Hello,

I have an older computer that I use as my server. Most of the time it sits there doing nothing, so I thought I would let it run BOINC and do some good. However, I was sure that it would use the GPU. While an older graphics card, I thought it was compatible. In addition, it says "Requesting new tasks for NVIDIA GPU", "Scheduler request complete: got 0 new tasks" everytime it appears to communicate with the two projects I have it attached to (Einstein@Home and Milkyway@Home). So it is requesting new tasks, but not receiving any. Not sure what the issue is, but I thought I would post to see if anyone has any insights. Following is the event log and clinfo log files below as requested:

EVENT LOG:
2/11/2018 6:14:41 PM | | cc_config.xml not found - using defaults
2/11/2018 6:14:41 PM | | Starting BOINC client version 7.6.33 for windows_x86_64
2/11/2018 6:14:41 PM | | log flags: file_xfer, sched_ops, task
2/11/2018 6:14:41 PM | | Libraries: libcurl/7.47.1 OpenSSL/1.0.2g zlib/1.2.8
2/11/2018 6:14:41 PM | | Data directory: C:\ProgramData\BOINC
2/11/2018 6:14:41 PM | | Running under account Administrator
2/11/2018 6:14:41 PM | | CUDA: NVIDIA GPU 0: GeForce 8600 GTS (driver version 342.01, CUDA version 6.5, compute capability 1.1, 256MB, 212MB available, 139 GFLOPS peak)
2/11/2018 6:14:41 PM | | OpenCL: NVIDIA GPU 0: GeForce 8600 GTS (driver version 342.01, device version OpenCL 1.0 CUDA, 256MB, 212MB available, 139 GFLOPS peak)
2/11/2018 6:14:41 PM | | Version change (7.0.28 -> 7.6.33)
2/11/2018 6:14:41 PM | | Processor: 4 AuthenticAMD AMD FX(tm)-4100 Quad-Core Processor [Family 21 Model 1 Stepping 2]
2/11/2018 6:14:41 PM | | Processor features: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 htt pni ssse3 cx16 sse4_1 sse4_2 popcnt aes syscall nx lm avx svm sse4a osvw ibs xop skinit wdt lwp fma4 topx page1gb rdtscp
2/11/2018 6:14:41 PM | | OS: Microsoft Windows Server 2008 "R2": Home Server 2011x64 Edition, Service Pack 1, (06.01.7601.00)
2/11/2018 6:14:41 PM | | Memory: 7.91 GB physical, 15.82 GB virtual
2/11/2018 6:14:41 PM | | Disk: 57.51 GB total, 17.16 GB free
2/11/2018 6:14:41 PM | | Local time is UTC -7 hours
2/11/2018 6:14:41 PM | | VirtualBox version: 5.0.18
2/11/2018 6:14:41 PM | | General prefs: from http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/ (last modified 23-Jan-2007 15:49:27)
2/11/2018 6:14:41 PM | | Host location: none
2/11/2018 6:14:41 PM | | General prefs: using your defaults
2/11/2018 6:14:41 PM | | Reading preferences override file
2/11/2018 6:14:41 PM | | Preferences:
2/11/2018 6:14:41 PM | | max memory usage when active: 8098.57MB
2/11/2018 6:14:41 PM | | max memory usage when idle: 8098.57MB
2/11/2018 6:14:41 PM | | max disk usage: 17.06GB
2/11/2018 6:14:41 PM | | (to change preferences, visit a project web site or select Preferences in the Manager)
2/11/2018 6:14:41 PM | | This computer is not attached to any projects
2/11/2018 6:14:41 PM | | Visit http://boinc.berkeley.edu for instructions
2/11/2018 6:15:05 PM | | Fetching configuration file from https://www.grcpool.com/get_project_config.php
2/11/2018 6:16:24 PM | | Contacting account manager at https://www.grcpool.com/
2/11/2018 6:16:24 PM | | Account manager contact succeeded
2/11/2018 6:16:24 PM | | General prefs: from https://www.grcpool.com/ (last modified ---)
