I use Ubuntu 64 bit with the standard f...@h install, it takes advantage of my dual core CPU. I haven't messed around with having it touch my GPU. My personal experience is that even though the processes are given the lowest priority, I have response issues with processor or RAM intensive programs. (it's probably only one of those, but I haven't bothered to determine which)
I am now in the habit of stopping f...@h when I'm going to do something with large files, and then turn it back on later when I'm just going to be webbing around or leave the computer idle for a bit. -- John D. Mort http://john.mort.net On Fri, Jun 4, 2010 at 2:48 PM, Frank D. <[email protected]> wrote: > Does anyone here run fold...@home? Is there an MHVLUG f...@h team? > > If anyone knows if what it takes to run multiple copies at f...@h under WINE > with multiple nVidia cards, I'd appreciate some input. > > As far as rig options, here's what I'm looking at: > AMD 635 Propus Athlon II X4 @ 2.9GHz > ASRock 785G motherboard w/ 3x physical PCI-E x16 slots > 3x GTS250, standard clocks @ ~705GFLOPS/card > Rosewill 850W PSU > 4GB RAM > 2x32GB A-DATA SSDs in RAID-0 > My standard preferred CoolerMaster 590 case > Headless terminal setup, using remote X > > The GTS250s would give 2.226GFLOPS/USD for total system cost of $950 > Or use overclocked GTX260s @ ~900GFLOPS/card and an upgraded power supply > for around $1400 - this gives just shy of 2GFLOPS/USD but an impressive > 2600-2700GFLOPS total output. > Or I could use "Green GTS250s" with a lower clock rate + voltage. This would > actually cost $50 more and reduces the cards to around 585GFLOPS for a total > of 1755 for $1000 and giving 1.755GFLOPS/$$. It does reduce peak rated > power consumption by 90-150 watts, though. At $0.18/kwh, that's a savings of > up to 65 cents a day.. or using around 600w vs 750w. > > The actual power reduction depends on the actual clock rate change and > voltage changes, but for a 9800GT green (same G92 GPU) it's about a 30w > reduction through the voltage drop and 100MHz lower core/250MHz lower shader > clock. That's 1625MHz shaders down to 1375 on the 9800GT. The 9800GT uses > 112 cores down from the 9800GTX/GTX+ @ 128. > > The clock rate for the 9800GTX+/GTS250 is 1836MHz, being reduced to 1500 on > the GTS250 green. That equates to a 336MHz reduction, or 18% - up from > 225/15.5% on the 9800GT. It also affects 16 more shaders on the GTS250 than > on the 9800GT. If the voltage drop is equivalent, I'd expect the power > reduction to then be greater than 30w considering the clock reduction and > the fact that its affecting 14% more shaders. > > I had some initial indecision about the GTS250 vs "Green" GTS250, so I did a > little math to help me decide. I'm STILL undecided. > > Normal GTS250: > $950 total system cost, 2115GFLOPS > ~2.82 GFLOPS/Watt assuming 750w total system draw from the wall > $3.24/day ($0.18/kwh) > $1182/year ($0.18/kwh) > 3 year cost (power+system): $4496 > 3 year cost($)/GFLOPS: 2.125 (lower is better) > > "Green" GTS250s - max estimated power reduction. > $1000 total system cost, 1755GFLOPS > ~2.925 GFLOPS/Watt assuming 600w total system draw from the wall > $2.59/day ($0.18/kwh) > $946/year ($0.18/kwh) > 3 year cost (power+system): $3838 > 3 year cost ($)/GFLOPS: 2.187 (lower is better) > > "Green" GTS250s - min estimated power reduction > $1000 total system cost, 1755GFLOPS > ~2.65 GFLOPS/Watt assuming 660w total system draw from the wall > $2.85/day ($0.18/kwh) > $1041/year ($0.18/kwh) > 3 year cost (power+system): $4123 > 3 year cost ($)/GFLOPS: 2.349 (lower is better) > > As you can see, even the minimum estimated power reduction would save me > $373 over 3 years, although at reduced efficiency (energy:work - only about > 90% the efficiency of the normal GTS250) and the ability to do only 83% of > the work of the cheaper more power hungry system. If the power reduction is > toward the higher side, it could save as much as $658 with almost equal > efficiency.. albeit only doing 83% of the faster system's work. > > I did ignore power supply efficiency, I assume efficiency will drop off at > around the 500w mark, which is where the max estimated Green GTS250 number > is. If efficiency does drop, these numbers are fairly correct. But > efficiency may remain fairly constant from 300w draw on up, which would > actually put the Green GTS250s in further favor for power efficiency. I have > no data on the PSU's efficiency at different levels. > > A) Is WINE+CUDA stable for f...@h? > B) Are multiple instances of f...@h on WINE+CUDA stable, and is it a huge > hassle to get it to run like that? > C) Is there a performance hit using WINE? (I'm inclined to think no, but if > someone has a definitive answer I'd like to hear it) > D) Is 4GB enough for 3 f...@h GPU2/3 clients? > E) Is a Propus 635 enough? I only run 5-20% CPU on my 940 with the f...@h > viewer disabled so I'm inclined to think the answer to this is "yes, > marginally." > > > MediaCoder has support for CUDA-accelerated H264 encoding under Windows, > which is PHENOMENAL. 2x-5x speed up for my transcodes, as a test I just did > a 720x304 video to 640x264 @ 2300Kbps. It encoded @ 231FPS w/ CUDA vs 57FPS > on CPU with an AMD 940/192c GTX260. Is there anything like that for Linux? > MediaCoder site says "due to licensing agreement with nVidia we are not > allowed to release the source to the CUDA encoder." I wouldn't even be > opposed to using a binary for that kind of encoding speed on my Linux > machines.. but they don't even have that. > > Thoughts on video card selection? Power usage? f...@h GPU client under Linux? > Someone please tell me there's a CUDA encoder coming for Linux! > > Can someone recommend a multi-lib 64 bit distro? I can get it going on > Slack64, but for this machine it might be less of a PITA to have something > where I can just install the packages.. need multilib for WINE if I want a > 64 bit OS. > > -Frank > _______________________________________________ > Mid-Hudson Valley Linux Users Group http://mhvlug.org > http://mhvlug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mhvlug > > Upcoming Meetings (6pm - 8pm) MHVLS Auditorium > Jul 7 - Patent Absurdity - The Movie > Aug 4 - Samba > Sep 1 - BOINC > _______________________________________________ Mid-Hudson Valley Linux Users Group http://mhvlug.org http://mhvlug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mhvlug Upcoming Meetings (6pm - 8pm) MHVLS Auditorium Jul 7 - Patent Absurdity - The Movie Aug 4 - Samba Sep 1 - BOINC
