Seti@home gauntlet 2012

[Rattledagger]

Please all Gauntlet TeAm-members:
Please run a WU or two asap to get at least some points. If you have not any points at all (=0) you can - for some reason I don't know) join the gauntlet.
Probably because you are not "active" ...

BOINC-projects stats-dumps normally don't include users with zero credit. Especially for SETI@home that have many million "classic" users that has never even installed BOINC, including all the zero-credit-users would just greatly increase the size of the stats-dumps for no actual benefit.

As is fairly normal then it comes to SETI@home, the available bandwidth is currently maxed-out, making it difficult to download new SETI-work.

 

[blckgrffn]

Yeah, so, timing out when trying to get the WU chunks. And it claims that it is going to take ~29hours to do the WU?

Are any of the available tasks shorter in duration?

 

[petrusbroder]

De GPU-task take anything between 2 - 45 minutes on a GTX460 ... depending on the type of WU. The CPU-tasks are much longer ... sorry to say.
Just now seti@home experiences bandwidth-problems ... I have not yet seen any indication when it will be better.
I'll check later today.

 

[Rattledagger]

Yeah, so, timing out when trying to get the WU chunks. And it claims that it is going to take ~29hours to do the WU?

Are any of the available tasks shorter in duration?

If you're running on cpu and haven't installed optimized applications yet, the Astropulse-wu's can take over 24 hours while the SETI_Enhanced will take a few hours. The SETI_Enhanced-wu's basically comes i 3 groups, the "normal" ones, the "shorties" that also can be called VHAR that is significantly faster, and the "VLAR"-ones that can't be run on Nvidia-cards.

If you've installed optimized applications the times on cpu will be significantly shorter. It's therefore highly recommended to install optimized applications, and if you're going to use Ati-GPU you must install the optimized applications. If you're running windows, download them from http://lunatics.kwsn.net/index.php?module=Downloads;catd=9 by choosing either the 32-bit or 64-bit (depending on OS) of the v0.40-installer. Lunatics has Linux and Mac-applications also.

If you're using GPU, Astropulse-wu's should finish in a couple hours, while SETI_Enhanced normally in less than 1 hour, depending on how fast your GPU is. Nvidia is fastest then it comes to SETI_Enhanced, while Ati is faster on Astropulse.

 

[bryanW1995]

so obviously i didn't get a chance to post a simplified version of how to use AMD GPUs for SETI@Home last night. and i probably won't have time to do so until wednesday or later due to a very busy work schedule. that said, i think i can make things a bit simpler than the way they're explained in that overclock.net forum thread. since the release of the Lunatics installers (starting w/ v0.37, the most current being v0.40), we no longer have to manually download the appropriate applications, or manually create the associated app_info.xml file, or place them all in the appropriate directory. the Lunatics installer allows you to pick and choose which apps you want to use (from a list of various CPU & GPU apps), places them in the appropriate directory, and generates an app_info.xml file containing the necessary code for the selected apps for you.

the only intimidating part from here on out would be to edit the app_info.xml file for various reasons, the most common of which would probably be to allow more than 1 GPU task to run simultaneously. so if you're content w/ running one task per GPU at a time, then you don't need t edit anything in the app_info.xml file and you're good to go. if you would like to improve GPU load and/or crunching efficiency by running 2 or more tasks simultaneously, then you have to find the <count>n</count> line in that application's code section in the app_info.xml, and edit the value accordingly. the default value is 1, which corresponds to running 1 task at a time on the GPU(s). n = 0.5 corresponds to running 2 tasks simultaneously, n = 0.33 corresponds to 3 simultaneous tasks, as so on and so forth.

the only other things to remember are your basic project and web preferences. in other words, you want to make sure the project is setup to use the GPU (from both the server end via your web preferences, and from your own end via the BOINC manager preferences). also, if GPU computing is the only SETI@Home crunching you plan on doing, make sure your web preferences aren't set to use the CPU.

i'll post up in a few days w/ more detail...

I could only run 2 at once on my gtx 460 768, but the more vram you have the more instances you can run. I haven't set it back up on my gtx 480, but I think that I could comfortably run 5. However, from everything I've seen/heard, going to 2 or 3 can make a pretty good difference, but after that the benefit starts to tail off.

 

[bryanW1995]

If you're running on cpu and haven't installed optimized applications yet, the Astropulse-wu's can take over 24 hours while the SETI_Enhanced will take a few hours. The SETI_Enhanced-wu's basically comes i 3 groups, the "normal" ones, the "shorties" that also can be called VHAR that is significantly faster, and the "VLAR"-ones that can't be run on Nvidia-cards.