2/11/2018 6:16:24 PM | | Host location: none
2/11/2018 6:16:24 PM | | General prefs: using your defaults
2/11/2018 6:16:24 PM | | Reading preferences override file
2/11/2018 6:16:24 PM | | Preferences:
2/11/2018 6:16:24 PM | | max memory usage when active: 8098.57MB
2/11/2018 6:16:24 PM | | max memory usage when idle: 8098.57MB
2/11/2018 6:16:24 PM | | max disk usage: 17.06GB
2/11/2018 6:16:24 PM | | (to change preferences, visit a project web site or select Preferences in the Manager)
2/11/2018 6:18:50 PM | | Fetching configuration file from https://www.grcpool.com/get_project_config.php
2/11/2018 6:18:54 PM | | Contacting account manager at https://www.grcpool.com/
2/11/2018 6:18:55 PM | | Account manager contact succeeded
2/11/2018 6:18:55 PM | | Attaching to https://einsteinathome.org/
2/11/2018 6:18:55 PM | | Attaching to https://milkyway.cs.rpi.edu/milkyway/
2/11/2018 6:18:55 PM | | General prefs: from https://www.grcpool.com/ (last modified ---)
2/11/2018 6:18:55 PM | | Host location: none
2/11/2018 6:18:55 PM | | General prefs: using your defaults
2/11/2018 6:18:55 PM | | Reading preferences override file
2/11/2018 6:18:55 PM | | Preferences:
2/11/2018 6:18:55 PM | | max memory usage when active: 8098.57MB
2/11/2018 6:18:55 PM | | max memory usage when idle: 8098.57MB
2/11/2018 6:18:55 PM | | max disk usage: 17.06GB
2/11/2018 6:18:55 PM | | (to change preferences, visit a project web site or select Preferences in the Manager)
2/11/2018 6:18:55 PM | | Running CPU benchmarks
2/11/2018 6:18:55 PM | | Suspending computation - CPU benchmarks in progress
2/11/2018 6:18:59 PM | https://einsteinathome.org/ | Master file download succeeded
2/11/2018 6:19:04 PM | https://einsteinathome.org/ | Sending scheduler request: Project initialization.
2/11/2018 6:19:04 PM | https://einsteinathome.org/ | Requesting new tasks for CPU and NVIDIA GPU
2/11/2018 6:19:10 PM | Einstein@Home | Scheduler request completed: got 1 new tasks
2/11/2018 6:19:10 PM | Einstein@Home | This project is using an old URL. When convenient, remove the project, then add http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/
2/11/2018 6:19:10 PM | | General prefs: from http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/ (last modified 22-Aug-2017 17:09:19)
2/11/2018 6:19:10 PM | | Host location: none
2/11/2018 6:19:10 PM | | General prefs: using your defaults
2/11/2018 6:19:10 PM | | Reading preferences override file
2/11/2018 6:19:10 PM | | Preferences:
2/11/2018 6:19:10 PM | | max memory usage when active: 8098.57MB
2/11/2018 6:19:10 PM | | max memory usage when idle: 8098.57MB
2/11/2018 6:19:10 PM | | max disk usage: 17.15GB
2/11/2018 6:19:10 PM | | (to change preferences, visit a project web site or select Preferences in the Manager)
2/11/2018 6:19:18 PM | https://milkyway.cs.rpi.edu/milkyway/ | Master file download succeeded
2/11/2018 6:19:23 PM | https://milkyway.cs.rpi.edu/milkyway/ | Sending scheduler request: Project initialization.
2/11/2018 6:19:23 PM | https://milkyway.cs.rpi.edu/milkyway/ | Requesting new tasks for CPU and NVIDIA GPU
2/11/2018 6:19:26 PM | | Benchmark results:
2/11/2018 6:19:26 PM | | Number of CPUs: 4
2/11/2018 6:19:26 PM | | 2780 floating point MIPS (Whetstone) per CPU
2/11/2018 6:19:26 PM | | 8010 integer MIPS (Dhrystone) per CPU

