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Former Member
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Setting Processor Affinity

Hello all,

I hope this is the correct place to ask this. smile

I like to know if and how i can set the Affinity of the Processor/CPU?
I have a Quad Core CPU and i like to address WCG to Core3 and Core4.
Since most games support Single or Dual core at most i address the game to the other two cores and i can play flawlessly.

And when i don't set the Affinity for neither of them, i get nasty lag-bumps since WCG is spiking to the 100% CPU usage every ½ second.

So i like to know if i can set the Affinity in the WCG Manager or so?
Since now, i have to do it manually every time i get a new task.

Cheers.
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[Edit 1 times, last edit by Former Member at Dec 10, 2009 10:24:12 PM]
[Dec 10, 2009 10:22:38 PM]   Link   Report threatening or abusive post: please login first  Go to top 
Sekerob
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Re: Setting Processor Affinity

Think you first need to set BOINC to use 50% of the processors, so it only uses 2 of 4 cores. Automated affinity assignment could be achieved with a util called ProcessLasso. Been using that for longer. For instance you can tell it to run FAAH only off cores 02 and 03.

If it's a gaming issue only you can also instruct BOINC in the cc_config.xml to not run when certain apps are loaded. This way, when you exit the game, all 4 cores get used again to the full.

The <options> line to use is

<exclusive_app>important.exe</exclusive_app>

BOINC will suspend computing whenever the executable is running (e.g., a game). Multiple applications can be specified.
Warning: Do check your system for other applications with the same name. Since there will be no path used, any application with this name will suspend BOINC, not just the one you want (like a game).

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[Dec 10, 2009 10:34:59 PM]   Link   Report threatening or abusive post: please login first  Go to top 
Former Member
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Re: Setting Processor Affinity

Thank you for the quick replay.
I think i try that ProcessLasso out.

Since most games leave 2/4 cores unused it's a bit of a loss when i turn WCG out to do nothing when i'm gaming.

--

Also tried the CPU usage percentage to 50% but still get lag that way.

Thanks
[Dec 10, 2009 11:03:57 PM]   Link   Report threatening or abusive post: please login first  Go to top 
Sekerob
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Re: Setting Processor Affinity

There's 2 controls in the web profiles, the Processor use %

On multiprocessors, use: X % of processors

and the Processor Time %.

Use no more than: X % of processor time

Specifically the latter causes this alternating effect.

If u use ProcessLasso to set the sciences to only use core 2 and 3 it will cause for a quad to run 2 sciences each to run i.e. still 4, which is not very efficient.

E. Frijters recently asked about the scripting of the first setting so during use BOINC would run slow to reduce fan noice and fast when not. The core use switching could be scripted too. It's a long standing feature request, to have BOINC only use part of the cores when doing specific things rather than pausing... one day.

edit: In case you wish to dual boot a 32 bit and 64 bit of the same platform, e.g. Windows 64 and 32 bit, install the lowest bit client i.e. the 32 bit as you wont be able to run 64 bit projects when booted into the 32 bit platform. The rest is piece of cake. Install 32 bit BOINC client both under 32 and 64 bit and choose during the install the same data directory location. Don't think permissions play a roll, but choose all-users anyhow.
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[Edit 1 times, last edit by Sekerob at Dec 11, 2009 7:37:30 AM]
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Hypernova
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smile Re: Setting Processor Affinity

The best way I found to manage this issue is as follows:

I set up BOINC so that 100% of the cores are used and all the time.
When I do simple things like internet browsing, office work in general I see no problem with W7 doing the management of the WCG processes and the one due to my activity.

As I am typing now I see the 8 cores crunching at the same time. I feel no impact all.

The CPU I have a Core I7 975 Extreme with HT paired with 12 GB of DDR3 -2000Mhz RAM, that is powerful enough to manage all. Even photoshop does ok.
If I need the power for more computer intensive stuff, video,video editing, 3dsmax modelling, games like flight simulators, etc. then I just hit on my WCG Icon on the bottom right of my taskbar the "suspend" function. WCG immediately stops with the work staying in RAM (negligible amount) ready to restart immediately to a new click when I have finished my computer intensive activity.

I find this the most simple and best way to go if you have powerful CPU's.

Now if you do not have enough processing power then maybe to assign physically the cores is a way to ensure to have some cores devoted to your activity.
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[Dec 11, 2009 9:06:02 AM]   Link   Report threatening or abusive post: please login first  Go to top 
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