Best CPUs for Asteroids@Home

[Dirk Broer]

As usual there are two approaches as to decide what CPU would be best for a project.
One is simply to look at the list of best scoring computers for a project, the other is to lookup the WuProp Stats for the project. As there are only 1430 Asteroids@Home participants and not all will also use WuProp the database leaves a bit to be desired as it comes to some specific CPUs (e.g. no figures for a 64-core quad Opteron system).



CPU
Cores (Hyp.)
Thermal Design Power
OS version
Avg. Score/day


Intel Core i7-3930K
6 (12)
130 Watt
Win8 Professional x64

12,678.80


Dual Intel Xeon E5-2670
2x 8 (2x 16)
2x 115 Watt
Win2008 Server R2 x64

10,577.89


Intel Core i7-2700K
4 (8)
95 Watt
Win7 Ultimate x64

9,400.10


AMD FX-8320
8
125 Watt
Win7 Professional x64

8,340.149


Intel Core i5-2500K
4
95 Watt
Win7 Ultimate x64

8,100.070



From the table above one can conclude that a 64-bit OS seems to offer more performance for Asteroids, and that a production of 1,000 credits per core should be taken as a good level of performance.
Interresting here is the 32-core (with the aid of hyperthreading) Xeon E5-2670 failing that mark totally, while the 4-core i5-2500K manages to deliver double that performance.
Couple that to the power hunger of the dual Xeon system and see that these are expensive credits, both in purchase and in maintenance. But perhaps this system does not run Asteroids 24/7 and does that influence this ratings. What does WuProp have to say?

WuProp verifies the 1,000 credits per core/day as a level of good performance, and also the 64-bit OS as giving more performance.

Best scoring AMD CPUs according to WuProp:


CPU
Cores (Hyp.)
Thermal Design Power
Credit per day per core
Max. Credit per day


AMD FX-8320
8
125 Watt

1,527.2

12,217.6


AMD Phenom X6 1090T (tweaked to 9 cores)
9
125 Watt

1,334.0

12,006.0


AMD FX-8350 (OC 10% Ã* +20%)
8
125 Watt

1,164.9

9,319.2


AMD Phenom X6 1090T (tweaked to 8 cores)
8
125 Watt

1,162.0

9,296.0


AMD FX-8150 (OC 10% Ã* +20%)
8
125 Watt

1,078.0

8,624.0


Some AMD CPUs with good performance per core, but not enough cores to end in the top: Phenom II X4 965 (1,427.9 per core/day), Phenom II X6 1090T (1,375.2), Phenom II X6 1100T (1,309.6), Phenom II X6 1055T (1,270.6), Phenom II X6 1045T (1,220.1).

And what does the competition do? These are the champions from the blue camp, where they seem to like the phrase 'Performance for a price':


CPU
Cores (Hyp.)
Thermal Design Power
Credit per day per core
Max. Credit per day


Dual Intel Xeon E5-2670
2x 8 (2x 16)
2x 115 Watt

933.2

29,862.4

Dual Intel Xeon X-5650
2x 6 (2x 12)
2x 95 Watt

1,128.2

27,076.8


Intel Core i7-3960X
6 (12)
130 Watt

1,520.1

18,241.2


Intel Core i7-3930K
6 (12)
130 Watt

1,236.8

14,841.6


Intel Core i7-970
6 (12)
130 Watt

1,064.1

12,769.2


Some Intel CPUs with good performance per core, but not enough cores to end in the top: Intel Core i5-3570K (2,043.2), Intel Core i5-2500K (1,952.9), Intel Core i7-2700K (1,765.6), Intel Core i7-3770K (1,710.7), Intel Core i5-3450 (1,702.2), Intel Core i5-2500 (1,623.7).

[NeoGen]

Hey Dirk

I have a Phenom II X6 1100T (Black Edition!:icon_twisted:) but my scores are not that good... do you know how in the world they extracted 8 and 9 cores out of those 1090T's?

