Title: undervolting "cheap" cards - how to? ( 7850 powercolor ) Post by: drakoin on December 30, 2013, 07:41:32 PM Afterburner doesn't allow to change the voltage, cgminer doesn't do it.
I have: 1 PowerColor HD 7850 (AX7850 2GBD5-DH) with 85.3% ASIC quality 1 XFX R7970 DD (FX-797A-TDFC) with 68.6% ASIC quality How to unlock the voltage control? Undervolt the cards? Overwrite the vga-bios? Any hint welcome. Manuals to read? I checked techpowerup.com but I already have the newest BIOS. Thanks a million! Enjoy your new years celebration! Title: Re: undervolting "cheap" cards - how to? ( 7970 xfx & 7850 powercolor ) Post by: Wipeout2097 on December 30, 2013, 09:22:05 PM I changed the voltage of my 7970 and 7870 with this tool:
http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/vbe7-vbios-editor-for-radeon-hd-7000-series-cards.189089/ 1.05V for the 7970 allows 1100Mhz and 1V for the 7870 allows 950+Mhz. YMMV, of course Title: Re: undervolting "cheap" cards - how to? ( 7970 xfx & 7850 powercolor ) Post by: drakoin on December 30, 2013, 10:42:24 PM http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/vbe7-vbios-editor-for-radeon-hd-7000-series-cards.189089/ SUPER, thanks. And which brand were your 7?70 - or doesn't that matter? How can I find out, which voltage regulator is on my cards? CHL822x, CHL8214, UP1637, UP1801, ST6788A, VT1556M Thx :-) Title: Re: undervolting "cheap" cards - how to? ( 7970 xfx & 7850 powercolor ) Post by: Wipeout2097 on December 30, 2013, 10:50:44 PM Mine are VTX3D (crap brand, I guess). I was lucky though: cheap, hash well, voltage regs supported and trouble free so far.
To figure out the voltage regulators, perhaps you have to remove the cooler, I dunno. You can register at that forum and ask... Title: Re: undervolting "cheap" cards - how to? ( 7970 xfx & 7850 powercolor ) Post by: drakoin on January 01, 2014, 09:49:10 PM You can register at that forum and ask... I have done that, thanks a lot. Have a look here, perhaps anyone has any ideas: http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/vbe7-vbios-editor-for-radeon-hd-7000-series-cards.189089/page-23#post-3042091 Happy New Year! Title: Re: undervolting "cheap" cards - how to? ( 7970 xfx & 7850 powercolor ) Post by: drakoin on January 03, 2014, 04:35:12 AM I just want to announce SUCCESS :-) I did it!
Undervolting XFX 7970 DD by tweaking the original BIOS; amazing results, saving 1/3 energy! Instructions here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=395004.msg4282261#msg4282261 8) http://cdn.overclock.net/8/89/89350c26_7970-after-flashing.png Title: Re: undervolting "cheap" cards - how to? ( 7970 xfx & 7850 powercolor ) Post by: Wipeout2097 on January 03, 2014, 05:27:49 AM Very nice results! Wish I knew about that other thread before, could have been of assistance.
