Fun with GPU's

[Brucifer]

Lol, ya, I bet that power meter is just a whirling with three of those suckers. I just don't use mine. In the old days I would have killed for those things as I had plenty of bucks to pay the electric and put in a new A/C unit if the old one went south. But the retired lifestyle has changed that a little teensy bit as I stay with the lower power stuff now. Crunching is the main thing that I keep going back to all the time. The wheeling world is definitely fun, but it isn't cheap at all either. I've got a couple jeeps now which is pared down from having jeeps plus toyota 4x4's. I really enjoy the wheeling but things just aren't the same in that world either. So many of the places that we used to wheel in have been shut down by the greenies. Then the state budget games killed off more of them. We still have some but it involves a lot of driving to get there and that in itself has turned up the cost of playing as just getting there and staying there isn't cheap.

Meanwhile the crunching has always been there. When I look at what I've put into the wheeling thing, the monthly expenses spent on crunching don't look so bad at all! lol And I can do the crunching anytime of the year. The wheeling on the other had has become a fair weather only game. Can't wheel when the ground is wet and muddy cause the greenies and Forrest Service scream about people ruining the trails. However to get a place to play in is not an option except for private property. And even there, there have been court fights over land use.

So I keep the jeeps just so I can drive them around now and then cause I love jeeps. As for the wheeling it is pretty much down to a once a year thing now up in the mountains in North Idaho. And now my crunching is my main hobby and pastime any more. I sure wish we had an offroad park about 15 minutes away around here! :-)

[Terry1953]

Bruce,
You're sure right about the retirement thing taking some getting used to. I've been trying to do it full time for the last 10 years. Now about 2 1/2 years ago my back made it final. As in I have to take hydrocodone and morphine to function just around the house and last year I got to ride in a helicopter to Vanderbuilt Hospital with a LAD heart attack. So no more wheeling. I live right next to Lake Barkley in TN and my back property line is shared with Fort Campbell Army base. We have a great off road park in what is called the Land between the Lakes park and it's only $60 a year for a pass. You just can't go out there on holidays unless you want to be caught in the traffic. I swear these Army guys must get paid better than we did. It's not even strange to see Jeeps with stickers still in the windows. But, they do have fun. Ryan and I went out to Moab, UT a couple of years ago and that was great wheeling. Where you live I can't imagine living without a Jeep.

The last time I jumped retirement I worked at driving big rigs (always been a dream since sister owned a trucking company) an I worked for a company out of Tacoma WA and got to run I84 and I86 on occasion. The last time I was up there I took highway 26 east out of Idaho Falls and I swear it was the most beautiful country I have ever seen. I remember driving down this road lined with trees that had to be first growth never having been cut. The trees must have all been over 100 feet tall and the road was as strait as a string for miles. You could look up and just see a small crack of sky. It went around crater lake and I still plan on getting in the car one of these days and showing it to the wife. I just don't think I could do the winters up there. lol

As you mention the crunching is a great hedge against the loony bin. The inactivity is hard to get used to at my age (I'm just 60) and not the way I had thought I'd spend retirement. With Bok's page down today it takes a little out of it since I check that thing 5 or 6 times a day to see how these rigs are getting along when I'm changing a lot of things around. I think I am going to a separate building for the puters and heat and cool it. I bid on a shipping container that would have fit the bill but someone wanted it worse that I did. lol

[Brucifer]

Sorry to hear about your issues there Terry. Ma Nature sure makes sure that age is the big equalizer for sure. I'm 69 now, and doing pretty good really as I don't have too much to complain about. My lower back gives me issues now and then when I push it too hard. I spent some time down in Tennessee, Millington, living out in Shelby County. Still have a son living down there. My last tour with Uncle Sam's canoe club was in Norfolk, VA. I used to drive back and forth from Virginia Beach and Millington. Really miss the hardwood forests in the fall. Absolutely beautiful. The Blues are very pretty also. I didn't care for the humidity though. But back in those days I was into the motorcycles and not the 4x4's. And I've driven across the country several times. While the winters can get cool, I really enjoy the Pacific Northwest. Very rare to get a tornado up this way, or those nasty water moccasin's, aggressive little buggers. The computers keep the brain working and that's a good thing as the years go by. And yes, the military boys get paid a lot better now than when I was in. So you are living up in Jeff's neck of the woods, ever get over to see him?

[Terry1953]

lol I used to put NAS Millington down on my wish sheet every year. I did get there but it was in 2008 for a driving school that took over the runway section of the old base. I spent my time in Uncle Sam's Misguided Children. I took an AK round to my ankle on my second tour so since I couldn't run anymore they sent me to Quantico for programming school (basic Marine Corps logic Recon to Computer nerd in 26 weeks). The fun part was that for my first programming class I had Amazing Grace (Grace Hopper) as the instructor. The lady was brilliant but after 4 weeks we were all so confused that the Marine Corps brought in one of her former grad students to teach us COBOL. She just couldn't come down to the level of mortal humans. The point being that after forty years of limping the unnatural gait destroyed my back. Crunching is fun and the mind being exercised is a necessity. And yes Jeff just lives a few miles from me in Clarksville but I have yet to meet him, I have emailed back and forth a few times and I'm sure that at some point we'll meet.

