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michaelmastro
 
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2015-05-30 20:01:50

It seems to never fail with BOINC upgrades. According to the Activity Monitor on my Mac, BOINC projects were using over 95% of each CPU. Since a recent upgrade, that is now down to about 84%. My office computer has gone from over 95% cpu usage to less than 10%. Nothing else on my system (Mac) has changed. Any ideas?
michaelmastro
 
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2015-06-01 19:05:48

New event - Today, after months of only using 60% of CPU, my work computer has suddenly gone back to using 95% CPU, while my home computer has dropped to less than 5% CPU usage. Anyone have any ideas?
Dr Who Fan
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2015-06-01 21:43:35

I'm not a MAC user/person, but here are two thing that ANY computer user should do when things start to slow down:

1) Check for malware/virus.
2) Check your active running process's using the "task manager" to see what else is running BESIDES BOINC that is "stealing" CPU cycles.
michaelmastro
 
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2015-06-01 22:29:19

Hi - Thanks for the response. I did a system scan for viruses, etc. The weird thing is that the Task Manager (Activity Monitor in Mac) shows nothing else hogging the cpu - my web browser is using about 15% and everything else is using less that 1%. That's what makes me think it's not the computer. Something like this happens every time I upgrade BOINC.

Thanks, again!
computerguy09
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2015-06-04 12:37:32

Note that every time you upgrade or install the BOINC client, and also periodically based on the whim of the software, a CPU "benchmark" will be run. This usually only takes 30-60 seconds and can be seen as a high utilization of the CPU for a short time. It's to calibrate how BOINC thinks it should estimate completion of a work unit (WU).

Also, you do realize that the BOINC client only runs the WU from the projects, and has limited control of how busy a given projects work will make your computer. You can tell the BOINC client to limit the amount of CPU that is being used, but it can only do so much. If you always want to have 40% of your CPU available for non-BOINC things, then set your preferences accordingly.
Mark

michaelmastro
 
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2015-06-04 12:42:38

Thanks, Mark. I have my BOINC set at 100% so it can use as much as it wants. I understand about benchmarks, but the reduction in cpu usage was constant. It went from a near constant 90-98% down to 80% My work computer is now using less than 10% cpu. The only project I run is Poem. A few days ago, everything changed and my usage is back up to over 95% I was simply wondering if it was anything I did or didn't do, but I don't think that is the case. Thanks, again.
Dr Who Fan
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2015-06-04 15:49:52

michaelmastro wrote:

Thanks, Mark. I have my BOINC set at 100% so it can use as much as it wants. I understand about benchmarks, but the reduction in cpu usage was constant. It went from a near constant 90-98% down to 80% My work computer is now using less than 10% cpu. The only project I run is Poem. A few days ago, everything changed and my usage is back up to over 95% I was simply wondering if it was anything I did or didn't do, but I don't think that is the case. Thanks, again.

Are you running Poem GPU AND CPU apps at the same time?
If so, You need to RESERVE/DEDICATE A FREE CORE for the Poem GPU (OpenCL) apps or your CPU gets over tasked/chokes and the CPU usage will go down accordingly.
michaelmastro
 
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2015-06-04 16:15:49

I'm on a Mac. I do run CPU and GPU. Can I do that? How? Thanks for your assistance!
Dr Who Fan
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2015-06-04 19:25:07

Browsing the forums at POEM I see they DON'T support GPU usage on OSX

Found your machine at POEM that has 2 GPU's in it.

Code:
CPU type GenuineIntel
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3615QM CPU @ 2.30GHz [x86 Family 6 Model 58 Stepping 9]
Number of processors 8
Coprocessors NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M ( 512MB ) OpenCL: 1.2, INTEL HD Graphics 4000 ( 1024MB ) OpenCL: 1.2
Operating System Darwin 14.3.0


Regarding the low use of the CPU Check your COMPUTING Preferences:
[Best to check/change anything here] GLOBAL (On your account page at POEM).
-- OR --
LOCAL (on your computers BOINC SETTING:Tools / Computing Preferences / On Multi Processor Systems Use At Most ___ of Processors).
Make sure it is set to 100% ONLY in ONE PLACE above


If you still have problems with low CPU usage after that, I would suggest posting in the forums at POEM to see if anyone else has had that problem and if not, the programmers/developers there know that software better than than the rest of us.
---

If your are possibly interested in other projects to run the GPU's, look over the list HERE to see if you can find ANY that support GPU use on any version of Intel CPU's on MAC OS besides SETI@home and SETI Beta.

I know SETI Beta is looking for testers for their new MAC OSX GPU software:
OpenCL MultiBeam for Windows, Linux and OS X updated. Please test thoroughly.
michaelmastro
 
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2015-06-04 20:28:50

"Make sure it is set to 100% ONLY in ONE PLACE above"

Why is that?

Btw - for no known reason, both of my computers are back to using maximum cpu. I just wish I knew why it changes. Maybe something with BOINC or Poem?

Thank you, again.
Dr Who Fan
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2015-06-04 22:24:45

michaelmastro wrote:

"Make sure it is set to 100% ONLY in ONE PLACE above"

Why is that?

LOCAL PREFERENCES OVERRIDE WEB SETTINGS!

Btw - for no known reason, both of my computers are back to using maximum cpu. I just wish I knew why it changes. Maybe something with BOINC or Poem?

Thank you, again.

Post a new topic in the Number Crunching Forum at POEM and refer to this topic/thread. LINK http://boincstats.com/en/forum/7/10163
Sounds like it is their (science) program(s) doing the strange behavior... BOINC only is the program to request, schedule, report and run the various projects.
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