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World Community Grid Forums
Category: Support
Forum: BOINC Agent Support
Thread: Optimizing temperature/computing power |
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Thread Status: Active Total posts in this thread: 10
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eggzzo
Cruncher Poland Joined: Oct 10, 2010 Post Count: 4 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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Hello there,
I am looking for a way to reduce the CPU temperature when using the BOINC Client, while maintaining as high as possible computing power. I do not mind giving almost all of the processor power to BOINC, as at most times I am unable to use it anyway. My computer is a Dell XPS Laptop, with a (Mobile) Intel Core i7 2720QM (Sandy Bridge) CPU - 4 cores, 8 threads; and a GeForce GT555M GPU, however I'm using only the CPU for WCG tasks. The laptop is sitting most of the time on a cooler thingy with a 120mm fan. My O/S is Win 7 Home Premium 64-bit, I'm using the WCG BOINC Client, and am not involved in any other BOINC projects. The CPU core temperatures peak at 87-88 degrees Celsius when using the 100% max load setting and get as high as 97 degrees when launching any other resource-hungry application. This makes me a bit nervous when thinking about the potential lifespan of the computer, so I'd like to keep it at least =< 80 degrees Celsius (even though I've read somewhere that i7s are safe as long as they don't exceed 100 degrees). I've tried fine-tuning the temperature with the TThrottle app, but it doesn't work very well for me - as soon as it reduces the temperature, the fan slows down and the temperature jumps right back. In fact, it seems that setting the max temperature in TThrottle to 80 degrees seems to slow down BOINC by a greater factor than setting max load in the BOINC to 50% (using the latter option, based on my rather simplistic tests, seems to have slowed down computing speed by about 20%, whereas using the TThrottle to maintain temperature seems to have reduced the computing speed by about 50-60%). I imagine that it might work altogether better if I supplement TThrottle with some sort of software fan speed control, but I can't find a proper program for that... Oh, and I vacuumed out most of the dust and cat hair from all of the laptop's "orifices". I'd rather not crack the chassis open what with the seal and the guarantee still valid and all. I'd be really grateful for any advice on how to reduce the CPU temperature, and well, give as much power to WCG as possible. Thanks in advance! eggzzo |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Hi eggzzo and welcome to the forums. I tried TThrottle once and I didn't like it. In theory that should be the best option to maximize performance while keeping temperatures in check. On my laptops I set the % of CPU time to a value that gives me a comfortable level of temperature (measured by Speedfan or other similar applications). BTW, Speedfan is supposed to allow you to control, well, the fan speeds :) I haven't tried that, I only use it to measure temperatures.
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Sgt.Joe
Ace Cruncher USA Joined: Jul 4, 2006 Post Count: 7849 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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Some use Threadmaster.
----------------------------------------Cheers
Sgt. Joe
*Minnesota Crunchers* |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Hi eggzzo and welcome to the forums. I tried TThrottle once and I didn't like it. In theory that should be the best option to maximize performance while keeping temperatures in check. On my laptops I set the % of CPU time to a value that gives me a comfortable level of temperature (measured by Speedfan or other similar applications). BTW, Speedfan is supposed to allow you to control, well, the fan speeds :) I haven't tried that, I only use it to measure temperatures. For Speedfan, working very well to control fan speeds, but *not* on laptops, see the Start Here index FAQ on useful utilities. It's very very good at setting a higher rpm floor than the system BIOS will, at a level that is not irritating, but high enough to not see the fan oscillation. Then when it gets too hot, prevented by TThrottle in the first instance setting a temp ceiling, Speedfan will increase the fan speed but slowly and keep it fairly constant at that until temps go down again. With a little balance play the best settings can be found for highest performance at lowest constant fan speed [provided those are sensor controlled]. Note that you need to set Speedfan to override the system control (Set PWM 1/2/3 mode to Software controlled, to override system Guardian or similar), else the BIOS will still interfere with the fan control and Speedfan does nothing much, but monitoring temps. The disadvantage of the great ThreadMasterGUI is, that it's a little maintenance required, lest just using it to set an across the board CPU % ceiling in options. See for TMG in the FAQ index as well. NB: Do experiment whilst BOINC is on a low CPU% when you start so you wont burn things. When you found what controls the fan, increase BOINC CPU time % (Run based on preferences, of course). --//-- |
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PMH_UK
Veteran Cruncher UK Joined: Apr 26, 2007 Post Count: 786 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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Some laptops have "hatches" over memory, HD etc. that could be removed to allow air from the external cooler over them. Also worth brushing/blowing dust out from there.
