Bitcoin Forum

I sure most of you know already, but I wanted to let others that don't already know that AMD released Catalyst 13.4 drivers and 13.5 Beta drivers yesterday. So far I've noticed that I'm getting the appropriate hashrates from my 7870 (Stock, getting ~280kh/s scrypt mining) as apposed to when I was on 13.2 and 13.3 Beta only getting ~220kh/s

http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/Pages/radeonaiw_vista64.aspx

Hopefully if anyone else was getting lower that expected hashrates like I was, this will give you a boost

Happy mining  :)

no change in hash on 2 7970s between 13.3beta and 13.4, still getting 730mhash a piece

Has anyone tested these drivers on 5850's with cgminer using scrypt?

I'm just happy I got the drivers working on linux, think I'm on 13.2, I want to update I just know that something will go wrong and I'll spend hours trying to restore the drivers.

Just do an image backup of your partitions. That way, if something screws up on these new drivers, you can just reimage your hdd/ssd, and be reverted to your original setup.

cool wouldn't have known that - thanks for the info

Saw these when they were leased, but haven't upgraded from 13.3b yet.

Max I've ever gotten on my ref 7970 is 680ish mh/s. Will try these out and see how they do. Not expecting a change, though would be nice.

My 2 7870s seem to be a hair hotter, but still maintaining about 800 MH/s together.  It also seems like dynamic intensity is more prone to drop to a lower hashrate with 13.4 over 13.3.  No changes observed at all on the 2 6870s, but they are watercooled and in an unused computer.

No problems for me either with these drivers

I really wish there was a sure-fire way of tweaking my scrypt hashing with my 7870. At this point it's mostly easter-egging and I hate it.

Headsup for 5k series users.

Ok. I've expressed uninstalled 13.2 Beta 7, ran driver sweeper in safe mode, rebooted back into safe mode, did a registry clean with registry clean expert, rebooted. I've installed 13.5 Beta 2 on my Windows7 x64 machine. I am guessing with supplied SDK, as GPU-z showed I have opencl enabled.

Mining on cgminer 3.0.1-windows scrypt.

I don't see any increase nor decrease in hash rate for litecoin mining with my two 5850's on 13.5 Beta 2 with cgminer 3.0.1-Windows scrypt.

So far, so good. This is good news for me so far, prior, anything over past 13.2 beta 7 drivers, I had sensor detect problems with hwinfo64, and overclock problems, these problems are solved with this latest AMD driver I am using now, also this driver is good for 7k series card I am guessing, so, if and when I get a 7950, I should have no problems, hopefully.

~Cheers

Is it just me or did AMD just up and completely removed Stream SDK (2.8) from 13.4 Cats?? If you do a clean install you will notice it just doesn't give you the option to install the SDK and you have to add it manually by installing a previous version of Catalyst. WTF?

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=190917.msg1976247#msg1976247

Any reports on how well the Mining While Gaming works?
On 13.2 my hashrates went to SHIT when i ran a game, on 12.8 that just didnt happen

Anyone with a 7950 getting good performance with 13.4?

Ah, thanks a bunch! So 13.4 has which version of the SDK integrated in the driver? 2.8? And if yes, is it benefitial for a hd7870 BTC miner to downgrade to something like 2.6 SDK? Thanks!

This where I am stumped, and have no real source on how to see which sdk is installed. I am in the same boat as you are, beats me which sdk comes with 13.4 & 13.5 beta 2.


Sorry, can't say I've tried.

Well, I just tried the new drivers while gaming, CRASHES CGMINER EVERY FUCKING TIME after some time of running.
Im STILL fucking stuck on 12.8!!!!

I REALLY fucking want some new drivers, What The Fuck!

I tried catalyst 13.4 and for some reason I get a black screen when using tightvnc. Went back to 13.3 and everything's ok again.

What cards are you mining/gaming with?

7950

Weird, the way amd drivers are, I wouldn't doubt the trouble, I had major amd goofup troubles with anything between 13.2 beta 7 & 13.4/13.5beta2 for my 5850's. No sensor readings on second card, overclock on second card failed, weird shit. I just stopped updating for a long time, and decided it was time to try 13.5beta2, and what ever they did, it solved the issues I was having. Maybe skip a few months again for your issue and see if the problem gets resolved down the road. ionno, bud.

I know!, Thats what i keep doing!, I've been stuck on these 12.8 drivers for a fucking Year, Every damn other driver pack i try Shits all over my computer
Right now League of Legends shows graphic erros when i play while mining, BUT IT WORKS.
All other games run flawlessly (bf3 for example)

But Any Fucking time i upgrade my drivers, I cant even mine with intensity 1, Everything lags, then eventually CGminer stops functioning

interesting... mining and gaming at the same time. :o

Well its not intresting atall IMO really, When i run BF3 with nearly maxed graphics (AAx2, SSAO, High shadows) i get 40fps, and 120mhs with my 7950 Intensity 2
Turn off BF3 and i get 550mh/s
Play BF3 without mining, 60fps, and only 70% gpu usage, so i clearly have room to spare

I can play WoW while mining on a Gigabyte 7970.  I do have to lower my intensity to somewhere around 2, sometimes less if I'm doing heavy graphics stuff.  Skyrim is another matter, will crash the driver every single time if I try to run it and cgminer at the same time. 

I'm currently running the 13.3 beta driver.

