Low iGPU utilization

Ncard00
Ncard00
Joined: 7 Sep 24
Posts: 21
Credit: 672887
RAC: 22798
Topic 231893

My M4 Mac mini iGPU utilization never goes beyond 50%, why is it so low? It should be at 100% all the time.

GWGeorge007
GWGeorge007
Joined: 8 Jan 18
Posts: 3153
Credit: 5090266723
RAC: 3628357

Ncard00 wrote: My M4 Mac

Ncard00 wrote:

My M4 Mac mini iGPU utilization never goes beyond 50%, why is it so low? It should be at 100% all the time.

Have you checked your preferences?

George

Proud member of the Old Farts Association

Ncard00
Ncard00
Joined: 7 Sep 24
Posts: 21
Credit: 672887
RAC: 22798

What preferences? There are

What preferences? There are no preferences that adjust anything relating to iGPU utilization, as far as I can see. Please tell me the name of the setting/settings, if I should've missed something :)

Keith Myers
Keith Myers
Joined: 11 Feb 11
Posts: 5049
Credit: 19075231448
RAC: 6250590

Not settings in Boinc, but

Not settings in Boinc, but settings in your Mini.  Don't use the efficiency cores, just the performance cores.

Same advice given to any asymmetric cpu design like what Intel is doing also.

 

Ncard00
Ncard00
Joined: 7 Sep 24
Posts: 21
Credit: 672887
RAC: 22798

But I'm already doing that,

But I'm already doing that, by setting the BOINC cpu limit to 40%, you can't disable the efficiency cores in the Mac system settings, and these P and E cores are only for the CPU, the GPU doesn't work this way, and is divided into 5 different GPU clusters, which must are 2 cores per cluster, since my M4 Mac Mini has 10 GPU cores.

So I'm not sure what you mean exactly? If the iGPU is only 50% utilized, is it possible to run 2 gpu tasks at the same time, doubling the utilization that way?

GWGeorge007
GWGeorge007
Joined: 8 Jan 18
Posts: 3153
Credit: 5090266723
RAC: 3628357

Ncard00 wrote:But I'm

Ncard00 wrote:

But I'm already doing that, by setting the BOINC cpu limit to 40%, you can't disabled the efficiency cores in the Mac system settings, and these P and E cores are only for the CPU, the GPU doesn't work this way, and is divided into 5 different GPU clusters, which must be 2 cores per cluster, since my M4 Mac Mini has 10 GPU cores.

So I'm not sure what you mean exactly?

You can get into you're BIOS settings, correct?

If so, do you have the ability to access both the "P" (performance) and "E" (economic) cores?

If so, disable the "E" cores and then, after restarting the computer and re-launching BOINC, go to the BOINC settings and set preferences to 100% CPU usage.

And just for clarification, your iGPU is integrated within the CPU, correct?

If so, the GPU usage should still be affected by changing the CPU usage to 100%.

That should get your computer to using "100%" of the CPU cores.

(NOTE:  I'm not a MAC user, and never have been, but I think this procedure will work if done correctly.)

George

Proud member of the Old Farts Association

Ncard00
Ncard00
Joined: 7 Sep 24
Posts: 21
Credit: 672887
RAC: 22798

As far as I can read, Apple

As far as I can read, Apple Silicon Mac computers don't really have a BIOS you can enter, like on Windows, and I also can't find any information on being able to disable the efficiency in this BIOS or whatever? If I can't find a very specific 100% safe guide, I'm not gonna risk damaging my Mac.

Also, I'm asking for support for this issue, for the sake of everyone else running this project, cause I'm only testing it myself, and since benchmarks can utilize the iGPU 100%, so should Einstein at home be able to as well, without any highly technical solutions, that almost nobody knows how to do. 

I don't care about a "fix" like that, I'd want a simple and easy to use option, and in fact, it should be possible with the default settings, or there's something wrong with the project or BOINC, not being able to fully utilize the hardware running on it.

I think I'll leave it here, thanks for all the help and support.

San-Fernando-Valley
San-Fernando-Valley
Joined: 16 Mar 16
Posts: 525
Credit: 10520160569
RAC: 4923340

NCARD00: ...  something

NCARD00:

...  something wrong with the project or BOINC ...

? sounds good !!

Maybe something wrong with Mac ??

RELAX ...

Happy crunching

sfv

Ncard00
Ncard00
Joined: 7 Sep 24
Posts: 21
Credit: 672887
RAC: 22798

Update: Finally found at

Update:

Finally found at solution.

I set the 3 GPU utilization factor settings to 0.33 each, from the default 1.0, and now my iGPU runs 3 tasks at the same time, and my GPU is being utilized 95%! 

AndreyOR
AndreyOR
Joined: 28 Jul 19
Posts: 27
Credit: 739160525
RAC: 1074898

Ncard00

Ncard00 wrote:

Update:

Finally found at solution.

I set the 3 GPU utilization factor settings to 0.33 each, from the default 1.0, and now my iGPU runs 3 tasks at the same time, and my GPU is being utilized 95%! 

That's right.  To fully utilize a GPU one may need to run multiple tasks concurrently.

GPU tasks from a given project aren't necessarily demanding enough to show close to 100% utilization of a given GPU.

However, aiming for close to 100% utilization may not be the most productive approach as the speed of task completion may slow down so much that overall productivity is reduced.  I'd test various combinations to see which gives you the most tasks completed per day (or similar measure).  It may be just one at a time even if GPU utilization isn't close to 100%.

With integrated GPUs, loading it to 100% may negatively affect  your CPU processing as the total load on the chip may be too high and the CPU takes a hit.

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.