Bitcoin Forum

So i just booted up a used 5830...

800/1000 (Stock Speeds)
SDK 2.3
Catalyst 11.2
POCLBM -f 60 -v
65 C
200 mhash/s

Now I have a few ideas on how to pull some more out but before I start screwing around I thought maybe someone could share their settings and experience with this particular series of cards and have any advice for me....

lol I did everything to squeeze 80 mhash/s out of my 4850 and to boot this guy up and immediately see 200 mhash felt pretty good.

If anyone is wondering I paid $150 for the card , I am going to sell the 4850 on Ebay for somewhere between $40-$60 (still have original packaging and everything) , so basically I spent $100 , not bad right?

5870 here. I have it clocked at 980 core, 300 mem for mining. Temps are around the same as non-overclocked if you set the mem clock that low. I get around 340-380mhash with this. Using flags -v -w128, AMD APP 2.2, catalysm 10.somethingorother.

I tried to lower the the mem to 400 and it froze up.

Ok I changed everything except app version and driver version to exactly the same as you and I am getting 255 mhash/s

You think changing driver and app version will push me up anymore?

I dropped down to 10.7 and SDK 2.2 and I got an increase of only 2-5 mhash/s , not really what I was hoping for, going to try SDK 2.1 and if no increase I will stick with my original config. If you can check what version of driver you have I would appreciate it , thanks.

Update: Ok now I uninstalled 2.2 and installed 2.1 and actually see a decent increase, I am up to 270 mhash/s , so sdk 2.1 seems the best, but driver wise there are so many I can be here forever trying them all, anyone have an idea? I am using 10.7 right now.

Thanks in advance, if anyone could help I really appreciate it.  ;D

How do you change the SDK?

Try 10.12 or 10.11, Most says for 5000 series this gives max hash/s



You have to uninstall SDK through add/remove pgms if in windows until 2.2
ATI stream sdk 2.x
& also delete the folder in C:\ATI

If 2.3 then you can use driver installer itself, by running it & selecting uninstall & can remove what u don't want & can then again run 11.4 driver to install 2.4

Looks like I was wrong with what I posted about actually, I'm running catalyst 11.2.

Yes, lowering your mem clock too low will freeze the card. I think it depends on how lucky you are. I can go as low as 250mhz, but any lower will start artifacting even the windows desktop and 225 will freeze it.

im using cat 11.4 beta with steam sdk 2.4

clock 870/1250
getting 325000 khash/s

you can find the driver here http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/Catalyst114earlypreview.aspx

I always install the SDK separately from the drivers... then in CCleane you can uninstall them.


You can also switch sdk's without uninstalling the drivers (doesn't even need a reboot) if you had installed them completely separately.

I got it sorted out, thanks, I'll keep it at 300 for now.

Hmm just lost 10 mhash/s using these newer versions. Man this is frustrating.
So far the best results I have got at my current clocks (1000/300) is 275 mhash/s with SDK2.1 and 10.7 Drivers...


What version of card do you have?

For 5000 series card sdk below 2.3 only works good.

The best seems 10.12 or 10.11 with 2.1   as said before.
The 11.4 & 2.4 preview akka BETA works well with 6000 series.
http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4493.0

Lowering memory below 300 Mhz actually decreases hash/s & freezes windows.
Also, it seems there is some kind of formula there between memory frequency & core frequency, it seems in the form of core clk =3(3.?????) x mem clk which gives the Maximum hash/s
I get Maximum 280 Mhash/s at 1038 core clk & 360-370 mem clk.
Seems it differ for everyone. Please try increasing mem clk every 5-10 mhz while mining in back & see the change in hash/s & Please also post it, if u can able to get any max hash/s at any particular frequency while keep the core clk at max with out freezing.

lowering mem clk reduces TEMP up to 10C to me.

you can increase the core clk up to <1040 with out freezing. even 1041 freezes after some time.
i got freezing at 1047 after 1-2 hours mining & not touching pc

Thanks I will play around and report back.

Here is where I am at right now

Card: Sapphire 5830

Driver : 10.11
Stream SDK: 2.1
Clocks: 1025/300
HashSpeed: 285 mhash/s

These setting beat out (driver/stream) 11.2/2.3 and and 11.4/2.4

For now I am going to stick with these settings , they seem stable , temps are good.
If anyone wants to try and see if they can something better with drivers 10.8-10.9 it might be worth a shot.