Title: Re: undervolting "cheap" cards - how to? ( 7970 xfx & 7850 powercolor ) Post by: novymivo on January 03, 2014, 05:32:41 AM excellent :)
Do you know how to undervolt r9 280x cards ?? Title: Re: undervolting "cheap" cards - how to? ( 7970 xfx & 7850 powercolor ) Post by: drakoin on January 05, 2014, 08:00:42 AM I am in the process of finding the optimal voltage for my PowerColor HD 7850 (AX7850 2GBD5-DH) with 85.3% ASIC quality - and learning a lot of things on the way :-)
I have two cards (7850 & 7970), both undervolted, so the cause for a crash is never 100% sure (or do you have a criterion?), and none of the tools are perfect; even though e.g "GPU-Z" is free and amazing, and it beautifully logs all hardware values into a file, once per second - that logfile is always only for one card at a time, how stupid. Please help me with my reasoning now. If you have knowledge that can help us to understand this better, please share. The cgwatcher logfile says: Code: ... after 5 hours of happy mining ... So here, the 7850 is not even mentioned. But at 5:55:25 something happens to the 7970 card, for sure - and within 3 seconds cgminer is dead. Does a Catalyst driver crash look like that? I don't suspect the 7970 card to be the cause, because I underclocked it first, and it was running stable for more than a day now. But still, you never know. They sit tightly together, one overheating might trigger the other one? I have more insight about the other card, a 7850 PowerColor. Fortunately, GPU-Z logged that one. The columns are: * Date * GPU Core Clock [MHz] * GPU Memory Clock [MHz] * GPU Temperature [°C] * Fan Speed (%) [%] * Fan Speed (RPM) [RPM] * GPU Load [%] * Memory Usage (Dedicated) [MB] * Memory Usage (Dynamic) [MB] * VDDC [V] The 20 minutes before were without any change: 2014-01-05 05:33:00 968 1289 62 84 3839 94 1123 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:34:00 968 1289 62 84 3845 93 1123 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:40:00 968 1289 61 84 3858 97 1123 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:53:00 968 1289 61 84 3844 95 1123 41 0.939 Then something happened to the memory usage. All over the logfiles, I do see seldom jumps in the memory usage, and they don't (?) seem to sync with pool / difficulty change (which is logged in the cgwatcher.log above). Anyways, that is the first real change of values here, 2 minutes before the crash: 2014-01-05 05:53:14 968 1289 62 84 3834 94 1123 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:53:15 968 1289 61 84 3834 95 1123 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:53:16 968 1289 62 84 3838 94 1123 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:53:21 968 1289 62 84 3838 63 1123 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:53:21 968 1289 59 84 3864 58 1123 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:53:23 968 1289 60 82 3833 51 1079 48 0.939 2014-01-05 05:53:26 968 1289 60 83 3838 51 1057 38 0.939 2014-01-05 05:53:27 968 1289 60 82 3821 79 1097 40 0.939 2014-01-05 05:53:27 968 1289 60 82 3829 79 1104 40 0.939 2014-01-05 05:53:28 968 1289 61 83 3833 84 1111 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:53:29 968 1289 60 83 3847 86 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:53:30 968 1289 61 83 3846 84 1107 41 0.939 apart from that nothing special happening. 2014-01-05 05:54:00 968 1289 60 80 3808 95 1107 41 0.939 then first (!) and strangely, the fanspeed is slowing, then the GPU temperature falls a bit: 2014-01-05 05:54:01 968 1289 60 80 3809 93 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:54:02 968 1289 60 80 3801 94 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:54:03 968 1289 60 80 3801 95 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:54:04 968 1289 60 79 3783 94 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:54:05 968 1289 60 79 3780 94 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:54:06 968 1289 60 79 3794 95 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:54:07 968 1289 60 79 3782 94 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:54:08 968 1289 60 79 3781 93 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:54:09 968 1289 60 79 3786 93 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:54:10 968 1289 60 78 3748 93 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:54:11 968 1289 60 78 3750 94 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:54:12 968 1289 60 77 3740 93 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:54:13 968 1289 59 77 3745 92 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:54:14 968 1289 59 77 3741 92 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:54:15 968 1289 59 77 3739 93 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:54:16 968 1289 59 76 3724 93 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:54:17 968 1289 59 76 3711 93 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:54:18 968 1289 59 76 3718 93 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:54:19 968 1289 59 76 3727 94 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:54:20 968 1289 59 75 3700 93 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:54:21 968 1289 59 75 3690 94 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:54:22 968 1289 59 74 3674 93 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:54:23 968 1289 59 74 3670 93 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:54:24 968 1289 59 74 3678 94 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:54:25 968 1289 59 74 3677 93 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:54:26 968 1289 59 73 3657 93 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:54:27 968 1289 59 73 3659 93 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:54:28 968 1289 59 72 3647 93 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:54:29 968 1289 59 72 3633 93 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:54:30 968 1289 59 72 3623 92 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:54:31 968 1289 58 72 3623 92 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:54:32 968 1289 58 71 3609 93 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:54:33 