Latest drivers (NVidia and ATI)

[k6xt]

I'm thinking on what has become my yearly upgrade. This year I think it will be just a new GPU. What's the advice on the most cost effective, and project effective, GPU right now?

Thanks Art

[k6xt]

Need a tip please : How do i turn that watchdog system in win7 off ?

Urs if you're referring to User account control go here:
Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\User Accounts
Choose "Change User Account Control Settings". Set it to minimum for no nagging, or a position of your choice.

If you meant  the so-called "god mode" here's one link of many with instructions:
http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-10423985-285/understanding-windows-7s-godmode/

Gives instant access to all those things now hidden in W7 that were more accessible in XP.

Regards
Art

[TouchuvGrey]

I'm thinking on what has become my yearly upgrade. This year I think it will be just a new GPU. What's the advice on the most cost effective, and project effective, GPU right now?

Thanks Art

    This will at least give you something to work with.

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu_value.html

[Mike]

Depends on how much you want to pay.

450 and 460 are a good choice.
And 560 TI if you have the skills to control it.
Also 6850 and 5850.

regards
Mike

[Josef W. Segur]

Need a tip please : How do i turn that watchdog system in win7 off ?

Urs if you're referring to User account control go here:
Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\User Accounts
Choose "Change User Account Control Settings". Set it to minimum for no nagging, or a position of your choice.

If you meant  the so-called "god mode" here's one link of many with instructions:
http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-10423985-285/understanding-windows-7s-godmode/

Gives instant access to all those things now hidden in W7 that were more accessible in XP.

Regards
Art

I expect Urs was looking for control of the 2 seconds a GPU kernel can run before Windows thinks it has hung and forces a reinitialization. He's probably already found it, but the MSDN Timeout Detection and Recovery of GPUs through WDDM article defines the registry keys and how they interact. A web search for TdrDelay or TdrLevel turns up many pertinent discussions with advice.
                                                            Joe

[Urs Echternacht]

I expect Urs was looking for control of the 2 seconds a GPU kernel can run before Windows thinks it has hung and forces a reinitialization. He's probably already found it, but the MSDN Timeout Detection and Recovery of GPUs through WDDM article defines the registry keys and how they interact. A web search for TdrDelay or TdrLevel turns up many pertinent discussions with advice.
                                                            Joe

Actually with Win7 i feel much like a newby, so didn't even know the correct terms to look for. In Linux and XP this is or was called "VPUrecover" and it does or did restart possibly hanging drivers. Actually i wanted the "old" behaviour back to extract the place of failure in the driver and derive a dump containing that info. This dump would help AMDs developers to look up where they need to improve their drivers.
With my current setup, which uses the default settings after a fresh install of Win7, the dumps do only show the failure occuring inside windows components and mention the actual failing AMD driver as a secondary point of concern. That would be of NO help.
So, Joe and k6xt, if WDDM (which i guess means something like "windows device driver model", have to look explanation up!) is what makes a GPU driver recover and restart on Win7 then that is what i'm looking for but did not find.

Thanks to both of you for trying to help. 

[k6xt]

And 560 TI if you have the skills to control it.

regards
Mike

Mike can you elaborate on "...skills to control it." ? What is it that needs controlling? Maybe there's a link to a discussion here? Today I just about decided on 560Ti or, if I can't "control it" a 460.

[Jason G]

Mike can you elaborate on "...skills to control it." ? What is it that needs controlling? Maybe there's a link to a discussion here? Today I just about decided on 560Ti or, if I can't "control it" a 460.

I'll inject what info I've got here.  The 560ti issues have narrowed down to a small set of caveats, after extensive investigation.
-  Some card manufacturers put just enough core voltage to get 'game stable' , If the factory voltage is lower than 1.05 Volts, it'll probably need boosting & stability checking with something like OCCT at max complexity for 1 hour, with no artefacts.
- Some past drivers leave rubbish in a hidden Cuda kernel Compute Cache.  A clean install is mandatory when installing the drivers.
- Latest Cuda Windows release forces use of a specific Cuda binary for each kernel on compute capability 2.1 GPUs, and has improved fault tolerance, so x41g should be used, as opposed to any prior stock or optimised release.
- For some (unknown) reason some of these cards appear to seat badly on the first try if care isn't taken.  Reseating the card can sometimes clear issues.
- These cards use significant power, so sufficient PSU +12V rail current, and decent case airfolw is advised.

Jason

[Mike]

I only want to add there is always the possibility to increase voltage or reduce core clock spped with MSI Afterburner.
Or similar tools.
Of course i agree with Jasons comment as well.

Mike

[Urs Echternacht]

Finally managed to get a useful bluescreen on Win7sp1 x64. Preparing to post the info over there at AMDs forum.

[glennaxl]

Has anyone tried crunching now a days with SLI connector attached and enabled? Does it work now?

To answer my own question, the answer is "yes"

I'm using 290.53

[k6xt]

Just installed a new GTX560Ti in tandem with a GTX465. Need some help getting both GPU running. The problem is, with cc_config "use both GPU" set, after a time the computer freezes. Both video cards continue processing something, as does the CPU. But according to project records no work is sent while the PC is locked up.

A reboot is needed to restore. Renaming cc_config so only one GPU runs, all is well.

The PC is W7 ultimate 32 bit, Q9650. Nvidia 285.62 driver.

The two GPU run stock clocks. The only acceleration used is fan speed control via MSI Afterburner.

The 560Ti is a MSI, the 465 is EVGA.

Thanks - Art

[Jason G]

Which application Art ? x41g Cuda 3.2 release ?  How many tasks per card ? What are the temperatures like & did you do a 'Clean Install' with the driver installtion advanced options?

Sorry for the questions, but they'll help narrow down the possibilities.

Offthe top of my head, One possibility could be other wacky drivers in the system, so a check with DPC latency Checker might be in order as an easy pre-check before troubleshooting.

[Edit:]  for reference, her's what my 480 system (main dev machine) looks like at full crunch while browsing with Google Chrome, which took a lot of work to find and force installation of better drivers for chipset & Wifi etc.

Jason

[Claggy]

What PSU do you have running that host?, I'd expect at least 800 Watt PSU is required,

Claggy

[Jason G]

What PSU do you have running that host?, I'd expect at least 800 Watt PSU is required,

Claggy

For a 465 + 560ti factory OC'd model, it would have to be at least a very good 850W, or preferably larger IMO.