Hope they help, if they do throw me a coin or two  ;D

Hmm I can't get it stable. Well I can get it stable when only mining , but it I am mining for a while and come to use the computer it freezes up.

This never happened with my previous card, but then again I can't control the voltage on this card, something I didn't know until I received it....

Anyone know if it is possible to control the voltages on the Sapphire 5830, I only have 2 options...

Well otherwise I found the 10.7-10.10 drivers with stream sdk 2.1 to be the fastest.

I tried to see if the freezing up was due to the software versions but it happened on all of them.....


What to do , what to do....

Edit: Sticking with 10.7 and SDK 2.1 , got it stable (where i can still use PC @ decent speed without freezing) at 990/300 at 275 mhash/s...

Wish I would have known I couldn't change the voltage, the card to go with if your getting a 5830 is the newer Asus version...

try to use a tool called OCCT to test your clock speed
for your card choose shader complexity 8 and check for error

Thanks, it kills me I can't control the voltage though. I could push so much more out of this card if I could. I am going to stick with it for a month or two , hopefully be able to sell it for almost what I paid for it and get either the Asus 5830 or something else, but from what I see the best bang for the buck mining wise is still a 5830 , i see the Asus ones going for around $120 on ebay and I bet you can squeeze alteast 320 mhash/s out of it.


On here  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ati_comparison (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ati_comparison) you can see why the 58xx series kicks ass for mining, 2154 million transistors compared to the 68xx series 1700. I assume for gaming they are better ??? but certainly not for mining.

This also caught my eye and made me get a 5830 even though I am not sure what it means  ???  but only a few cards have it, does anyone know what "Double-precision FP" is  ??? and if it effects mining speeds?

DP FP: Double precision floating point
This won't affect mining at all.  Hash calculations are done with integer operations and some compare operations.  That said, a 6870 can compete with a 5870 in mining, but only if you overclock the crap out of the 6870.  Even moderate overclocks on a 5870 can pull it ahead.  As far as mining performance per unit price, the 5830 does look like the best option.  Mining performance per watt is still going to be the 5970 with the 5850 and 6870 really close behind.
Also, AMD's primary impetus behind creating the 68xx cards was to reduce wattage but keep performance nearly the high as the 58xx cards.  Basically, consider Barts the Cypress redesign.  A 5850 and a 6870 have roughly the same TDP rating, yet the 6870 performs better in games than the 5850.

The best bang for the buck mining is the HD 5870.

A few places around here sell it for about $185-$200 CAD new, and it will have 43% better performance per clock than a HD 5830 because it has 43% more shader units (1600 vs 1120 on the 5830).

At only 900mhz it puts out about 330,000 khash/s, I've also seen 390,000 khash/s at 1030mhz (although with my reference cooler, I can only keep it at about 930mhz unless I want a hairdryer in my room). This is all using SDK 2.3 on Windows with the 11.2 driver. I tried SDK 2.1 as well as older drivers and found no significant difference at all (less than ~5m increase/decrease). I also didn't notice anything significant upgrading to SDK 2.4.

I wouldn't agree that the 6870 is a better miner than the 5850 either. The 58xx and 68xx/69xx series all top out at roughly the same core frequencies, most will cap out anywhere from 950-1000mhz for mining. HD 6870 is already 900mhz and doesn't have much headroom, HD 5850 is 775mhz and has much more headroom for overclocking. That all being said, HD 5850 already performs better for mining when both are at stock frequency.

My HD 5850 at ~920mhz sees roughly 300,000 khash/s. Comparing my HD 6850 at the same frequency of 920mhz.. it only sees about 215,000 khash/s.

Well, at stock clocks the 5870 has a 51.7% theoretical advantage over the 5830, but at the price frankiebits saw it for ($120) versus $185, the 5870 has a 54.2% higher price.  OK, so the 5830 wins in price to mining performance by only a tiny amount at those prices.


The relevant comparison should not be a 5850 at 920MHz.  Also, in my post, a 5850 was not compared to a 6850.  Those two cards aren't the same wattage.  While the 5850 will most definately overclock better than a 6870, both cards at stock clocks will produce mining results that are similar.  However, the 6870 will perform better in games.  That's how I have it worded in my previous post.  Also, in my post I point out that even a moderate overclock on a 5870 will pull it ahead of the 6870.  From the way I've ordered the sentences, it can be inferred that the 6870 at any level of overclock can't compete with the 5870 at even a moderate overclock.  I'm just restating that to clarify.

