I installed ati radeon graphics cards and installed all the drivers but I cannot tell if milkyway is using the gpu or not and cannot find a discussion of that topic anywhere.
I do not see anything anywhere that says gpu tasks are being processed.

Operating system?
What model ATI card?
Drivers version?
BOINC version?
Did you check the Milkyway forums for help?
Does Milkyway have work at this time?

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It's windows 7 and windows xp pro (one card each in two separate computers). ATI radeon 1500's. Supposed to be supported. I updated all drivers and checked to be sure I was running newest boinc version. I believe they are functioning, because the first Milkyway project to download after installation was a 23 hour project and the xp computer did it in 3 hours flat, but I cannot find anywhere where it 'says' that these are gpu tasks.

ATI radeon 1500's. Supposed to be supported.

Not by ATI CAL (Requires your GPU to be a HD2xxx, 3xxx or 4xxx) or OpenCL.

On top of that, for the 'normal' GPU operations, Milkyway requires that your GPU supports Double Precision math. Your 1500 doesn't.

I was running newest boinc version

Which is? 6.10.58, 6.12.11, 6.12.12?
Please, when someone asks you what version you run, be so kind and answer the question. There is no 'latest version' as there are code changes going on each and every day, with Alpha versions coming out at a regular interval. So it's difficult to work with 'the latest' as an answer, as it may not be the latest and we don't know if you downloaded the alpha version or not.
These things got a version number, you can check that in BOINC Manager->Help->About.

I believe they are functioning, because the first Milkyway project to download after installation was a 23 hour project and the xp computer did it in 3 hours flat

If your GPU was used, it would run in even less time. The initial 23 hours on work is an estimate. The BOINC on your system is new, it doesn't know yet how long work is going to take. So the project sends out work with a big estimate in run time, to make sure your computer is able to run this work at leisure. BOINC will learn over time how long these tasks are, and change its estimate accordingly.

but I cannot find anywhere where it 'says' that these are gpu tasks.

When a task runs on the GPU, this shows in BOINC Manager->Advanced view->Tasks. It'll then show in the Status column as "0.xx CPU, 1.00 GPU".

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Ok thank you.
Are there any boinc projects in which I could use these cards (I got them free and that is why I did not get better ones-I will be getting better ones now that I know)? In fact, I have been trying to determine why some computers are able to do so many more computations than others and now know that this is one of the largest factors.
Are there any other major factors of which I should be aware?
thanks again

Are there any boinc projects in which I could use these cards (I got them free and that is why I did not get better ones-I will be getting better ones now that I know)?

You can use them in all BOINC projects that have a nice screen saver or graphics, as they are only graphics processing units, not with the added CAL or OpenCL capabilities.

In fact, I have been trying to determine why some computers are able to do so many more computations than others and now know that this is one of the largest factors.
Are there any other major factors of which I should be aware?
thanks again

CUDA and OpenCL are those factors. Read all about it in my CUDA & CAL FAQ. OpenCL has its own FAQ.

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