Bitcoin Forum

With all the 5970 cards I hope folks find this info useful and share their experiences. I am running a total of 5x5970 in two mining systems under Windows 7 and GUIMiner.

Drivers:
ATI 11.7 drivers appear to be the most stable so far. I had absolutely miserable time trying to clock down the memory under 11.8 below 500, kept crashing. Under 11.7 I am able to clock down the memory to 250, and overclock the core to 785 without any problems and without screwing around with the voltage. At 785/250 I am squeezing around 720 MHs per card. I am sure I can squeeze a little bit more but I really like the 79C the cards settled at.

OCing Software:
I use the Sapphire Trixx 4.0.2 http://www.sapphireselectclub.com/ssc/TriXX/TriXX.aspx to handle the core overclocking and memory underclocking. Once the parameters are set, I kill Trixx and run the MSI Afterburner http://event.msi.com/vga/afterburner/download.htm because it has nice temp/GPU usage display that I can check remotely. If this doesnt sound very efficient, I apologize - I AM QUIRKY ::)

Mining Software:
GUIMiner - Extra Flags -v -w256 -f1

Remote Access Software:
Teamviewer http://www.teamviewer.com/en/index.aspx its free and works great.

Thank you!

Drivers:
Win7 64-bit
ATI 11.5/SDK 2.4

OCing Software:
Trixx for Core/Memory clocking
MSI Afterburner for fan control

910/300MHz/1.100v both cores

Mining Software:
Phoenix 1.50 with Phatk 2.2

VECTORS2 WORKSIZE=256 FASTLOOP=FALSE AGGRESSION=11 -k phatk

Remote Access Software:
N/A

Results:
411 MH/s per core

TeamViewer lets you log in remotely, even though a smart-phone  ::)

I am proficient with Linux, but I also dragged a bunch of my friends into Bitcoin mining, so I had to set up and debug a newbie friendly rig that could be easily replicated without me having to teach Linux and answer questions at odd hours  :P, hence the Windows 7 setup. I also got a Backtrack 5 R1 based setup that runs off a 16GB Micro SD but thats a story for another time...

Nice! How are your temps? Is it a cased or caseless setup?

Cased, but with the side off.  C1@74C and C2@86-87C.  I've actually clocked it up to 950MHz per core and got 425-427 MH/s out of it, but the fan was at 100% and C2 was cresting 100C.  It's not worth a few extra MH/s to put that kind of thermal stress on my new card :)

Drivers:
Win7 64-bit
ATI 11.6/SDK 2.4

OCing Software:
MSI Afterburner

850/250MHz/1.100v both cores, fan @ 60% with 79C GPU temp and 90C on VRMs

Mining Software:
GUI Miner with modified Phatk kernal

-k phatk VECTORS BFI_INT AGGRESSION=13 fastloop=FALSE WORKSIZE=256

Results:
380 MH/s per core
 
Just got the card so I'm trying not to OC it too much until I burn it in for a week.  Started on stock clocks and slowly went up 10MHz every 20 minutes, seems to help ease it into OC (that's what Furmark burn-in does).

My biggest recommendation would be to put 2x120mm high RPM fans over the card to lower the temps immensely on BOTH cores that way.  I wouldn't worry about dBA levels since this card cranks out 50+ dBA over 60% fan speed.  You'll get used to it, other than this card is a permanent blowdryer :D

Drivers:
Win7 64-bit
ATI 11.6/SDK 2.4

OCing Software:
MSI Afterburner

850/500MHz/1.075v both cores, fan @ 77% with 77C GPU temp

Mining Software:
GUI Miner with poclbm

-v f30 w256

Results:
350 ~ 370 MH/s per core

I agree, 300Mhz seems to be the sweet spot for most higher-end 5000 and 6000 series cards.  My 5770s are downclocked to 250Mhz even without it affecting the hashing rate.

I'm running a rig on windows with most services/startup disabled, though it's being a PITA right now, I can't get CCC to install/run at all so I can't seem to enable overclocking to tweak down the memory and nobody seems to be helpful to solve it. :| I've done wiped and reinstalled windows with fresh 11.6 and 11.8 and neither works, just get busy cursor for a second and the process activates in taskmanager but nothing ever comes up, all the third party clock tools have clock/memory greyed out and reports as range of 0-0.

I preferred windows because I had the disk on hand, and it's very easy to use built in windows RDP to doubleclick an icon and get native remote control for maintenance to run it headless. Every guide I see has you have to run two large commands to enable remote prompt, then another few larger complex lines to redirect the gui EVERY TIME you restart/want to log in, and that sounds like a bigger PITA.

Except that it doesnt D: the fan/memory/clock all report 0 and wont set or read. No third party do, something isn't right with CCC therefore nothing has API access to the cards. FRESH install of windows, FRESH install of driver+ccc set package... and... windows detects the card and can mine with them, thats it, over/underclocking even with cgminer. I did switch over from GUIMiner a few days ago, and had to switch back because GUIMiner I have the sleep flag set to keep the card cooler than 100*c (-s0.004 to be precise) D:

because it works fine.
yes.

