| Index | Recent Threads | Unanswered Threads | Who's Active | Guidelines | Search |
 |
World Community Grid Forums
Category: Support
Forum: BOINC Agent Support
Thread: WUs on AMD quad running very slow |
| No member browsing this thread |
|
Thread Status: Active Total posts in this thread: 15
|
|
| Author |
|
|
Sekerob
Ace Cruncher Joined: Jul 24, 2005 Post Count: 20043 Status: Offline |
RMAU,
----------------------------------------would you please post the start up message log of BOINC so we can see the base configuration. Before doing so also do the Advanced menu, benchmark, so we see that too. Though the benchmark is run at normal priority, whilst the tasks run at idle priority, it's another indicator. Also, go to the data_dir (shown in the start up log), open the client_state.xml and find the <project> section of WCG and the Duration Correction Factor. That's an indicator of real performance versus benchmark. Normal devices have it near the 1.000000 value, but it can swing if job lengths have been incorrectly computed. This happens for projects like HCMD2 and CEP with high duration variation.
WCG
Please help to make the Forums an enjoyable experience for All! |
||
|
|
twilyth
Master Cruncher US Joined: Mar 30, 2007 Post Count: 2130 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
|
Hello, I have run into a similar problem. for some reason the work units are taking longer to do. However I suspected it was processor based. I suspect you are talking about phenoms. If this is true there may be a reason for this slowdown. "AMD considers the quad core Phenoms to be the first "true" quad core design, as these processors are a monolithic multi-core design" From my challenges from server motherboards that truly have 2 separate processers I can say this: The more processers you have the more memory each has to fight for. This is one of the reasons of lesser returns from more processers. Is this from the monolithic design? I may never know. Also I run Linux because of a bug in the TLB that is the look-aside buffer. Linux implements a kernel patch to avoid the bug that does not impact performance. However on windows machines, the "patch" makes a 20-50% performance hit. If you are stuck with windows then it is up to you on to disable it or not. From what I have seen it is about as common as if you suddenly won the lottery 10 times. But with these science apps I have no idea. Anyway Phenom gen 1s had some bumps and gen 2 is supposed to be so much better. Just my 2 cents i really have no idea what your problem is. I will say that on my core2 it takes a cretin project about half as long. However this is not true about HCC WUs (maybe due to 64 bit?) Hope this helps a bit. Please check to see if you have this patch. This seems like the most likely explanation other than a virus or other malware. However, even in the worst case of a 50% performance decrease, I would expect the quad to be on par with the dual cores, so there may be more than one issue. I would suggest running Malwarebytes, Avira and/or other virus/malware software. Malwarebytes is free for the scan and you can get Avira for a 30 day trial. Also, I highly recommend Whatsrunning. This should show you ALL of your processes and what their cpu usage is. Just right click in each tabbed window to get a list of all the parameters you can view. If you bought your motherboard after 1/2008, the odds are that it already had the TLB patch in the bios, so you would probably have to go back to an older bios version - if that is even an option for your motherboard. I had 2 Phenom 9600's with the TLB bug and neither had a problem with BOINC, but both came with pre/unpatched bios.   [Edit 1 times, last edit by twilyth at May 29, 2009 11:05:59 AM] |
||
|
|
RMau
Cruncher Joined: Feb 6, 2008 Post Count: 44 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
|
Sekerob,
----------------------------------------Here is the Duration Correction Factor for WCG. A lot larger than 1.000000. <duration_correction_factor>3.243494</duration_correction_factor> And, here is the message log. 5/28/2009 10:26:41 AM||Starting BOINC client version 6.2.28 for windows_intelx86  [Edit 1 times, last edit by RMau at May 30, 2009 12:29:47 PM] |
||
|
|
RMau
Cruncher Joined: Feb 6, 2008 Post Count: 44 Status: Offline Project Badges:
|
twilyth,
----------------------------------------Thank you for the suggestion. I'll look in to this patch and your suggested trouble shooting programs. I've used similar ones that have not found anything yet, but one program won't catch everything. |
||
|
|
twilyth
Master Cruncher US Joined: Mar 30, 2007 Post Count: 2130 Status: Offline Project Badges:
|
I'm not doing faah or dddt right now, but my times on a Phenom 9600 (slightly over stock) for HFCC are from 4.74 hrs to 8.31 hrs with most falling in the 6.5-7.0 range. So from the one job in your listing that I can compare, you seem to be right on par.
----------------------------------------also, just a helpful hint, when you have a lot of text you want to post but don't want it to take up most of a page, use the code /code BBC tags and you will get a scrolling text box - like a quote but with a scroll bar. What you posted wasn't really long, but if you ever need to post something that is, that's a good way to do it without having to worry about trying to edit it. [Edit 1 times, last edit by twilyth at May 30, 2009 1:15:15 AM] |
||
|
|
|