Thread 'BOINC Client/Manager hard limits?'

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wprion

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Message 117477 - Posted: 20 Nov 2025, 3:11:54 UTC
Last modified: 20 Nov 2025, 3:13:03 UTC

Is there a hard limit (programmed) on the number of simultaneous tasks running on the BOINC Client or on their management by the Manager?

I'm focusing on the BOINC software itself, not any particular hardware limitations. Assume the hardware has sufficient horsepower, RAM, Storage, bandwidth, cooling(!), etc. For example, a dual EPYC 9965 computer has 768 threads. Some massive 8-way Intel boxes have more. Assuming the hardware is up to the job, can BOINC Client/Manager run and manage e.g. 760 actively running tasks (I've save a few threads for the BOINC software itself ;-) ?

Is there a document that lists any hard limits on the BOINC Client/Manager software?

Thanks
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ProfileDave
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Message 117482 - Posted: 20 Nov 2025, 10:46:24 UTC

Is there a hard limit (programmed) on the number of simultaneous tasks running on the BOINC Client or on their management by the Manager?
As far as I know, there isn't a hard limit. I don't know what happens if you run one of the projects which produces several gigabytes of data per task with those numbers though.
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wprion

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Message 117483 - Posted: 20 Nov 2025, 14:19:45 UTC - in response to Message 117482.  
Last modified: 20 Nov 2025, 14:21:11 UTC

In reply to Dave's message of 20 Nov 2025:
As far as I know, there isn't a hard limit. I don't know what happens if you run one of the projects which produces several gigabytes of data per task with those numbers though.


Thanks. There would be numerous potential bottlenecks on a high thread-count box. But I was focusing on the BOINC software. Assume projects running are relatively high compute, low bandwidth, low data-transfer tasks. OTOH, these monstrous machines can have 6 TB of RAM or more.

Is there a document listing BOINC software limitations?
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ProfileVitalii Koshura
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Message 117486 - Posted: 20 Nov 2025, 15:32:21 UTC - in response to Message 117483.  

In reply to wprion's message of 20 Nov 2025:

Is there a document listing BOINC software limitations?

There are none cause we're limitless.
https://youtu.be/JNvEyOCQ1f0?si=SlYvp9RhkRiwEhsJ
BOINC maintainer.
For any insight, check my BOINC Development Blog.
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ProfileDave
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Message 117487 - Posted: 20 Nov 2025, 15:55:13 UTC - in response to Message 117486.  

There are none cause we're limitless.

I really appreciate being able to get your input from inside the project Vitalii. So much better than my mostly but not always informed speculation.
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Message 117488 - Posted: 20 Nov 2025, 16:02:47 UTC - in response to Message 117483.  
Last modified: 20 Nov 2025, 16:07:24 UTC

There's the BOINC WIKI which is the official documentation for the software.

If you want there's also the BOINC software source code.

Edit to add some project have a hard limit on tasks that a single computer can receive at any given time for various reasons.
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computezrmle

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Message 117498 - Posted: 21 Nov 2025, 8:19:44 UTC

On a fully loaded 16c/32t CPU I measure 0.2-0.3 % CPU load for the BOINC client itself.
100 % would be a full CPU thread.

Hence, in the unlikely case that you identify a single BOINC instance being the limiting bottleneck, consider to run additional BOINC instances on that computer.
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Message 117503 - Posted: 21 Nov 2025, 16:12:42 UTC - in response to Message 117498.  

On a fully loaded 16c/32t CPU I measure 0.2-0.3 % CPU load for the BOINC client itself.
100 % would be a full CPU thread.

Hence, in the unlikely case that you identify a single BOINC instance being the limiting bottleneck, consider to run additional BOINC instances on that computer.

That's a normal amount of load for the BOINC client.

Remember, the BOINC client is NOT what is going to consume the CPU resources, it's the various project science apps that do the actual work and consume CPU cycles.
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Message boards : BOINC Manager : BOINC Client/Manager hard limits?

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