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New to Intel
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Penguirl
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Jan 6, 2011, 01:58 PM
 
Apple was kind enough to give me a Mac Pro to replace my Power Mac G5 that they couldn't get parts for so now I'm learning about running BOINC on an Intel powered Mac. I've fixed the waiting for shared memory issue and installed the optimized SETI apps but I'm wondering what else I should do. Are there any other optimized apps for Intel Macs?

Also I seem to remember someone mentioning here that hyper-threading is actually a little slower overall because each core is switching back & forth between WUs. I installed the processor pref pane but unchecking the hyper-threading box doesn't seem to work, BOINC is still running eight WUs on my quad core. Is there some way to disable H-T for good?
     
arkayn
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Jan 6, 2011, 05:09 PM
 
Which apps did you install?
     
reader50
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Jan 6, 2011, 05:12 PM
 
Hyperthreading is a negative if you are using the same resources in both threads on a core. If one thread is doing floating-point and the other is doing integer, then HT becomes a big plus.

So if you were running clients on two projects, one FP-oriented like SETI and another Int-oriented, and if you could insure they are assigned in pairs to each core ... then you might approach twice the performance with HT enabled.

That's a lot of 'IF's.

Try editing your boinc global_prefs.xml file. Set the "max_cpus" entry to a lower value. That way you limit the SETI threads to one per core, and you can turn HT back on for general use by the OS. It should make your new Mac Pro run faster, while SETI still goes full speed in the background.
     
Penguirl  (op)
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Jan 6, 2011, 07:39 PM
 
arkayn I installed "ap_5.06r237_OSX64" and "seti_enhanced-i386-v8-xeon-nographics" though I just noticed that the stock SETI app is i686, is there an optimized i686 version too?

reader50 Thanks for the tip, I'm going to reboot (boinc runs as a service and I don't know the cl command to stop & start it) and see how that goes.

Edit: Strangely all 8 "cores" still run at 100% with max_cpus set to 4 or 2. Setting BMs preferences to use 50% of the processors does run on only 4 "cores", but looking at the CPU usage for those 4 they seem to be running at about 80 or 90%, and it made me wonder if it was using all 4 physical cores, or was it using 2 cores with H-T. Perhaps I'll just leave all 4 running with H-T and let the machine worry about it.
( Last edited by Penguirl; Jan 6, 2011 at 08:07 PM. )
     
arkayn
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Jan 7, 2011, 12:21 AM
 
Urs Echternacht over at Lunatics is starting work on converting some of the newer code in the AVk8b builds that were released for Windows. He mostly does the Linux stuff but also builds for Mac OS X.

I will be releasing updated builds on my site as soon as he gets them done.
     
Penguirl  (op)
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Jan 7, 2011, 08:45 PM
 
WOW - my RAC jumped by two hundred something in one day. ONE DAY! I might be able to hang onto the top 100 just a bit longer…

That sounds great arkayn, thanks. I look forward to seeing that post.
     
arkayn
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Jan 7, 2011, 09:26 PM
 
My Windows crunchers was at about 365 at SETI, overall.

It does have a GTX460 in it though.
     
Penguirl  (op)
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Jan 9, 2011, 04:02 AM
 
I came across this old post here regarding an optimized MilkyWay app for CD & C2D, does anyone know if these have these been updated for Xeon?
     
Penguirl  (op)
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Jan 19, 2011, 05:18 AM
 
I guess I didn't give Grand Central enough credit. Most of the time it runs 8 WUs, sometimes only 5 or 6 but all 8 'cores' are busy according to iStat Menu, and now I just watched it turn all 8 'cores' on 1 Milkyway WU, the status read "Runniing (7.8 cores)" and it burned through the WU in 3:40.

Looks like I can rest easy now…
     
Todd Madson
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Jan 31, 2011, 09:11 PM
 
I've been running the Xeon client on my Corei7 iMac in the faux 8-core mode for months now
and went from an average of about 1100 on my old G5 to almost 10,000 RAC.

"Your mileage may vary"...
     
Penguirl  (op)
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Jan 31, 2011, 11:56 PM
 
Todd are you running SETI exclusively? I'm attached to 19 projects but not all of them are active (cough Docking, Predictor, Cosmology, cough) my RAC seems to be hovering at about 5,200 which is abysmal compared to yours.
     
   
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