GTX 470 Folding.....TBC.

[batmeat]

My GTX 470 is installed. After a day or two, I'll setup F@H again and see what kind of numbers she puts out. I was running two GTX 260's

Stay Tuned....

[Aaron_8015]

Tuned.......

[ShyguyXPC]

guessing 14K to 18K PPD...

[batmeat]

Little update....Core 11 is buggy using the gtx470 to the point where it's not worth running it. Initially it wouldn't run it all but with some mods and tweaking from reading posts at the F@H forums I got it to work. However, supposedly GPU3 is coming soon to take advantage of FERMI architecture. So until then we won't have a really good folding benchmark. I suspect I'll be pushing 15k ppd with this card and slightly more with a little overclocking. Coupled with my cpu I should be ~20k which is phenominal for a single gpu card and cpu.

Little side note, FERMI runs hot. The temp increase under full load though isn't as drastic a change compared to my GTX 260's. Both those cards under full load would go from about 55-56C to about 72C. My GTX 470 at idle is at 79C with the fan ramped to 55% full load it's only been up to 85C. However, that fan isn't at 100% at that temp. I haven't found a good utility to let me altar the fan speed. I used to use EVGA Precision, but the latest version doesn't allow fan or core clock changes.

[ShyguyXPC]

it should, precision, allowing fan speed changes, version 1.9.3, unless its a bug with the current drivers and using GTX 400 cards.

does using the g80 parameter on the GPU client do anything? if so what kind of PPD rating. I know the latest Drivers suck for compatibility with folding etc, but hopefully thats fixed soon.

Doing nearly 24K on my main rig alone, (SMP has bonus points calculated, but I haven't gotten 10 WU's in yet, so can't get the bonus points yet, but thats about what I'd be getting right now with stock speeds).

would love to have a single GPU, CPU combo getting that much, but then of course I'd want to add another GPU to fill the other spot as well LOL.

[no1_vern]

We do not know, as the current publicly available cores do not run on GTX470/480. Until the cores are updated we have no figures for this, sorry

! !

Possible workaround - possible way to fold on gtx 400 card is unstable atm (not giving up)

OK been messing with this all night. I wont go into great detail of how we was able to do what we did as mostly everything was trial and error, but I can tell you one wu did get corrupt data at 83% complete. The other WU did go thru like it would on a console gpu2 gpu client (the first fermi fold has been submitted now) so we are trying some other methods now but will have to be worked on more tomorrow and tuesday. I wish I could say we had great success but that is not the case as of yet.

So far we have been doing alot of trial and error with alot of different variables getting alot of core status errors of course.


We did make a little more (the most) progres when we started working with cuda 3.0 toolikit AND OPENMM

with setting the system environment flag to cuda_force_ptx_jit=1 we found the most progress was made.

while running 2 clients on one card it seemed to open up the gpu2 client to be more accepting of the card not sure if it was splitting the cores in half and making the force gpu flag we are useing to work as 2 cards on one gpu chip that brought the little success or just luck.

As of now we have been able to fold one wu out of seven and reach 70% constantly before getting failure on the core status with the rest. the one wu that did finish was completed and sent in with a 7k ppd in hfm.net client at the same time as the other wu was folding @7k ppd. so it does seem from our testing the card can put at or near 13-14k ppd out folding.

so far our general conclusion has come to the project number = failing wu's but we have not got another 6604 project to download which is the only one we had conmplete success with.

in short the different ways of trying to force a gtx 470 to fold is not as realistic as we had hoped while making the first post.

as I said we are working on a few more ideas as workarounds, but i can say with the programming knowledge we have compared to what stanford has for these clients, {non-open source} there is no reason a gpu3 client shouldn't already be out if they applied even 1 work day to making one.

I can say if the source code was 100% open source the public would have a working client already, but stanford wouldn't allow it any ways according to their license agreement. So making our own gpu client is out of the question but the most reasonable as the gpu2 client only needs some hardware codeing with cuda 3.0 tool to make it work as it stands atm.

sorry if anyone was hopeing for better results faster. however we are dedicated to putting the next week of after work hours into makeing this work, or until stanford gets off their butts and makes the gpu3 client.
I wish I could just tell you to set a target command field and try but it is not that simple by any means.



A big thanks to jedi95 as this post Folding on a GTX 470? is what brought us some success and got us pointed in the right direction.

"There is a possibility that using the CUDA 3.0 runtime (cudart.dll) will allow the card to fold. You can download the file here:
http://jedi95.uuuq.com/cudart_3.zip

Just replace the original cudart.dll in the client folder with the one in that zip archive."


I will be sure to follow up with more info tomorrow if we make any kind of progress of making a workaround.

I havent had time to put mine in, I had a significant hardware issue last week related to installing my GTX480(my raid array disappeared!). I wish you good luck! Let us know how it goes so we can learn too!

[Nude_Lewd_Man]

Oooh.... Just about perfic timing...

I was looking to get a 295 co-op, only to find that they're no longer available - so I'm now left wondering whether to go for the 470 or 480 cards....or is ATI now a reasonable choice..???

[ShyguyXPC]

ATI sucks still until the part 2 of the GPU3 client is tweaked, and what not, part 1 is basically getting it out and dealing with Nvidia compatibility, part 2 is ATI's methods of processing.

as to 295's yeah, their done, but I noticed a few for sale on OCN in the past week, might want to check those out, not sure if and how many over in UK, but worth a look.

