Please help me with GTX 260 + 8600GT setup

[{T5K}Skaank]

I've been searching around for an answer for a week or so plus I keep trying different settings, but I'm not really sure how to specify the FAH to only run on a specific video card.

I originally had the GTX 260 & it had a performance around 550NS but I installed the 8600GT to run a 2nd monitor & dedicated as the PhysX card, but now the FAH only uses the 8600GT @ 185ns & not the GTX 260 at all.

I tried setting the nVidia PhysX properties to the GTX 260 but FAH still only runs on the 8600GT.

I'd like to run FAH on only the GTX 260, but not on the 8600GT cuz it runs way too hot (unless there's a way to have it run consisderably less than totally maxxed out cuz it jumps from 50C idle to 75C+ under FAH load).

I ticked the option not to lock it to a specific core so it would run on both cores of my CPU but that didn't work either.

if possible please tell me the settings to set FAH to only use the GTX 260 and to run it on both cores of my CPU if possible.

I have 32-bit XP pro sp3 and the nvidia folding client 6.20r1 & 178.24 drivers.

If it's in the Additional Client Parameters section I tried entering GPU0 or GPU1 and changing the settings for the machine # but that didn't seem to work so please dumb down the answer for me.

I want to contribute as much CPU & GPU power as I can but I can't figure out the settings, any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

[Ren02]

How did you enter GPU0 and GPU1?
The correct syntax should be
-gpu 0
or
-gpu 1

If there is no space between "-gpu" and "1" then it is viewed as an unknown switch by the client and it is ignored.

[{T5K}Skaank]

Thank you, I didn't have the space and now I can tell by the temps that it's using the GTX 260 but the viewer still says "Hardware: 8600GT" and only 160 ns performance instead of the 550 ns the GTX 260 should be.

It says it will take 7h:30m to complete the WU when it normally should take around 2 hrs.

Does the Machine ID setting do anything?

[Ren02]

There have been some reports that mixing different GPUs in a single machine causes FAH to run at the speed of the slowest card in the system. Sorry, I can't help you with that.

[ChelseaOilman]

Does the Machine ID setting do anything?

If your running multiple clients on the same computer you need to have a different machine id# for each client.

[AmbroseAthan]

Ren02, I can say for my own system, that is not true. 280GTX runs at around 8k PPD, while the G80 GTS runs at about 4k; at least in my ssystem.

[{T5K}Skaank]

My board is Asus A8N32-SLI and I have the GTX 260 set as the primary in BIOS & in 32-bit XP pro.

The 8600GT somehow stayed as the listed GPU in the viewer but doesn't heat up so I know it's not running.

The GTX 260 barely heats up (50C to 58C) and runs at only 150 ns under FAH load (lower than the 185 ns the 8600GT ran at?!?!?). It used to run in the mid 60Cs @ 550 ns....

[{T5K}Skaank]

My board is Asus A8N32-SLI and I have the GTX 260 set as the primary in BIOS & in 32-bit XP pro.

The 8600GT somehow stayed as the listed GPU in the viewer but doesn't heat up so I know it's not running.

The GTX 260 barely heats up (50C to 58C) and runs at only 150 ns under FAH load (lower than the 185 ns the 8600GT ran at?!?!?). It used to run in the mid 60Cs @ 550 ns....

I tried uninstalling FAH, disabled the 8600GT & reinstalled FAH and it's OK as the GTX 260 @ full speed, but when I reinstall the 8600GT and set FAH to -CPU 1 it still lowers the GTX 260's speed to less than even the 8600GT's speed again?!?!?

Does anybody know how to set it so that the GTX 260 runs at full speed & the 8600GT is ignored?

Thanks!

[toTOW]

First, don't use the viewer, it consume a lot of resources for nothing. The usual performance measure we use is PPD (Points Per Day) which can be displayed by tools like Fahmon or Fahspy.

There have been some report where mixing board with different shader numbers kills the performances. That might be the issue you're seeing here. If you don't need it, I think you should remove the 8600GT (with a maximum output of 1500 PPD, I don't think it'll be a huge loss) ... you can still use it in another machine, or sell it if it becomes useless.

[ChelseaOilman]

when I reinstall the 8600GT and set FAH to -CPU 1 it still lowers the GTX 260's speed to less than even the 8600GT's speed again?!?!?

There's no -CPU 1 flag. You need the -gpu 0 flag on one client and the -gpu 1 flag on the other. You also need to extend the desktop to the other monitor/card first.

Just follow the instructions in the guide for multi GPU setup.
http://folding.stanford.edu/English/WinGPUGuide#ntoc4

[patonb]

The odd part of extending the desktop is I never did, and it folds just fine. However I can't underclock it without extending.

[toTOW]

Are you sure that you're really folding on both boards ?

If you don't extend the desktop, you're likely running two client on the same board

[{T5K}Skaank]

Sorry, -CPU 1 was a typo & I meant -gpu 1 (GPU 0 is the 8600GT).

I have the desktop extended and the viewer worked OK when I had the single card. I can tell which card FAH is using by the temp rise.

I followed the link to the multi-GPU instructions & made a separate FAH folder specifically for the GTX 260 & created a new shortcut like this:

Target: "C:\Program Files\Folding@home\Folding@home-gpu\Folding@home.exe" -gpu 1
Start in: "C:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Application Data\Folding@Home-gpu1"

When I start FAH from that shortcut the viewer still says 8600GT but the GTX 260 is doing the work but at the slower than ever 120 ns pace...

Setting up the different folder didn't convince FAH to use the GTX 260 at it's full speed because apparently there's something other than the client.cfg file that senses the 8600GT and uses it to set the max speed for the GTX 260.

It appears that the bottom line is as toTOW points out "There have been some report where mixing board with different shader numbers kills the performances. That might be the issue you're seeing here."

Hopefully the FAH will be updated to use the correct speed for the selected card because I just got the 8600GT to replace my PCI PhysX card & need to keep the 8600GT for now.

Thanks for all your help!

[toTOW]

Well ... I heard somewhere that it might be a CUDA bug ... not a FAH one

[AmbroseAthan]

I guess my question is this: Why is the 8600 GPU 0? Not sure it should matter, but do you have the 260 or the 8600 in the primary GPU slot?