Folding Forum

I recently got back into folding with my newest rig, and this forum already help get my cpu folding working. So, I started folding on my gpu as well. My gpu is a geforce 770, and when I started folding, I noticed that, despite 100% utilization at full clock speed, my Estimated PPD was only 1679, and that folding was taking an extremely long time. my core i5, running at only 2.4 GHz, was only 700 PPD slower than my gpu. Does anyone know why the 770 is working so slowly, and how to fix it? Id rather be using the GPU, as it can fold much faster than the cpu can.

I am currently on geforce version 340.43, and FaH client 7.4.4

Thanks guys.

Is the core progressing in the log (as opposed to the estimate on the main screed of the client). If there is a driver reset, then the log may show no progress while the main screen shows progress but the estimated PPD will be very low. However, this normally goes with a 0% GPU usage which doesn't exactly fit with your description above. The solution here is to reboot.

The second thing to look at would be the %CPU usage. If there isn't a full CPU core to allocate to the GPU, there can be a significant drop in PPD.

Check your GPU clock rate to see if it is normal. If it is low, that can produce significantly low PPD.

I've looked at both the gpu clock and usage.
the clock is holding steady at 1087 MHz, so no downclocking there.
The usage sits at 0-5% for about a minute after starting FaH folding on the gpu, then jumps up to 100% usage.

I will reboot and try folding on the gpu to see if it works, and watch the log for any errors.

Also, do not use the estimated PPD/TPF till at least 3%-5% has completed. Before that point, the client does not have enough information and can be highly inaccurate in its estimates.

We can also get into less common causes of low PPD. For example, with multiple GPU's the client can get confused as to which GPU is being folded upon.

TheinsanegamerN wrote:I am currently on geforce version 340.43, and FaH client 7.4.4

You want the 327.23 driver. The later ones go downhill on OpenCL,which is what Core_17 uses, though your points are especially low, so it could be something else as well. But do a clean uninstall of your present drivers (first remove all the Nvidia drivers from the Control Panel/Programs and Features, and then use a driver cleaner such as Driver Fusion).

At least that is how it is on the 600 series cards; it could be different on the 700 series.

I believe that the 7xx series needs the newer drivers. With 6xx and earlier, it is better with 327.23 or earlier.

Specifically from prior discussions, it is 700 series cards based on the GK110 processor. Ones like the 770 which uses the GK104 appear to fold better with the older drivers.

From the notes in the Requirements section of the Windows Install Guide...

Non-GK110 GPUs may experience half speed folding when using NVidia drivers newer than 327.23. GK110 based GPUs experience no slow down using newer drivers. Waiting on a driver fix from NV. There is a potential for a fahcore workaround, in testing now.

Anybody know whether the 340.52 drivers out yesterday make a difference to this speed issue for the 7xxx series cards?

Nick200 wrote:Anybody know whether the 340.52 drivers out yesterday make a difference to this speed issue for the 7xxx series cards?

They don't make a difference on the GTX 750 Ti running under WinXP. But since that is a Maxwell card, it does not say much about the other cards in the series.