968 1289 59 71 3606 93 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:54:34 968 1289 58 70 3596 93 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:54:35 968 1289 59 70 3585 94 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:54:36 968 1289 58 69 3552 93 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:54:37 968 1289 58 69 3536 93 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:54:38 968 1289 58 68 3524 93 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:54:39 968 1289 58 68 3514 93 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:54:40 968 1289 58 67 3488 93 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:54:41 968 1289 58 67 3460 93 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:54:42 968 1289 58 66 3446 93 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:54:43 968 1289 58 66 3433 94 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:54:44 968 1289 58 65 3414 94 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:54:45 968 1289 58 65 3401 94 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:54:46 968 1289 58 64 3378 94 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:54:47 968 1289 58 64 3350 94 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:54:48 968 1289 58 63 3336 94 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:54:49 968 1289 58 63 3320 94 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:54:50 968 1289 58 62 3301 94 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:54:51 968 1289 58 62 3286 94 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:54:52 968 1289 58 61 3259 94 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:54:53 968 1289 58 61 3227 94 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:54:54 968 1289 58 61 3223 94 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:54:55 968 1289 58 61 3225 94 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:54:57 968 1289 58 60 3208 94 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:54:58 968 1289 58 60 3196 95 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:54:59 968 1289 58 59 3182 93 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:55:00 968 1289 58 59 3165 93 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:55:01 968 1289 58 59 3161 93 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:55:02 968 1289 58 59 3163 93 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:55:03 968 1289 58 58 3135 92 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:55:04 968 1289 58 58 3103 92 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:55:05 968 1289 58 57 3082 94 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:55:06 968 1289 58 57 3065 94 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:55:07 968 1289 58 57 3058 93 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:55:08 968 1289 58 57 3061 94 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:55:09 968 1289 58 56 3047 94 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:55:10 968 1289 58 56 3030 94 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:55:11 968 1289 58 55 3002 93 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:55:12 968 1289 58 55 2969 93 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:55:13 968 1289 58 54 2946 92 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:55:14 968 1289 58 54 2925 92 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:55:15 968 1289 58 54 2922 92 1107 41 0.939 Then the GPU load collapses within 5 seconds, almost all memory is suddenly freed, GPU rises again to 64% for five seconds ... ... then the GPU load drops to zero, and the clockspeeds go idle: 2014-01-05 05:55:16 968 1289 58 54 2921 92 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:55:17 968 1289 58 53 2907 92 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:55:18 968 1289 58 53 2885 92 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:55:19 968 1289 58 53 2877 94 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:55:20 968 1289 55 53 2887 80 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:55:21 968 1289 54 53 2891 60 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:55:22 968 1289 54 53 2890 47 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:55:23 968 1289 54 53 2889 29 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:55:24 968 1289 53 53 2889 9 1107 41 0.939 2014-01-05 05:55:25 968 1289 53 53 2887 64 79 23 0.939 2014-01-05 05:55:26 968 1289 53 53 2887 64 80 23 0.939 2014-01-05 05:55:27 968 1289 53 53 2889 64 80 23 0.939 2014-01-05 05:55:28 968 1289 52 53 2890 64 76 23 0.939 2014-01-05 05:55:29 968 1289 52 53 2892 64 76 23 0.939 2014-01-05 05:55:30 300 150 52 53 2890 0 76 23 0.825 2014-01-05 05:55:32 300 150 50 53 2891 0 76 23 0.825 2014-01-05 05:55:33 300 150 49 53 2891 0 76 23 0.825 2014-01-05 05:55:36 300 150 48 53 2891 0 76 23 0.825 2014-01-05 05:58:17 300 150 31 53 2847 0 76 23 0.825 2014-01-05 06:00:27 300 150 30 53 2828 0 76 23 0.825 2014-01-05 06:00:50 300 150 29 53 2827 0 76 23 0.825 Where it stays, cooling down ... 2014-01-05 05:58:17 300 150 31 53 2847 0 76 23 0.825 2014-01-05 06:00:27 300 150 30 53 2828 0 76 23 0.825 2014-01-05 06:00:50 300 150 29 53 2827 0 76 23 0.825 2014-01-05 06:30:00 300 150 28 53 2805 0 86 23 0.825 Until I find it half an hour later - because my little port4028 watcher-tool looks suspicious. Hmmm ... that was all 7850 data. which I am currently testing to undervolt. Unfortunately, I do not have parallel 7970 data :-( Perhaps the 7970 malfunctioned first? For now, I have raised the voltage of the 7850 a little bit. Let's see if that is enough for stability. What do you think, which card was the cause of the above crash? ;) Title: Re: undervolting "cheap" cards - how to? ( 7970 xfx & 7850 powercolor ) Post by: drakoin on January 05, 2014, 08:04:05 AM The 7970 might be readily tuned, measurements & results here:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=395004.msg4320578#msg4320578 ;D Title: Re: undervolting "cheap" cards - how to? ( 7850 powercolor ) Post by: kalus on January 05, 2014, 10:37:40 AM anybody know how to undervolt the R9 270x? there is no bios switch, and i haven't been able to find hacked bios's either.
