Asteroids@Home: New applications for GPU released

[RSS]

There has been new applications for NVIDIA GPUs released. The apps are for NVIDIA with CUDA 5.5 and Compute Capability 2.00 and the application versions are for linux and windows. Recommended versions of NVIDIA drivers are 325.15 (http://bit.ly/13Qq4kf) for linux and 326.80 (http://bit.ly/16tyhdQ) Beta for windows.Radim Van?o (Kyong)

More... (http://asteroidsathome.net/boinc/forum_thread.php?id=233)

[zombie67]

Yes!

[cineon_lut]

Woohoo!


Vic (mobile)

[cineon_lut]

...anxiously awaiting tasks. Anyone got any of these yet? I unchecked "use CPU" in my prefs and only want this on gpu.


Vic (mobile)

[Duke of Buckingham]

We should ask for a challenge on Asteroids now, can we have one challenge F$ ... can we ... ?

[Al]

...anxiously awaiting tasks. Anyone got any of these yet? I unchecked "use CPU" in my prefs and only want this on gpu.


Vic (mobile)

Nope, nothing here either. Then again, I didn't update my drivers. I don't know if that alone would prevent it, but it might.

[cineon_lut]

Nope, nothing here either. Then again, I didn't update my drivers. I don't know if that alone would prevent it, but it might.

Ugh, yeah I hate updating drivers. I'm on 320.something. Gotta do that on one of the rigs...


Vic (mobile)

[denim]

Uh oh. I really hope one of my GPU's can do some work on it.

[John P. Myers]

If you have an Nvidia GPU from the 300 series or older, it will not work for these workunits. Also the GT 420 won't work.

[cineon_lut]

Nope, nothing here either. Then again, I didn't update my drivers. I don't know if that alone would prevent it, but it might.

Well, Al, it looks like you were right. I tested this on my GTX 570 that was running driver 320.xx, and no luck. My GTX 570 and GTX 560 that were running driver 331.xx immediately got work. Long work units, with very little cpu usage (.01 cpu + nVidia GPU). Estimate on my GTX 570 is 16 hours! This thing better pay HUGE to take my GPU for that long. I'll see where it's at in the morning.

I tried looking through a few other users' accounts to see if any had validated a GPU unit yet. Nothing I could find so far.

[John P. Myers]

I found some. They also pay 480 credits, same as CPU :/ Took a GTX 560 about the same amount of time as a CPU too. Not cool. Since CPU and GPU WUs can validate against each other, it's clear they're the exact same WU being sent to either.

http://asteroidsathome.net/boinc/workunit.php?wuid=11731819

[cineon_lut]

I found some. They also pay 480 credits, same as CPU :/ Took a GTX 560 about the same amount of time as a CPU too. Not cool. Since CPU and GPU WUs can validate against each other, it's clear they're the exact same WU being sent to either.

http://asteroidsathome.net/boinc/workunit.php?wuid=11731819

I'll take that with a side of weak-sauce and an ABORT button, thank you.

Let's see, 480 creds, or 154,000 for the same time on GPU Grid long run. Tough one.

Thanks for the heads up.

[zombie67]

Well this stinks.

http://asteroidsathome.net/boinc/forum_thread.php?id=233&postid=2255#2255


GPU and CPU crunch the same tasks. Same size and same credit.

Parallel tasks bring no profit, I think. Occupancy of card is 100% for CC3.X and 70% for CC2.X.

I do not expect performace boost from GPU comparing to CPU app. The most efficient configuration is Intel Haswell with AVX app. Only GTX Titan is faster (for one task) but needs more power.

[John P. Myers]

The only way i could see this GPU app as beneficial is during a challenge *and* if you have more than 1 GPU in the same computer, then you could be running more WUs than the number of cores you have at once. Otherwise i think i'll pass. Still an excellent CPU project though

[cineon_lut]

My results:

GTX 570 = 4500 seconds for 480 creds

by comparison:

Xeon E5650 @2.66ghz = 8000 seconds for 240 creds. on one core

So about a 3.5x improvement, BUT that's compared to a single core. That Xeon box has 24 threads including HT, so that would be 2800 cpu creds roughly in the same time as I'd get 480 from my GPU. Still not sure if it's worth it.

The initial time estimate of 16 hours was way off.

Vic

[John P. Myers]

Right but during a competition you'd have Asteroids running on all CPU cores plus each GPU. It's simply more WUs being crunched simultaneously for better results over time, but not worth the power usage or the lack of credits that could be gained from the GPU in another project otherwise. Also since the GPU WUs seem to reserve .01 CPUs, even if you had 8 GPUs in your system, you would still only use a single CPU thread total to crunch all 8 of those WUs, leaving every other thread free to crunch CPU WUs. Also depending on how BOINC wants to act, it may even use the thread with the 0.08 demand on it to crunch a CPU WU as well, so in your 24 thread system, you could crunch up to 32 Asteroids WUs at the same time :)

Of course i don't think anyone here has 8 GPUs in the same computer, but whatever the number is, it's still more concurrent WUs than without a GPU at all.

And isn't there an Asteroids challenge coming up soon? Nope it's POGS coming soon (Feb.). Had a brain fart :p

[cineon_lut]

I'm not sure if there's an astroid challenge coming up soon. There was just one not too long ago that we didn't really take too seriously because of Rosetta bunkering.

