Thread '6.4.7 - Slower than a turtle'

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John Phelan-Cummings

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Joined: 31 Mar 08
Posts: 46
United States
Message 23445 - Posted: 4 Mar 2009, 1:37:41 UTC

Why is 6.4.7 so slow?
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Les Bayliss
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Australia
Message 23447 - Posted: 4 Mar 2009, 6:40:42 UTC

As measured in what way?

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Lex

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Austria
Message 23469 - Posted: 4 Mar 2009, 19:50:26 UTC

I've also noticed a significant slowdown using BOINC 6.4.5 and 6.4.7 on Windows Vista (32bit) running on a dual-core CPU. Prior versions worked fine on the same machine.
My problem is that the whole machine is slower, regardless which settings in the "Computing preferences" are set. Currently i have CPU and GPU suspended, while the computer is not in use. But my client (Seti@home) seems to ignore these settings.

Examining the behavior more closely indicated that the rendering performance on Windows Vista (with Aero enabled) is also significantly decreased. The CPU usage (%) and CPU time of BOINC+Seti@home is zero, but the system keeps it's poor performance until the BOINCMGR and client is closed. This leads to the following analysis:
1) CPU-context switches are almost equal, if BOINC is running or not
2) GPU-context switches are significantly(!) higher while BOINC is running

Therefore the reason for the problem appears to be the new support for CDUA. I am using a "GeForce 8600 GT" with 512MB of dedicated video-memory (767MB shared). From my point of view this seems not to be sufficient for BOINC using CDUA, but I was not able to disable the CDUA support. Therefore my only workaround is to stop BOINC until a fixed version of the client is available.
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Les Bayliss
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Message 23470 - Posted: 4 Mar 2009, 21:06:31 UTC
Last modified: 4 Mar 2009, 21:07:26 UTC

BOINC version 5.* doesn't have support for cuda, so it should work OK for you.
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Lex

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Austria
Message 23471 - Posted: 4 Mar 2009, 22:25:15 UTC - in response to Message 23470.  

Boinc 5.* did not properly work on Vista.
Therefore I've re-installed 6.2.18, which worked fine before the updates. Now really nothing happens: system is responding fine, but Seti@home client does not start (which is most likely the cause for the good performance). The BOINC console reports "Missing a CUDA coprocessor".
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ProfileJord
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Netherlands
Message 23473 - Posted: 4 Mar 2009, 22:29:56 UTC - in response to Message 23471.  

If you had CUDA work appointed (Seti application 6.08), you will have to detach and re-attach. This will send word to the Seti server that all that work can be reissued, while you will get the Seti CPU app (6.03) and work for it only.
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Lex

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Austria
Message 23479 - Posted: 5 Mar 2009, 17:03:50 UTC - in response to Message 23473.  

detach and re-attach worked, thanks!
(now i'm working with boinc 6.2.18 - without any impact)
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Message boards : Questions and problems : 6.4.7 - Slower than a turtle

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