Define Parallel Plotting

What is the real definition of parallel plotting?

In basic terms : doing multiple plots at the same time.

Yet, there are some who parallel plot with example (stagger) 1 hour before the plot starts. Is this too considered parallel plotting?

Also another crucial fact i want to ask is,
1 core = 2 threads | 4000 ram most advised settings for a plot.

Yet, some users use 4 threads. By doing this (4 threads = 2 cores) ?if so, 2 cores 4 threads = doing only 4 plots a day? how many cores we have on our system determine how many plots we can do per day?

Im 8 cores | max i can do is 8 plots a day? Am i right to say that?

If at any 1 time. You have too many plots running at the same time = crash?

Lets say for example. So far, this worked for me. 8 plots in parralel settings with 1 hour before each plot starts. (Am i capped for the day)?

If it is limited by the cores, how are ppl with 8 cores 16 threads doing 3tb a day? According to the guide.

Please give your utmost expert opinion

Plotting has 4 phases.

  1. generate lots of info very CPU heavy.
  2. combine them down into the tables. very RAM heavy
  3. compress them down into the final information. very disk I/O heavy (this is what the -2 second temp directory is for)
  4. copy the plot to the final destination.

Current wisdom on 1.1.2 is that you only need 128 buckets and 3400MB of RAM to make sure the work is done with uniform sort and never fails back to quicksort.

So if you stagger the start times, you should be able to improve your performance and not overlap bottlnecks. Everyone’s setup is different though. More CPU threads helps in phase 1 to go faster.
If you run out of RAM your plots will crash and plots cannot be saved if interrupted. (currently).

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Hi, am i doing this correctly? i was trying out 4 plots (ssd1) 2TB 4plots (ssd2) 2TB
4000 ram 2 threads. with an 1 hour of stagger between each group concurrently.
grp 1. grp2
grp 11 grp 22
grp 111 grp 222
grp 1111 grp 2222
total 8 groups of 4 plots. Or its awaiting crash? judging from the screenshot

You might not crash, but overallocating may grind them all to a halt. You have up to 16 threads you can run at a time so, 4 with threads 4, or 8 with threads 2. You have 64gb of ram, minus at least 4 for windows you should have each plot going at 3400 minimum per plot which is like 17 or something, but leave some for windows. I see a lot more going at once than those minimums?
Stiill, you’re not off by much.

I was doing a trial and error.

Last night was my first time plotting successful by using the previous guide on chiadecentral.

The budget setup is identical to my build.

My concept is just to minimally hit what is expected of my build which is 3TB a day, However ytd i only did 8 plots n it was around 18 hours or so. That equates to less than 1TB of plots. that got me worried.

now that u have enlightened me, i will go with the new settings after this. Hopefully i dont crash.

You have to use the CLI if you want to be serious about being efficient with your plotting.

I have been trying to access powershell. I cannot edit in powershell for some reason. I am still looking for ways to go about this.

This is a fantastic concise summary, just wanted to combine it with the graph from my other topic. :clap:

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7FOWS3cxS4

I have left the video unedited and unscripted, I did miss some details about the Chia plotting. Please Read more of the description. Specification: Processor used: Ryzen 5 3600 My plots complete every 90 minutes average. Reason why I set it to 12 threads is because I want the plots to finish the Phase 1 as soon as possible. (Phase 1 Ends at around 31%) After Phase 1 the CPU is not used much and mainly the SSD does the work. Hope this help. If you have any tips, share with others in comments down below. My setup: Ryzen 5 3600 (6 cores 12 threads) 32GB Thermaltake 4400Mhz (unstable at 4400 as they are 2x8gb[2kits] had to downclock to 3800Mhz) PCI-E 4.0 x4 EVO 980 PRO 2TB and few external hard drives. Plotting settings: RAM 3800 Delay 85 minutes Set up 6 first in parallel Then set up the Que (as the Que does not exist at this point). Lets say 15 plots So in total 6 plots (starting 1 evert 85 minutes ) + 1 that has started from the que At the moment you will have 2 running and later it will all even out. It best to check your speeds and CPU capability beforehand as shown in video. Try plotting 2 plots at the same time and check the time on how long it took finish phase 1 + phase 2 = Result * 2(two more phases) = Rough estimate of your plotting time. Plotting time / 4 plots = estimated delay Best way to look at your CPU capability by going to Task Manager Press CTRL+SHIFT+ESC, go to Performance TAB. The Logical Cores is what you look at. If you have 16 divide it by 2 You can potentially do 8 and maybe squeeze 1 more, making it 9 plots in total. If you have 4 cores 8 logical then 4 plots maybe 5 If you have 4 cores 4 logical (I have this with i5 6400) it can only do 2 plots max maybe 3. It is all about the delay timings, as the biggest slow down will be the Hard Drive and the CPU in your system. You need to make sure that the computer avoids running too many at the same time as the results/performance will be worse. (this is his reference explanation)

anyone shed light on this? he is using 12 threads on his 6 cores 12 threads. 90 mins plot.

Can i follow his example and try 16 threads since i have 16 threads? Anyone have tried this method? He talked about maximising his threads in p1.

So far i have been successful with 3 methods.

  1. 4000 ram 2 threads 8 plots in parallel with 1 hour stagger each ( this is first attempt) slowest though

  2. 6750 ram 4 threads 4 plots x 2 in ssd1 (2TB m.2 nvme) n ssd2 (2TB m.2 nvme) 4 plots seems rather fast.

  3. default ram and thread settings 2 threads | parrell plots of 8. (4 in ssd1 4 in ssd2) latest attempt successful however not able to keep track of time as i wasnt home.

  4. just started a 6750 ram settings with 16 threads single plot. will update u guys on the outcome.

all these are done via default GUI settings. I have no time to access powershell and at the same time having issues editing powershell. Might have been installed on unactivated windows thus my username is ‘‘User’’ i cannot seem to edit the powershell.

Is it possible to parallel plot in windows powershell?

So far what i noticed is the commands i use following youtube video. its just 1 plot followed by the next plot.

unlike default GUI i can set 4 plots at once.

Anyone can help? Or currently powershell not possible? if we need to do 4 plots at once. must i open 4 times? or even 8 times for my case as i ussually plot 8 at once and leave it running.

You pretty much need Plotman to do what you want to do and get the most out of your hardware.

I open one PowerShell window per plot, and use the window command to change the name of the window to tell me which plot it is running, like so:

$host.ui.RawUI.WindowTitle = "Plot·D1·4t/8g·e:\chia-final"

It tells me drive, plot number for that drive, threads/ram, and final dest dir.

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Codinghorror, so example. If i wanna run 8 plots at the same time as how i would do on the default gui. I open 8 powershell? From your command, is it 4 threads 8gb ram? Your settings is ram at 8000 threads at 4 per plot?

For your above command, what must i change to have the same effect. I run individual drives and not on raid settings. Ssd1- → hdd1 ssd2-> hdd2

I don’t use the GUI (for plotting) – I install the GUI, enter my private key, then immediately close it, and never run it again.

From that point on I use the chia.exe plot command in powershell windows, one plot per powershell window.

I do use the GUI for farming, and run 3 farming nodes because I had such network variability.

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Good idea. Stealing it.

Great, that will be the new direction for me to try