[Dirk Broer]

These scores are based upon doing 24/7 Asteroids, so when you have more projects, your scores will be lower.
As to making a 6-core into a 8- or even 9-core: I suppose it is a setting in cc_config.xml, but I'm not sure.
Would love to unlock my A6-3500 into an A6-3600 that way!

[NeoGen]

I've read bits and pieces about the cc_config.xml but I thought it was only for GPUs, and I never even looked into it because I don't have a big GPU yet.
Can that be used for CPUs as well? I'm running Asteroids 24/7 too (or maybe 23.956/7 to include the occasional reboot:icon_razz:)

I have tried unlocking cores through the BIOS a couple of times but all I get is a dead board. And then I have to wipe the CMOS data, and put all the configurations back in bit by bit, which is very boring. :icon_neutral:

[Dirk Broer]

It is indeed a line in the cc_config.xml (http://boinc.berkeley.edu/wiki/Client_configuration):

<ncpus>N</ncpus>
Act as if there were N CPUs; e.g. to simulate 2 CPUs on a machine that has only 1. To use the number of available CPUs, set the value to -1 (was 0 which in newer clients really means zero).

[NeoGen]

WOW!!! It really works! :shocked:

I turned on my desktop this weekend after some downtime and recorded nearly 4K/day on Asteroids for these past 2 days (Seeing on Boinc Synergy)... last night I made the cc_config and set it to 8 "virtual" cores (from the 6 real ones of the X6 1100T) and right now it's little over half of the day and I'm already with 5K points! :icon_mrgreen:


EDIT: Dave and Bobcat... you guys better get your engines started. I'm coming for you! :icon_twisted:

2nd EDIT: Dave... hope you don't mind, but I slipped right past you on FightMalaria@Home while you weren't looking... :icon_mrgreen:
The cc_config also worked wonders on my other machine running FightMalaria!

[Brucifer]

The best for asteroids?????? Mix and match I always say....... like at the dragstrip, run whattcha brung...... lol y'all look out as I'm coming at ya! :-)

It's time to ruuuuuuuuumble! :icon_rolleyes:

[Dirk Broer]

The same for the reno air races. Like to bring my F2G Super Corsair (http://www.warbirddepot.com/aircraft_fighters_f2g-race57.asp)
273
Corsair, the name still has a ring to it, even in computer circles (pardon the pun).

BTW: When I 've reached my goals with Seti I will give you a run for your money on Asteroids, Brucifer...

[Brucifer]

Yup the Corsair is a beautiful aircraft. I love the old navy prop a/c. Would get chills down my spine every time I fired off a radial, they just sound so cool. But didn't get near the air races, just carrier flight decks. That gets your heart pumping pretty good too.

edit: As for seti, I gave that up years and years ago, but sure was addicted to it back in the beginning.

edit/edit: Well I'll only have a week of this and then I'll be shutting everything down for a week as I'm hitting the road again. But will be back on asteroids again after I get back.

[Dirk Broer]

That sure was a big push forward by Brucifer, 104,520 credits:icon_eek: on Asteroids in one day

[Brucifer]

Well we still have BOINC@Australia climbing our back. Six days of this and then shut down till the 8th. The good thing about this for me though is that the heat output is low as the gpu's aren't running. Those things just boost the heat and power consumption ferociously. So I think just maybe I'll start doing a shift over to asteroids for the longer haul. Sure saves wear and tear on the a/c system. Plus we need more work put into the asteroid searching for spaceship Earth!

[Dirk Broer]

Yes, I saw the Aussies coming, but you've kept them nicely at bay for today.
http://stats.free-dc.org/charts/teamcumul.php?proj=ast&team=15
How many cores did you use for this ferocious output?

[Brucifer]

26 cores. But with the server maintenance going on longer than what was advertised, the output will be down today as some of the cores are out of work and have been. Some of those cores are slow dual core amd's that will likely be replaced by some new multi-cores that suck less power. But that isn't going to happen for a couple months most likely. I've got some stuff laying around that I could get another quad going in a day or so possibly. But they will get us anyway cause of the upcoming road trip. Just need to get some more folks on this and we could be one of the top ten in Bok's daily team stats.... :-) We just don't have any corporate crunchers like some of those teams that have some heavy resources on this.

