Points Per Day: Windows SMP

LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciersEagle River, Alaska Icrontian
edited September 2008 in Folding@Home
Gentleman, points per day (PPD) are looking mighty fine for SMP! I STRONGLY consider you trying the new SMP client if you run a dual CPU or dual core machine! (In case you are reading this thread and wonder what "SMP" is, it is Symmetric Multi Processing. What SMP accomplishes for Folding@Home synchronize both cores of a dual core CPU or two CPUs in a dual-CPU computer to work on the same work unit.)

This thread is the announcement for SMP (beta) and some discussion. Post No. 13 has links for the core and FAHMon monitor files.

The shot below shows my four rigs in my signature and my laptop. The laptop is not running SMP. The other four ARE running SMP.

The first work unit (top of the chart) is 2651 Gromacs SMP; the other three are 2652.
Average time per frame is 19:30.
«13

Comments

  • GargGarg Purveyor of Lincoln Nightmares Icrontian
    edited March 2007
    Before switching to SMP, my Opteron was getting roughly 250ppd doing two Gromacs. Now it's over 600ppd. Don't know if the high points will last after it goes out of beta, but I'll enjoy it while I can :)

    Around 32min/frame on my Opteron @ 2475.

    Question: does FahMon need time to calculate correct ppd like Electron Microscope does, or is it roughly correct as soon as it loads the log file?
  • miragemirage
    edited March 2007
    Leonardo wrote:
    Gentleman, points per day (PPD) are looking mighty fine for SMP! I STRONGLY consider you trying the new SMP client if you run a dual CPU or dual core machine! (In case you are reading this thread and wonder what "SMP" is, it is Symmetric Multi Processing. What SMP accomplishes for Folding@Home synchronize both cores of a dual core CPU or two CPUs in a dual-CPU computer to work on the same work unit.)

    This thread is the announcement for SMP (beta) and some discussion. Post No. 13 has links for the core and FAHMon monitor files.

    The shot below shows my four rigs in my signature and my laptop. The laptop is not running SMP. The other four ARE running SMP.

    The first work unit (top of the chart) is 2651 Gromacs SMP; the other three are 2652.
    Average time per frame is 19:30.

    19-20 minutes per frame with 2651 is very good, Leo. I think WinSMP is running better on Intel processors. I do not get this performance with an Opteron-165 running at 2.8 GHz. :( Something like 25 min/frame with P2610. Anyway, good to know.
  • SPIKE09SPIKE09 Scatland
    edited March 2007
    Almost bang on 1000 PPD running on an E6400 at stock speeds ,16m 31s frametime
  • GargGarg Purveyor of Lincoln Nightmares Icrontian
    edited March 2007
    SPIKE09 wrote:
    Almost bang on 1000 PPD running on an E6400 at stock speeds ,16m 31s frametime
    Wow, the client definitely excels on the Core 2 Duo chips!
  • edcentricedcentric near Milwaukee, Wisconsin Icrontian
    edited March 2007
    What OS are you running?
    I want to do this, but I am lazy. What is the easiest route?
  • GargGarg Purveyor of Lincoln Nightmares Icrontian
    edited March 2007
    Running the Windows SMP client is easy, so if that is what your bottom two rigs in your sig are running, I would go for it. Especially for the E6300.

    Just make sure to follow the instructions in the FAQ and in the readme file that comes with the client before you run it. Nothing difficult there, just a couple of important details.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited March 2007
    Gargoyle, FAHMon needs at least one completed frame before it will accurately estimate ETA and PPD. The estimate will vary based on what other processes (applications) are running on the computer. But that's for new work unit. Once that WU is stored in the benchmarks.dat file, next the WU is processed, it will be estimated before the first frame is completed.

    Mirage, as far as comparing Intel PD's with Opterons - keep in mind the wild overclocks I have on my machines - 1000MHz ea on the D930s and 1.2GHz OC on the D915.
  • mas0nmas0n howdy Icrontian
    edited March 2007
    This rocks. I'm getting almost 1300 PPD and churning a frame every 20 minutes on an Opteron 165 @ 2.8GHz

    Is it running 4 instances and eating over 200MB for you guys? Thats fine with me if that is what it's supposed to do, I just want to make sure I didn't goof something. :tongue:

    :bigggrin: :bigggrin: :bigggrin:

    If I try to run as a service I freeze up on boot so It runs in an open command line interface, is there a way to hide that?
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited March 2007
    You aren't doing anything wrong. There posts at Folding-Community.org that state not to run SMP Windows as a service. What you can do is minimize the console window to the taskabar, using TrayIt. If you need the icon completely gone from the computer desktop, I don't know.
  • mas0nmas0n howdy Icrontian
    edited March 2007
    I saw where it stated that the SMP client would not run as a service, but it asked during config, so I figured I might as well try. :D

    TrayIt should be fine, I just didn't want my wife to close the window by accident or something. Thanks Leo.

    Assuming the massive PPD increase is related to a real productivity increase, this is fantastic.
  • EyesOnlyEyesOnly Sweden New
    edited March 2007
    I don't like beta software but this kind of production seems tempting. Is the client stable?
  • GargGarg Purveyor of Lincoln Nightmares Icrontian
    edited March 2007
    mas0n wrote:
    Is it running 4 instances and eating over 200MB for you guys? Thats fine with me if that is what it's supposed to do, I just want to make sure I didn't goof something. :tongue:

    Yup. I was a little concerned that it was taking up so much RAM on my gaming rig, but there's still enough left for me to play without noticeable impact :thumbsup:
    EyesOnly wrote:
    I don't like beta software but this kind of production seems tempting. Is the client stable?
    Not for everybody, but seems like it has been for most of us.
  • EyesOnlyEyesOnly Sweden New
    edited March 2007
    So is a A64 3800+ or similar among the stable cpus?
  • SPIKE09SPIKE09 Scatland
    edited March 2007
    X2 3800 would make deadlines on some with an OC it should make them on all, the straight single core 3800 nope sorry, dual or quads only.
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited March 2007
    Is it worth it on an HT-capable P4-3.2GHz rig?