I will agree, though, that a 5870 will give you the best performance for the given clock speed.

EDIT: Looking back, I did not emphasize the fact that the 5850 and 6870 have similar mining performance.  Oops.

I saw on Ebay Asus 5830s which have no voltage lock for between $120 and $140 and I think that it may be able to squeeze out something different, these cards don't get very hot,  i keep it in the 60's at 50%fanspeed, stable @ 280 mhash clocked @ 1000mhz/300 , i feel if i could control the voltage i can squeeze much more out of this card

prices change all the time, especially that the these newer cards are out you should see a drop in 5 and 6 series cards...


 im very for buying used video cards , i got my 4850 for $50 and i will make my money back making the 5830 $100, ill get some more money sell the 5830 for $100 or more, and keep doing it over and over until i get a $1,739,548,822.45 graphics card. its going to be hhhuuuggee

try use that tool i posted a few posts above, i dont think your 5830 will be stable at 1000mhz
if the program does not crash does not guarantee that your calculation is correct.

I'm glad to see you're getting decent results from your 5830, I just picked one up for $110 after rebate (seemed to make more sense than the $145 6850, $165 5850, or $200+ 5870, etc). I cancelled an order I had for a $145 after rebate 6850. I had to pick up a new power supply too (to get 2xPCIE, I got 4xPCIE on this guy to make sure I never have that type of problem again), but I never really trusted my old one anyway, kinda sketchy. I guess I'll sacrifice the gaming upgrade I would have got with the 6850 to get a better miner and a nice futureproof PSU.
(6850 was $30 cheaper than the 5830+PSU)

Should be a nice upgrade from my 8800GT that's pulling 24Mhash/sec at the moment! I'll post my results here when I'm all set up.

That program is good for gaming testing not opencl. I am steady at 1000/300 as we speak. Have been for atleast 24 hours.

You will get a ten fold increase in mining speed at least.

Got it all set up! 5830 is running at 975/300 at 70C, and it's pulling 260Mhash/sec. I was having some stability issues at higher clocks, so I just put it down a bit and left it. (It crashes almost instantly at 1000/300, 990/300 I had a few shutdowns after only a few minutes of use, etc.).

I also popped my old 8800gt in another slot and OC'd it, so it's adding another 30MHash/sec.

Going to add another 5770 a buddy has lying around tomorrow and get another 160-200MHash/sec too hopefully. Overall, much quicker now for not much of a $ investment.

Hi there...new the the forums and just picked up a 5830 and a 600w PSU to go along with it -- they arrive Monday, and I'm excited to really get started. I am not as tech savvy as a lot of you guys so I'll be getting a friend to come and help me install these pieces (surprisingly, the power supply is what I'll need help with -- I'm awful with cords)...I did manage to already set up CPU and GPU miners on my own, though, so I'll probably be fine once I get the hardware out of the way. I'm using an nVidia 9300GE, which is CUDA in name only. Between the Athlon Dual Core 4850e (not OC) running at ~2.5GHz each and that terrible card, I've been pulling down about 3.5 mhash/s...which is pitiful. I make laughable amounts of BTC right now. I figure I can turn the CPU miner completely off once I get this card installed (no point in running it, really). Also thinking about slaving the gf's parent's computer, once I see what hardware it's running. ;) Maybe I'll see a whole bitcoin one of these days...

Anyway, looking forward to being an active part of your community. I'll come and let you all know how everything turns out once I get the card installed.

Welcome to the community  ;) , you should be able to get around 275 mhash/s on that card. I recommend keeping a steady fan speed rather than one than speeds up as the temps rise. With mine I kept it at around 50% or 2000rpm. You'll want you temps stay around 70c. To temps low and gain some speed try lowering the memory clock to 300mhz. It worked with mine 5830 (but not my 5870). With that card at the current difficulty you will get around 4 bitcoin a day. I suggest either Deepbit ( http://deepbit.net (http://deepbit.net) )or Slushs Pool ( http://mining.bitcoin.cz (http://mining.bitcoin.cz) )

If you can sell you card down the line for what you paid for it and put that money and some bitcoin you earned towards a better card (5870 or 5970) it will be worth it.

