Playing games while mining with the same GFX card

[Auspician]

The Goal: To play games while mining, letting the game use whatever portion of the GFX card it needs to run and leave the rest leftover for the mining client.

The Proof: This was achieved using an older Nvidia GFX card by using the -f128 flag.  The card was hashing at 40Mhash/s when not gaming and 8-10Mhash/s when gaming without any noticeable performance reduction in the game.

The Problem: Current I'm using 2x non-reference 6950's hashing at about 335Mhash/s each.  Games run fine when I turn the worker off that controls the monitor I'm gaming on.  However, the system locks whenever I attempt to also mine with that GFX card, regardless of starting the worker first or the game first.  This happens even with -f1024.

Any suggestions?

[Austinh100]

windows or linux, im assuming windows, i would try setting priority to the game in task manager

[Auspician]

Windows 7 64-bit. 

Priority can only be set after the game is loaded and would require a complex process every time I wanted to game, even if it would work.  Any other suggestions?

[milk]

Your monitor can display 1024 frames ? Really 

-f 60 (frames) is usually the max. If it hangs your computer is unstable.

[Waltibaba]

If you want to, you can set priority permanently using a program like prifinnity; sets affinity and priority automatically.

[Auspician]

That might be worth looking into, Waltibaba.  I'll check it out and get back to you.

As far as how many frames my monitor can display, honestly I've ignored that detail in favor of recognizing that the Mhash/s rate drops the higher -f I go to, and other applications seem to be able to utilize that additional graphics overhead.  At -f1024 I'm still at 93% utilization of my GFX cards.

[Auspician]

No dice.  Setting GUIminer to Low priority and the game to Above Normal had no effect; the system still crashed.

Other suggestions?

[frizzl]

Your monitor can display 1024 frames ? Really 

-f 60 (frames) is usually the max. If it hangs your computer is unstable.

This worked for me, i was able to login to RIFT didnt do anything hardcore but it was hashing still and had decent fps in RIFT.

[Auspician]

What GFX card are you running RIFT on, frizzl?  What OS are you using and with what version of the GFX drivers?

[lacedwithkerosene]

"Consider playing Minesweeper instead of Black Ops if you must game on a computer that is actively mining"

[Garrett Burgwardt]

The 69xx series has a known problem where anything using OpenCL doesn't share resources with other programs.

Those cards will all lock.

[Auspician]

Good to know, Garrett.  Is this an ATI/AMD problem, meaning could I share feedback with them about this and ask for a software update that doesn't have that problem?

[Fiyasko]

Your monitor can display 1024 frames ? Really  

-f 60 (frames) is usually the max. If it hangs your computer is unstable.

I fucking hate noobs

But Yes, If it hangs, Your system is unstable.

I have two 6870's crossfire'd in my main comp
GPU0=940core 1150mem
GPU1=1000core 1200mem

Running at -v -w128 -f250

Crysis 2+advanced graphics options=No lag
No need to stop a GPU.
When i had GPU0 at 965core, i could mine with it But games would crash while the miner was running, Turn off the miner, and games EVENTUALLY crash

If you think it's the OpenCL bug, Then try placing the core affinity on ALL gpu's to just one core, BTW if you have more than 1 GPU, OpenCL will Peg one of your cores at 100%

Even with the bug Activly Fucking my 6th core really hard Crysis 2 runs Perfect whilst mining

[dikidera]

I also played games while mining. And although i mined slower(obviously) i had the perfect settings. The game wasn't as smooth, but it worked.

[Fiyasko]

Raise the F if the game is not smooth, I can play the most BASIC of video games (Touhou 12) and i lag without the F up at 250

[Auspician]

Update: This issue seems to depend upon the game.  Civilization 5 doesn't want to share resources with the miners, and results in a system crash.  However, Neverwinter Nights 2 and Fallout New Vegas work great with just the -f60 flag, even running through a GFX card on a PCIe x8 slot. 

[qed]

All DX11 games, on 6900 cards, will lock your PC if you start it while mining, DX9 games are working fine. I did not test DX10 games.

[Auspician]

Good to know!  I'll have to try running Civilization 5 in DX9.

[SeriousWorm]

I can play UrbanTerror (OpenGL game) with a miner in the background.

If I start UrT while mining, I get a crash.

*However*, if I start UrT, ALT-TAB out of the game, start the miner then just as the miner is starting ALT-TAB *back* in to the game, everything works. From then on I can ALT-TAB whenever I want, it runs perfectly for hours.

I'm running the latest Phoenix w/ Cat 10.6, MSI 6870 Hawk, Afterburner to control clocks.
I can set Aggression to about 5 without any fps loss or lag. I get minor lag on 6 and it increases at 7 and up.
I get around 150-250 MH/sec out of the 300 maximum. Much better than 0.



Additionally, Far Cry 2 (which I got with the card) seems to run fine without crashes, regardless of the above.

[Fiyasko]

All DX11 games, on 6900 cards, will lock your PC if you start it while mining, DX9 games are working fine. I did not test DX10 games.

You are completely incorrect, I am loving my 6990 eyefinity, a yummy 60fps max graphics with one core and 400mhashes with the other.

When i obey this threads 'ruleset' we'll call it, (and i just tested this) i get a horrible 139mh/s per core(2) but the game still gets a solid 60fps+

Maxedout Eyefinity on Crysis2 with the Adavanced Graphics Tweaker
Notes:AA is disabled.
         All forms of PhysX are disabled
         Windows7UltimateX86
         -v -w128 -f350