
I have used the rescheduler tool.  Is that a no-no now?

Don't think so, 'reasonable' estimated times were restored when I deleted those entries (despite using rescheduler).    In combination with the flops entries whatever changes are in progress did create NASTY side effects ( Have to think about that hard  ;) ).... I hope you don't get to see them ... My GTX260 is pretty quick, but I'm fairly certain it cannot finish a midrange task in 10 seconds estimate (Hence the 'Maximum time Exceeded' messages) ... which further borks the quota  ::)

Nice one David Anderson   ::)
Title: Re: A non-believer's story.............
Post by: Jason G on 17 Jun 2010, 11:56:18 am
Swithching to x31 build!

Cheers!  [Edit:] remember to reschedule those nasty VLARs  to CPU & report further David related shennanigans  ;D
Title: Re: A non-believer's story.............
Post by: Geek@Play on 17 Jun 2010, 12:08:27 pm
Ok, I'm set up with x31 now on all my boxes.

Reschedular runs in auto every day 0000 and 1200.  (twice per day)
Title: Re: A non-believer's story.............
Post by: Jason G on 17 Jun 2010, 12:16:20 pm
Ok, I'm set up with x31 now on all my boxes.

Reschedular runs in auto every day 0000 and 1200.  (twice per day)


Might want to trigger that every few hours just to be sure (It costs little). 

As far as the application goes, I installed A GTX 260 recently, which was about a 2x upgrade on my over-clocked engineering sample 9600GSO (original fast model with 384mb).   I don't have a clear picture on how this GTX 260 one performs relative to other cards yet, so fine tuning is a challenge.

In particular I replaced the hardest pulse finding code (responsible for the abysmal VLAR performance) with my modified 'adaptive pulsefind' ... This is somewhat 'tuneable' so if you can give me clues between 'stutteriness' and 'execution time' particularly at near VLAR (or lower if you're game, by disabling rescheduling for a while), that would be great.  As always it'll probably be a tradeoff... but maybe give clues to further things that can be done at the same time.

Jason
Title: Re: A non-believer's story.............
Post by: Geek@Play on 17 Jun 2010, 12:20:54 pm
Ok Jason, thanks for your help.  My screen response isthe same now as before Berkeley "upgraded" the servers.  So my config must now be the same as before.

I will do as you ask and keep you advised if I see anything weird.

Don
Title: Re: A non-believer's story.............
Post by: Jason G on 17 Jun 2010, 12:22:40 pm
Cheers,  weirdness seems to be the name of the game at the moment so stay tuned  ;D