4GPU system instability

Hey all,

I posted this in the cryptocurrency subforum as well (for the curecoin thread) but figured I should ask for help with our local experts in the folding arena

In my HTPC I have one of my 290xs (powered by a core i3 dual core+ht) and it isn't consistently submitting WUs after they are completed (getting stuck at 99.9% 1sec) closing the client and rebooting generally fixes it, but that is more effort than I want to do when it is doing WUs every 4 hours or so. Some of the time if I check the log I can see that the card/client has moved on to another WU (working at some other %) but the progress bar is still sittiing at 99.9%.

In my 4x280x machine powered by a dual core sempron, I'm struggling to come back to the PC and not find it completely frozen/crashed. I've tried going to just two GPUs and it still has issues with stability. It has 4GB of RAM and I've tried the 13.12 and 14.4 drivers. I don't have any problems throwing anything scrypt on it, but folding is really having issues. No overclock at all on these cards either. Pretty sad, as I could essentially be doubling my PPD with these cards but if it isn't consistent I'm throwing my money down the toilet. Do I really need to look into getting a quad core CPU to power this system in order for it to [hopefully] be stable?


Thanks guys

F@H Version 7.4.4?

The 280x rig. My thoughts are the CPU is too weak.
It's using the GPUs, but the CPU is still used.

Both my GPU's are using up to 20% CPU each combined with folding on 2 cores means my CPU is fully loaded.

Check the CPU usage.

Yep newest FAH version on each of them. I'll check the CPU usage when I get home. Thanks

One of my least-rebooted 3GPU rigs, is running the very cheap A4-5300U (with big cooler). Just checked, 2 cores about 20-30% CPU.

Doesn't AMD GPU's need a core each for best PPD? Im wondering what a dual core is doing to 4 GPUs...

I believe they do, I still have issues with the dual core sempron where I've tried two GPUs only and one will jump to 99.9% randomly and rebooting gets it back working, sitting at a single card (any of them) chugs along happily but at a lower PPD than I'd like (around 100k).

This is on Win8.1 which from looking at the folding forum can be a bit hit or miss with compatibility. I'll look at moving to Win7x64 over the weekend if I have some time.

I may also look at getting an FX4150 (or whatever the $40 quad core fx processor is at microcenter) to see if that allows it to work properly. I've been under degraded folding/mining now for over a week.