If you've installed optimized applications the times on cpu will be significantly shorter. It's therefore highly recommended to install optimized applications, and if you're going to use Ati-GPU you must install the optimized applications. If you're running windows, download them from http://lunatics.kwsn.net/index.php?module=Downloads;catd=9 by choosing either the 32-bit or 64-bit (depending on OS) of the v0.40-installer. Lunatics has Linux and Mac-applications also.

If you're using GPU, Astropulse-wu's should finish in a couple hours, while SETI_Enhanced normally in less than 1 hour, depending on how fast your GPU is. Nvidia is fastest then it comes to SETI_Enhanced, while Ati is faster on Astropulse.

I'll go bump up the earlier optimized apps thread, we will definitely do much better if everybody has them running!

edit: I'm still not added. Please add me to the TeAm:

Bryan Wallace 494498

 

[petrusbroder]

added!

 

[blckgrffn]

OK, I've pounded out a number of CUDA GPU WU's

They are pending, now...

Going to abort the current CPU WU's and get cracking on the optimizers...

Thanks for the heads up!

I am hoping they don't start until later in April, I'd like to get all my crunchers back on track after the PrimeGrid Challenge...

 

[Sunny129]

just in case my post doesn't get spotted in due time on the S@NL boards, i'm officially joining the gauntlet, so please add me to the list.

nickname: Sunny129
user ID: 39506

 

[dajeepster]

dang... been away for the last couple of days... starting my rig now.

 

[Sunny129]

ok, so the plan was to have the HD 5870 in one machine and the GTX 460 in another machine both crunching SETI for the gauntlet. so far i've got the HD 5870 up and running. unfortunately my other machine contracted a nasty virus the other day, and i can't seem to get rid of this one. no matter, b/c i've been meaning to move this platform over to an SSD anyways, and this is my opportunity. so i pulled the trigger on a Crucial M4 64GB SSD just a few minutes ago, and i'm going to install Win7 x64 on it when it arrives in a week or so. once i've got BOINC up and running, i'll put the GTX 460 on SETI@Home right away.

 

[petrusbroder]

dang... been away for the last couple of days... starting my rig now.

No problem, the Gauntlet's starting date has not yet been published ...

 

[[2W]SEARCHER]

UPDATE

:biggrin: Good Morning and Hello Team,

new Information from User XP_Freak from Team SETI.Netherlands :

Oké, all looks fine and all problems have been solved.
So we can set the dates for the Gauntlet.


The Gauntet will be running from april 16 until april 30.


The first credit data will be collected with the first stats-export from Berkeley after april 16 10:00 GMT
The last credit data will be collected with the first stats-export from Berkeley after april 30 10:00 GMT

New teams and members can be added until april 15 18:00 GMT.


Many Greatings [2W]SEARCHER

 

[Pokey]

UPDATE

The Gauntet will be running from april 16 until april 30.

Many Greatings [2W]SEARCHER

Ok, I may be ready by then …..LOL

Getting my machines to wind down existing projects and start SETI is taking a while. I think I am there. I am just waiting for the stats to catch up now. And do any last minute tweeking. I didn’t realize how long it took for the results to trickle through the system.

It has taken me almost a week to get switched over, and I’m still not sure everything is under control. (this is not your grandfathers seti………….)



QUESTION:
I see in the FAQ’s that a Astropulse unit can take a long time to complete. For Gauntlet purposes, Is it recommended to block units other than SETI Enhanced or leave them accessible when other units aren’t available?

 

[Sunny129]

QUESTION:
I see in the FAQ&#8217;s that a Astropulse unit can take a long time to complete. For Gauntlet purposes, Is it recommended to block units other than SETI Enhanced or leave them accessible when other units aren&#8217;t available?

if u only have a CPU to crunch with, then i would recommend crunching enhanced tasks only. If u have an ATI GPU or a powerful nVidia GPU, then take on astropulse tasks as well.

 

[dajeepster]

UPDATE



The first credit data will be collected with the first stats-export from Berkeley after april 16 10:00 GMT
The last credit data will be collected with the first stats-export from Berkeley after april 30 10:00 GMT



Many Greatings [2W]SEARCHER

now if i could just stop getting the "retry when hell freezes over" message.. i'd be set..

 

[Pokey]

If u have ................... a powerful nVidia GPU, then take on astropulse tasks as well.

Thanks,

Now define powerful............

Mine range from 9800GT up to GTX460. I think one has picked up an Astropulse unit; I'll report back the time when complete. The faq was talking like a week. That is one thing if you have time but in a race where time is limited I think not.

 

[Sunny129]

Thanks,

Now define powerful............

