Add driver version to log files

[b-morgan]

Would it be possible to add the driver version number to the log files? Other relevant version numbers (CUDA, PhysX, etc.)?

I think this would help tremendously in troubleshooting not only problems with NVidia drivers, but AMD drivers as well.

[bruce]

Welcome to foldingforum.org, b-morgan.

FAH detects the CUDA version and uses that information to customize the folding code. It's reported in both V6 and V7. I don't know if the current FahCore cares which version of OpenCL is available but if it does, it's reasonable to expect them to print what they detect. I seriously doubt that FAH cares which driver version is present so it's unlikely that the code detects that number. Most driver version changes fix bugs encountered in specific games while leaving the API used by FAH completely unchanged so the information is not useful to FAH -- and, for that matter, as far as FAH is concerned, you're wasting your time constantly upgrading drivers.

Since FAH (probably) doesn't detect the driver version, it's not going to be able to report that information.

[b-morgan]

Welcome to foldingforum.org, b-morgan.

I seriously doubt that FAH cares which driver version is present so it's unlikely that the code detects that number. Most driver version changes fix bugs encountered in specific games while leaving the API used by FAH completely unchanged so the information is not useful to FAH

Since FAH (probably) doesn't detect the driver version, it's not going to be able to report that information.

I would agree with you if these forums (and others) weren't riddled with compatibility problems between the display drivers and the folding software. In all the posts I've seen, the CUDA version isn't mentioned, the display driver version is.

If NVidia did indeed leave the API used by FAH "completely unchanged" when they changed the display drivers to fix bugs in specific games, then this whole forum section "Problems with NVidia drivers" probably wouldn't exist. I know that many of you "hardcore" folders dedicate your machines to FAH, but there are quite a few of us who are gamers who let their GPU investment contribute to the FAH project when they aren't gaming.

I'm trying to troubleshoot a problem (Video cards do one WU and then go to sleep) that appears to be display driver version sensitive, but in going back through my logs to see what worked, I found I couldn't determine what drivers were installed when it worked. You can argue that this is sloppy record keeping on my part, but how many of you can pick a random date in the past, and tell from the records you keep what version(s) of software you were running at the time?

While the FAH software doesn't "care" which display driver version is present, it seems like that's a pretty popular question among the humans that frequent these forums. I'm not asking for the FAH software to "care", only to report any information it can gather that might help us poor humans.

[bruce]

As I said earlier, as far as FAH is concerned, updating drivers is undesirable. More people update to drivers that have bugs rather than staying on an older version which works. Fah was tested on whatever version was current when the core was released and it worked then. It has not been tested on the current version and when you decide to upgrade, you're beta testing a combination which might not work.

We don't mind if people try new versions and report their findings but when FAH is upgraded to demand a new version of CUDA or OpenCL, there will be an announcement of that fact.