SETI MB CUDA for Linux

[riofl]

If it is only for display, what do you need 1GB for? Maybe use 2 NVSs?

Nvidia gives extra capabilities/configuration options to their professional series of cards. For example those cards support BaseMosaic. BaseMosaic seems the perfect solution in your case:

Option "BaseMosaic" "boolean"

    This option can be used to extend a single X screen transparently across all of the available display outputs on each GPU. This is like SLI Mosaic mode except that it does not require a video bridge connected to the graphics cards. Due to this Base Mosaic does not guarantee there will be no tearing between the display boundaries. Base Mosaic is supported on all the configurations supported by SLI Mosaic Mode. It is also supported on Quadro FX 380, Quadro FX 580 and all G80 or higher non-mobile NVS cards.

    Use this in conjunction with the MetaModes X configuration option to specify the combination of mode(s) used on each display. nvidia-xconfig can be used to configure Base Mosaic via a command like nvidia-xconfig --base-mosaic --metamodes=METAMODES where the METAMODES string specifies the desired grid configuration. For example, to configure four DFPs in a 2x2 configuration, each running at 1920x1024, with two DFPs connected to two cards, the command would be:

        nvidia-xconfig --base-mosaic --metamodes="GPU-0.DFP-0: 1920x1024+0+0, GPU-0.DFP-1: 1920x1024+1920+0, GPU-1.DFP-0: 1920x1024+0+1024, GPU-1.DFP-1: 1920x1024+1920+1024"

my desktop usage is a vidram hog. i keep  at the very least 5 browsers open each with an average of 14 tabs .. these take up vid space because they are constantly updating and ready to come forward instantly.between that and the backgrounds, stickynotes, editors open, konsole with 9 ssh tabs open, 20 gkrellm hardware monitors running and a bunch of other stuff. running diag software revealed my average vidram usage without boinc running is 800mb to 1gb.

[sunu]

running diag software revealed my average vidram usage without boinc running is 800mb to 1gb.

That would be nvidia-smi -a ?

[riofl]

running diag software revealed my average vidram usage without boinc running is 800mb to 1gb.

That would be nvidia-smi -a ?

never tried running that. used a program a friend wrote. running the above command now i get the  following usage stats.. note that i am not running at 'full bore' mode since it is not needed at the moment. i imagine these would be higher if i was.

gpu0 memory 53%
gpu1 memory 36 %
gpu2 memory 22%

gpu0 has 1g vidram
gpu1 and 2 have 1.8g rounded off

the gpu1 and 2 gtx295 card came with 1.8g ram advertised.
the gpu0 gtx285 card 1gb advertised

[sunu]

What driver version do you use? I don't remember nvidia-smi showing percentages for memory use.

[Jason G]

What driver version do you use? I don't remember nvidia-smi showing percentages for memory use.

shows Total, Used & Free here on 280.13 Ubuntu proprpietary driver supplied through the additional drivers automatic thing, Ubuntu 11.10 64 bit.  I'm guessing that he just did the math from that.

Jason

[aaronhaviland]

nvidia-smi (without the -a option) now prints a pretty formatted output which includes the % memory usage.

Code: [Select]

+------------------------------------------------------+                       
| NVIDIA-SMI 3.295.20   Driver Version: 295.20         |                       
|-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
| Nb.  Name                     | Bus Id        Disp.  | Volatile ECC SB / DB |
| Fan   Temp   Power Usage /Cap | Memory Usage         | GPU Util. Compute M. |
|===============================+======================+======================|
| 0.  GeForce GTX 460           | 0000:01:00.0  N/A    |       N/A        N/A |
|  20%   36 C  N/A   N/A /  N/A |  26%  200MB /  767MB |  N/A      Default    |
|-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------|
| Compute processes:                                               GPU Memory |
|  GPU  PID     Process name                                       Usage      |
|=============================================================================|
|  0.           Not Supported                                                 |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+


[riofl]

What driver version do you use? I don't remember nvidia-smi showing percentages for memory use.

nvsmi log says this:

Driver Version                  : 260.19.36

[riofl]

nvidia-smi (without the -a option) now prints a pretty formatted output which includes the % memory usage.

Code: [Select]

+------------------------------------------------------+                       
| NVIDIA-SMI 3.295.20   Driver Version: 295.20         |                       
|-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
| Nb.  Name                     | Bus Id        Disp.  | Volatile ECC SB / DB |
| Fan   Temp   Power Usage /Cap | Memory Usage         | GPU Util. Compute M. |
|===============================+======================+======================|
| 0.  GeForce GTX 460           | 0000:01:00.0  N/A    |       N/A        N/A |
|  20%   36 C  N/A   N/A /  N/A |  26%  200MB /  767MB |  N/A      Default    |
|-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------|
| Compute processes:                                               GPU Memory |
|  GPU  PID     Process name                                       Usage      |
|=============================================================================|
|  0.           Not Supported                                                 |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+


I get nothing like that. If i just use it without the option, i only get the timestamp and driver version.

Because of the length of the output I am only including the first gpu report,


==============NVSMI LOG==============


Timestamp                       : Thu Mar  1 04:51:16 2012

Driver Version                  : 260.19.36


GPU 0:
        Product Name            : GeForce GTX 285
        PCI Device/Vendor ID    : 5e310de
        PCI Location ID         : 0:1:0
        Board Serial            : 3169719755757
        Display                 : Connected
        Temperature             : 44 C
        Fan Speed               : 100%
        Utilization
            GPU                  : 15%
            Memory              : 34%

[sunu]

You're using a fairly old driver version. What is good about it is that most of nvidia-smi's counters were functional back then in non professional cards.

[riofl]

cool. i'm not one to upgrade just for the sake of upgrading unless there is a security measure that affects me. i am of the 'if it ain't broke dont fix it' crowd. hehe i am still running kernel 2.6.31...

my boss gets really frustrated at me because other than security updates, i wil only update our servers maybe twice a year and then only with versions that are at least 3 months old. my thought is that within 3 months anything that was broken would be fixed or at least would be talked about. my boss is one of those the second a new version of anything is released he has to have it. that gets him into a lot of trouble sometimes but he refuses to wake up and do his upgrades in a smart manner. of course i could wonder about his intelligence and sanity since he is a major preacher in the "microsoft is next to godliness" church.

live and let live i guess. keeps me working..

[sunu]

The new kepler 6xx cards seem to support 4 displays in a single card so you won't need sli/professional/quadro cards any more http://www.guru3d.com/news/msi-geforce-gtx-680-photo/

We will know more tomorrow...

[riofl]

excellent! thank you! these still work. just the occasional pausing is annoying, but i can wait a while. this looks good.