    The short deadlines are what worry me. :)
  • miragemirage
    edited March 2007
    profdlp wrote:
    Is it worth it on an HT-capable P4-3.2GHz rig?

    The short deadlines are what worry me. :)

    I am testing on a 3.06HT system (533 FSB) with P2652. It seems like it will make it just 5-6 hours before the deadline (3 days).
  • SPIKE09SPIKE09 Scatland
    edited March 2007
    I'm guessing a p2610 would fail every time on one of those rigs, even with the e6400 it is taking 40 mins a frame. In fact some folks are reporting slower frametimes with HT on than with it off on dual core HT chips.
  • GargGarg Purveyor of Lincoln Nightmares Icrontian
    edited March 2007
    profdlp wrote:
    Is it worth it on an HT-capable P4-3.2GHz rig?

    The short deadlines are what worry me. :)

    The Stanford guys don't recommend using the SMP client unless you have two physical cores. They don't advice using HT unless you have two physical cores, and turning on HT would make it appear as four.

    Personally, I would stick with that, because they're obtaining information on how the client is performing during this beta period, and they're not expecting people to use single-core HT rigs.
  • Sledgehammer70Sledgehammer70 California Icrontian
    edited March 2007
    My dual Xeon 3.6GHz setup with HT system gets to about 8 frames and crashes and just starts over... has done this 4 times now :(
  • EyesOnlyEyesOnly Sweden New
    edited March 2007
    Thanks for the input. I don't wanna oc but i think i'll give the client a try. If i understand correctly i don't have to remove the other fah clients i have. If so i'll wait a couple of days for the current wus to finish then turn them of and install the smp.
  • GargGarg Purveyor of Lincoln Nightmares Icrontian
    edited March 2007
    Sledgehammer70 wrote:
    My dual Xeon 3.6GHz setup with HT system gets to about 8 frames and crashes and just starts over... has done this 4 times now :(
    Bummer. That rig would probably do pretty well, too :(
  • miragemirage
    edited March 2007
    My 3.06 Xeon with HT is already at 43% since yesterday. Sledge, can you please tell which WU was crashing?
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited March 2007
    Is the client stable?
    YES! I pulled in over 4800 points today (so far) on only four computers. I've had NO client crashes or WU failures so far.

    Sledge, turn off HT on that Xeon rig. I don't understand why that computer shouldn't be stable.

    I'm thinking of running SMP on my E1405 (dual core 1.83GHz) laptop as soon as it finishes a nearly-completed work unit. Will it be powerful enough to meet the deadlines?
  • GargGarg Purveyor of Lincoln Nightmares Icrontian
    edited March 2007
    Leonardo wrote:
    I'm thinking of running SMP on my E1405 (dual core 1.83GHz) laptop as soon as it finishes a nearly-completed work unit. Will it be powerful enough to meet the deadlines?

    I'll bet so. It sounds like Intels in general and Core2's especially are performing well. I'd give it a shot and see if the frame times look reasonable.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited March 2007
    give it a shot and see if the frame times look reasonable
    At your service. The laptop just completed and uploaded a regular (non-SMP) work unit, so I shut down the Folding client (5.04 console) and loaded Windows SMP. I'll report what is achieved. But in the meantime, check out this outrageous production! This is all from today, 90% from the four computers in my signature. And no, it is NOT a photochop.
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited March 2007
    I'm glad you guys waxed my ass last December. At least then it was close enough that I didn't look too feeble when you went by... :(
  • WinfreyWinfrey waddafuh Missouri Icrontian
    edited March 2007
    Sledgehammer70 wrote:
    My dual Xeon 3.6GHz setup with HT system gets to about 8 frames and crashes and just starts over... has done this 4 times now :(

    I'm having the same problem on my FX-62 rig. The farthest I've gotten on a WU is 38 frames, and then is has an "EARLY UNIT END." I had these occasionally before but I'm on the eighth or ninth WU that has failed in a row.

    Any Ideas? I would really like to do SMP to give a boost to ppd, but I don't get any credit for these early ending WUs.
  • csimoncsimon Acadiana Icrontian
    edited March 2007
    I'm having problems registering mpiexec. It asks for domain/user and password. What are they looking for exactly? Is it login info or what cause I don't use a pass to login. Any help appreciated.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited March 2007
    Csimon, do you have Microsoft .net framework 2.0 installed? It's necessary for SMP. You might try reinstalling it. Also, turn off any software firewalls and see if that helps.

    FreeC - sorry, no clue to your problem. FX62 is dual core, right?
  • mas0nmas0n howdy Icrontian
    edited March 2007
    I remember seeing somewhere while I was setting up the SMP client that it would only work if you had a password on the user account it was to run under.

    EDIT: "<i>NOTE: The account under which the client runs MUST have a password. Blank passwords will cause the FAH cores to fail.</i>" from here

    I usually don't password my accounts at home so I created one and used Tweak UI to login automatically on boot.
Sign In or Register to comment.