New version of BOINC

[Bok]

I've just installed 5.8.8 (http://boinc.berkeley.edu/download.php)

There is a few new options and a nice 'simple' view which is pretty nice..

Bok :thumbs:

[alpha]

The BOINC Manager offers two different interfaces: 'Simple' (small, graphical, skinnable) and 'Advanced' (maximum information). The Simple GUI allows local editing of preferences. You can switch back and forth between Simple and Advanced.
CPU throttling: you can reduce CPU heat by limiting the fraction of time that BOINC computes.
Improved scheduling policies avoid missing job deadlines even on a slow computer with lots of projects.
You can limit the amount of memory used by BOINC; this lets you compute all the time without losing performance.
Mac OS X version runs applications in an unpriviledged account, increasing security.
Snooze button (in the system tray icon) lets you stop computing for one hour.Thanks for the heads up!

[LAURENU2]

I have been watching how BOINC plays with other DC projects on AMD X2 running XP
Not good

It only records 1/2 or less of the real time even though the system has 2 cores and it is getting full use of one core 50/50
Now If you turn off the other running DC project BOINC still only records 95% of real time, usage is still 50/50 50 /BOINC 50 /systemidle
So it seems to me that on duel cores it is a waste to run BOINC at least in a XP OS

Is it the same way in a Linux OS ?

[Digital Parasite]

Lauren,

I'm not sure what you mean by recording real times. BOINC is running just fine on my dual-core systems.

Are you running 1 BOINC and 1 non-BOINC DC client on the same machine? What priorities are set for BOINC and this other DC project?

[LAURENU2]

Lauren,

I'm not sure what you mean by recording real times. BOINC is running just fine on my dual-core systems.

Are you running 1 BOINC and 1 non-BOINC DC client on the same machine? What priorities are set for BOINC and this other DC project?

Try 1 DPAD and one BOINC on a X2 core set the priorities to normal for both Record the BOINC time to the pouter time Check back in ten Min and see if you made ten Min in the BOINC client
I think you will see you have lost 3 to 5 min. out of that 10
I found this in Ver 5.8.8 and in 5.8.11

I also think it happens when you have 2 BOINC clients running at once

[alpha]

I don't know about a dual core CPU, but on a dually BOINC will automatically fire up 2 jobs at once (1 per CPU) unless you change it to run otherwise. I don't know why you would want to be having 2 BOINC instances, since it handles multiple CPUs just fine.

Check that BOINC isn't running 2 jobs.

[LAURENU2]

BOINC isn't running 2 jobs here.
But if it did the to 2 Jobs will not keep the same time one will add more time then the other Try it start 2 NEW jobs on a dual core CPU you will see they will run out of sink and lose time from real time of your computer:swear:

[LAURENU2]

BOINC isn't running 2 jobs here.
But if it did the to 2 Jobs will not keep the same time one will add more time then the other Try it start 2 NEW jobs on a dual core CPU you will see they will run out of sink and lose time from real time of your computer:swear:

Do you see what I mean alpha

This also holds true in 1 cpu becuse of over head

[Digital Parasite]

Try it start 2 NEW jobs on a dual core CPU you will see they will run out of sink and lose time from real time of your computer:swear:

I just tried this and am not seeing any problems. After 5 minutes the "CPU Time" column showed 5 minutes had passed and after 10 minutes they were both 10 give or take a second or so. Working fine here.

[Helix_Von_Smelix]

Not seen this on my dual core systems

But if you select max of one cpu in boinc then it will use one cpu, that is both cores. Because its one cpu dual core, not two single core cpu's

[LAURENU2]

I can not understand why no one but me can see this:bang:
I can reproduce this on every one of my XP nodes single CPUs and Duel core , they all lose time off the computer clock
:umm: Perhaps the members that answered are just giving it a quick glance instead of a real test as in recording the real time and the time used posted in the client and waiting 30 min to see what happened

[Helix_Von_Smelix]

in task manager, where is the other time going?

[Digital Parasite]

But if you select max of one cpu in boinc then it will use one cpu, that is both cores. Because its one cpu dual core, not two single core cpu's

That is not correct. If you select max 1 CPU in your BOINC config, it will only use 1 core. The physical layout of CPU vs core does not matter since Windows makes it look like 2 CPUs to any application that is running.

When I select 1 CPU, it only uses 1 core and leaves the other free.

[Digital Parasite]

I can not understand why no one but me can see this:bang:
I can reproduce this on every one of my XP nodes single CPUs and Duel core , they all lose time off the computer clock

Are you sure that you don't have anything else running in the background that is eating up CPU time? Have you confirmed that BOINC is set to give 100% and not throttle the CPU at all? Maybe you should post your BOINC configuration settings for us to look at in case we spot something.


:umm: Perhaps the members that answered are just giving it a quick glance instead of a real test as in recording the real time and the time used posted in the client and waiting 30 min to see what happened

Nope, I used my stop watch to time, and recorded the start/top time. Almost exactly what is being used.

