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Michael Goetz Volunteer moderator Project administrator
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Joined: 21 Jan 10 Posts: 13783 ID: 53948 Credit: 345,142,938 RAC: 33,172
                              
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Over the summer, for kicks, I figured out what it would take to build a machine capable of crunching a million credits per day. This machine turned out to be a rack filled with high density server chassis (2 server MBs per 1U chassis, each with 2 hex-core, hyperthreaded Xeon CPUs.) That's 48 threads per every 1.75 inches of rack space. There would be about 20 or so of those, and along with the requisite rack mounted UPS and routers, it would cost something over $100K. That's not including running the extra 100 AMP power circuit to my house. (In retrospect, it might work out better using Opteron CPUs.)
This was before the Ken's CUDA ppsieve application was released.
Right now, you can build a mega-credit computer for about the cost of a Windows gaming laptop or a mid-range MacBook.
A modest SLI-capable computer with a pair of GTX 580s should be able to crank out about a million credits per day, for a total costs of less than $2000.
Mind-boggling, isn't it?
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My lucky number is 75898524288+1 |
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It's completely understandable, but the downside to having the GPU version be so much cheaper than the CPU version is that it will only be able to crunch a million credits per day on a limited number of projects, as opposed to any project that you want to crunch a million credits per day on.
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You'll also never find a prime with a GPU megacruncher:)
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Michael Goetz Volunteer moderator Project administrator
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Joined: 21 Jan 10 Posts: 13783 ID: 53948 Credit: 345,142,938 RAC: 33,172
                              
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You'll also never find a prime with a GPU megacruncher:)
Nope, but you will find a whole lot of composite numbers! :)
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My lucky number is 75898524288+1 |
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Nope, but you will find a whole lot of composite numbers! :)
True...but I would gladly trade in my ~1.5M composites found so far in the PPS subproject just to be a wingman on the next SOB prime found!
It is pretty awesome though that in the next week I will have accumulated the same credit that it took me two years to accrue previously via CPU...and that's only with a pair of 9800 GTs. I can't wait until I can figure out how to get my two ATI cards working here!
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mackerel Volunteer tester
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Joined: 2 Oct 08 Posts: 2583 ID: 29980 Credit: 550,189,840 RAC: 37,015
                             
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The work throughput GPUs offer really is amazing compared to CPUs, where supported e.g. in sieve. But I'm still waiting for the one that'll do the same for LLR.
I guess it depends on what you're after, but personally boinc credit isn't terribly important to me except as a side effect to collecting the badges here. In pure credit terms, I have a single GTS450 on collatz scoring almost 50% more boinc credits than the rest of my farm here: equivalent to 40 GHz single core modern CPU + two older GPUs thrown in.
If I do have a scoring goal, I'm trying to improve my ranking on the world top prime finders list... so just as well the GPU can do some sieve else I wouldn't do much at all. |
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If I were you I would be running my machine looking for The next world's largest mersenne prime.
The cash prize would almost pay off your farm.
Just make sure you run with Worker Window=1 and
CPU's =4.
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Does this greater speed mean that the optimum sieve depth has changed? |
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Michael Goetz Volunteer moderator Project administrator
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Joined: 21 Jan 10 Posts: 13783 ID: 53948 Credit: 345,142,938 RAC: 33,172
                              
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Just to be clear, what I did was spec out such a machine. I didn't actually build it. Believe me, if I had a spare $100,000 sitting around I have much better things to spend it on. (I did, however, conclude that it could essentially eliminate my heating costs in the winter, but would substantially increase the air conditioning bill during the summer.)
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My lucky number is 75898524288+1 |
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STE\/E Volunteer tester
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Joined: 10 Aug 05 Posts: 573 ID: 103 Credit: 3,630,330,192 RAC: 0
                     
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DP
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STE\/E Volunteer tester
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Joined: 10 Aug 05 Posts: 573 ID: 103 Credit: 3,630,330,192 RAC: 0
                     