I tested 13.4 but my bitcoin hashrate dropped from 630 MH/s to 560 MH/s. Also after that I was unable to uninstall the drivers and revert back to 13.1 (even with driver sweaper). Cgminer was also crashing upon startup. I had to reinstall Windows 7 64 bit to get all fixed. Using Sapphire 7950 boost OC @925 MHz stock version (of course my GPUs are overclocked over these values).

I do not know how is on Linux but if you have similar setup, just do not bother with 13.4.

People need to learn how to image backup their OS before messing with drivers. I've seen quite a few people already reinstalled their OS, because of a driver failure of some sort.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disk_image

Few softwares that can do it, clonezilla, acronis true image. Probably a lot more. But those two are the main two.

Did everyone see a decrease in performance? Would like to hear win7 32/64 cgminer 3.1 experiences. 

Why post this here when there is a cgminer thread? But anywho, nope, I didn't see an increase nor a decrease with my setup.

Hi, If you uninstall ATI/AMD drivers use this tutorial. It helped me.
http://www.overclock.net/t/988215/how-to-properly-uninstall-ati-amd-software-drivers-for-graphics-cards

Thank you guys

@pekv2 Yes, I know for imaging but I just didn't have imaging software around and decided not to bother downloading. Anyway Windows 7 reinstall with drivers + miner, gpu-z etc took me ~30 minutes :) I lost quite some time however trying to debug why can't properly downgrade to 13.1 and also searching what changed so the MHash/s speed in 13.4 got down. Failed on both fronts and just reinstalled :)

@Spotter Thank you, it seems like a good guide and I bookmarked it for future reference.

I lost nothing but the ability to game and mine at the same time, Win7 64bit, CGminer 3.0
You should have really read about the AMD Cleanup Utility, Clears everything for me Every time i try to mess with my drivers, Never a hassle when i use it

hi guys i have problem cant mining  " Verification Failed, Check Hardware " what should i do ?

13.4 was a crashfest, 13.5 is fine, 13.3 is still the fastest for me (7970)

Same with 5780 cards it seems.

Staying on the old one

for some reason, 13.4 gives teamviewer black screen. haven't tried 13.5

I had to revert back to 13.1, dual cards and 13.5 did not get along at all.

13.5 works for you? Could you please attempt to run a videogame while mining? (something that takes atleast 20% gpu)
I tried the 13.5beta and got Shit.

You say that 13.3 is the "fastest" (obviously for mining) Can you run a game while mining? (again, something that takes more than 20% gpu)
I would PAY, for the information of WHAT (new) FUCKING DRIVERS WILL ALLOW MY 7950 TO MINE AND GAME AT THE SAME TIME
I am SICK of 12.8

I only game a few hours a week, and I don't feel comfortable mining and gaming at the same time (way too many crashes on a 7850 before), so I just have a batch script that lets me pause mining while I game, and then I re-enable it when I'm done:


Put into the Startup folder this creates two CLI windows - one of the miner itself (DiabloMiner is CLI) that I can close anytime, and then another that asks me if I want to resume mining (batch script).

I mine and work all the time though across 12.3 - 13.3+ drivers. Video works fine too. I have to turn off hardware acceleration on Firefox though.

I appreciate your post, But im really looking to use 100% of my GPU, Rather than have 30% core power just sitting there idling...
Has ANYONE with a GCN card played a videogame without flaws while mining on 13.5?

JackRabiit, what are your settings in CGMiner?  I can Play World of Tanks at 1080p Max settings at 40 FPS using "-I 12 -g 1" using my 7970 (and still get 450 Kh/s or so).  Usually I mine with "-g2", but running that during games totally screws my frame rate, even with lower intensity.  FYI, I am running the 13.4 drivers on a Sapphire Radeon 7970 OC Boost edition.

that sounds like a terrible idea from the get-go

Really, it's not. The game uses what it needs, the rest goes to the mining. It's like sharing.

Exactly, and in this thread i further stress the point of why its not a terrible idea considering that if i play BF3, I CANNOT max out my GPU usage due to ineffecient drivers, Wich leaves me with roughly 30% of my gpu Unused and sitting there idling, doing nothing.

Here in this thread im Paying for working drivers https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=203119.0

Weird.

And ouch, had to put up a bounty.

are you scrypt mining an alt coin? Why do you have a " -g " argument with the intensity at 12 and getting 450Kh/s? my 7950 gets 560MH/s
Im trying to mine bitcoins while gaming... Thanks anyways! Im sure your post is still very helpful!
Here is my CGMiner.conf file (with some things censored)

Also, That is the most valuble First Post i have ever seen (that isnt from a mod/admin)
Edit: OHHH, the -G command is you setting it to One GPU thread
Edit2: Is there a way to change the number of threads via a shortcut argument or an In Program way to change it? I tried adding -g 1 at the end, but that did nothing, I also tried --gpu-threads 1 and that didnt work either, Leading me to believe that Im messing it up
"C:\cgminer\cgminer-3.1.0-windows\cgminer-3.1.0-windows\cgminer.exe --gpu-threads 1" is what i tried, aswell as
"C:\cgminer\cgminer-3.1.0-windows\cgminer-3.1.0-windows\cgminer.exe -g 1"

got a bunch of 7870s I was going to move to scrypt - figure anything out yet?

I have this problem after remote catalyst update.
how to solve it?