Boinc ignoring CPU preferences?

[Oshino Shinobu]

I've had this problem for a while, where regardless of my settings, many Boinc projects will still use my CPU. I've just been using GPUGrid for a long time, as it is pretty much the only decent project that doesn't use the CPU when I put in my settings. However, the tasks take a long time to complete, and recently I've been getting a load of tasks fail or corrupt at about 90% completion, which is 8 hours of work gone. So, I've decided to try some projects with shorter task times, like SETI@Home and Poem@Home. The issues is, they're both set to only use the GPU, but they still use the CPU and often only put 50% load on my GPUs. 

 

I use Boinc when I'm just doing everyday stuff on my PC, so having the GPUs at close to 100% isn't an issue, but having the CPU being used slows down the whole system. Does anyone know of a reason for this? And hopefully a solution to get the projects running only on GPU. If not, does anyone have suggestions for good projects for Nvidia Titan Blacks that can actually be set to only run on GPUs and don't ignore the CPU preferences? 

 

I'm running Boinc 7.6.22, and projects Poem@Home and SETI@Home

 

This is as low as I can get the CPU usage:

 

[Imakuni]

Well.... that´s a missinterpretation on your part. You told the project not to send CPU-only apps, and it's doing exactly that: there are no CPU apps running. There are only GPU apps.

What happens is that ANY gpu app also requires CPU time. Some only require a few seconds per hour, others need a full CPU core at all times (per GPU). It´s been a while, but if I remember right, POEM uses a full core, just like F@H. Not sure about SETI, though. And that "0.671 CPU" thing? Ignore it. You could literally have that number be anything you want; it doesn't represent the actual app usage.

Anyway, tell me, what are your GPUs? I´ll find something good for them.

[Oshino Shinobu]

1 minute ago, Imakuni said:

Well.... that´s a missinterpretation on your part. You told the project not to send CPU-only apps, and it´s doing exactly that: there are no CPU apps running. There are only GPU apps.

What happens is that ANY gpu app also requires CPU time. Some only require a few seconds per hour, others need a full CPU core at all times (per GPU). It´s been a while, but if I remember right, POEM uses a full core, just like F@H. Not sure about SETI, though.

Anyway, tell me, what are your GPUs? I´ll find something good for them.

Ah, I see. I was sitting at 50-80% CPU usage with both Poem@Home and SETI@Home, compared to GPUGrid which doesn't affect my CPU usage anymore than a basic chrome window does. 

I've switched to Collatz Conjecture now. It doesn't increase my CPU usage, uses quick WUs and provides a good amount of points. I have two GTX Titan Blacks. For Collatx Conjecture, it takes me about 4 minutes for one WU on each card, with each WU giving about 4,500 points. So it works out at about 3.2m PPD. 

[Imakuni]

1 minute ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

Ah, I see. I was sitting at 50-80% CPU usage with both Poem@Home and SETI@Home, compared to GPUGrid which doesn't affect my CPU usage anymore than a basic chrome window does. 

I've switched to Collatz Conjecture now. It doesn't increase my CPU usage, uses quick WUs and provides a good amount of points. I have two GTX Titan Blacks. For Collatx Conjecture, it takes me about 4 minutes for one WU on each card, with each WU giving about 4,500 points. So it works out at about 3.2m PPD. 

Make sure that the point system is the universal one. For example, World Community Grid's inner point system rewards 7 times the actual Boinc credit, due to compatibility with previous non-boinc times. I don't know how that project works.....

 Still, if you find yourself happy with Collartz, then by all means, stick to it.

[Oshino Shinobu]

9 minutes ago, Imakuni said:

Make sure that the point system is the universal one. For example, World Community Grid's inner point system rewards 7 times the actual Boinc credit, due to compatibility with previous non-boinc times. I don't know how that project works.....

 Still, if you find yourself happy with Collartz, then by all means, stick to it.

It seems to be universal, though I'll have to wait for the next update to tell.