For me the key is getting the system stable, getting it running and leaving it alone for as long as I can while I do other work. Than when you go check on it you will surprised with the amount you earned. Much funner than sitting there watching them come in a few at a time.
Hope i helped, if I did please donate!  ;D

Edit: ALSO, Catalyst 10.7 and Stream SDK 2.1 worked best for me.

Thanks. :) I've been in Slush's Pool since I started with my 4 Mhash/sec...he doesn't seem to mind me basically mooching and getting my bit nickel every 39 hours or so. :p Just worked out overclocking last night with a program called RivaTuner (I really am that big of a noob -- I accidentally put the memory clock speed on my nVidia 9300 up to 750...I was restarting in safe mode before I knew it...) and the new card will be here tomorrow, along with a buddy of mine to help me install it and the new PSU. I've been reading as much as I can on the forums...but the vast majority of you guys are way further along than I am with regards to the whole tech thing...especially hardware. It's never too late to learn, though.

4 BTC a day sounds like a fine return on my investment for my time. I'm probably going to hold on to them and see what happens. I got a great deal on this card, and the PSU will support just about any modern card out there (including the coveted 5970 if I get to that point), so I can definitely upgrade if this goes well. I'm even thinking about starting my own Bitcoin business...but that is another thread for another forum category.

I'll be back tomorrow night with news. :)

Edit: I think you did help, and I will definitely share the wealth. :)

Welcome to the wonderful world of bitcoin mining slurch! :) Say what new card are you getting? I'm presuming it's an ATI card of some sorts. ...ooops..nevermind I found out ..I guess reading a bit further up the thread is a good idea :) eh?  heheh

Hey guys,

I got my 5870 today.

Using the GUI miner by Kiv.

OS	Win7 x64
Cat	11.3
SDK	v2.4
Mem	900 Mhz
Mh/s	330-6
Flags	-v -w128

Readings from the catalyst control center : temp 74c, activity 98%, fan speed 70%.

Hi all.

I have a ATI Radeon 4800 Series (I think its a 4850 but everywhere I look on my machine it just says 4800 Series. I bought this computer from a friend so don't know for sure what it is.)

Just looking for a noobish step by step guide to get some mining going. I hear of people getting 4BTC a day that would be great but I have no idea even where to start.

Edit: Ok I found a thread with a link to an article on here to get me started. Will come back if I have any questions.

The card is here. Out of the box, it's pulling down 190. I'm off to find some software to get the memory clock speed down to 300...the heat is killing me.  :P

Edit: Okay...figured it out. Can't seem to do much better than 950/400 on clocks without crashing. This IS my actual computer I'm doing this on and not a rig, so I guess it is what it is. Running a music program, the miner, MSI Afterburner and posting this and still getting 240...250 when idle. I had it up to 270, but it crashed constantly. I guess I'll keep messing with it until I get it stable enough to actually use while mining. Went with 10.7 and 2.1 per your advice. :) Temp is running right around 85...can't seem to do much better than that, either. It's an HP Pavilion with a BS mobo that has no business doing what it's doing. :P I'm happy.

yikes.  85 is too hot IMHO: short term it's OK, but mid- to long-term you're going to hurt the card if you run it 24/7.  you might want to do something about that.  try messing with the fans using aticonfig - or, failing that, run with an open case and an extra fan or two.

i've got a couple of 5850s set up in my frankenputer miner with an extra case fan and two small blowers from an old CPU cooler blowing directly into the GPU intake fans.  they're down to a pretty reliable 72.5-74 C.  still a bit hot for my taste.  i'm working on it - i'd like 65ish, tops.

Can't run it with an open case...the cats would have a field day. I had the fan at 60% and it was hovering between 80 and 84, depending on what I was doing. Just turned it up to 75%...we'll see what that does to the temps.

Edit: Temp down to 78 within minutes...that's what my old nVidia card ran at, so I'm not expecting much more.

Do you live in a hot climate? Also would it not be possible to increase the case's airflow without taking the side cover off? I'm thinking something like adding side panel fans or bigger/more/more powerful front intake fans? Do you even have front intake fans? Do you have a clutter of wires blocking airflow from the front intake fan(s) ?

