GPU Computing newbie

[lukerichards]

Hey hey,

I know absolutely zilch about GPU computing, but it seems interesting. I'm willing to look into it if there's some point to me doing so with my current hardware. Otherwise, I'll put it on the list of things to look into when I've got a more powerful machine to play with.

I currently run AMD A8-7650K Radeon R7, 10 Compute Cores 4C+6G with no dedicated graphics card. I have an ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT which came out of another computer, not currently plugged into anything.

My *suspicion* is that my current hardware is largely useless for any GPU prime work and that's fine because I'm quite happy just running mprime in Lubuntu as it is, but if anyone can recommend otherwise and point me in the direction of how to get started I'd be quite interested.

[Mark Rose]

You may be able to run mfakto on that graphics card. We don't have benchmarks for it, but it's likely to be very slow.

[lukerichards]

Originally Posted by Mark Rose

You may be able to run mfakto on that graphics card. We don't have benchmarks for it, but it's likely to be very slow.

Thanks. On that feedback I think I'll skip it for now and put it on "the list of things to aspire to when I have better hardware."

[kriesel]

Originally Posted by lukerichards

Thanks. On that feedback I think I'll skip it for now and put it on "the list of things to aspire to when I have better hardware."

Welcome to the hunt.

Why not use it to learn about the available GPU software in the meantime, and how to operate the choices compatible with the card? The Available Software thread contains guides to software availability for various hardware classes. http://www.mersenneforum.org/showthread.php?t=22450

And while you're at it, please submit a benchmark for the slow card. It would help the next person in your situation.

Also note that some GPUs that used to be priced at over $1000 are now available used for under $100 on Ebay and elsewhere. I've had good reliability experience over several months running with numerous such used cards. (Knock wood...)

[lukerichards]

Originally Posted by kriesel

And while you're at it, please submit a benchmark for the slow card. It would help the next person in your situation.

If you can point me into the direction of how to do so, I'll do it in the next month or so. I'm a teacher, so it might have to wait until I'm on vacation and have the time to fiddle around putting the card in etc, but that will be in about 4 weeks.

[kriesel]

Originally Posted by lukerichards

If you can point me into the direction of how to do so, I'll do it in the next month or so. I'm a teacher, so it might have to wait until I'm on vacation and have the time to fiddle around putting the card in etc, but that will be in about 4 weeks.

See http://www.mersenne.ca/bench.php, for prime95 benchmarks, and the rest of the site for useful info. Benchmarking is built into prime95, and I presume into its linux equivalent mprime. Follow the program directions.

For gpu benchmarks, use care to get them running correctly, then see the corresponding pages for TF http://www.mersenne.ca/mfaktc.php or LL http://www.mersenne.ca/cudalucas.php etc. Note the entries near the top for "show benchmark submission form", or emailing the results of 30,000 iterations of a specific exponent, respectively.

[lukerichards]

Some users may have noticed that there is a cyclical arrangement to a lot of my exploits in prime hunting and so my consideration recently returned to whether I can use those 6 GPU cores in my system to any use.

I knew I had started this thread once upon a time so returned to it and noticed nobody had commented specifically on whether my "AMD A8-7650K Radeon R7, 10 Compute Cores 4C+6G" can be used in any way for GPU processing. I assume not, given no ideas were forthcoming but I just wanted to make sure as the point wasn't specifically addressed.

[preda]

Originally Posted by lukerichards

Some users may have noticed that there is a cyclical arrangement to a lot of my exploits in prime hunting and so my consideration recently returned to whether I can use those 6 GPU cores in my system to any use.

I knew I had started this thread once upon a time so returned to it and noticed nobody had commented specifically on whether my "AMD A8-7650K Radeon R7, 10 Compute Cores 4C+6G" can be used in any way for GPU processing. I assume not, given no ideas were forthcoming but I just wanted to make sure as the point wasn't specifically addressed.

So you don't have a discrete GPU? A discrete GPU has its own RAM. I would say you need a discrete GPU in order to do anything Mersenne-useful with it.

[lukerichards]

Originally Posted by preda

So you don't have a discrete GPU? A discrete GPU has its own RAM. I would say you need a discrete GPU in order to do anything Mersenne-useful with it.

No, I don't.

I was assuming the same but I wanted to check before potentially leaving usable resources untapped.

[kriesel]

Intel integrated graphics processors share the same chip package, TDP power budget, and memory space and bandwidth as the cpu cores. Typical raw igp performance is ~20 GhzD/day in mfakto such as an Intel HD4600, HD620, or UHD630. They haven't the DP capability to be useful in gpuowl. They require a proper installation of OpenCL, as would a discrete gpu. Running mfakto on an Intel igp reduces the prime95 throughput somewhat, but it's still a net gain. If you are able to run mfakto on your AMD igp as one of the supported gpu types in mfakto, you may find a similar small gain.

[kracker]

Originally Posted by lukerichards

Some users may have noticed that there is a cyclical arrangement to a lot of my exploits in prime hunting and so my consideration recently returned to whether I can use those 6 GPU cores in my system to any use.

I knew I had started this thread once upon a time so returned to it and noticed nobody had commented specifically on whether my "AMD A8-7650K Radeon R7, 10 Compute Cores 4C+6G" can be used in any way for GPU processing. I assume not, given no ideas were forthcoming but I just wanted to make sure as the point wasn't specifically addressed.

I used to have a AMD A8-3850, IIRC I got around ~45(which is very little) ghz/days from the iGPU with mfakto- you can likely get more(but probably not a lot more) with yours