AMD projects

[Scott]

What is a good AMD GPU project? I am running Milkyway, but it only sees to use my Nvida card. My AMD card is sitting idle. My AMD GPU is the RX 6500 XT. It may not be supported on Milkyway. I do not see it on the list.

 

[Jason Jung]

Are you running both Nvidia and AMD cards on the same system?

Is your cc_config.xml set to use all GPUs?

<cc_config>
<log_flags>
</log_flags>
<options>
<use_all_gpus>1</use_all_gpus>
</options>
<cc_config>

You'll need to restart BOINC if you edit that file.

I've seen years old forum post for some projects where people running mixed systems have had success running two BOINC clients. One with Nvidia cards ignored and another with AMD cards ignored.

 

[Nick Name]

MilkyWay also requires the GPU to support double-precision. Not all of them do although I'd be very surprised if yours doesn't.

You should also check the startup log to make sure BOINC is detecting the card. Does it get work from other projects?

 

[Scott]

I looked at the list of supported GPU's and my AMD was not on it The 6700 XT was but not the 6500 XT.
Yes, both GPU's are on the same system and other projects do use the AMD. Einstein used the AMD and Nvidia without issue. The Nvidia 3070 Ti FTW3 out does the AMD by 4x+, but I expect that being a far better card.

 

[Nick Name]

According to TechPowerUp it does support d-p.

FP64 (double) performance 360.3 GFLOPS (1:16)

It could be that BOINC isn't reporting this correctly to the application, or MilkyWay may not have something right on their end. I feel like there is a logging parameter you can enable in cc_config to report this in greater detail but I can't remember what it is.

 

[Vester]

I looked at the list of supported GPU's and my AMD was not on it The 6700 XT was but not the 6500 XT.
Yes, both GPU's are on the same system and other projects do use the AMD. Einstein used the AMD and Nvidia without issue. The Nvidia 3070 Ti FTW3 out does the AMD by 4x+, but I expect that being a far better card.

The lists are not always current. Get the latest Radeon driver from AMD.

 

[Scott]

OK, I figured it out. The last time I was crunching was a few years ago and I had my preferences set to Nvidia only on MW. Duh. I fixed that and now am getting AMD tasks. One thing that I do not understand is how my $300 AMD card is faster on MW than my $1200 Nvidia card? Since that seems to be the case I think I will task my Nvidia card elsewhere. On Einstein the Nvidia card was 4x faster than the AMD.

 

[Jason Jung]

One thing that I do not understand is how my $300 AMD card is faster on MW than my $1200 Nvidia card?

Milkyway@home needs FP64 performance which Nvidia doesn't prioritize at all on consumer graphics cards. Since FP64 is mainly for professional applications Nvidia rather sell a separate card at a premium. AMD's way behind Nvidia in market share so they don't nerf their consumer cards to the same degree.