On any of the DC clients you are running, have you set the affinity of the clients so they are accidentally both running on the same core and thus only using about half the CPU time expected?

[LAURENU2]

Are you sure that you don't have anything else running in the background that is eating up CPU time? Have you confirmed that BOINC is set to give 100% and not throttle the CPU at all? Maybe you should post your BOINC configuration settings for us to look at in case we spot something.


Nope, I used my stop watch to time, and recorded the start/top time. Almost exactly what is being used.

On any of the DC clients you are running, have you set the affinity of the clients so they are accidentally both running on the same core and thus only using about half the CPU time expected?

OK My Config
Processor usage
Do work while computer is running on batteries?
(matters only for portable computers) no
Do work while computer is in use? yes
Do work only between the hours of (no restriction)
Leave applications in memory while suspended?
(suspended applications will consume swap space if 'yes') yes
Switch between applications every
(recommended: 60 minutes) 60 minutes
On multiprocessors, use at most 1 processors
Use at most
Enforced by version 5.6 and greater 100 percent of CPU time
======================================

All but 5 of my computer run nothing but DC projects

OK yes thats true in a 1 core you get about 95 +% of the real time recorded (about 2 to 3 sec a min.loss) , even a bit more on a small networks as the network calls take up some of the CPU time.

But on duel cores when running one instances in BOINC and another DC project like DPAD
BOINC does not handle the real time WELL.
The 95% recorded time in 1 CPU drops to 65 to 75% on a Duel core
Even if you set all priority's normal for both programs

I am not sure but I think when you run 2 instances in BOINC it runs better then this, I will have to look into it more

[Angus]

OK My Config
Processor usage
Do work while computer is running on batteries?
(matters only for portable computers) no
Do work while computer is in use? yes
Do work only between the hours of (no restriction)
Leave applications in memory while suspended?
(suspended applications will consume swap space if 'yes') yes
Switch between applications every
(recommended: 60 minutes) 60 minutes
On multiprocessors, use at most 1 processors
Use at most
Enforced by version 5.6 and greater 100 percent of CPU time
======================================


You need to change the bolded setting to 2 or more

BOINC will only run one application instance with your current settings. It might switch back and forth between cores, since affinity is not part of the official BOINC package (some "other" versions of BOINC exist that do support affinity).

Oh, and don't run two copies of BOINC Manager. That will really hose things up.

[LAURENU2]

So it has to be ALL BOINC Or no BOINC Because BOINC does not know How to play nice with other projects.
Well As I Said That Kind-a Sucks

[Angus]

So it has to be ALL BOINC Or no BOINC Because BOINC does not know How to play nice with other projects.
Well As I Said That Kind-a Sucks
I don't think I said or meant that.

I thought you were trying to get BOINC to use the full capacity of your dual-core CPU.

If that's not the case, then I can't understand your question or issue.....

[LAURENU2]

No I wanted to run 2 different DC projects on a X2 system 2 cores at the same time :thumbs:
1=BOINC
1=DPAD

question or issue.....was why does BOINC lose 15 to 25 % of real time when a different DC project is running as apposed to only losing only 5% when BOINC alone is running

[jasong]

Maybe there's a way to set the affinity for each core, each to a different project.

[Digital Parasite]

No I wanted to run 2 different DC projects on a X2 system 2 cores at the same time :thumbs:
1=BOINC
1=DPAD

question or issue.....was why does BOINC lose 15 to 25 % of real time when a different DC project is running as apposed to only losing only 5% when BOINC alone is running

That does seem strange. Windows XP and earlier at least are not very smart for scheduling jobs on multiple CPUs/core and bounce around all the time. It could be constantly swapping CPUs for the applications which loses processing time. If the priorities are not the same it could be scheduling both on the same CPU for short amounts of time as well.

Windows has 2 levels of priorities. What you see in the Task Manager (Normal, BelowNormal, Low) is just 1 level, process priority. There is a second level, thread priority, that might not be the same between the two applications.

To double check, you can use my setpriority program:
http://gilchrist.ca/jeff/SetPriority/index.html

Run setpriority with the -g switch and the PID from task manager. It will tel you what the process and thread priorities are and you can see if they match for BOINC and DPAD and report back here.

When I did my test, I timed 2 BOINC clients running, I didn't try 1 BOINC and 1 something else. But you said you see the same time being lost with 2 BOINC clients running right? That should be almost the same.

[Digital Parasite]

No go Lauren?

[LAURENU2]

No go Lauren?
Sorry I have been real hard pressed for time
Have not tried to balance them yet

[cwhyl]

Linux here and it seems there are some fishy things with the new Boinc 5.8*
BoincManager runs at priority nice 0 (normal) and it takes up 5% of processing power if the Task window is open. Very irritating. The older version 5.2.13 only uses 0.3 %

Boinc 5.8.11 and 5.8.15 goes to the waste basket, "bonk" "bonk"

Back to Boinc 5.2.13 :)