Larger Memory Models

Message boards : Number crunching : Larger Memory Models

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Paul

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Message 89899 - Posted: 16 Nov 2018, 11:02:52 UTC - in response to Message 86862.  

I think you will find many of us built machines with 1GB of RAM for each concurrent work unit. I know my machines almost never exceed 20% of total memory usage. I would love to see the work units use more RAM if it accelerates the calculations.
Thx!

Paul

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Mod.Sense
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Message 89901 - Posted: 16 Nov 2018, 15:43:57 UTC

When your system connects to the project and requests work, the available memory is already part of the search criteria when looking for appropriate work units. Last I have heard is that there are two potential memory classes of work, "normal" and "large". A system with a lot of memory can run either class of work. Large memory work units may not always be available.

So, the only thing to do here would be to review your BOINC Manager preferences and the settings for the amount of memory, and virtual memory that BOINC Manager is allowed to use, when the system is both active, and idle. And potentially change the settings to reflect your expanded available memory.
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Usuario1_S

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Message 89903 - Posted: 16 Nov 2018, 23:52:46 UTC - in response to Message 89901.  

For a short while my AMD FX-8370 8-core, no Hyper-trheading, CPU had about 800MB-1.2 GB per core and had 8 GB RAM, DDR3-1333, so it saturated and Widnows started to thrashing, swapping RAM segments to the Swap File, 12 GB, plenty of room but the processing became erratic and constant thrashing, pretty sure the 8 WUs didn't need the 8 GB at once, very unlikely, so I think R@H and BOINC RAM algorithms are not optimized for efficient processing, should only swap the parts that are least used or will be used, as consequence a lot of the tasks won't even run or at low %, I made sure everything was closed and maximized the available RAM, even upgraded the 'lowest' priority given by default to above normal, nothing worked, so I installed 8GB of RAM more, problem solved. Thw problem isn't swapping much, it's how is done, not pro-actively, not pro-processing, and way too much, swapping is notmal, when done properly is transparent and will greatly improve processing not only of an app, but all apps and the operating sysytem. Therefore I think BOINC needs to hire a couple software engineers and review its RAM management and swapping, then pass the word how to Projects can efficicently cooperate and coordinate with BOINC and the host Operating System for efficient WU processing, it's about time, ver. 7 s up and the WUs get bigger and processing is more complex, this is getting worse as time goes by and can only get worse if pro and good software designers take a good look at it
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rjs5

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Message 89908 - Posted: 18 Nov 2018, 12:06:40 UTC - in response to Message 89903.  
Last modified: 18 Nov 2018, 12:13:01 UTC

For a short while my AMD FX-8370 8-core, no Hyper-trheading, CPU had about 800MB-1.2 GB per core and had 8 GB RAM, DDR3-1333, so it saturated and Widnows started to thrashing, swapping RAM segments to the Swap File, 12 GB, plenty of room but the processing became erratic and constant thrashing, pretty sure the 8 WUs didn't need the 8 GB at once, very unlikely, so I think R@H and BOINC RAM algorithms are not optimized for efficient processing, should only swap the parts that are least used or will be used, as consequence a lot of the tasks won't even run or at low %, I made sure everything was closed and maximized the available RAM, even upgraded the 'lowest' priority given by default to above normal, nothing worked, so I installed 8GB of RAM more, problem solved. Thw problem isn't swapping much, it's how is done, not pro-actively, not pro-processing, and way too much, swapping is notmal, when done properly is transparent and will greatly improve processing not only of an app, but all apps and the operating sysytem. Therefore I think BOINC needs to hire a couple software engineers and review its RAM management and swapping, then pass the word how to Projects can efficicently cooperate and coordinate with BOINC and the host Operating System for efficient WU processing, it's about time, ver. 7 s up and the WUs get bigger and processing is more complex, this is getting worse as time goes by and can only get worse if pro and good software designers take a good look at it



You can set the maximum amount of swap space that BOINC uses. With the amount of memory you have, you should be able to set it to the 1% minimum without affecting computing. If one of the WUs gets out of control with the memory use, it will fail quickly and move on.

OPTIONS -> COMPUTING PREFERENCES -> DISK AND MEMORY -> PAGE/SWAP FILE: USE AT MOST ____ %
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Aurum

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Message 90149 - Posted: 5 Jan 2019, 20:49:59 UTC - in response to Message 89901.  

...review your BOINC Manager preferences and the settings for the amount of memory, and virtual memory that BOINC Manager is allowed to use, when the system is both active, and idle.
Where is this memory control setting you're talking about???
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Jim1348

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Message 90150 - Posted: 5 Jan 2019, 22:29:37 UTC - in response to Message 90149.  

Where is this memory control setting you're talking about???

Boinc Manager/Options/Computing Preferences/Disk and memory
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Message boards : Number crunching : Larger Memory Models



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