I need help!

I am totally lost..... I have 3 5970's on MSI 890FXA GD70 with 1200W cooler master.

For some reason, MSI afterburner does not show GPU5 temp.. on the monitor. Why? (yes i checked the settings)

Also, why can the slider for the fan speed work? it work briefly 1-2 times when i first installed it....but now, nothing. I even uninstalled it and reinstalled it and still. I know i can set the setting to allow manual use. I did that.

In GPU-Z and MSI Afterburner the fan monitors don't work on the 5970.  Just set the fan speed manually in MSI Afterburner, you may have to apply and save settings several times for it to be at the proper fan speed you input.  Just listen to the fan speed and watch the fan RPM in GPU-Z to figure out the fan speed.  I really wouldn't worry about the GPU5 temp, the VRMs are what you need to keep an eye on.

You are a clueless soul.

My experience with CGminer has been positive, though I don't think it's the best for all-out performance.  I suppose it works ok if you don't want to fiddle with command line parameters, but I like to fiddle, and I usually see about 2-3% better performance and less rejected shares with Phoenix with modded kernel.cl on all of my 5000-series cards.

^ what flags/ settings do you use? with cgminer

My 5970s seem to be *much more* sensitive to ambient temperature than other cards like 5830s and 6950s. Needless to say, I have 4 cards out for replacement and have learned my lesson. :)

TBH, I'm not sure what version of CGminer I have.  I downloaded it about two weeks ago though, but I'll give it another shot.  I didn't know there were optional parameters we can feed it.

I have 3 5970 on a MSI 890FXA.... with only 1 monitor.

Do I need dummy plug? why? Seems like everything is working good now.

Not if you are running 11.7 or later AMD drivers - no need for the dummy plugs  ;D

One motherboard, yes.  But my 5970 has two 5870s for neighbors.

You don't need DPs with Catalyst 11.7+

Speaking of dummy plugs, heres something a bit dummy about the dummy plugs. Apparantly somehow there's still a way it's detecting not having monitor.

I used the user accounts panel to set up automatic login for windows. When I restart the computer though, the fans are still throttled down infinately. UNTIL I log in with remote desktop, then it signs in automatically to the profile specified and boots like normal. For some reason the auto login doesn't trigger until a screen is attached even with dummies on both cards D:!!!

I'd move on over to linuxcoin if I could get the damn wifi drivers to work, the newest drivers from the website for the usb dongle have to be compiled (like most *nix drivers) but the dependancies are what used to be included in the core, but were removed for a few versions back and the version of linuxcoin is newer than that point, so missing a large portion of includes. :| No point in switching if it works better, looks better, but can't connect to the bitcoin to get work!

dummy plugs have not been needed for quite some time already

that's the problem with linux, if you don't know it very well, you are bound to spend alot of time learning and setting stuff up...  in that time, you could be doing something else.
there should be no difference for mining... whatever OS you know best, use that.

Ooooo aaaah all you want... I catch your stupid sarcasm...

But, back to it... I didn't have to pay for licenses.  I have free legitimate access to MSFT products.  Provided by MSFT.  that includes data center editions too.
so yeah, this works well for me.

I know it fairly well, but this is a newer product with the company using old dependencies D:>

but yeah I'm probably going to stick to windows for now, being able to doubleclick an icon on desktop to remote in and see progress is handier than launching a VNC program that has more artifacting and lag even over LAN due to compression scheme.

OK guys!

This is what is working for me.......

I have 3 5970 (6 GPU) on a msi 890FXA......

using AMD cata 11.7

I have them
-OC
1.087 V
clock 850
and mem at 500. All with afterburner. 1% stale only.
I get 2.2 Gh/s

all on the motherboard....not extender. kill watt meter shows 980-1040 watts being used. i have PSU cool master 1200W

flags on GUI miner -v -w128 -f1

what do you guys think?

Any other way to improve???


Also,
by the way I have another 5970 on a very cheap biostar motherboard (MP6P $35) and a cheap PSU (29.99) 600w only for 1 PCIE card.

V 1.049
Clock 780
mem 500
1.2% stale

flags on GUI miner -v -w128 -f1
I am getting 700 hash/s



Any other way to improve any of my setup??? (obviously the second but not now)

dropped my memory clocks down to 200 on all my 5970s and still stable

How do I lower the mem clock? Afterburner only allows 500.....

To get a lower mem clock on Afterburner you have to close out of Afterburner and restart it, then you can clock the card even lower to get 200-250 mem clock.  I would start at 250 and go down in increments of 10, then lower your memory clock until it starts lowering your hash rate then go back up 10 MHz. 840 Clock with 250 Memory Clock is easily attainable and helps reduce amps required for the card, that is usually the limiting factor on your overclock stability imo, that and your motherboard.