[Brucifer]

well the server outage yesterday definitely messed with the stats today for many folks.... but oh well, on the beach of time I guess it really doesn't matter much at all. lol There's always tomorrow, or at least we sure hope so. :-)

[Brucifer]

Rats.... Big electrical storm. Power surges. Shut down the farm. At least I have my trusty mini iPad that runs on a battery! Lol. So one day it is the asteroids server maintenance. Then the next day is electrical storms. Sure is quiet in my computer room now! I can even hear the clicking of the keyboard. :-) However it's the time of year for this stuff to start up again.... at least for around here.

[Brucifer]

It appears that the supply of work units is in the process of running low as my crunchers aren't able to obtain replacement work units for those that are crunched and reported. Not a good thing..... Sure hope that that gets resolved before I run out as I hate seeing crunchers idle on a project. Can always add another project but then that in turn reduces output for the primary project. Life is just full of these little irritations huh?? lol

[Terry1953]

It appears that the supply of work units is in the process of running low as my crunchers aren't able to obtain replacement work units for those that are crunched and reported. Not a good thing..... Sure hope that that gets resolved before I run out as I hate seeing crunchers idle on a project. Can always add another project but then that in turn reduces output for the primary project. Life is just full of these little irritations huh?? lol

Always a PITA to have a shortage. I have a habit of losing interest and moving on rather than splitting the output. I just moved a couple of systems and the rest can stay on NFS for now. But the Aussies went screaming into the rearview mirror all of a sudden after you mentioned you needed help (not from my output I still only have points for about 1 in 8 that I have run). I have 2CH about to go down one in MOO so I wasn't really doing anything with the CPU's anyway. All the GPU's are still humming away and tossing out a little less than a 1.5 million a day in Moo. Oh how often does Bok update the stats page on this project? Is it just once a day?

[Dirk Broer]

Can always add another project but then that in turn reduces output for the primary project
Me I just keep adding projects the more cores/threads I am running, which got rewarded with 'Clanks', 'Vaio's', 'MiRBs' and a 'Maxwell' so far.
http://stats.free-dc.org/mosttag.php?cpid=76d20230028d9ceee3a1aa52fcf14dd4&theme=26

[Terry1953]

" 'Clanks', 'Vaio's', 'MiRBs' and a 'Maxwell'"........ I saw this and started laughing because I have no idea what any of those are. I had to look them up. I saw Vaio and wondered if you meant a Laptop, and thought that would be cool to get.

[Dirk Broer]

AFAIK:

Clanks are for the number of projects you are actively involved in (scores in the last 30 days or so).
Vaios are for the number of projects for which you are within the top 5 of your sign-up date.
Maxwells are for the projects/Mega Milestones you are within the top-100 (got mine for my Clank).
MiRBs are for the number of Mega Milestone you scored within the top-1000.


Terry's Mega Milestone look like
http://stats.free-dc.org/mosttag.php?cpid=9d4de930a6de730659b3ac41a4bb49e1&theme=29

[Brucifer]

Lol, never heard of the clanks and all before! Interesting. The work unit supply issue appears to be resolved as things are flowing well again. As for the updates for the FDC stats, it depends on the project. Asteroids gets it once a day it looks like. Hard to tell cause those google ads cover up half of the update info at the top of the screen. As for the Aussies..... :-) well I guess they can just add all they want to it as that helps the project out and in the end that's what it is all about anyway. They will get a good jump on us anyway in a few more days for a week as I'll be shutting down Friday morning, unless someone else dives in. But there's lots of projects, and everyone has their favorites and that's the way the game goes you know. :-) In the beginning I used to be rabid about the crunching but that's been years ago, and the hobby has really changed a lot since then. I crunch mainly now I guess because it's just in the blood and that's what I've had computers doing for years now. But the intensity isn't there like it used to be cause I just can't afford it anymore being a retired soul nowdays. That's for all the young ones and the rich ones. lol

[Terry1953]

AFAIK:

Clanks are for the number of projects you are actively involved in (scores in the last 30 days or so).
Vaios are for the number of projects for which you are within the top 5 of your sign-up date.
Maxwells are for the projects/Mega Milestones you are within the top-100 (got mine for my Clank).
MiRBs are for the number of Mega Milestone you scored within the top-1000.





