poclbm using CPU 100% even though using GPU?

[Dominic Sayers]

Same problem under Ubuntu 11.04.
AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 6000+
Two ATI cards.
GPU_USE_SYNC_OBJECTS=1
Latest poclbm

1 miner = 0-5% CPU
2 miners = 97-100% CPU

[gat3way]

export GPU_USE_SYNC_OBJECTS=1

don't forget the export thing...otherwise it is useless.

[pizzaman]

How do you use the GPU_USE_SYNC_OBJECTS environment variables in windows, seems to be the key to the problem. This post http://forum.beyond3d.com/showpost.php?p=1506556&postcount=9 leads to this one http://forums.amd.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=390&threadid=143851 hinting that it fixes the 100% CPU problem. Anyone knows how to apply this in windows?

[Ddraig]

I was able to update my video drivers and it detected my video card. Now I'm cookin' with GPU.

[pizzaman]

I was able to update my video drivers and it detected my video card. Now I'm cookin' with GPU.

Not to be an ass, but how is that relevant to the thread?

[Ddraig]

I was able to update my video drivers and it detected my video card. Now I'm cookin' with GPU.

Not to be an ass, but how is that relevant to the thread?

Because I was having the same issue and I updated my video drivers and it went away.

[allinvain]

I was able to update my video drivers and it detected my video card. Now I'm cookin' with GPU.

Not to be an ass, but how is that relevant to the thread?

Because I was having the same issue and I updated my video drivers and it went away.

Umm, are you mining with more than one video card?

And to what ATI driver version did you upgrade to?

Can you show proof that it went away.

[ensign_lee]

I'm experiencing this problem as well with the GUIMiner whenever I have more than 1 card on a system. Windows 7 64 bit in both cases.

Rig 1: Two 5870's - each miner instance takes up a CPU core. So if I try to set 2 miners on each GPU (one for a backup in case my main pool goes down) and have 4 total miners, I use up all 4 cores on my i5-2500k.

Rig 2: Same deal, but with 1 5870 and 1 5850.

Seems like it's a problem with the number of miners you have rather than the number of GPUs. I'm sure if I had a hexacore system and tried to make 6 total miners, I'd experience the same problem even though only 2 miners are actually "working"

[Transisto]

So it's been 3 month and nobody's found a solution yet ?

With a single GPU poclbm use 30% on a C2D 2.4ghz,

[allinvain]

I'm starting to think that there is no solution in Windows..at least nothing super easy.

In Linux use this:

export GPU_USE_SYNC_OBJECTS=1

[Transisto]

In Linux use this:
export GPU_USE_SYNC_OBJECTS=1

The reason why I don't use linux is that I want the PC to be usable for something else.

Not that linux is unusable, just "too different" for people's taste.

[allinvain]

In Linux use this:
export GPU_USE_SYNC_OBJECTS=1

The reason why I don't use linux is that I want the PC to be usable for something else.

Not that linux is unusable, just "too different" for people's taste.

Yep, I understand your reason. But unfortunately you'll have to put up with the CPU usage. Just set CPU affinity for each miner to one core.

[error]

This issue led me to switch to the Phoenix miner, which is getting me more hashes anyway, and 1% CPU usage.

[allinvain]

This issue led me to switch to the Phoenix miner, which is getting me more hashes anyway, and 1% CPU usage.

huh? It doesn't matter what miner you use. For me Phoenix does the same thing! Am I the only one??

[Transisto]

I am beginning to think this happen to every windows GPU setup,

There is definitely people who don't have this problem, isn't ?
Otherwise this page would have 30 page.

What is it you're doing ?

I have PCs running many GPUs with the crappiest 1.6ghz single core you can find and it does not affect hashing at all.

These cpu cycles are definitely doing nothing useful at all.

[benyben]

I have the same problem:

6990
AMD Sampron (one or dual cores - not sure), running at 100% all the time.

[DigDug3445]

I think i have found a solution to this problem atleast on Win7, if you go into the advanced power settings in Win7 you can set the Maximum Processor State to say 40-50% and with my system
5770
5850
AMD Athlon II X3

Causes the CPU to remain at only around 40watts rather than 110watts as shown by HWmonitor program when mining with dual cards. I had to do some testing to see what was the optimal setting for me by adjusting the percentage until GUIminer was getting the highest MH/s but also before the CPU started to go above 40watts.

Hope that helps.

[benyben]

But then U are limiting something from doing it's job, no?

I mean -there is a reason the CPU is on a 100%, no? Or actually the fault is that it's doing NOTHING while running on 100%???

[johanatan]

But then U are limiting something from doing it's job, no?

I mean -there is a reason the CPU is on a 100%, no? Or actually the fault is that it's doing NOTHING while running on 100%???

I am also seeing this.  I have 3 ATI 6950s and a 5970 with an i3 3.2Ghz CPU and each python instance maxes out a core at 100% (on Win 7).  [And one of my cards runs at about 2/3 max capacity].

Has anyone come up with a reliable solution for this?

[oioki]

My investigations shows that problem may be in driver version.

When I was using Ubuntu 10.10 and NVidia 260.19.36, there are no problems - poclbm was using only 0-5 %
Today I upgraded to Ubuntu 11.04 and fresh NVidia driver 270.41.19, and now poclbm (and phoenix too) are using up to 100%

When I install old NVidia driver 260.19.36 on Ubuntu 11.04, poclbm is digging and "top" shows low cpu usage (0-5%), but unfortunately X server cannot starting complaining about "ABI version mismatch". Now I am on Ubuntu 11.04 with fresh driver, and also seeking for better solution... Maybe I'll have to go back to Ubuntu 10.10.

EDIT: videocard is - nVidia Corporation GT215 [GeForce GT 240] (rev a2) ~20.000 khash/s