----------------------------------------Consider removing the battery as will likely get fried at that temp. You could try limiting number of cores in use via profile. Likely other laptop tips in other threads, check chat room. Paul.
Paul.
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eggzzo
Cruncher Poland Joined: Oct 10, 2010 Post Count: 4 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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Hi eggzzo and welcome to the forums. I tried TThrottle once and I didn't like it. In theory that should be the best option to maximize performance while keeping temperatures in check. On my laptops I set the % of CPU time to a value that gives me a comfortable level of temperature (measured by Speedfan or other similar applications). BTW, Speedfan is supposed to allow you to control, well, the fan speeds :) I haven't tried that, I only use it to measure temperatures. SpeedFan works well enough on it's own, i.e. it maintains the fan RPM at a fixed level if I configure it to do so. It doesn't work at all in conjunction with TThrottle which I find massively disappointing (as soon as TThrottle starts, the software override for the fan RPM given by SpeedFan seems to stop working). Some use Threadmaster. Cheers I can't get it to work. I managed to update the registry with the new keys, but I can't get the service to launch. Windows either spews some garbage about Access Denied (which I managed to work around), or claims it cannot locate the file in question. Bless Microsoft for making increasingly unconfigurable Windows. Some laptops have "hatches" over memory, HD etc. that could be removed to allow air from the external cooler over them. Also worth brushing/blowing dust out from there. As mentioned earlier I'd rather not open the chassis, as it's still factory sealed and I'd like to keep the warranty for now ;). But I did clean out every nook and cranny that I could reach without detaching any sealed parts. Consider removing the battery as will likely get fried at that temp. Done already, but thanks! You could try limiting number of cores in use via profile. I was hoping to avoid just that. Likely other laptop tips in other threads, check chat room. Will do. SekeRob: thanks for mentioning ThreadMasterGUI. Contrary to my expectations it actually did install successfully. I'll do some poking around the boards to find out how to best configure it and if it's any better than the BOINC client worktime limit. Thanks for your help and kind attention everyone! eggzzo |
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eggzzo
Cruncher Poland Joined: Oct 10, 2010 Post Count: 4 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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Just an update: ThreadMasterGUI works like a charm. It actually launches the required service, whereas due to some quirky and moody Windows behaviour I am unable to do that by hand. CPU temperatures are under control.
Thanks! eggzzo |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
eggzzo: glad to hear you got it under control. Last month I bought a new i7 laptop (been wanting one for a long time). After much research on obm's cooling configurations;
----------------------------------------i had settled on ASUS X74 series i7. First time I bought other than the dell's. I run the asus at 100% 24-7 high performance crunching on all 8 threads cep2 gfam and play games and surf the internet at the same time. Highest temp ever reached is 65c. I runs cooler than my desktop i7 from dell. A great LAPTOP at stock configuration keep on crunching and good luck [Edit 1 times, last edit by Former Member at Feb 20, 2012 10:05:14 AM] |
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eggzzo
Cruncher Poland Joined: Oct 10, 2010 Post Count: 4 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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eggzzo: glad to hear you got it under control. Last month I bought a new i7 laptop (been wanting one for a long time). After much research on obm's cooling configurations; i had settled on ASUS X74 series i7. First time I bought other than the dell's. I run the asus at 100% 24-7 high performance crunching on all 8 threads cep2 gfam and play games and surf the internet at the same time. Highest temp ever reached is 65c. I runs cooler than my desktop i7 from dell. A great LAPTOP at stock configuration keep on crunching and good luck txyankee: Thanks! It's also definitely a thing to consider in the future, when buying a new laptop - how does it actually work on 100% load. It is "good enough" for me now though, and to be honest I can't see much difference between the speed of calculations before limiting CPU load and now. It does get too hot when launching e.g. Skyrim, but lowering the max-cpu-power threshold does the trick. Fun fact: Only the cores overheat. All other temperature readings are always in the "acceptable" scale. Best, eggzzo |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
I also run skyrim at max settings while 100% power setting and 100% cpu useage at wcg. I do not run any boinc gpu task's thou. still remaining highest temp reached 65c
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