Weekend hours & throttled mode for CPUs running Prime95 24/7?

[scan80269]

Newbie here working on setting up several PCs to run Prime95 24/7.

I just discovered that the central air conditioning gets shut off during weekends for the building where these Prime95 dedicated PCs are located. CPU core temperatures jump up 10-15 degrees C during these hotter hours, to the point of approaching or reaching the CPU throttle (PROCHOT) temperature. I would like to avoid this but still keep the PCs reasonably productive for Prime95.

I'm therefore looking for a way to set weekend hours for Prime95 during which time the running worker(s) is either paused or reduced to using half the normal number of CPU cores, to help lower the CPU operating temperatures and maintain some separation from the PROCHOT temperature. These PCs have been set up to be in a "set it and forget it" mode running headless, so pausing/throttling them for weekends or other occasions is something I'd very much like to automate.

Thank you.

[petrw1]

In rare cases, users have reported the program can interfere with the
performance of some programs such as disk defragmenters and some games.
You can pause the program automatically when these programs are running by
adding this line to prime.txt:
PauseWhileRunning=prog1[n1],prog2[n2],etc
The [n1], [n2] values are optional and indicate the number of worker threads
to pause when prog1 and prog2 are running. The default value for n1 and n2
is to pause all worker threads. Note that the program will pause if the program
name matches any part of the running program's file name. That is "foobar"
will match "c:\foobar.exe", "C:\FOOBAR\name.exe", and even "C:\myfoobarprog.exe".
Also, if prog1 is "*" the program will pause no matter what. Examples:
PauseWhileRunning=*[1] during 6-7/2:00-3:00
PauseWhileRunning=* during 23:00-24:00 else decomp[1],mygame[2]
The first example pauses one worker thread on Saturday and Sunday between
2AM and 3AM. The second example pauses all workers between 11PM and 12AM and
pauses 1 worker if decomp is running and 2 if mygame is running.

I think what you want it in the last 5 lines above.

[scan80269]

Many thanks for the pointer, petrw1!

The PauseWhileRunning parameter should fit my needs exactly.

For a lighter workload during weekends as opposed to completely pausing, I suppose I can use two worker threads per DC/LL/PRP and split the CPU cores between them, then pause one worker during the designated times.

I normally run just one worker with all the cores, as it results in highest overall throughput. Using two workers with half the cores per worker may result in slightly reduced total throughput, but it's still probably a good trade-off to gain the desired control over how much CPU Prime95 gets to use.

Cheers!

[LaurV]

Originally Posted by petrw1

Look in indoc.txt

Good posting. Except, it is called "undoc"
(could not stop it, haha, sorry)