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World Community Grid Forums
Category: Support
Forum: BOINC Agent Support
Thread: BOINC slowing down Windows 7 UI |
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Thread Status: Active Total posts in this thread: 11
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WeirdHero
Cruncher Joined: Dec 9, 2004 Post Count: 4 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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I have a 4-core CPU and when BOINC is running 4 tasks, windows 7 UI slows down in some sections.
For example: when dragging an item in an open folder to the desktop, there is a very noticeable lag and the item's thumbnail can't keep up with the mouse. Reducing the CPU usage % had very little effect, but setting BOINC to run only 3 tasks on 3 cores solved the problem completely. This did not happen in windows XP or Vista. Obviously there is a problem with the process prioritization. |
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Sekerob
Ace Cruncher Joined: Jul 24, 2005 Post Count: 20043 Status: Offline |
Hi,
----------------------------------------Am assuming that the Activity menu option was set to Run as per Preferences? Yes, the throttle is not the best part of BOINC. It works on the On Off On Off principle at seconds exact so 50% is 1 second on 1 second off. Thus I use ThreadMaster GUI for the smooth throttling [when there is no temperature concern]. If there is a temperature only concern, most all can use TThrottle written for BOINC... set the temp and it will cause BOINC to slow down and stick to the target temp. Yes, allowing X of Y cores will do the trick too, but then 1 core goes lost on a permanent basis. If doing 3 of 4 cores, there's tools to focus BOINC to cores 1 / 2 / 3 and leaving core 0 for the OS. Also gives a little bit more crunching performance since the OS tends to use core 0 mostly. PS I run W7-64 Quad with 64 bit client and barely notice, sitting here listening to Nils Lofgren's Acoustic Live via the same comp from the HD ripped mp3 hi defs.
WCG
----------------------------------------Please help to make the Forums an enjoyable experience for All! [Edit 1 times, last edit by Sekerob at Feb 7, 2010 6:02:56 PM] |
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WeirdHero
Cruncher Joined: Dec 9, 2004 Post Count: 4 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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Well, i can't get around this, so WCG will now run on only 3 cores instead of 4 permanently.
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Sekerob
Ace Cruncher Joined: Jul 24, 2005 Post Count: 20043 Status: Offline |
Hi WeirdHero,
----------------------------------------If you post the startup messages from BOINC Manager, about 30-40 lines we can read your settings and system basics. Maybe there's a config that causes lots of disk i/o for example. Also, if there is already a process that takes a significant percent and BOINC trying 100% of the remainder, there's another possibility of lag. From testing the latest 6.10 (.32), the client will have a throttle that does not use e.g. 60% of the total, but rather 60% will work as the overall ceiling, so if 50% is user required and 60% were the setting, BOINC would only use 10%. This way, any remnant perception of crunching caused lag should go away, but 100% can never be met which there is for instance a exclude setting that automatically stops BOINC completely when e.g. gaming. Plz post and we have a look. ttyl
WCG
Please help to make the Forums an enjoyable experience for All! |
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Hypernova
Master Cruncher Audaces Fortuna Juvat ! Vaud - Switzerland Joined: Dec 16, 2008 Post Count: 1908 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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WeirdHero, can you tell us what CPU you have, what speed, and how much ram do you have.
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Sekerob
Ace Cruncher Joined: Jul 24, 2005 Post Count: 20043 Status: Offline |
That would be in the start up log WeirdHero will hopefully post :D
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WCG
Please help to make the Forums an enjoyable experience for All! |
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Ingleside
Veteran Cruncher Norway Joined: Nov 19, 2005 Post Count: 974 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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From testing the latest 6.10 (.32), the client will have a throttle that does not use e.g. 60% of the total, but rather 60% will work as the overall ceiling, so if 50% is user required and 60% were the setting, BOINC would only use 10%. This way, any remnant perception of crunching caused lag should go away, but 100% can never be met which there is for instance a exclude setting that automatically stops BOINC completely when e.g. gaming. Hmm, while there's a new feature, I've not heard it should work this way... Instead, atleast my experience is, if cpu-usage is over thatever user has set, BOINC will halt processing, not just decrease processing to leave the "missing". Also, a problem is the default is 25%, and not settable by local preference but only in up-to-date projects... Oh, and there's some "rough edges", since there's examples there client incorrectly counts BOINC-applications for using too much, and halts processing due to this...  "I make so many mistakes. But then just think of all the mistakes I don't make, although I might." |
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Sekerob
Ace Cruncher Joined: Jul 24, 2005 Post Count: 20043 Status: Offline |
Maybe re-read what I wrote, the sodden on-off-on-off not remotely close to what one can achieve with ThreadMaster GUI.