Title: Re: undervolting "cheap" cards - how to? ( 7850 powercolor ) Post by: drakoin on January 05, 2014, 06:00:57 PM Do you know how to undervolt r9 280x cards ?? anybody know how to undervolt the R9 270x? i haven't been able to find hacked bios's either. I don't think you need to find someone else's BIOS. With my description you should be able to make your own tweaked BIOS: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=395004.msg4320578 (read to end) there is no bios switch Yes, my cards don't have a BIOS switch either. So ... good preparation & full concentration when I do this :-) AFAIK a bricked card can sometimes be "unbricked" with a second card, so be extra careful if you only have one. It's all risky, be sure you know what you do. Title: Re: undervolting "cheap" cards - how to? ( 7850 powercolor ) Post by: kalus on January 05, 2014, 06:13:33 PM Do you know how to undervolt r9 280x cards ?? anybody know how to undervolt the R9 270x? i haven't been able to find hacked bios's either. I don't think you need to find someone else's BIOS. With my description you should be able to make your own tweaked BIOS: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=395004.msg4320578 (read to end) ya, i have seen flashes for 7xxx cards, but not for r9 2xxx cards. oh well, i'll keep looking. there is no bios switch Yes, my cards don't have a BIOS switch either. So ... good preparation & full concentration when I do this :-) AFAIK a bricked card can sometimes be "unbricked" with a second card, so be extra careful if you only have one. It's all risky, be sure you know what you do. and i have 22 of them, so i got backups :D Title: Re: undervolting "cheap" cards - how to? ( 7850 powercolor ) Post by: drakoin on January 06, 2014, 05:34:34 AM ya, i have seen flashes for 7xxx cards, but not for r9 2xxx cards. oh well, i'll keep looking. Ah, now I get you, sorry I was slow :-) So what you say is the VBE7 editor doesn't work for the R9-2xxx cards? If you risk bricking (see below) - why not simply try to use it for one of your R9s ? And: If you find an R9-tool, please PM me, I might buy R9 cards soon. How do you 'unbrick' a card with another card? Oh, I really don't know. Has'nt happened to me, and that makes me happy :-)But I am sure that I read somewhere " ... then you need another card ... ". and i have 22 of them, so i got backups :D Oh wow. That is a pretty farm :-)Still, don't brick a single one of them, I suggest ;D Have a look here, there is a guy in this forum who is really really nice, and helpful: http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/vbe7-vbios-editor-for-radeon-hd-7000-series-cards.189089/page-22#post-3034516 Perhaps he has ideas that help you with your R9s? Title: Re: undervolting "cheap" cards - how to? ( 7850 powercolor ) Post by: drakoin on January 07, 2014, 02:23:38 PM anybody know how to undervolt the R9 270x? i haven't been able to find hacked bios's either. ya, i have seen flashes for 7xxx cards, but not for r9 2xxx cards. oh well, i'll keep looking. Hi Kalus, I guess this might make you happy: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=395004.msg4363696#msg4363696 Looks as if he did use VBE7 for editing an R9 VGABIOS. ;) Title: Re: undervolting "cheap" cards - how to? ( 7850 powercolor ) Post by: drakoin on February 03, 2014, 04:33:44 AM anybody know how to undervolt the R9 270x? Hi Kalus, I guess this might make you happy:i haven't been able to find hacked bios's either. ya, i have seen flashes for 7xxx cards, but not for r9 2xxx cards. oh well, i'll keep looking. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=395004.msg4363696#msg4363696 Looks as if he did use VBE7 for editing an R9 VGABIOS. ;) And? |