If he's got a case like my buddy's HP, then not really.  His case is one of those smaller reverse ATX cases (opens on the right rather than the left).  He was having minor troubles with heat in his case because the thing only had one fan in it other than the PSU fan and no room to add another.  What we did was add three 40x40x20mm fans to the side inlets.  It only worked just well enough, but it worked.  When he decided he wanted a video card, I told him that he can only have a blower style card cooler, no mid-mounted fan jobs.  It has been working well for him, thus far.

Hmm I see. That's why I always profess the virtues of building your own pc. Nothing beats a custom case design. For hot running video cards (or multiple video cards) you want quite a few fans - as big as possible to keep the noise down yet maximize CFM.


I'm wondering maybe he can setup some sort of ghetto rig...cut a hole in the side of the panel and attach a 140 mm fan there..or two.

Do you have a pic of this case?

I have a HP Pavilion a6700z; it was not a horrible machine at the time I bought it, and it was a great media PC. As it's still my primary home PC, I will definitely be looking into building a dedicated mining rig. For now, though, I'm stuck with this. Here's what I'm running (in the aforementioned case):

Athlon Dual Core 4850e Brisbane @ ~2.5GHz on an Asus Narra3 mobo (which means I have 1 PCI-e x16 slot)
600 PSU
4 GB RAM
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
and the 5830...it's an XFX
Total fans: 4 -- 1 on the processor, 1 exhaust, the PSU and the video card
No front intake fans -- no room for them in the case (the hard drive happens to be occupying that spot)

It doesn't bug me to run the fan all the time on the GPU. If it's bad for the fan, that's another matter entirely, though. Here is what I'm pulling down right now:

Catalyst 10.7 and SDK 2.1
poclbm-gui miner w/flags -v -w128
250-260 Mh/s even while running flash games and videos
Re-clocked using MSI Afterburner to 950/400 (any lower than 400 seemed to crash the computer...though I could definitely stand to bring that temp down some more...)
Fan at 75%
Current temperature is 82C (it is warmer in here...I have an AC...perhaps I should use it)

I would also point out that my old card ran at 78C for 2 years or more without incident with no overclocking at all...I used to run BOINC on it. Also, didn't like that temp, so pulling it down below 80 with the fans as we speak. :)

Thanks for the feedback, guys.

Edit: just knocked the memory clock down to 385...seems to be stable...will keep an eye on temps. My goal is below 80, for now, as I'm probably not savvy enough to carve holes in the tower. That would be an ideal situation, though.

I think there are two different designs of the XFX 5830, so I'm wondering which one do you have. Is it the one that vents its heat inside the case? If so the biggest problem you have is airflow..getting fresh air from the front or somewhere and ejecting it out the back or top.

I'm thinking maybe one of those PCI coolers would help.

Ya...it vents heat in the case. Not sure if I have room in the case for one of those PCI coolers, but that's a good idea. Too late to crawl around to worry about it. Actually got the temp down to 77...all in a night's work. :P

77 at full load is pretty good :) If you can keep it at that you should be set to go.

Moved the machine into another room, overclocked the core to 970 currently getting 360 MH/s and temps have been holding at 69c over night. First night of mining I got real lucky and woke up to 50 BTC. Second night, nothing at all. I'm thinking of hoping into a mining pool. Solo mining feels a bit meh.

I would. It will probably take you 9 or 10 days at this difficulty (on average) to find anything at that speed. A pool is the way to go.

I agree. At the current difficulty even with twice that hashing power it will take 19 days (95% probability) to find a block.

http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4292.msg85451#msg85451
Please check the above link & post your data there.
Thanks.

When I run my 5870 even at stock settings overnight a few random red/green lines start flickering on the screen. They go away after a few mins of turning the miner off. Is this normal or is the card bad?

2 things, one desktop lag. If running with -f1 flag.
second your TEMP is too high, run fan at 100% if u don't mind sound & don't want to burn card., but with out over clock, its rare.

These lines show up even when the card is running at 60c overnight and memory is underclocked to 300.

69C is too high!? No way. I disagree. I'm sure others would too.

If you reduce the memory too much, it can cause graphics errors. My HD5870 cannot go under 425mhz memory without getting graphical glitches like you've mentioned. Sometimes after you set the 300mhz clock, then return the card to stock the glitches won't go away until you reboot as well.

