About GPU client....

temeteus82

Ok, I've been wondering this for some time now. Can I run F@H GPU client (command line) in background and do "normal" stuff on my comp. I mean surf the web and read e-mails etc...

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Tipstaff

By default that's the way the F@H clients work. You can change things under the advanced settings to use more resources, but it's not necessary. The only issue at the moment is that with the latest Cats (7.2) you can only run the GPU client on one card. To do that you'd have to go back to an older set of Cats.

Also, you can run both a CPU client and a GPU client on the same machine, although I don't know if the same can be said for running the SMP client with the GPU client at the same time.

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Judas

From my experiences, while running the GPU clients, the video cards fans increase (heat).. and the overall windows experience appears to get quite "slugish" even making webpages take what seems like ages to load. (for me)....

Just don't do anything to CPU demanding as it'll really take ages for the program to respond to commands, i mean you can browse the net, MAYBE watch videos, and play solitare.. but that's about it from my experiences thus far.

I'm just trying to solve the weird crashes with the gpu client, and the horrid Whistle/Whine noise coming from my video cards.

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temeteus82

I've been running the console in the background for some time now. I see that ATT tray monitor temperatures on gpu are up (no wonder).

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mike2h

is anybody using cat 7.3?
the gpu vers on my wifes comp is much 'choppier'/not as smooth as the cpu vers on my laptop- tho it is faster 5.2s/frame vs 22s/ frame on lappy.

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Tipstaff

Most people in the F@H forums have pointed out that the GPU client seems to be running about 2% slower on the 7.3 drivers.

Also, it's suggested that if you are running the console GPU client on a system with one GPU that you should run it with the override command switch "-gpu 0" to force the client to work on a single GPU.

Just to a note: F@H Forum has started a thread HERE for those using the new Cats.

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mike2h

thx again tip. having definite probs with gpu client/1800/7.3.
well im about ready to give up on this gpu client thing. im using the gui vers & it appears to have intermittent, various probs. ill try downloading again & c what happens.
that thread isnt much help as it is new. ill wait a day or so & chk it again

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Tipstaff

The best seems to be the console GPU client. There is a definate issue with Cat 7.3 and the GUI client (as mentioned in that thread). If anything I'd recommend running it instead. If you do, here's a coulpe things to remember:

1) create 2 shortcuts for running the console GPU client. One with the "-local -configonly" switch, and one with the "-local -gpu 0" switches. Oh, and to close the client properly so as to not screw up anything you are folding, hit CTRL-C to terminate.

2) It's advised that when you setup the client that you need to change a couple options in the Advanced Configuration section. First, change the "Core Priority" from idle to low. Second, change "CPU usage requested" to 95. This is important as you don't want to take all 100% CPU resources away. The reason being is that the video drivers poll the CPU, and if all the resources are being used by the GPU client it can cause some nasty issues.

BTW, if you don't want that nasty command line console showing up on the desktop you can run the client as a service during the configuration cycle. Just remember that if decide to play a game or what not you will need to go into Services to stop the client. To remove the client from starting up as a service just rerun the configuration for it, and select to remove it.

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mike2h

thx for the reply. the gui client seems to be 'mostly' working now. want to keep it very simple as it is my wifes comp & she hates 'surprises'. if it continues to give problems ill just switch to the cpu client & have done with it.
mite be going back to 7.1 cats anyway as i cant get any sort of oc out of the 7.3 & that would make the whole client issue go away

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Tipstaff

I'll say, cuz then you won't be able to run the GPU client.

To be honest, even though the GPU client is almost 2x faster than running the CPU client (it takes 12 hours to finish a WU on my X1950 Pros vs 24-36 hours on a P4 3.2Ghz CPU), I'm a little concerned about running my GPUs that hard all the time... or rather the one GPU right now. Leaving it on a CPU client, and running it as a service is fine by me really.

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mike2h

kinda what i was thinking. dont beleive those gpus r made to run like that. i really dont want to find out.
think next time the client messes up it is gone.
just thinking, if her vid card dies, then i can give her my 7950gx2 & get a 8800gtx.... nah, the crap id have to listen to-& she would be rt as usual- would not be worth it

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Tipstaff

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