GPU2 Client and SLi

Meronem · 25 Jun 2008 at 12:02

Does anyone know / has anyone tried the client with SLI cards ?

Does it recognise them and is there a performance boost ?

magman · 25 Jun 2008 at 12:35

As far as I understand it, the GPU2 client doesn't currently support SLI.

I think you may be able to run two clients though, a bit like you can run two SMP clients, as long as you install them into separate folders.

TBH, the best place to get answers to this kind of question is on the FAH Forums.

Meronem · 25 Jun 2008 at 13:47

thanks for the response, I know there is a big folding community here and just wondered if anyone had any experience with the client and SLI

lopkinfop · 25 Jun 2008 at 16:32

would there be the same problem as in games where there isnt a 100% increase in performance?

theheyes · 25 Jun 2008 at 17:29

It does not support SLI (by definition) but it does work on 2 cards in the same system by setting the machine ID much like the other clients. It's worth noting that both cards don't need to be the same either. I don't have more more information than that unfortunately.

In terms of performance, even if they aren't working in SLI mode they are both sharing the same system resources which, while doesn't seem to be a problem at the moment, the initial consensus was that the GPU performance would be CPU limited.

How true that is at the moment I don't know, because the Nvidia client seems to be very light on CPU time. Much lighter than the AMD client/core.

Meronem · 25 Jun 2008 at 18:00

ok, so if you have 2 clients, different machine ID's, same team etc etc, how do you tell 1 client to use 1 card and the other client to use the other card ?

theheyes · 25 Jun 2008 at 18:19

Probably hang fire actually. A guy reckoned he was running two cards but I can't find the thread. Also, the other thread I was thinking about was talking about running two clients on one card.

I'll have a look and post back if I find the two-card setup.

theheyes · 25 Jun 2008 at 18:26

Bah I can't find it. I'm sure there's a switch you give the GPU client to run on -gpu0 and -gpu1. It's going to annoy me now I hope I haven't imagined it.

Mattus · 25 Jun 2008 at 19:52

theheyes said:
Bah I can't find it. I'm sure there's a switch you give the GPU client to run on -gpu0 and -gpu1. It's going to annoy me now I hope I haven't imagined it.

Yep, with a space: -gpu 0 or -gpu 1, IIRC. This certainly worked for the old ATI GPU1 client, but I'm not sure if anyone's got multiple GPUs to work with the nVidia GPU2 yet.

Meronem · 25 Jun 2008 at 19:53

thanks for looking, I wont receive my 2nd gx2 until tomorrow so I'll have a play then

Talrinys · 25 Jun 2008 at 21:32

That sounds fantastic, really pushing me towards a 4870 SLI setup then

theheyes · 26 Jun 2008 at 17:48

Mattus said:
Yep, with a space: -gpu 0 or -gpu 1, IIRC. This certainly worked for the old ATI GPU1 client, but I'm not sure if anyone's got multiple GPUs to work with the nVidia GPU2 yet.

Glad I didn't imagine it. And yes, I think it is AMD only for now.

It's too early in the client life-cycle to start buying serious hardware for dedicated folding. Although if you play games too, then knock yourself out.

I'm thinking of buying a new case and PSU for my folding box if GPUs turn out to be as good as they look.