Hmm, that's odd cause I run my card at 300 and I've noticed no graphical glitches whatsoever. Granted I did not try gaming at this mem clock nor will I. But you'd think if this was affecting the 5870 it should also affect the 5970 which is nothing more than two 5870s in CrossFire config.

the lines show up at normal settings and when underclocked or overclocked. they seem to just show up when the card is at high usage nonstop for a few hours.

I put an accelero on my card and never hit higher than 57C at full load.

Well yeah but that's one monster cooling solution. My 5970 has one of them..came stock. At full load the card sits at 68 C, and that's with the fan at only 36%!!! If I crank up the fan to 60 it lowers the temps to the 60 - 61 range for both cores...

If you paid attention carefully to what I posted you would realize that I AM and WAS giving solutions/suggestions.

Second what I think happened is I though your response was targetted at one of the people who posted having 77C or 69C temps thus my response.

Please quote the person to whom you're responding instead of blind posting. It really can prevent confusion.

Just because it happens to some cards doesn't mean it will happen to all (some cards overclock better, some underclock better). I get lines with 2 of my 5870s when I take the memory down to 300. It doesn't bother me at all though because it increases the hash rate and they are only used for mining with dummy plugs.

You paying attention very carefully, Thats why you can able to reply like this way, since I replied to a post 2 hours before, then the very next post by zzzd after 2 hours of my reply, Instead of replying zzzd post, i confused & targeted some one else post.

Just thought I'd add if any of you guys are in the UK and looking for a cheap card ebuyer are now doing the xfx HD5830 xxx edition for £83. I've just ordered a couple :D

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/263858

I'm looking for a cheap 5970 from..anywhere :P

Oh won't the GPU gods please deliver!

Do they even exist ? I did find one on google shopping for £200 but when you click the link you get out of stock not surprisingly :D But yerrr good luck with that :D

Thanks, same to you too. I've been looking at local classifieds sites but so far nothing sub $499. In my opinion paying $500 for this card given today's difficulty level is not worth it. Ideally I think $300 is a fair price to pay for a lightly used card, but doubt I'll find one for that price anytime soon. The longer it takes me to find a good deal the less worthwhile it will become due to increasing difficulty (of mining).

Just wanted to give a quick update for everyone, and see what kind of improvements the 58xx series cards have had with the new BFI_INT support on the mining side. I've actually gotten some pretty surprising results with this config:

1 x XFX 5830 HD 1GB
Windows 7 64 bit
Catalyst 10.7 and SDK 2.1
Currently clocked at 970MHz Core, 390MHz Memory
Running Phoenix Miner with askrate=10 -k poclbm VECTORS BFI_INT FASTLOOP AGGRESSION=7 DEVICE=1
Temps ~ 70 - 74°C w/fans at 90%
~ 288 - 290 MHash/sec while playing music in iTunes and posting this in Firefox with 3 tabs open

I'm wondering what the 5850 and 5870 look like with the new miners to do a bit of a cost/benefit analysis...the 5830 set me back a whopping $109, and that was brand new from Newegg. I'm sure I could have gotten a used one for half of that, and that could save me a lot of money setting up mining rigs. Power is kind of a moot point, since I pay like 4 cents a kW.

Does anyone else have some stats to post? :)

350 Mhash per core on a 5970 :) Running at 850 Mhz

Gotta love BFI_INT!!

5850 with 5870 BIOS getting 360 Mh/s @ 900/300 on Ubuntu 10.10

I've getting more than 2:1 ratio of Mh/s to USD paid for a used card.

362.5 Mhash/core at 815/300 on 5970 at stock voltage - Phoenix 1.3

I'm now getting 405 mh/s on my 5870 @ 975/300 at stock voltage since the miners have been updated.

how did you guys set the memory clock to 300?
i've he 5850 extreme (3of them) and cant find a tool to set the 300mhz for all of them... trixx does the trick for jus one card and afterburner doesn't change the mhz below 900.
any help would be awesome...   right niw i get 275mhash, need more:-)

See this thread:

http://forum.bitcoin.org/?topic=4292.0

very easy to do :)

All my 5870s are at 300 and it saves quite a bit on power and also the cards run cooler...

Using a Sapphire 5830 with a Sapphire E-350 ITX mobo, overall system power consumption for 297-300 GHash is 220 w at 1000/300. Was getting some weird crashes when doing this while using Firefox Nightly but I switched to IE and that seems to have stopped.