----------------------------------------Reported bug is setting it to 100% and run per prefs...then you get on-off-on-off too... pretty hmmm indeed. edit: If in doubt, read the insider word on how it's designed to work: https://secure.worldcommunitygrid.org/forums/...ead,28385_offset,0#265934
WCG
----------------------------------------Please help to make the Forums an enjoyable experience for All! [Edit 1 times, last edit by Sekerob at Feb 13, 2010 8:20:30 PM] |
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Ingleside
Veteran Cruncher Norway Joined: Nov 19, 2005 Post Count: 974 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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Maybe re-read what I wrote, the sodden on-off-on-off not remotely close to what one can achieve with ThreadMaster GUI. Reported bug is setting it to 100% and run per prefs...then you get on-off-on-off too... pretty hmmm indeed. Well, re-reading doesn't make it any clearer WTF you're meaning...  So, are you trying to talk about the "Use at most NNN% of cpu-time", and you're missing a "I would greatly hope it would become more like threadmaster"... Or, are you meaning the new "Suspend work if CPU usage is above NN%"-feature introduced by v6.10.3x? My answer was on the latter, there the default is 25%, and this gave problems. After setting it to zero on the other hand, as specified on how to disable this preference, I've not had any problems yet... edit - a Feature-request or design-goal and the actual implementation doesn't always work exactly as the Feature-request is. Going by Kevin Reeds 60%/50%/10%-example the feature-request would give 10%, but programming this in client to only give 10% cpu-usage is much harder, so implementation is zero% cpu-usage when the cpu-usage is too high. "I make so many mistakes. But then just think of all the mistakes I don't make, although I might." [Edit 1 times, last edit by Ingleside at Feb 13, 2010 8:44:12 PM] |
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WeirdHero
Cruncher Joined: Dec 9, 2004 Post Count: 4 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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Here is the start log (When running with 4 tasks):
2/16/2010 10:42:57 PM||Starting BOINC client version 6.2.28 for windows_intelx86 2/16/2010 10:42:57 PM||log flags: task, file_xfer, sched_ops 2/16/2010 10:42:57 PM||Libraries: libcurl/7.19.0 OpenSSL/0.9.8i zlib/1.2.3 2/16/2010 10:42:57 PM||Data directory: C:\Program Files\BOINC\Data 2/16/2010 10:42:57 PM||Running under account --CENSORED-- 2/16/2010 10:42:57 PM||Processor: 4 GenuineIntel Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40GHz [x86 Family 6 Model 15 Stepping 11] 2/16/2010 10:42:57 PM||Processor features: fpu tsc pae nx sse sse2 pni mmx 2/16/2010 10:42:57 PM||OS: Microsoft : x86 Editon, (06.01.7600.00) 2/16/2010 10:42:57 PM||Memory: 3.50 GB physical, 7.00 GB virtual 2/16/2010 10:42:57 PM||Disk: 84.12 GB total, 40.56 GB free 2/16/2010 10:42:57 PM||Local time is UTC +2 hours 2/16/2010 10:42:57 PM|World Community Grid|URL: http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/; Computer ID: --CENSORED--; location: (none); project prefs: default 2/16/2010 10:42:57 PM||General prefs: from World Community Grid (last modified 01-Jan-1970 02:00:01) 2/16/2010 10:42:57 PM||Host location: none 2/16/2010 10:42:57 PM||General prefs: using your defaults 2/16/2010 10:42:57 PM||Reading preferences override file 2/16/2010 10:42:57 PM||Preferences limit memory usage when active to 1791.24MB 2/16/2010 10:42:57 PM||Preferences limit memory usage when idle to 3224.24MB 2/16/2010 10:42:57 PM||Preferences limit disk usage to 1.86GB |
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