[Nude_Lewd_Man]

I've been having a look for a few days, there don't appear to be any available (new) over this side...although I know that there is one second hander that is for sale on the OCUK site.......


Just need to decide whether I want to spend money on a second hand bit of kit (especially if it may have been OC'ed), and if so, how much I want to spend on it.....

[batmeat]

GPU3 Beta is downloaded and I'm playing with it now.

[ShyguyXPC]

ooooooooh, beta?


haven't read anything, but any performance or PPD enhancements for current Nvidia Cards? GTX 285, 9800GTX, 9600GSO, GT 220 specifically?

[Nude_Lewd_Man]

IDK if this is linked, but my 250 has recently had a pretty hefty drop in PPD....

Where I was getting 4-7k PPD, whereas now I'm lucky to get 3-4k PPD....

[ShyguyXPC]

I hope not, because if it is, my 285 will certainly be dropping as well...

maybe thats how they plan on making ATI cards more competitive, since they can't seem to get better PPD Rating, they drop the Nvidia cards ratings LOL.

seriously, would be nice to know if your Drop is related or not.

[Nude_Lewd_Man]

Mine started taking a hit a few days ago... I'm not at/on my machine too often (though I am now) so the most I can normally tell is by the PPD on EOC...

Nude_Lewd_Man - User Summary - EXTREME Overclocking Folding @ Home Stats
(That's for the 'other' Folding team - the -bigadv WUs are for Team111..!)

Check where the steady flow suddenly drops from circa 5k PPD (after the -bigadv WUs complete) down to around 2k... I've tried creating a new Folding client, checking the temps (it used to run the GPU at ~60 C, now it doesn't get much over 45 C) and restarting...all to see if I can get it sorted...

[ShyguyXPC]

hard to tell for mine

ShyGT - User Summary - EXTREME Overclocking Folding @ Home Stats

but, thats because I use the same PC, and several days I was running nothing, due to heat in house and outside.

that or gaming.

but since the CC I have really only been running the GTX 285, first week after I was running both cards, but after that, its mainly only been the 285. if I had the other rig going with the GSO's, then I'd be able to see some sort of Trend (assuming it was under a new name,so as to not add the 285 and 9800's points into the mix)




but as to my Folding Temps, I'm still sitting at 80-85C for folding at least on my end.

[batmeat]

been running smooth for the last few hours. Temps though are way high. My gpu peaked at 93 C... Granted the room my computer is in doesn't have AC and is hotter then the rest of the house. When I saw it I cranked the fan to 100% and brought it down to 73C. Future note, EVGA Precision v 1.93 isn't fully compatible with fermi gpu cards. 1.94 was released today though. Hopefully.....

[ShyguyXPC]

just installed precision 1.94, finally has a working Frame Rate counter for in game YAY!!!


never had that work before.

also just updated my drivers, was running 196.xx something from January, so now though a month and half old, I'm running the 197.xx versions.

and leave it to Nvidia to build up the hype on yet another let down.

they announced the release of the 256.xx drivers the other day, and its only the 257.xx beta thats out right now...

funny how they state they will start with 256.xx for the driver name, but the beta is 257.xx, and yet there is now downloadable 256.xx to speak of, so How the F, do you have a 257.xx Beta?

they claim they'll have a WHQL certified version soon, which would imply a gold release of the "256" family, but seriously, if the Beta is 257, and the family is 256, then why is there not a full release of 256 yet?

it just doesn't make sense, sounds more like Nvidia duping consumers/customers into joining their little jerk circle of theres.

if your going to announce the release then you better damn well have a full release and not just some Beta when you announce it. The Beta should of at least been announced as a 255.xx or 256.xx and the release as 257.



anyways, hoping I will have a little boost in Just Cause 2, as the Control Lag is pissing me off, there's a split second lag between actions and button presses for mouse, and other controls, and seems no one knows why it happens on some peoples PC's and not others, even though gamers specs might be nearly identical.

some have found lowering settings, and boosting fps to near 60, will lessen the control lag, but not entirely.

yet I'm one that likes to have my Res at 1080, and most settings on high.

now I'm wanting to get a newer better GPU

BF BC2 plays fine, but Just Cause 2 lags a little and can't run on near max settings.

at 1080, with a mix of medium and high settings and 4x AA, I get 30fps if I'm lucky.

[Nude_Lewd_Man]

BTW, with regards to my temps, all I can presume is that it isn't running at 100% anymore, even though that's what the config is set to do/use..

[batmeat]

Getting ready for a full 24hr run. I let it run about half a day and put up ~7300ppd on the GPU alone. Stock speeds are 608 core 1215 shader and 1674 memory. After a full 24hrs, I'm going to start overclocking to see what it can handle.....More to come

[Aresvista]

The temp increase under full load though isn't as drastic a change compared to my GTX 260's. Both those cards under full load would go from about 55-56C to about 72C. My GTX 470 at idle is at 79C with the fan ramped to 55% full load it's only been up to 85C. However, that fan isn't at 100% at that temp. I haven't found a good utility to let me altar the fan speed. I used to use EVGA Precision, but the latest version doesn't allow fan or core clock changes.