4x5870 are here!

OS: W7x64
STREAM: 2.4
DRV: 11.5
core\mem\voltage: 990\310\1212 (Asus HD 5870 v2);  970\310\1163 (Gigabyte GV587UD-1GD);  970\310\1163 (Gigabyte GV587UD-1GD);  970\310\1163 (Gigabyte GV587UD-1GD)
MINER: Phoenix 1.48 + Phatk 1.0
FLAGS:  VECTORS BFI_INT FASTLOOP=false WORKSIZE=128 AGGRESSION=12
HASHING SPEED: 430 Mhash\sec; 421 Mhash\sec; 421 Mhash\sec; 421 Mhash\sec

I got the Sapphire 5830 running at stock voltage, 1000mhz core and 330mhz memory putting out 305Mh/s.  My 5850, also Sapphire, is putting out 355Mh/s overclocked at 910mhz core and 330mhz memory at 1.25v. 

Just want to let you know the results of my optimization:

4x XFX 5870 1GB
LinuxCoin
Clocks: 900 / 300, standard voltage (AMDOverdriveCtrl)

phoenix.py run from command-line (not start_mining script)
kernel: phatk (15-20 MHash/sec higher than withpoclbm)

flags:
VECTORS
AGGRESSION=9 (Increasing AGGRESSION makes system slower and does not further increase hashrate)
BFI_INT
WORKSIZE=256 (10MHash/sec higher than with 128)
DEVICE:<X>  (0,1,2 or 3)

hashrate: 395 MHash/sec
temps: 63-78 ^oC (lowest to highest mounted card)

Cards are on a 890FXA-GD70 with a 1200W CoolerMaster PSU in a closed HAF X at 25 ^oC ambient temp.

Just got my MSI 5850.
Can only OC using catalyst, up to 775. This is not much.
Tried with stock poclbm -v -w128, getting around 280.
With phoenix, same with poclbm kernel, with phatk BFI_INT VECTORS WORKSIZE=128 I am getting 295 to 300.

Anybody got any hints about this card? Because I've seen people claim getting 350+ with it...

Is it possible to OC it a bit more? Any additional tools I need on win7 and linux?
Can it be flashed to 5870 for any positive change? Are there any risks involved?

Also I've read somewhere that ATI APP SDK 2.1 gives better results than 2.4.. If so, is there place I can get that 2.1 version at?

Using 2.4 with phoenix/phatk seems to give the same results people report using 2.1. What value are you using for aggression? Up to a point (ie if GPU utilization is a lot under 100%) you can increase hash rate by increasing the aggression value.

I used aggression from 5 to 11, the best seems to be 6 since it both allows about 296 Mh/s when idle and does not make screen display slow. At 11 I get 300 but everything else is so slow it's just not worth it.

I believe MSI's overclocking tool is Afterburner. Some suggest using 256 for worksize instead of 128, not sure under what conditions that makes a difference. Not sure also about using fastloop or fastloop=false.

Here is the place to get SDK 2.1 but as I say I found it unnecessary personally:
http://developer.amd.com/sdks/AMDAPPSDK/downloads/pages/AMDAPPSDKDownloadArchive.aspx

hmm yeah I have not checked out the CD that came with the card since I had to remove the IDE cable in order to install it :) have to open it at another computer ...

So does anyone know about 5870 BIOS flashing? is it possible to do with MSI cards?

Im getting 445 Mh/s with 5870 @1005:340 (one needed 350, dont know why) with a very small overvolting with voltage between 1'080-1'075 (depending on the card). Using phoenix, phatk kernel with 2.4 SDK in Ubuntu. The card with higher temperature is always under 70º, usually around 60-65 (no computer case). Fans at 90%.

I have gotten some to over 460 Mh/s with more voltage and more core speed, but they crash after a while. Stable 445 Mh/s is the max Ive gotten.

So how much does OC'ing cost in terms of lifetime?  Seems to yield an extra 10% in hash rate,  is it worth it?

It can be significantly more than 10%....

Stock I was at 292 MHs with poclbm.  OC'd I'm at 392 MHs with phoenix.

That's some 30%!

Over-time-damage can be a gamble and often you can damage more than just your videocard.  Cheap components on motherboards and PSUs will go up in smoke sometimes as well as getting a general life reduction.

