MfaktX Controller (Windows)

[Mini-Geek]

Originally Posted by Xyzzy

FWIW, the obscure errors we had with your program have stopped since we updated to the latest version.

Excellent!

[Mini-Geek]

I've added two new features today:

1. Delay switching speed due to idle. Because I will sometimes accidentally let my screen saver become active when I'm at my computer - I move the mouse right away to cancel it, but the controller has already started swapping the speeds around. To prevent that annoying (though small) waste, it will wait for (default) 10 seconds after the screensaver comes on (or monitor goes off by power settings) before starting to switch to Slow.
2. In-UI modification of Pause/SlowWhileRunning. You know that comma-separated list in the config file that you have to restart the controller to modify? Now you can change it through the GUI, no restart required! You can type in new items yourself, or click Show List and it'll list your running processes, sorted by highest memory usage (by default), since I figured the sort of things you'd want to pause while running are typically high-memory usage processes (games, etc.). Look at the attached screenshot to see what I'm talking about.

I could set up all of the config settings to be similarly modifiable thru the UI, but that'd be a good bit of extra work, and SlowWhileRunning is the only one that I've found myself modifying often. So unless there's demand for it, those will be the only ones you can modify through the UI.

Here are the client binaries: MfaktXController-win.zip
Source available at https://github.com/Mini-Geek/mfaktx-controller

Upgrade notes: "IdleDelayInterval" has been added to the config file. No other changes are necessary from the previous release's config file.

[swl551]

Mini,

Looks great, but I haven't used it... All my machines run dedicated.

Bummer the big guns won't release mfaktX with the hospitality feature found in CudaLucas. If they did your implementation could become more specific on how GPU utilization is governed.

I'm still waiting for MFAKTC to implement file-locking. MFAKTO has had it for over a year now.

Someone once told me there were benefits to open source libraries and reusable code..... (not if it not taken advantage of!)

Anyway thanks for you efforts.

Scott

[blahpy]

Hmm, Xyzzy linked me here earlier after I mentioned that I couldn't use my computer while running mfakto, but I'm having a bit of an issue...

With GPUSieveSize=64, GPU Utilization is 99%
With GPUSieveSize=32, GPU Utilization is 99%
With GPUSieveSize=16, GPU Utilization is 99%
With GPUSieveSize=8, GPU Utilization is 99%
Even with GPUSieveSize=4, GPU Utilization is still 99%

My GPU model is AMD Radeon HD 7650M

[Mini-Geek]

Originally Posted by blahpy

Hmm, Xyzzy linked me here earlier after I mentioned that I couldn't use my computer while running mfakto, but I'm having a bit of an issue...

With GPUSieveSize=64, GPU Utilization is 99%
With GPUSieveSize=32, GPU Utilization is 99%
With GPUSieveSize=16, GPU Utilization is 99%
With GPUSieveSize=8, GPU Utilization is 99%
Even with GPUSieveSize=4, GPU Utilization is still 99%

My GPU model is AMD Radeon HD 7650M

If you change the value manually, running without MfaktX Controller, do you see the same behavior or not? If it slows it down when you change it manually, the issue is with my tool. If not, maybe there's some other option that will make mfakto slow down or otherwise be more polite.

[blahpy]

Originally Posted by Mini-Geek

If you change the value manually, running without MfaktX Controller, do you see the same behavior or not? If it slows it down when you change it manually, the issue is with my tool. If not, maybe there's some other option that will make mfakto slow down or otherwise be more polite.

I did it manually, it's not your tool. I just thought your thread might be the best to offer advice.

[kracker]

You have to change more than GPUSieveSize. if using gpu seiving, reduce almost everything.
GPUSievePrimes,GPUSieveSize,GPUSieveProcessSize.

[blahpy]

Originally Posted by kracker

You have to change more than GPUSieveSize. if using gpu seiving, reduce almost everything.
GPUSievePrimes,GPUSieveSize,GPUSieveProcessSize.

Okay. I tried setting all three to their minimum values. Still maximum GPU utilisation. Maybe I should just stick to running it at night

[Mini-Geek]

I've added two new features to MfaktX Controller after beginning to use it with mmff (an mfaktc-based program):

1. For easier setup and configuration, there is now a "Common" ini file option. How it works: typically, most of your settings stay the same with the different speeds, while you change 1 or 2 options. Now, instead of having to repeat the configuration in each (slow, med, fast) ini file, you put the parts that are always the same in an mfaktc.common.ini file, and only put the parts that change in the (slow, med, fast) ini files. When the MfaktX Controller runs, it will append the speed ini file to the common ini file to create the file that mfaktx actually uses.
2. There is now a "Force Close Now" button available when Stopping. As you might expect, this kills the mfaktx process immediately. This can be especially useful when you are running mmff, where each class can take several minutes, because you can choose whether to change speeds immediately (by forcing it to close manually) or let it wait until the class is finished (with sufficient timeout in the config file). It could also be useful if the process has hung and you don't want to wait for the timeout.

Upgrade notes:
This config line:

    <add key="MfaktXIniFileName" value="mfaktc.ini" />

Has been replaced by:

    <!-- The selected speed's ini file is appended to the Common ini file to create the Target ini file, which is used by mfaktx. Using a Common ini file is optional, you can leave the field blank. -->
    <add key="MfaktXTargetIniFileName" value="mfaktc.ini" />
    <add key="MfaktXCommonIniFileName" value="mfaktc.common.ini" />

If you want to make use of the common.ini file, you'll have to move the bulk of your configuration to the common.ini file, and only leave the portions that are different in the slow, med, and fast ini files.

Here are the client binaries: MfaktXController-win.zip
Source available at https://github.com/Mini-Geek/mfaktx-controller (now licensed under LGPLv3; I realized that the CC license I put on there isn't suited for software, and I think the LGPL is fairly close to my intent)

[TheMawn]

I've stopped using the speed controller. Instead, I have a mfaktc.med.ini and a mfaktc.fast.ini file and I just change them to mfaktc.ini depending on the speed I want.

For lightweight GPU usage like LoL or videos, I run med. For long stretches of not using the computer, I run fast. For heavier usage (I'm addicted to Skyrim. Again. ) I turn it off completely.

The reason I don't use the controller is whenever I change speed, it kills the mfaktc running on my other GPU. Is there a way to set to controller to only kill the one instance?

[Mini-Geek]

Originally Posted by TheMawn

The reason I don't use the controller is whenever I change speed, it kills the mfaktc running on my other GPU. Is there a way to set to controller to only kill the one instance?

It should only kill the one instance. I'll investigate this bug soon, and let you know what I figure out.