I have a strong CPU combined with a dog GPU. Like everyone, I would like to find that optimum balance to get the, most from the assets I have. My CPU's are currently going to WCG. They have no GPU projects. Thinking that some credit from my GPU is better than none, I started using GPUGrid. GPUGrid requires 0.22 CPU to manage the GPU. My current hunch is that during long GPU runs this overhead is costing me more in lost CPU productivity than I am gaining from the GPU.

Are there any GPU projects with no CPU requirements? If not, which GPU project has the lowest CPU requirements?

Thanks for your help.

Right now, I'm running Einstein at 0.5 CPU, Moo! at 0.05, PrimeGrid at 0.00481 and I think Collatz is around 0.01 though I'm not currently running any. I don't know a whole lot about how GPU computing works, so I'm not sure if that's fixed by each project or is dependent on the throughput of your GPU.

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My Detailed BOINC Stats

Thanks. That helps. The more data on this the better.

My oversimplified summary of the split between the GPU and the CPU tasks is that management and double precision tasks are completed by the CPU while single precision tasks are handled by the GPU(s).

Obviously there are people here who can elaborate a lot better regarding this.

Looking at the Activity Monitor with Einstein running (OS X ATI) the actual CPU usage is only 5-6%, even though it can claim up to 50%. I'll bet that is the part where the power of your GPU comes into play, relative to your CPU... Moo! uses only 1-2% CPU on my Win7 ATI, but according to my GPU meter it only ever uses around 90-95% of the GPU, sometimes a lot less. It also seems to be a GPU project that I can keep running without major lag to the user interface.

One good thing to note, is that the GPU units aren't blocking out the CPU for other work.

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My Detailed BOINC Stats

Thanks.

I have switched GPU projects and am now running some tests with WCG on my CPUs and Primegrid on my GPU. I will then be able to see whether I get more Boinc points with only CPUs on WCG, CPUs on WCG and GPU on GPUGrid, or CPUs on WCG and GPU on PrimeGrid.

However, there are a lot of potential combinations to test while looking for that sweet spot so the more I can learn from others who have done it the better!

Bob, if all you are looking at are BOINC points in general, you will almost always get more points from a GPU project. Since you are comparing WCG to PrimeGrid, even if you were just running CPU work, PrimeGrid would be more points. WCG is well known for being a low point rewarding project. You really are comparing apples to oranges. For a better test, you should compare running your CPU's at a GPU capable project and then run the GPU's to see what the difference really is. I hope that helps in your testing.