Yeah, the 5870 does around 350 Mh/s without overclocking and 445Mh/s OC (maybe others get even more). If you lower the memory speed, keep the voltage low (I have 1'080 while maximum non-OC is 1'136) and the heat is low, why should it be a problem?

I'm running on LinuxCoin v0.2a

Sapphire HD5850 Xtreme 1GB | 360 MHash/s | OC @ 900/300 | Phoenix w/ phatk |
Sapphire HD5970 1GB | 375 Mhash/s (Per Core) | OC @ 850/300 | Phoenix w/phatk |

5970 are after market, didn't come with box so I don't know what edition. Not really into GPU.

Not sure of my CC, SDK, Phoenix & phatk versions. All came with LinuxCoin. Still trying to migrate to Ubuntu.
Would appreciate some input from others too :)

BTW, seems to run more stable on poclbm although gets 330 Mhash/s on 5850 & 350 Mhash/s on 5970. phatk gives better Mhash/s.

I have quite a couple of those so the +30 & +25 Mhash/s adds up to a lot. (2x5970 = +100Mhash/s, 6x5850=+180Mhash/s) More 5850 coming in next week.

Never owned 5830 nor 5870. Might move onto them once the supply of 5850 runs out. Which doesn't seem likely yet.

OP can you let me know what are you doing to your HD4850 to get 80 Mhash/s? I can't seem to get a stable OC on Linux. I used to just Overdrive max core clock w/o messing around with mem clock on Windows.

On my 5870s, I get close to 400 at 900/300Mhz (see my post above). With overclocking I meant going above 900MHz and at higher voltages than AMDOverdriveCtrl allows me to. For me it seems to be not much more than 10% gain, and I doubt I want to risk my hardware for that. It would also require a BIOS flash, which may not be entirely without risk either.

Lifetime might be decreased by temperature, keep below 80C.

I have significant experience mining with these cards so let me help you out and save you some time.


The 5870 is an awesome card. You can mine stable at 415-420mh/s
use MSI Afterburner and overlcock it to 980 core and 180 mem
set the fan at 75%

I have two that have been hashing for months without a crash or a reboot.

The 5830's are a little slower but you can get around 280-300 mh/s stable
clock these also at 1000 core but they like the 300 mem clock sweet spot
also set fans to 75%


I have two of each.

I also mine with two 6870's
they love to run with high core clocks
get em both at 1025 core and 180 mem
give me 295-305 mh/s all day


Hope I could help.

What about power consumption?

5870 950/300 420 MH/S SDK 2.4 Phoenix phatk agggresion 14

Hey there,

just ordered a returned Gigabyte 5870 for 177€ at computeruniverse.net .

Actually got a Nvidia 8800GTS running with a bequiet 430W power supply.

Wondered if I'd need a new power supply and fan(s) for the 5870? I'm running an Athlon Dual 6000+ with 2GB DDR2 Ram.

If so, what power supply would you suggest, and how much power/fans do I need if I wanna OC the 5870?

Thanks for help, Uhren

When I set the memory so low (180mhz) on my two 6870's it has a big negative impact on the hash rate:

1025mhz/180mhz: ~270 mh/s
1025mhz/300mhz: ~310 mh/s

I run the following phatk kernel flags under phoenix on Win 7 with the latest CC drivers, SDK, etc:

DEVICE=X VECTORS BFI_INT FASTLOOP=false WORKSIZE=256 AGGRESSION=11

I was running with aggression=13 but I found it made my systems less stable.

probably a good place to ask...

I'm getting 100% CPU (main CPU) on my 2x5870s and just want to check that this is what I'm supposed to see... it's not a huge deal for me since I have a dedicated mining rig but I heard something about SDK versions affecting main CPU.

My details are:

AMD Athlon(tm) II X2 250 Processor (2 cores)
2 x XFX ATI Radeon HD 5870
OpenCL 1.1 AMD-APP-SDK-v2.4 (595.10) FULL_PROFILE
8.850.0.0 - Catalyst 11.5 (4-19-2011) - GL:atig6pxx.dll
Windows 7 x64
phoenix miner with phatk kernel

Only asking because I presume running 100% CPU uses more power...?  Also dropping the CPU would allow me to use it as a reliable fileserver as well.

Will