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Nope, but you will find a whole lot of composite numbers! :)
True...but I would gladly trade in my ~1.5M composites found so far in the PPS subproject just to be a wingman on the next SOB prime found!
It is pretty awesome though that in the next week I will have accumulated the same credit that it took me two years to accrue previously via CPU...and that's only with a pair of 9800 GTs. I can't wait until I can figure out how to get my two ATI cards working here!
lol ... on 1 hand you'll trade all your previous work for finding a Prime nobody will remember in 20 Minutes who found it anyway & on the other hand you can't wait to get more Credit by getting your ATI's running here ... Make up my mine will you ;)
NOTE: I have the Million Credit Per Day Machine here already, my Dual GTX 580 Box should be able to hit about 1.25 Million+ as long as the tpsieve Wu's keep flowing. But I really built the Box to run at the GPUGrid Project when I discovered I could run it here too so I turned it loose for awhile on the ppsieve/tpsieve Wu's for awhile. Probably until after the next challenge anyway ...
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rroonnaalldd Volunteer developer Volunteer tester
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Joined: 3 Jul 09 Posts: 1213 ID: 42893 Credit: 34,634,263 RAC: 0
                 
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NOTE: I have the Million Credit Per Day Machine here already, my Dual GTX 580 Box should be able to hit about 1.25 Million+ as long as the tpsieve Wu's keep flowing. But I really built the Box to run at the GPUGrid Project when I discovered I could run it here too so I turned it loose for awhile on the ppsieve/tpsieve Wu's for awhile. Probably until after the next challenge anyway ...
Did you read the thread PPS (Sieve) changing gears again?
I believe there will be no work for this in the next challenge because PG reaches the optimum sieve depth much earlier...
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Best wishes. Knowledge is power. by jjwhalen
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STE\/E Volunteer tester
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Joined: 10 Aug 05 Posts: 573 ID: 103 Credit: 3,630,330,192 RAC: 0
                     
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No I didn't read that, oh well I'll get what I can get and more over to the GPUGrid Project with um if I have to ...
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Vato Volunteer tester
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Joined: 2 Feb 08 Posts: 815 ID: 18447 Credit: 509,582,014 RAC: 595,493
                          
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I am sure there will be challenge work available. Even the current n<3M will not be optimal by then IMHO, and even if I'm wrong, there will be 3M<n<6M to work on by then.
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Michael Goetz Volunteer moderator Project administrator
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Joined: 21 Jan 10 Posts: 13783 ID: 53948 Credit: 345,142,938 RAC: 33,172
                              
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NOTE: I have the Million Credit Per Day Machine here already, my Dual GTX 580 Box should be able to hit about 1.25 Million+ as long as the tpsieve Wu's keep flowing. But I really built the Box to run at the GPUGrid Project when I discovered I could run it here too so I turned it loose for awhile on the ppsieve/tpsieve Wu's for awhile. Probably until after the next challenge anyway ...
Did you read the thread PPS (Sieve) changing gears again?
I believe there will be no work for this in the next challenge because PG reaches the optimum sieve depth much earlier...
Speeding up the sieve process doesn't necessarily mean we reach the optimal sieve depth faster. Faster sieving means the optimal sieve depth goes UP, so there's more work to do on sieving before we get there.
What I'm not sure about is whether the optimal sieve point goes up faster than the increase in sieve processing. So it could, in theory, mean we get to sieve for a longer period of time because we can sieve faster.
That kind of makes sense, if you think about it. When we got a faster LLR, we ran out of sieve work sooner. With a faster sieving application, we should run out of sieve work later.
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My lucky number is 75898524288+1 |
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lol ... on 1 hand you'll trade all your previous work for finding a Prime nobody will remember in 20 Minutes who found it anyway & on the other hand you can't wait to get more Credit by getting your ATI's running here ... Make up my mine will you ;)
I don't see a contradiction here. If my GPUs could crunch LLR subprojects, that's where I'd put them to work regardless of the credit they produce (not considering potential overheating issues, of course). Since they can't, I'll enjoy the massive flux of credit they provide while making the LLR testing more efficient. IMHO: finding primes >> accruing credit, but credit is still nice! Also, I would DEFINITELY remember finding an SOB for the rest of my life...I couldn't care less if nobody else does...
Cheers!
Alan
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