Disappointing AMD 64 SETI Speeds

ChrisLudwig

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Jul 7, 2001
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Anyone run 64-bit SETI on a 64-bit OS? I gave it a shot and was quite disappointed.

I’m running an Athlon 64 3200+ under SUSE Linux 64-bit.
I’ve loaded the x86_64 version of SETI and have it running from the command line.
It’s completed 18% in the last hour! At that rate it will take over 5 hours to complete one unit! Just to give you an idea, an Athlon XP 2400+ running 32-bit Linux completes a unit in about 3 hours. This same Athlon 64 computer running standard 32-bit Windows completes a unit in about two hours.

What’s up with the Athlon 64, running 64-bit code?
 

tweebel

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Dec 15, 2004
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It doesn't have anything to do with the A64 but with the Seti prog or Linux. Or maybe you get bigger WU in 64bit mode, dunno.
 

justaguy

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Jul 23, 2001
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I don't know why it's so much worse, but I can tell you why it's not any better. SETI doesn't have a 64 bit optimized version out right now. So software wise, your 64 bit OS is running a 32 bit program. Think running a program written for a 486 under Win95. It still shouldn't crush performance that bad, but maybe it does-dual boot for you?

Mobile P4 1.6 @ 2.4 - Gigabyte 8ipe-1000 Pro - 4x256 Corsair Value PC3200 - MSI 128 MB 9800Pro @ 435/730 - 80Gb WD 8Mb Cache -
 

Flinx

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Hey Chris are you folding for us ???.. Team 40051
<A HREF="http://folding.stanford.edu" target="_new">Folding@home</A>

Check out the thread in the cpu section.

The loving are the daring!
 

ChrisLudwig

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No, I'm going to run SETI a bit longer. I'm going for the 25,000 mark. I'm ranked 7486th out of the 5.3million+ so far. I'm now geekishly obsessed with my stats!
 

P4Man

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From what I read, the x86-64 version is a straight compile from C, where as the 32 bit clients have been hand tuned. I've seen some tests somewhere sometime where they compared C compiled Seti clients in 32 and 64 bit mode, and the 64 bit one was like 10% faster. 10% is nothing compared to what hand tuning can do. Until someone builds a better 64 bit client, I'm afraid you're out of luck.

= The views stated herein are my personal views, and not necessarily the views of my wife. =