However you're right, in a challenge I will dump all my nvidia GPUs on it! :)

I think I'll leave this running for a week or so, maybe go and throw some of my CPUs on after Rosetta. Gotta get me that cobalt astroid I've been dying to get


Vic (mobile)

[cineon_lut]

I ended up getting some work units for my 570 that is still on the 320 driver. They're running and completing as expected, however it seems to run a little bit hotter and I have to run my fans higher for that one more than for my 570 with the 331.52 driver. Better get off my butt and update. But I have a bunker to drop first :)


Vic (mobile)

[denim]

I haven't been lucky enough to get a GPU WU just yet.

[Al]

I haven't been lucky enough to get a GPU WU just yet.

You have been lucky... that you didn't get any. Times are long and the credits are the same. Not what I was looking for in a gpu app.

[denim]

You have been lucky... that you didn't get any. Times are long and the credits are the same. Not what I was looking for in a gpu app.

Ahh, ok. ;)

[cineon_lut]

You have been lucky... that you didn't get any. Times are long and the credits are the same. Not what I was looking for in a gpu app.

LOL true. Big waste of GPU time. I'm finishing up the WUs I have just because they're there, and I want my Co 5M badge, but it's a disappointment.

Plus they run HOT.

[shiva]

There are some things you want to run HOT, GPU's aren't one of them. :)

[denim]

There are some things you want to run HOT, GPU's aren't one of them. :)

My RX-8 engine hot, my GPU's not so much please.

[EmSti]

I was reading on the Asteroid message boards that they release a new CUDA version a few weeks ago anyone check it out?
There is some chatter there that DP power might be better, but I can't find that from a reliable source. Post POGs and Einstein I may check it out.

[zombie67]

I have a Genefer WR task just finishing up on my Titan. I'll give it another try with DP on.

[John P. Myers]

I remember reading on the Asteroids forums somewhere that the only GPU faster than a CPU was the Titan for those WUs. Makes sense it would be using DP since many CPU WUs do, and since Asteroids GPU WUs really are just CPU WUs.

[zombie67]

480 credits per task


Titan w/ DP turned on: 1300 seconds, 31900 per day
Haswell i7-4770k with AVX app: 5500 seconds, 7540 per thread per day, 60300 per system per day
IB i7-3770k with SSE3 app: 8100 seconds, 5100 per thread per day, 41000 per system per day



Conclusion: Even with TITAN, still a waste to run on a GPU.

Note: SB and IB do have AVX. But 7.2.x BOINC doesn't know it. So they don't get the AVX app. BOINC does see the AVX in haswell, so you can see the improved run times. In fact, Haswell has AVX 2.0, and I think that would still beat the SB and IB, even if they could get the AVX app.

[EmSti]

Thanks for the info Z. Really appreciate it.

[John P. Myers]

480 credits per task


Titan w/ DP turned on: 1300 seconds, 31900 per day
Haswell i7-4770k with AVX app: 5500 seconds, 7540 per thread per day, 60300 per system per day
IB i7-3770k with SSE3 app: 8100 seconds, 5100 per thread per day, 41000 per system per day



Conclusion: Even with TITAN, still a waste to run on a GPU.

Well...to make it fair, you need the same number of Titans as you have CPU threads :D

[John P. Myers]

And they released another new version again today. They seem to be getting faster and faster with each release but don't have results from today's yet.

[pinhodecarlos]

You guys should check out this member: http://asteroidsathome.net/boinc/show_user.php?userid=50714.
Look at his CPU power, 81 x Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2680 v2 @ 2.80GHz with 32 cores. That makes a total of 2592 cores!!!!

[zombie67]

And they released another new version again today. They seem to be getting faster and faster with each release but don't have results from today's yet.

Okay, running 4 now. I'll report back tomorrow.

[zombie67]

480 credits per task


Titan w/ DP turned on: 1300 seconds, 31900 per day
Haswell i7-4770k with AVX app: 5500 seconds, 7540 per thread per day, 60300 per system per day
IB i7-3770k with SSE3 app: 8100 seconds, 5100 per thread per day, 41000 per system per day



Conclusion: Even with TITAN, still a waste to run on a GPU.

Note: SB and IB do have AVX. But 7.2.x BOINC doesn't know it. So they don't get the AVX app. BOINC does see the AVX in haswell, so you can see the improved run times. In fact, Haswell has AVX 2.0, and I think that would still beat the SB and IB, even if they could get the AVX app.

I need to correct the previous numbers. I believe the Titian was on normal (reduced) DP, and did them in 1300 seconds. With enhanced DP/slower clock, and with the new app, it just now ran them in ~1600 seconds.

[DrPop]

In light of the current Asteroids challenge, Zombie do you think I should run them on your old GTX 590? I mean, is it worth it?

[FourOh]

In light of the current Asteroids challenge, Zombie do you think I should run them on your old GTX 590? I mean, is it worth it?

I'd have the same question on the GTX 580. I'm new to Asteroids - should I just do Asteroids CPU units and start crunching Einstein GPU units?

[John P. Myers]

If you're participating in the Einstein challenge, should definitely save GPUs for that. If you're not entering Einstein and want the best possible results on Asteroids, then yes, use your GPUs. The credits are horrible, but it's more credit than you would've gotten without it. The GPU WUs use extremely little CPU resources, so if you're like me with 4 GPUs in the same box, you could load all 8 CPU threads up and all 4 GPUs and crunch 12 Asteroids WUs at the same time.

[DrPop]

Understood, thanks. So in a challenge situation it *may* be worth it, depending on the hardware you own (in your case it gives a 50% boost) but if just looking for a GPU project to run, then it doesn't pan out. I wonder if they will get it efficient enough where it's worth running on a GPU sometime in the future?