Terry's Mega Milestone look like
http://stats.free-dc.org/mosttag.php?cpid=9d4de930a6de730659b3ac41a4bb49e1&theme=29


I was laughing at myself because I just never seem to pay attention. Thanks Dirk I really had never known what any of those were. I have seen references to a couple of them but just never looked.

[AMDave]

AFAIK:

Clanks are for the number of projects you are actively involved in (scores in the last 30 days or so).
Vaios are for the number of projects for which you are within the top 5 of your sign-up date.
Maxwells are for the projects/Mega Milestones you are within the top-100 (got mine for my Clank).
MiRBs are for the number of Mega Milestone you scored within the top-1000.


Terry's Mega Milestone look like
http://stats.free-dc.org/mosttag.php?cpid=9d4de930a6de730659b3ac41a4bb49e1&theme=29

Free_DC forum links regarding the specifics for the MMs - mega milestones
http://www.free-dc.org/forum/showthread.php?31833-Triggls-Vaios-Clanks&highlight=Clanks
trigggls are #projects where your score is between 10000 and 10100
vaios are #projects where your createdaterank is < 5
clanks are #projects where you have any score in the last28 days

same page:
Boks are #projects where your score is between 100'000 and 101'000
TeraBoks are #projects where your score is between 1'000'000 and 1'000'100

http://www.free-dc.org/forum/showthread.php?27995-Meta-Mega-Milestones&highlight=maxwells
You get a Maxwell when you have at least half of what the top person in that category has

http://www.free-dc.org/forum/showthread.php?39765-A-plea-for-Maxwells&highlight=Clanks
So, you can get a Maxwell for Boks/TeraBoks/Trigggls/Clanks and Viaos
maxwells are only calculated based on all the other MM's, so you can't get a maxwell for the number of maxwells you have

http://www.free-dc.org/forum/showthread.php?40072-Suggeston-for-a-New-MegaMilestone&highlight=MiRB
you get MiRBS when you are in the top 1000 of a project
you can't get a MiRB for being in the top 1000 of MiRB's


You need to plan ahead for these.
I used to have lots of trigggls but when they were created I already had a lot just over the limit
Once I caught up as many as I could to trigggles I had to go for Boks
So that meant that my clanks dropped - that even sounds amusing :P
274

[Dirk Broer]

I am completely re-edjucated on all possible stats regarding BOINC, thanks!
All the more objectives doom up before me......

[Terry1953]

LMAO!!!!! Thanks Dave but in this case I think that for me ignorance is bliss. I think I'll just keep to my own little system. Stumble around and run something that catches my eye till I get bore with it and stumble on to something else. (Except Moo that I'll stay with till I get past Mikey) Got the walls up on my computer room today and plan on doing the roof Sunday. So sometime in Sept I should be able to move in and then I can expand the number of systems, I bought two 8 place KVM's just to get ready. I should be able to fill them up before next spring.

[Brucifer]

No new work in asteroids again, all my systems are empty. Time to look for another project I guess.

[AMDave]

"doom up before me" - Crickey! That's an outlook I'd not embraced before. (a typo? maybe you meant "loom"?)

I see it as - Opportunity knocks at every turn no matter what you decide to excel in :)
I have been enjoying setting and getting MM targets for the last few years.
Although one of my main targets now is a non MM - just a basic team rank average - if I can do that AND keep my MMs then I will have ticked more boxes than I thought possible.
Still working on it.
Very hard to do and taking some time, but it is still possible.
Maybe between now and the end of this year I might get there.

Vision. It turns out to be quite a powerful word.

[Dirk Broer]

You caught me there AMDave: I meant loom, yes! I also enjoyed setting and getting MM targets for the last year!

[Dirk Broer]

Although one of my main targets now is a non MM - just a basic team rank average - if I can do that AND keep my MMs then I will have ticked more boxes than I thought possible.
Still working on it. Very hard to do and taking some time, but it is still possible. Maybe between now and the end of this year I might get there.

