Switched to VM on cpu

[Scorpuk]

Decided to try folding with the cpu on a Virtual Machine to see what ppd increase there was, if any.

Setup:
Using Oracle VM Virtualbox I installed Debian 64bit, Network install from a minimal CD.

Followed the guide for HPCS, within this forum, to install/setup fah and to get it providing output for HFM.NET.

When assigning cores to the VM I went for 10 to start with, I may increase at a later date.


Anywho the before and after ppd.

v6 console client on windows 7 with 11 cores: ~ 23k ppd
v6 linux 64 bit client with 10 cores: ~28.5K ppd


Will try it with 11 cores tomorrow. :-)

[TaRkA DaHl]

23k PPD on a 3930?

My 2500k at just 3.6Ghz is getting 25k PPD currently, something must be wrong there...

What am I missing?

[debs3759]

My 3930K at 4.6 GHz earns around 50K

[Scorpuk]

What are the options you are running fah with?

Maybe thats the difference?

[TaRkA DaHl]

Just:

FAH.exe -smp

I haven't even specified the cores to use.

[Scorpuk]

Hmmmm.

I'll switch to all 12 see what happens.


You running with gpu too?

[Tattysnuc]

It'll depend on the WU too... the points do fluctuate quite a bit....

[Scorpuk]

Ahh cheers Tattysnuc.

Oh well 6hrs until WU P6089 finishes.

[TaRkA DaHl]

No GPU, the benefit of the points from the GPU reduces the points from the CPU so much it aint worth it.

Might want to test that yourself, it will also reduce power consumption considerably.

[Scorpuk]

I'll give that a try in about 2 hours time when the GPU unit finishes.

It would need to almost double the current ppd for the cpu to break even. :-)

[TaRkA DaHl]

You may find it comes just a few 1000 ppd short, in which case given the 200 or so watt power saving its well worth it in my opinion.

Or you may not.

What you could do if it does is buy a dead cheap Atom board or similar and run the gfx card in that for folding if you desperately wanted it crunching :P

Totally pointless if you want to game though!

[Scorpuk]

[enigmo]

Just FYI, I saw a PPD increase when moving from Windows based consoles to VMs. As egs:
On a stock 2600 I also use for work, Windows console used to get around 13-15k ppd. An Ubuntu based VM running in VMWare Workstation, with me doing the same work on the machine, now gets 17-20k ppd, which is a fair % increase.
Similarly, my Q9550 used to get about 7k ppd. Moving to a similar VM to above got me 9-10k ppd, and then switching again to a bootable folding CD gets me 10k+ all the time, usually closer to 11k.

[RedFlames]

giving folding on a VM a try... so far it's slightly lower tpf... but not anything major and i dunno if it's worth the hassle of a vm in the bg for a few extra ppd...

for reference running [k]ubuntu Precise with the 3.2.0-23-lowlatency kernel, no other tweaks

[Scorpuk]

Well its coming to the end of its first full WU running on its own with 12 cores and only getting a slight increase in ppd.

Up by about 9k ppd to ~31k ppd.


Hmmmm.

I do have the following additional options that I may turn off:

-verbosity 9 -advmethods


Edit:

Just realised the computer has crashed as of 00:42 last night. :-|

[Scorpuk]

Hmmmm.

Went to confirm my passkey and got a new one.

Maybe this is why?

[Madness_3d]

Wonder where these benefits come from being in a VM? Is it just a more efficient client or is there an advantage of them having hypervisor, ring -1, priority?

[TaRkA DaHl]

Originally Posted by Scorpuk

Hmmmm.

Went to confirm my passkey and got a new one.

Maybe this is why?

Sends a different one every time. But it still applies to yourself.

Originally Posted by Madness_3d

Wonder where these benefits come from being in a VM? Is it just a more efficient client or is there an advantage of them having hypervisor, ring -1, priority?

Different client runs more efficiently in Linux. So much more so it even passes the overheads of a virtual machine.

Originally Posted by Scorpuk

Well its coming to the end of its first full WU running on its own with 12 cores and only getting a slight increase in ppd.

Up by about 9k ppd to ~31k ppd.


Hmmmm.

I do have the following additional options that I may turn off:

-verbosity 9 -advmethods


Edit:

Just realised the computer has crashed as of 00:42 last night. :-|

Drop the advmethods and see what happens.

[Chicken76]

Do the benefits of folding on a linux VM apply to AMD CPUs too or are they limited to Intel's?

[enigmo]

Originally Posted by Chicken76

Do the benefits of folding on a linux VM apply to AMD CPUs too or are they limited to Intel's?

In my experience, it doesn't matter, you'll see a speed bump anyway. AMD chips support virtualisation as well as the Intels do.