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dragonxi4amd
Journeyman III

dualgpu2use4opencl

For 64-bit scientific linux 6.5 workstation with ASUS M4A79 Deluxe 790 FX motherboard and 850W PSU the following GPU-cards are available at the moment:

running:

1)  NVIDIA Quadro 1800 fx  <-- one monitor connected to DisplayPort, another one connected to Dual Link DVI-I  <-- CUDA development

to be added:

2)  ATI Radeon HD 4870     <-- for OpenCl development <-- GPU computing only

Questions:

a)  how to add/install  ATI Radeon HD 4870 to above configuration ?

example: will I need dummy plug for GPU card ? can Linux handle GPU card adding automatically ?

b)  SDKs needed for above ?

example: do I  have to use OpenCl 1.1 and if so, which SDK ?

c)  software / drivers needed for above ?

example:where to download GPU drives if not provided by SL6 ?

Thanks in advance for any tips!

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10 Replies
nou
Exemplar

forget about radeon 4870. it had only limited beta support for OpenCL. it is not even supported in recent version of SDK and driver.

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Yes it is true that OpenCL is not supported on radeon 4870.

Could you upgrade your system with Radeon cards which support OpenCL? Please let us know.

AMD Support.

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dragonxi4amd
Journeyman III

Minumum features our clients are looking for in new GPU cards:

1) power: < 75W = amount a PCIe slot can provide

2) min system power requirement(w): < 300w

3) power connectors: None

However, for many client applications GPU-cards needed to be tailored/designed.

How to design GPU-card together with AMD ? 

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You can use HD 6450 Caicos card which has no power connector less than 75 w and can run on 300w smps or below as per your requirements.

And as of now it is not possible to design GPU-card together with AMD as AMD doesn't collaborates or tailor makes cards.

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Are you able to switch to an A10-7850K processor? Then you wouldn't need an additional GPU for computing while you would still be well within the required power limits (I imagine you can do less than 150watts total system power) easily.

Alternatively you could use R7 250 card which is possible to find without any extra power requirement. You probably do not want an HD 6450 card because it is using an older architecture. However, A10-7850 could be a better option since it should perform better than R7 250 (although R7 250 has little advantage on memory bandwidth), in addition it would be super cheap to make a large cluster of A10-7850 processors  For example see (the newer APUs perform much better even!):

http://developer.amd.com/community/blog/2013/12/17/students_win_sc13_commodity_cluster_challenge_wit...

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Thanks!

Status:

1. NVidia GeForce GTX 750 Ti GPU-card installed for OpenCL GPU-computing in PCIX16_3

+ new maxwell architecture with good enough performance and power consumption taking into account its price

- GPU-card not designed to fit <=> took space of two PCI slots making PCIX16_4 slot unavailable!

~ PCIX16_2 slot available

2. NVIDIA Quadro 1800 fx keeps managing two displays OK with SL 6.5

~ no need to upgrade at the moment due to ok performance and specially software support

3. 4TB hard disk installed for GPU-computing

- hit by 32-bit software such as fdisk, which can manage only < 2TB calculations!

Continuation:

4. examining your answer, thanks again!

5. searching GPU-cards for OpenCL GPU-computing (NVidia GeForce GTX 750 Ti could be dedicated  for CUDA computing

6. trying to solve how to make four (4) partitions in 4TB HD, each one(1)TB without limiting file size (tips more than welcome!)

7. installing CUDA for NVidia GeForce GTX 750 Ti

Notes:

a) there does seem to exist "DIY" GPU-cards designed to fit i.e. taking only one PCI slot

   for example those built by integrating AMD-/Sapphire-card cooling solutions with NVidia 750 Ti GPU-card

   tailoreded GPU-card to be considered

b) PSU is 850W in thís protype chassis <=> ok

   i.e. it's more important how much power GPU consumes from mobility point of view!

c) many clients prefer to upgrade existing hardware instead of buying new therefore "design-to-fit" is in demand!

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I think you wont be able to find a graphics card which wont be too high with its heatsink, they just wont fit into the 1 slot space. You can use liquid cooling and remove the original heatsink to reduce height. But it would be expensive and cumbersome for your application I think.

It will be difficult for you to stay in <300w limit if you have more than one GPU in the machine. You would be able to switch to A10-7850K and it will actually be cheaper and more power efficient than using GTX 750 Ti. You can buy A10-7850K for about $180 + mobo for about $40. It will drive multiple monitors easily and very low power, you can free yourself from CUDA (or if you have to put a card for it only and get away with using 1 card).

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thanks for your feedback yurtesen, I'll examine it!

Opinions from the following DIY more than welcome:

» Build Your Own Single-Slot GeForce GTX 750 Ti - Tom's Hardwarei

ξ one PCI-slot with MSI:n NVidia gtx 750 Ti card using AMD-cooling

» GeForce GTX 750 Ti - Passive Cooling - Tom's Hardware

ξ one PCI-slot with MSI:n NVidia gtx 750 Ti card using Sapphire-cooling

Own experience with MSI:n NVidia gtx 750 Ti card:

- may not fit inside the chassis having several hard disks installed (some clients prefer to add disks instead of replacing existing ones)!

- may cause challenges with existing cabling, for example with SATA-cables!

Exploring:

~ GPU cards with good price/performance and dedicated to pure GPU computing with all extra stripped away!

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Like I said, it costs so little to use A10-7850 + Motherboard, it require no modification of any sort, will not require special space, best power efficiency. When you buy GTX 750 TI and start modifying you will not only loose warranty, but also spend more time and resources, will use more space and power and time. Anyway, your choice

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You are absolutely right for example what comes to warranty!

The final choice is up to the clients having to take into account their business and customers. 

Yes, in some cases changing A10-7850 + Motherboard might be the right choice,

whereas in some configurations keeping old mobo could be better choice.

Thanks for your advice!

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