Welcome to the PrimeGrid Winter Solstice Challenge. We're rounding out another year with a sieve challenge; but this is no ordinary sieve challenge. This challenge lets you sieve with GPUs! This challenge also happens to use a sieve client I wrote, so I have a few more suggestions than usual. :sneaky:
What you need to participate:
What would help a whole lot:
What would help a little, but isn't absolutely necessary:
What won't help (but won't hurt either):
This challenge starts on December 18, at 23:03 UTC and runs until the Winter Solstice three days later. Only WUs downloaded after the start of the challenge and completed before the end of the challenge will be counted. Should you not be able to be in front of one or more computers at the start time, either set their queue level to zero (0) days or try one of the scheduled start methods from the strategy thread (for Linux or Windows). Network connection time options may also be useful - though they depend on your computer's clock being correct, so set the start time a few minutes late.
Welcome and good luck to all! :thumbsup:
What you need to participate:
- One or more fast x86 processors. (Even slow ones will do!)
- Windows, Linux, or MacOS 10.4+.
- BOINC, attached to PrimeGrid (http://www.primegrid.com/).
- Your PrimeGrid Preferences with only "Proth Prime Search (Sieve)" selected in the Projects section. (It's the one marked as this month's Challenge project.)
What would help a whole lot:
- For all your WUs to be downloaded after December 18, at 23:03 UTC.
- An Nvidia GPU, of the 8000 series or later (so it's CUDA capable). A mid-range GTX 460 does about 10 times as much work as an i3!
- An AMD GPU, of the 4000 series or later (so it's OpenCL capable), with the 10.10 or later Catalyst drivers, of the APP variety. A mid-range Radeon 5770 does 2-3 times as much work as an i3. Higher-end AMD GPUs are likely to require a fast CPU core as well for optimum performance. Running 64-bit Linux can help mitigate this problem.
- "Use ATI GPU" and "Use NVIDIA GPU" set to "yes" in your PrimeGrid preferences.
- Windows users should make sure they have msvcrt90.dll. You can get it by installing the .NET 3.5 runtime. (This might be fixed for the AMD apps; not sure.)
- Users with multiple GPUs should add a cc_config.xml file.
What would help a little, but isn't absolutely necessary:
- A 64-bit OS on a 64-bit processor will run CPU work 30% faster than a 32-bit OS. It matters very little for GPU work, except for some fast AMD GPUs in Linux or MacOS.
- Overclocking a little. This project produces less heat than the LLR challenge from last month, and it's more tolerant of errors - except on Nvidia GPUs, so watch out! AMD GPUs will have their errors auto-corrected this year! But the auto-correction process requires CPU time, so there is a point of diminishing returns.
- This section isn't entirely tested. The following app_config.xml may slightly help Nvidia cards, 400-series or later, if you have BOINC 7.2.39 or later:
The same thing can be done with app_info.xml, but it's more difficult to write such a file.Code:<app_config> <app> <name>pps_sr2sieve</name> <max_concurrent>9</max_concurrent> </app> <app_version> <app_name>pps_sr2sieve</app_name> <plan_class>cuda23</plan_class> <cmdline>-m64</cmdline> </app_version> </app_config>
What won't help (but won't hurt either):
- A large amount of RAM.
- Any older video cards or Intel video cards - though you might want to use them for your display while newer cards crunch. The new OpenCL apps can actually run on Intel; convincing BOINC to use them is the hard part.
This challenge starts on December 18, at 23:03 UTC and runs until the Winter Solstice three days later. Only WUs downloaded after the start of the challenge and completed before the end of the challenge will be counted. Should you not be able to be in front of one or more computers at the start time, either set their queue level to zero (0) days or try one of the scheduled start methods from the strategy thread (for Linux or Windows). Network connection time options may also be useful - though they depend on your computer's clock being correct, so set the start time a few minutes late.
Welcome and good luck to all! :thumbsup:
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