What is/are your goal(s) and where can you look it/them up? I try to push my own team rank average below 7 and I know that both Vaughan and Liuqyn have a lower average -and have more projects as well.

[AMDave]

I just go by my CPID page
http://stats.free-dc.org/stats.php?page=userbycpid&cpid=89e772f65716bba7c962b4a13d14e350

Average team rank is in the upper left panel and MMs to the right.
My goals are in my head - no. you can't look them up :P

I too seem have participated in quite a few projects.
There are a few where I can push up the ranks to try to get my average down to 10.
I started that particular goal with an average over 22.

I'm also trying to keep my RankP's down whilst maintaining my rank in Boks.
I just got back into 2nd-outright from 2nd-equal at Boks this morning.
Eventually I may have to give away the boks, but in the mean time there's a couple more projects left to go that can be got.

[Dirk Broer]

I had hoped for a page where you can look up your team mates to see their average ranking/number of projects.
BoincStats used to have a page with your team ranking (day/week/month) over all projects, but they've given up that information level.
Much harder to trace your threats and opportunities since.

[AMDave]

FYI

"Teraboks though are now consistent with the other two in that it's a 1% margin." [Bok]

http://www.free-dc.org/forum/showthread.php?33304-Stats-Issues&goto=newpost

[Dirk Broer]

Hi AMDave,

Thanks for the information, but I ain't in the habit of breaking at limits, or it must be around the 50 Million
(next Mega milestone is so far away...and you get no notices anymore along the way at minor milestones)

[Dirk Broer]

And how do our favorite AMD Quaddies do on Asteroids?

Credits per core per day (http://wuprop.boinc-af.org/results/projet.py?projet=Asteroids%40home&application=Period+Search+Application)
Phenom II X4-980: 4,431.8 (Win64, actually the value for a X4-970, but it's related pretty close enough to guess this value as the minimum for the 980. It could even be higher!)
Llano A8-3820: 3,566.3 (Win64)
Llano A8-3870K: na
FX-4100: 3,573.4 (Linux64) or 3,045.1 (Win64)
FX-4170: na
FX-4300: na
FX-4350: 5,556.7 (Win64)
Trinity A10-5700: 3,049.1 (Linux64)
Trinity A10-5800K: 3,938.9 (Win64)
Richland A10-6700: na
Richland A10-6800K: na

Don't throw away those Phenom IIs yet...and the FX-4350 does actually quite well.
Unfortunately the table for my performance figures features some glaring errors, such as a credit of 1,753,671.6 per core per day for the AMD Athlon 64 3500+, and 932,320.2 per core per day for the FX-8120 is also circumspect.

[Dirk Broer]

And how do our favorite AMD Quaddies do on Asteroids? Credits per core/per day (http://wuprop.boinc-af.org/results/projet.py?projet=Asteroids%40home&application=Period+Search+Application)
Phenom II X4-980: 4,431.8 (Win64, actually the value for a X4-970, but it's related pretty close enough to guess this value as the minimum for the 980. It could even be higher!)
Llano A8-3820: 3,566.3 (Win64)
Llano A8-3870K: na
FX-4100: 3,573.4 (Linux64) or 3,045.1 (Win64)
FX-4170: na
FX-4300: na
FX-4350: 5,556.7 (Win64)
Trinity A10-5700: 3,049.1 (Linux64)
Trinity A10-5800K: 3,938.9 (Win64)
Richland A10-6700: na
Richland A10-6800K: na
Don't throw away those Phenom IIs yet...and the FX-4350 does actually quite well.
Unfortunately the table for my performance figures features some glaring errors, such as a credit of 1,753,671.6 per core per day for the AMD Athlon 64 3500+, and 932,320.2 per core per day for the FX-8120 is also circumspect.



