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World Community Grid Forums
Category: Support
Forum: Suggestions / Feedback
Thread: Just another question about GPU crunching at WCG |
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Thread Status: Active Total posts in this thread: 18
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Richard Mitnick
Veteran Cruncher USA Joined: Feb 28, 2007 Post Count: 583 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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I am getting ready to purchase a new desktop computer. I am on the fence about paying for a GPU good for crunching and paying for the necessary cooling.
----------------------------------------There are very few projects running on BOINC software that use GPU capability. The thinking over there is that it is very costly and difficult, and after all, how many people can do it? It is sort of chicken or egg which came first. So, my question here is, is there any positive outlook for GPU crunching at WCG or any of its projects? I mean, if not, I will be just as happy to spend the money on more CPU power, like six or eight hyper threaded cores. I just do not want to be left out in the cold after spending around US$4000. Any received wisdom in this area will be appreciated. |
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Falconet
Master Cruncher Portugal Joined: Mar 9, 2009 Post Count: 3315 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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----------------------------------------  - AMD Ryzen 5 1600AF 6C/12T 3.2 GHz - 85W - AMD Ryzen 5 2500U 4C/8T 2.0 GHz - 28W - AMD Ryzen 7 7730U 8C/16T 3.0 GHz |
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LCB001
Advanced Cruncher CANADA Joined: Oct 14, 2009 Post Count: 69 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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With a $4000 budget you should be able to build two (2) very capable crunching rigs with fairly high-end GPU's in them.
----------------------------------------With a HCC app for GPU's coming in the new year it's worth it to get a decent card and in the meantime there are other worthy projects like GPUGrid and Folding@Home to crunch. Poem@Home is also getting ready to debut it's GPU app soon...  |
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Richard Mitnick
Veteran Cruncher USA Joined: Feb 28, 2007 Post Count: 583 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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Sure, yes, a colleague told me about that hcc2. but that does not answer the question of whether there is a significant future for GPU crunching at WCG projects. I work on WCG and other BOINC projects. Folding@home is a very worthy project, but not my interest.
----------------------------------------Also, with a decent liquid cooling system for the GPU and a six core hyper threaded CPU, $4000 will only be enough money for one machine from a very special master builder. ---------------------------------------- [Edit 2 times, last edit by mitrichr at Nov 13, 2011 8:26:41 PM] |
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LCB001
Advanced Cruncher CANADA Joined: Oct 14, 2009 Post Count: 69 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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Do you have a link to this "Special Master Builder".
----------------------------------------Since you are getting watercooled gpu's I gather this will be primarily a gaming rig ??. Even watercooled I hope you're getting at least dual GTX580's for that price, the SR-2 based dual-hex rig I put together for Folding/Crunching (cpu only) cost less than $2K to build.. Enjoy your new rig... |
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Richard Mitnick
Veteran Cruncher USA Joined: Feb 28, 2007 Post Count: 583 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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Do you have a link to this "Special Master Builder". Since you are getting watercooled gpu's I gather this will be primarily a gaming rig ??. Even watercooled I hope you're getting at least dual GTX580's for that price, the SR-2 based dual-hex rig I put together for Folding/Crunching (cpu only) cost less than $2K to build.. Enjoy your new rig... http://www.maingear.com/index.php No gaming, just GPU crunching is the target for the GPU's, and yes, two GTX580's. The CPU will be a hyper threaded six core Intel processor. The whole thing will allow me to work on more BOINC projects and do a better job than I am doing on my curent crop of 22 projects, recognizing all WCG projects as individual projects, as they should be. I want to step up and away from where I am, which is an i7-920 desktop, an i7-840QM laptop, an i7-2720QM laptop, all hyper threaded quads; an i5-520M hyper threaded dual core, and two Core 2 Duo's, one of which the new beast will replace. You know, the laptops are set at 60%, which is conservative. The new desktop will have no such limitations. So, twelve thread to replace two threads on the CPU side, and then plus the GPU side for Einstein, Milky Way, and SETI, and hcc2 when it emerges from the mist for GPU work. Plus, I am looking down the road. I need a new machine to replace the aging Core 2 Duo and I don't want to minimize now and be sorry later. |
