LHC@home

hello. lately ive noticed that some settings in the BOINC manager application dont seem to be working as intended, specifically the "% of CPU Time" setting under the Computing tab in the Options menu.
I usually set it at 75% or 85%(which if i understand correctly, higher = more computing), along with use of all 8 cpu cores, but regardless of what i set it at, lately all my tasks(ATLAS simulation 1.01 and SixTrack 46.30(sse2)) use very low amounts of resources. generally it doesnt go above 30% CPU usage.

i have tried changing the settings, using web based settings, power plan on high performance, updating/restarting the client and many other things. i also read the thread about sixtrack low cpu usage being caused by a process involving csrss.exe and conhost.exe both having high cpu usage, but those programs are sitting at 0% usage for me. this is also occuring on ATLAS tasks anyway.

i have AMD virtualization enabled in my bios, and im running an overclocked 8 core AMD FX-8350 cpu, 16gbs ram; insuffieicnt resources shouldnt be the problem. ive tried running the tasks on a fresh reboot with no other applications open to see if it was a resource related thing, but it still does not utilize my CPU. according to the application "GPU-Z", my graphics card(AMD Radeon RX 480 4GB) is not being utilized much either, if at all. GPU load fluctuates from 0% to 10% every 10 seconds or so.

all of my settings are set so that computing, both cpu and gpu, is never suspended unless i click suspend myself. sorry for the wall of text, im just kinda outa ideas on whats going wrong here. it was working fine last week; i have not installed any weird software or updated/changed drivers or things like that since then.

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You are using 5.0.18 of Virtualbox. Take a update to 5.1.xx shown on virtualbox.org.

Would overclocking change to normal first.
And let only sixtrack, or ONE Atlas with two CPU's running.
Do you have a app_config for Atlas?

You can use Atlas with more CPU's, when you find the reason.

Take a look in Yeti's checklist under Atlas-Messages. Very useful.

You have configured the ATLAS-tasks to use all 8 cores.
It will give better performance to set the Max # of CPUs for this project to 4 in your preferences and run 2 tasks concurrently.

im using virtualbox 5.1.26, the version that comes bundled together with the boinc manager. im on the latest boinc client; i was updating them around the time of making this post last night when i got a notice that a new update was available.
i appreciate the replies about making things run more efficiently, 4 cpus 2 tasks, but it does not address my acutal question on why the cpu usage is so low? running on all 8 cores, before last week it was always using 70%+ of my cpu and now i cannot get it above 20-30%ish.

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Hi,
ATLAS and SixTrack tasks do not use GPU, so it is normal that your graphic card is not used.

I see that you currently have both ATLAS and SixTrack tasks pending to be executed.
SixTrack have a more straightforward behaviour when it comes to CPU usage, compared to ATLAS. So to test your CPU usage setting, I would recommend that you cancel all your ATLAS tasks, change in your settings to download only SixTrack tasks, and verify that your CPU usage setting is properly followed by the SixTrack tasks.

Once you are satisfied with your CPU usage setting and BOINC behaviour, then start downloading ATLAS tasks: set in your preferences to use only 4 cores and try with 1 task. Test if that task goes through properly.
Depending on the bandwidth of your Internet connection, the task will spend some 10 to 30 minutes using only 1 core, and then will go to using your full 4 cores. ATLAS tasks have a starting and ending phases that use only 1 core. During those phases it is normal that your actual CPU usage is below your setting (75 or 85%). Adding more SixTrack tasks will actually not use the remaining cores, and that is normal behaviour.
Hoping it helps.
Herve

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We are the product of random evolution.

Depending on the bandwidth of your Internet connection, the task will spend some 10 to 30 minutes using only 1 core, and then will go to using your full 4 cores.

i think this was the problem i was seeing with ATLAS tasks, i did not realize they did that. the sixtrack stuff seems to have solved itself; the only thing different i did was not run the BOINC manager in admin mode. no idea, but glad its working now. thanks everyone for the replies.

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Good to know that your problem has been fixed, and welcome to BOINC and LHC@Home community.

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We are the product of random evolution.