CLINFO LOG:
Number of platforms: 1
Platform Profile: FULL_PROFILE
Platform Version: OpenCL 1.1 CUDA 6.5.51
Platform Name: NVIDIA CUDA
Platform Vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
Platform Extensions: cl_khr_byte_addressable_store cl_khr_icd cl_khr_gl_sharing cl_nv_compiler_options cl_nv_device_attribute_query cl_nv_pragma_unroll cl_nv_d3d9_sharing cl_nv_d3d10_sharing cl_khr_d3d10_sharing cl_nv_d3d11_sharing cl_nv_copy_opts


Platform Name: NVIDIA CUDA
Number of devices: 1
Device Type: CL_DEVICE_TYPE_GPU
Device ID: 4318
Max compute units: 4
Max work items dimensions: 3
Max work items[0]: 512
Max work items[1]: 512
Max work items[2]: 64
Max work group size: 512
Preferred vector width char: 1
Preferred vector width short: 1
Preferred vector width int: 1
Preferred vector width long: 1
Preferred vector width float: 1
Preferred vector width double: 0
Max clock frequency: 1450Mhz
Address bits: 14757395255531667488
Max memory allocation: 134217728
Image support: Yes
Max number of images read arguments: 128
Max number of images write arguments: 8
Max image 2D width: 4096
Max image 2D height: 16383
Max image 3D width: 2048
Max image 3D height: 2048
Max image 3D depth: 2048
Max samplers within kernel: 16
Max size of kernel argument: 4352
Alignment (bits) of base address: 2048
Minimum alignment (bytes) for any datatype: 128
Single precision floating point capability
Denorms: No
Quiet NaNs: Yes
Round to nearest even: Yes
Round to zero: Yes
Round to +ve and infinity: Yes
IEEE754-2008 fused multiply-add: Yes
Cache type: None
Cache line size: 0
Cache size: 0
Global memory size: 268435456
Constant buffer size: 65536
Max number of constant args: 9
Local memory type: Scratchpad
Local memory size: 16384
Error correction support: 0
Profiling timer resolution: 1000
Device endianess: Little
Available: Yes
Compiler available: Yes
Execution capabilities:
Execute OpenCL kernels: Yes
Execute native function: No
Queue properties:
Out-of-Order: Yes
Profiling : Yes
Platform ID: 00DF1010
Name: GeForce 8600 GTS
Vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
Driver version: 342.01
Profile: FULL_PROFILE
Version: OpenCL 1.0 CUDA
Extensions: cl_khr_byte_addressable_store cl_khr_icd cl_khr_gl_sharing cl_nv_compiler_options cl_nv_device_attribute_query cl_nv_pragma_unroll cl_nv_d3d9_sharing cl_nv_d3d10_sharing cl_khr_d3d10_sharing cl_nv_d3d11_sharing cl_nv_copy_opts cl_khr_global_int32_base_atomics cl_khr_global_int32_extended_atomics

If additional info is required, just ask. Any assistance is greatly appreciated.

Jason

GeForce 8600 GTS is too old for Einstein@Home. That card can't run their GPU-tasks these days. Sorry, I don't know what the conditions are with Seti.

I think that card should still be usable by SETI@Home, but don't expect blistering performance - it wasn't even state-of-the art (though not far behind) when GPU processing first became possible ten years ago. Gulp - that's not a phrase I expected to find myself typing!

By all means attach to SETI, and see what happens. You'll have to be quick - SETI has regular maintenance on Tuesdays, starting in around 2 hours (13:00 UTC) - or patient: SETI should be accessible again around midnight UTC.

Another thing to watch for: those early NVidia cards were quite power hungry - your electricity consumption will go up (and your room will become warmer). Your local climate will determine whether this is a good thing or a bad thing.

It should certainly work - SETI is a lot more tolerant of GPUs than many projects.
Just don't expect it to "set the World on fire", just sit back and have some fun.

All,

Thank you for the responses, very much appreciated. I was not expecting stellar performance. Just thought it could do some good, since it just sits there most of the time doing nothing. I will keep an eye on the GPU temp as well. I missed the Seti scheduled down time, so I will have to wait until it is back up to see if it will down load any workunits for the gpu.

Thanks again,

Jason

It also will not work with Milkyway@home as that project will need Double Precision capable cards. Some projects it "may" still work with off the top of my head would be:
SETI
SETI BETA
Collatz
PrimeGrid - PPS Sieve sub project
Moo! Wrapper

It has been too long since I attempted Einstein or Albert.

---

It also will not work with Milkyway@home as that project will need Double Precision capable cards. Some projects it "may" still work with off the top of my head would be:
SETI
SETI BETA
Collatz
PrimeGrid - PPS Sieve sub project
Moo! Wrapper

It has been too long since I attempted Einstein or Albert.

Einstein is out due to the memory requirements. Albert is still on the 4G tasks when there are some available. I don't recall how much vram those need.

Einstein is out due to the memory requirements. Albert is still on the 4G tasks when there are some available. I don't recall how much vram those need.

Einstein requires 1gb of VRAM. :/ Once upon a time it didn't but at some point they upgraded the requirements.