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TimAndHedy
Senior Cruncher Joined: Jan 27, 2009 Post Count: 267 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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ure, yes, a colleague told me about that hcc2. but that does not answer the question of whether there is a significant future for GPU crunching at WCG projects. I work on WCG and other BOINC projects. Folding@home is a very worthy project, but not my interest. One option is to wait until a project you are interested comes along prior to buying the GPU. They are very easy to add in later. The advantage is that the card you buy in a year will have more power than one you buy now. |
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JmBoullier
Former Community Advisor Normandy - France Joined: Jan 26, 2007 Post Count: 3716 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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Sure, yes, a colleague told me about that hcc2. but that does not answer the question of whether there is a significant future for GPU crunching at WCG projects. mitrichr,I am not sure I get what you mean. HCC on GPU is not a joke, there is serious work done in WCG's backyard and what bbover3 said at the end of this post is still valid, including that the beta phase has chances to be tough! Once it is over and switches to production, then launching new GPU projects will be up to the Research Labs as usual. As it has been said many times in umpteen threads, making an application available for GPUs is not the same as porting a CPU application to a new operating system, it is developing new code. And while the former is WCG's job the latter is entirely dependent on the labs and their decision to go the GPU way is influenced by several factors, basically: 1. Is the problem suitable for GPU processing (many are not)? 2. Is the total of work to do big enough for investing in GPU coding? 3. Do they have the necessary skills on board? Regarding #2 above don't underestimate that a project may be big enough for CPU processing (WCG needs a total duration of 6 months minimum) and become far too short if GPUs are enabled. What is sure is that when HCC2 goes to production WCG will be ready to accept more GPU projects with less foreseeable trouble. Then... we'll see.  |
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Richard Mitnick
Veteran Cruncher USA Joined: Feb 28, 2007 Post Count: 583 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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mitrichr, I am not sure I get what you mean. HCC on GPU is not a joke, there is serious work done in WCG's backyard and what bbover3 said at the end of this post is still valid, including that the beta phase has chances to be tough! I did not mean to imply that any work in any area is a joke. I am truly sorry if that is what you inferred. Contemplating a new machine is a serious financial consideration. When I explored the BOINC Wiki on GPU, I was surprised to see how there are actually very few projects which have GPU capability available. I mean, you know, there is always a certain buzz around GPU crunching. The investment for GPU's themselves and for heat management is pretty steep. If there is going to be a solid trend in this direction, then I want to be there. However, maybe it is premature. Maybe today I am better off to invest those dollars in more CPU power, like an eight core hyper threaded CPU. I am already running three hyper threaded quads and a petty good hyper threaded dual core. While no machines were purchased just for this work, all were purchased with crunching as a major consideration. And, I am not talking about credits or points. My interest is doing as much work for as many projects running on BOINC software as I can afford. My total thread count including all of my machines, even my ATOM netbook, is 32. I work on 22 projects when one counts each WCG project individually - which is how I believe they should be counted (I have WCG's Resource Share at 200, all others at 100, and, you can see, it is where I have done the most work). Right now, I am tending toward the GPU capability and a hyper threaded six core CPU. The twelve threads will replace two threads on an aging Core 2 Duo (one of the quads, eight threads, has already replaced my other aging Core two Duo work laptop). I am just trying to get it right, getting the most bang for my pocketbook buck. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
1. HCC(1) is as sure as sure can be, to run on GPU with a purpose compile to serve NVIDIA and ATI(AMD) each, with 6.10.58 client (see last scientist update report). My clear understanding, it's integral part of HCC1, not a new project, just an additional opt-in to HCC1... stats collecting under 1 label for CPU+GPU.
2. Sometime ago someone construed that HCC2 was this GPU implementation. It is *not*. HCC2 is an entirely new science project in early development... long way away. Given that the scientists were the ones who coded the HCC1 GPU version, we just have to wait and see if HCC2 is fit for GPU in addition to CPU. The skill is developing. --//-- |
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