Mine range from 9800GT up to GTX460. I think one has picked up an Astropulse unit; I'll report back the time when complete. The faq was talking like a week. That is one thing if you have time but in a race where time is limited I think not.

well after some quick research, i may have to retract my previous statement. i had to do some digging on the S@H message boards, but i finally found a host that had crunched some AP tasks on its GTX 460, and they're looking every bit as fast as (or maybe even faster than) some HD 58xx or 69xx GPUs. granted, my research may be quite insufficient, as i only found on host crunching AP on an nVidia GPU, and only compared it to 2 other hosts crunching AP on ATI GPUs. i did not take into consideration the OS, the CPU, or any other hardware/software factors. over 6 months ago, before i put S@H on hiatus due to their last set of major server problems (and the fact that AP task production has been abysmal since then), AP tasks would take anywhere from 6-20 times as long to process on an nVidia than they would on an ATI GPU.

so based on my very limited observations, it would appear that nVidia GPUs are crunching AP work just as efficiently as ATI GPUs. that said, keep in mind that the run time of an AP task depends on its % blanking, just as the run time of an MB task depends on its angle range (VLAR, VHAR, shorties, etc.). the higher the % blanking, the longer it'll take to process. so if you decide to go on the S@H message boards and look at various users' platforms and compare the run times of AP tasks on ATI and nVidia GPUs, i implore you to be sure that the tasks your comparing across GPUs are similar in % blanking, or else the comparison is useless...

and i would definitely encourage more research since a handful of hosts is hardly enough data to draw any meaningful conclusions, or even reinforce my observations...

 

[bryanW1995]

GTX 460 gives a lot of points in S&H. ATI gpus are generally weaker than nvidia.

It looks like we should win the contest unless we are still starving for units by the time gauntlet starts.

 

[Sunny129]

GTX 460 gives a lot of points in S&H. ATI gpus are generally weaker than nvidia.

for multibeam, yes. For AP, they seem about equal now...ATI GPUs used to be much more efficient at AP tasks than nVidia...

 

[Pokey]

I have finished two Astropulse units. One took approx 27 hours and the other 16 hours. Which causes me to raise an eyebrow.
I do not have AP selected except as a fill-in for lack of anything else, so I don't expect to get many.

I am now in the process of installing the Lunatics optimized applications, after which I should be good to go for the race. :thumbsup:

 

[Sunny129]

I have finished two Astropulse units. One took approx 27 hours and the other 16 hours. Which causes me to raise an eyebrow.
I do not have AP selected except as a fill-in for lack of anything else, so I don't expect to get many.

I am now in the process of installing the Lunatics optimized applications, after which I should be good to go for the race. :thumbsup:

hmm...your SETI@Home user ID according to BOINCstats is different from any of the 100 or so Pokey's in the SETI@Home server data, so i can't really find and look at the details of your platform. i'm assuming these AP tasks both ran on the CPU?

 

[petrusbroder]

During the past 4 days some of my crunchers have run dry on WUs.
Downloading WUs takes up to 12 hours. I have not had a full queue for at least 2 weeks.
The download speed is 2.5 - 30 KBit/s - which is slow ... in other projects it may be 400 - 700 KBit/s.
Yes, the uploads and downloads are quite small, but still I can not crunch to the fullness of my ability.
The question arises: what is the optimal size of the queue? 2 days of crunching? 4 days of crunching? I have those two settings and admittedlety the comps with the larger queue fare bettere - but not by very much.

I fear, that not the crunching capabilities will decide the gauntlet, but the bandwidth of seti@home's internet connection. When the gauntlet start it will not gett better ... as previous gauntlets have shown.

I will take part, I will optimize my settings, my bandwidth is very good (downloadspeed measured 97 MBit/s, upload 60-65 MBit/s); but still: what is the optimal length of the queue?

 

[Pokey]

Peter, I have the same reservations. Mine is set at the default. (0.5 days?) and I still have trouble getting work. I would hate for the race to be compromised that way.

Sunny129, I looked back and the two Astropulse units in fact appeared to be CPU work.

I have downloaded and installed the V0.40 optimized applications. Only had a couple of hiccups, which rebooting fixed.

 

[Rattledagger]

but still: what is the optimal length of the queue?

50 wu's per core...

... since this is the max you're allowed to download from SETI...

The limit for GPU's are larger, not sure but possibly it's 400 wu's per GPU.

Except for the "shorties", most wu's has 1+ month long deadline, and the short ones has over 10 days deadline, so setting a large cache isn't a problem. Also, since the download-bandwidth is overloaded it can take a very long time to download work, so running with a large cache is recommended.

50 wu's per core is anyway only 2-3 days cache, so you'll never get a really large cache, if you don't somehow manages to download a bunch of Astropulse-wu's...