AM3
AM3+
FM1
FM2
FM2+
AM1


Phenom II X4-980: 4,431.8 (Win64
FX-4100: 3,573.4 (Linux64) or 3,500.5 (Win64)
FX-4350: 5,556.7 (Win64)

Llano A8-3820: 3,566.3 (Win64)
Llano A8-3870K: 4,014.2 (Win64)
Trinity A10-5700: 3,049.1 (Linux64)
Trinity A10-5800K: 3,938.9 (Win64)
Kaveri A10-7700: 3,897.9 (Win64)
Kaveri A10-7870K: 5,513.0 (Linux64)
Athlon 5350: 2,587.2 (Linux64)



While the figure given for the Athlon 5350 may not seem much, it is actually twice that of it's direct competitors, the Celeron J1900 (1,393.6) and the Pentium J2900 (999.8).

[Nflight]

Ok Folks wake up, here i found a sample AMD computer doing some crunching in the wild: http://asteroidsathome.net/boinc/hosts_user.php?userid=245926 What do you think? Is it the new Zen we have all been drooling about :blob3:

[Dirk Broer]

No, it is a quad Opteron board (4x 16 cores), IMHO (Family 21, Model 1, Stepping 1, so Bulldozer-based).
Heavy user: he (DrFredrik) has two such systems...

[AMDave]

Awww. I got excited for a moment. Because there were earlier rumours of an early release - in Opteron format.

However, Zen will be Family 23
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_AMD_CPU_microarchitectures

further reading confirms that the release is (at the moment) on schedule for Q3 around Oct 2016 and not the badly rumored Q2.

Although I think it is possible that some reviewers and testers could have the early samples right now as Oct is not that far away for a production run to get going.

Keep your eyes peeled and you may yet spot them in the wild.

[Dirk Broer]

Those reviewers and testers must have an -as yet- exotic board to host the Zen too...and need DDR4 RAM, lots of it -when the octa-channel rumours are true.
As the AM4 Socket will unite all current sockets (AM1, FM2+, AM3+ -and C32 plus G34?-) we will see the last of South Bridges and Fusion Controller Hubs,
as the new platform seems to be SOC (System-On a-Chip), like the AM1 platform.

[Nflight]

For us Crunchers we need to focus on the code name: Summit Ridge which is the desktop CPU utilizing Zen architecture. Here is the latest news article I could find: https://semiaccurate.com/2016/05/22/38688/

[Dirk Broer]

For us Crunchers we need to focus on the code name: Summit Ridge which is the desktop CPU utilizing Zen architecture. Here is the latest news article I could find: https://semiaccurate.com/2016/05/22/38688/


As I now have the data (to be taken with a pinch of salt):


Socket old
Cores/threads old
Socket new
Code name
Cores new
Threads new
Use
RAM prediction



AM1/FP3

2-4 (Sempron)
4 (Athlon)

FM4/FP4

Stoney Ridge

2

4

'essential'

two slots
dual channel



FM2+

2 A4 & A6
4 A8 & A10

FM4

Bristol Ridge

2-4

4-8

'mainstream'

two to four slots
dual channel



AM3+

4 FX-4xxx
6 FX-6xxx
8 FX-8xxx

FM4

Summit Ridge

8-16

16-32

'enthusiast'

four to eight slots
quad channel



C32

up to 2x 4-8

FM4

Unknown yet Ridge

16-32 per cpu

32-64 per cpu

'light server'

8 to 16 slots per cpu
quad channel



G34

up to 4x 4-16

FM4

Unknown yet Ridge

16-32 per cpu

32-64 per cpu

'heavy server'

16 slots per cpu
octa channel


The real progress is in the server and enthusiast user groups, the question is e.g. whether a two-core Zen chip needs eight-channel RAM. Sixteen RAM slots do not fit an iTX board either.

Summit Ridge seems to be the code name for the successor of the present FX-series, Bristol Ridge that of the present FM2+ APUs and even notebook/laptop APUs.
http://cdn.wccftech.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/AMD-Zen-Summit-Ridge-CPUs1.jpg

[Dirk Broer]

It looks like the successor to the AMD Kabini (e.g the AM1 Socket based series, onboard based Kabinis, Mullins and Beemas), is to be the 'Stoney Ridge' series.
One may only hope that a SOC version of these will also fit in the present AM1 mobo's...