[Brucifer]

Ahhhh, the misguided children. It was with them that I finished up my time with Uncle Sugar. It started off with the army, Fort Ord for basic, Fort Sill for Artillery, and after I got tired of sleeping in the mud I decided that the canoe club seemed more appealing. At least three hots and a cot was good motivation. Of course if we hadn't had the draft back then, my life with the rich uncle never would have come about, and also my life with computers either. And looking back on it all now while there is a lot of stuff that wasn't any fun, overall I've had a good life and have been fortunate to see a lot of spaceship earth. The best part though is that being able to escape from vacuum tubes in the early days to make the transition to the early solid state was the transitional point for me. I fell in love with the world of boolean algebra and never looked back. Just opened up a whole new world, that has been my hobby and vocation ever since. And while things have really changed over the years, there is still just a constant stream of new stuff that keeps the interest going and provides tons of activity for the brain. So taken from that perspective it was fortunate for me that we had the military draft back then as I doubt that I would have found the world of solid state logic. Of course one can wonder and wonder about what might have been I guess but I really don't spend much time at all thinking about it.

And like you, I've shot emails back and forth with Jeff, and have put Clarksville on my list of things to do when I head back to visit the son and his family, I just haven't made it there yet. :-)

[Dirk Broer]

When you really want to have fun with GPUs, try installing more than one in a Linux system and go for Tri-Fire, aka Triple CrossFireX. Guaranteed fun for months, as you won't succeed -it s**ks bigtime.
Or try combining nVidia and AMD cards in one Linux system and crunching on them both. You might get IT's equivalent of a Nobel-prize! (all in bitcoin of course)
And I can know: I'm trying to install Hybrid CrossFireX/AMD Double Vision on an ASUS F1A75 -that darned mobo without video output-, and I cannot get the APU to crunching!
And I had absolutely no -ahem- problems getting it's more expensive brother, the F1A75-V EVO, into crunching on both APU and GPU!

Multiple GPU crunching on one system is thus at the moment best done by combining an A8-3820 APU with an Asrock A75 Extreme 6 Mobo and three HD 6570s under Windows 7 or 8.
This will give quad CrossFireX without too much hussle and an energy bill that is still payable, as three HD 6570s do not consume that much. Those who can afford place three DDR3 HD 6670s!
Those with money to burn DDR5 HD 66570s or even more expensive cards -but when you have that much money why not buy a A10-6800K and a motherboard that allows for three video cards?

[Terry1953]

Dirk,

When I got away from IBM Assembler and DOS I said that nothing on this planet would get me to go back and Linux is simply to close to that area. But, you have all the fun you can stand right up to the part where the doctor needs to give you something to calm you down. lol Right now my problem is that some of my slower systems are limiting the 6870's and 6850 so I guess I'll build some slightly faster systems.

When you really want to have fun with GPUs, try installing more than one in a Linux system and go for Tri-Fire, aka Triple CrossFireX. Guaranteed fun for months, as you won't succeed -it s**ks bigtime.
Or try combining nVidia and AMD cards in one Linux system and crunching on them both. You might get IT's equivalent of a Nobel-prize! (all in bitcoin of course)
And I can know: I'm trying to install Hybrid CrossFireX/AMD Double Vision on an ASUS F1A75 -that darned mobo without video output-, and I cannot get the APU to crunching!
And I had absolutely no -ahem- problems getting it's more expensive brother, the F1A75-V EVO, into crunching on both APU and GPU!

Multiple GPU crunching on one system is thus at the moment best done by combining an A8-3820 APU with an Asrock A75 Extreme 6 Mobo and three HD 6570s under Windows 7 or 8.
This will give quad CrossFireX without too much hussle and an energy bill that is still payable, as three HD 6570s do not consume that much. Those who can afford place three DDR3 HD 6670s!
Those with money to burn DDR5 HD 66570s or even more expensive cards -but when you have that much money why not buy a A10-6800K and a motherboard that allows for three video cards?

[Dirk Broer]

Hi Terry,

Assembler, have that around here somewhere in a box labelled 'MicroSoft Macro Assembler 5.1', on 5'' floppies -the 'floppy' floppies as compared to the 'hard' 3.5'' floppies. I even have working 5'' drives around here, but see no need to code in assembeler right now (or ever). But I am indeed enjoying myself with Ubuntu, Xubuntu and Lubuntu. And when Xubuntu finally gets rolling I'll let the three of them loose on Moo!, just watch me.

[Terry1953]

Ok a few days ago I got my first 6970, I put it in and a few hours later got a big grin from the points it put out. The trouble is the dang thing runs at 89-90C. From what I read it isn't all that bad but I just don't need the heat in the box. Today I got this in the mail: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835186067 I have to say I liked it a whole lot better as explained in the ad than explained in the installation instructions. It looks like about a 3 hour major rebuild on my GPU so it's going to have to wait a few days and maybe till the shed is done (Got the walls up and ready to cut rafters (raining now of course) From the feedback on Newegg I'm looking for about a 20 degree drop in the GPU emp, I'll let you know.

[Dirk Broer]

If it lives up to its promises it ought to be both quieter and cooler, and lots so.
So we're not only interested in the temperature drop, but we also would like to know about the obtained new level of 'quiet'ness.
(and perhaps the productivity of the GPU increases with the better cooling as well!)