Finally got my GTX 295 folding on both cores...

[Tattysnuc]

I read an artical somewhere at lunch time that said that you dont need a dummy plug with Win 7 64 bit anymore:

I can confirm that this IS the case

The process I used was...

1. Install the latest forceware drivers (I used http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/win7-...driver-uk.html)
2. Disable SLI and Physx
3. Set up the two clients, with the force_G80 flag set
4. Extend desktop
5. Fire up the clients!

and bugger me it works!

Finally!!!!!

[Englander]

Christ on a bike, what sort of PPD will that pull on its own?

[Champman99]

Nice work! I was thinking of possibly some sort of multi GPU setup. Obviously you have two GPUs on one card with that beast, but since you've been reading around the subject I wonder if you'll be able to explain it a bit to me. As I understood it before from Vista onwards Windows wouldnt let you do anything with a graphics card unless it thought a monitor was attached.

Also I assume it wouldnt be a problem to have different GPU's (ie an 8800GT with a 8800GS) because its not SLI (in fact you have to have SLI disabled). Its definitely something I would want to look into. If I get a job in the near future (just finished uni) may invest in something a bit fancy for folding! We'll see

[Queelis]

Congrats! I've with ATI, so all hopes are with GPU3 :|

And really, what's the PPD of that beast?

[Tattysnuc]

At the moment the ppd per core has plateaud out at at 5700, which is very low. I was getting 7500 not so long ago, but the rate has been dropping, which I can only assume is something to do with the work units out there. Enabling the second core simply doubled that output, so now, that card is throwing out 10k-11k, without breaking into a sweat.

I notice that the core utilisation is only 65-75% so I guess it depends on which units it's working on, and what the core priority is set as. I think I've got them set quite low as this is actually my file server that is doing the work. Might see if I can get my other GTX 295 up and running in there some time soon. It's been in pieces for months since I tried fitting an EK waterblock to it, and think I killed it.

[Tattysnuc]

Nice work! I was thinking of possibly some sort of multi GPU setup. Obviously you have two GPUs on one card with that beast, but since you've been reading around the subject I wonder if you'll be able to explain it a bit to me. As I understood it before from Vista onwards Windows wouldnt let you do anything with a graphics card unless it thought a monitor was attached.

Also I assume it wouldnt be a problem to have different GPU's (ie an 8800GT with a 8800GS) because its not SLI (in fact you have to have SLI disabled). Its definitely something I would want to look into. If I get a job in the near future (just finished uni) may invest in something a bit fancy for folding! We'll see

The rpocess is actually quite simple, and you don't need to have identical cards. You only need the identical cards if you are running SLI.

I just followed the guide here to set everything up. From what I've read, Windows 7 links each processor with devices attached, so that Windows can optimise power saving. This meant that in their prior guise Windows 7, along with Vista required that you have a monitor plugged into each output of each graphics card it order to use it, when they are set in single output mode. this block appears to have been removed in the latest NVidia set of drivers, meaning that you just extend your desktop (thus dedicating a gfx core to a "screen") and then kick off the folding process on that core.

Hope that makes sence? This is my understanding of the process, so anyone please feel free to correct me.

My PPD hasn;t picked up because my wife hasn't had her computer on the past few days, and liekwise I've not had mine on folding (just been re-playing Crysis) so my daily PPD looks fairly static at 18+k, but that should start creeping up if all's still well.

Now, I must get my finger out and start working on those stats I was going to look at producing.

I'm finally a top 10 producer for Hexus! If only I could get some time at home I could get so much more done, rather than coming into work. Doh!

[Englander]

Given that you don't need identical GPUs, I may have to hold on to my 8800GT when I upgrade to the GTX 460 soonish. It just means I'll need to find some memory heat sinks and a GPU heat sink because it's all under a water block at the moment!

[Champman99]

Thanks for the info, my PPD varies alot with the WU's available as well. My fairly heavily overclocked 8800GT can go from 5000-7000 PPD range depending on the type of work unit according to HFM at least.

Impressed at the PPD of SMP client if you take bonuses into account btw. Assuming the HFM estimates are accurate, even though my dual core athlon is feeding the GPU client, its still doing ~1500ppd with sort of 1.5 cores.

[Tattysnuc]

I set up the new 6.3 beta SMP client on my server last night, and left it running overnight.

the temperature was up to 32 degrees C in there this morning, with 2 machines (3 gpus, and 1 cpu) folding. After running some reports before heading off to work I was actually sweating!!! Going to have to start wearing a white towel, and put up some pine panelling I think. wonder if anyones done the "Sauna case mod" yet....

[Tattysnuc]

Have had to restart my client several times since upgrading to the new nvidia driver, requiring a complete restart.

Seems to hit a go slow after a couple of days. Anyone got any ideas?

[Englander]

Do you mean the 258.96 drivers? I've had them for a while now and they've been just fine on my 8800GT...

[Tattysnuc]

Must have been a windows update or soemthing. A couple of reboots over the first couple of days were required, but now it's ticking along without a care in the world. I've just updated the drivers on my main rig to 258.96 also, and that's been completely event free.

[Tattysnuc]

For the record, and to try and keep the forum as information rich as possibel re: folding, if you're a divvy like me and forget to turn off SLI on a multi GPU system, your production rate will eventually (after an indeterminate amount of time) drop to nearly nothing, and can only be restored by rebooting your PC.

I was having a few weeks there, after changing some of the drivers on my lead pc, where the points on my GTX 295 had dropped from 13k per day to 4k per day. I was having to reboot it every day after it would go slow over night.

Thanskfully, someone over on the Bit-tech froums pointed the error of my ways out.