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RE: Is there plans to release a newer version, ie. v0.05 or higher? It would be great if there was an option to OC and change voltage. Maybe a more improved version of the GUI with 64-bit.
For Overclocking and voltage control you may want to try out MSI Afterburner Version 2.3.1
I found that AFTERBURNER is by far the best thing for Overclocking 7950's. At least Afterburner Version 2.3.1 works great here!
I also tried out Sapphire Trixx for the same thing but it was disappointing to say the least compared to Afterburner. Version 2.3.1 is stable. I wont even bother testing newer versions. I stick to what is stable and reliable.
Afterburner Version 2.3.1 functions extremely well, and after setting it for Overclocking, configuring it for my lousy eyeballs, and it is closed up, the PC will stay at those settings until I change them again. 5 different sets of settings for Overclocking can be saved for quick on the fly changes for temperamental mining pools, but be certain to stop the cgminers inside GUIMiner before changing Overclock speeds or risk instability while doing that at best, and a full on Video Driver freeze up at worst, plus a hard reboot. No sense in keeping Afterburner open after settings are done either. Close it up and the whole rig is more stable, with a tiny bit less energy draw and drain on resources. Just don't open or close Afterburner while your miners are running. Leaving the STRATUM on is okay, but not the cgminers inside GUIMiner.
See a prior post of mine for various overclock settings that work great for 7950's above this post.
And remember to multiply the memory overclock setting by 70% to get the proper setting for the Core Clock setting. Ie: 1500/1050.
===================================================================================
I run at 1050/1500 nonstop 24/7 with three 7950's.
Of course those are good 7950's, not the rejects or lousy built cards.
2 great, absolutely awesome Asus 7950's, and one out of three 7950 Sapphires that didn't get returned, lol, it was the lone keeper of three of them. Sadly that lone Sapphire now has one flaky fan that spins slower at idle due to a rough bearing, but still spins fine on full load interestingly speaking so I will run it as is until it grows worse.
Running with AMD Catalyst 13.4 straight from AMD's download site. Skip the crap that comes with any of the cards, fyi, unless it's already installed and then try it as is, if there is stability issues use AMD Catalyst Un-install utility 1.2.1.0 to uninstall whatever is there and then try version 13.4, or what Tacotime recommends. Again, I find what is stable, and stick to it, or if not stable I find whatever is very stable and reliable for 24/7/365 not to worry, set it and forget it, but do monitor it a few times a day if possible. I greatly reduce overclocking back to near stock setting when gone for weeks, no problems, runs super cool, but hash results are roughly 15% to 20% lower. Still, at least I don't worry about it when far away for long lengths that way.
I can't say enough great things about the ASUS 7950's. Wow what a difference. Finally was able to grab a couple from Newegg (they finally got them in stock again last June) and wow. Super Solid builds, huge, hearty things but they wont be easy to fit later on into tighter places. Had to use foam under one of them to kinda brace the weight of the thing! Not too long, but much beefier/wider than other 7950s, each taking up three slots so beware of that if anyone cares to run them on-board. And way overbuilt. But perfect for mining compared most 7950s. Likely the very best builds too. By far the least problematic compared to the Sapphires that I had. But it's pot luck from what i understand about all these AMD GPU's in all the 7950 cards no matter what brand one gets. Either it's a stable, solid AMD GPU inside, or not. Interestingly there is not a bit a difference though in the two Asus cards in hash rates, unlike the Sapphires.
As for over-volting. I tried it on the one Sapphire that was unlocked but instead it's best to lower the voltage a tad if your cards are voltage adjustable (most are voltage locked). Turn off or on the boost switches on the cards, experiment, and watch the temps. AFTERBURNER has plenty to offer those that want to over/under volt if your cards are voltage unlocked, and one can save a bit of electricity under-volting a tad bit. But too low and it will result in PC hanging up. From what I understand almost all the newer cards are voltage locked now. Guess too many fried cards, lol, got returned under warranty so they locked them from what I gather.
Best to just stick to overclocking from what I uncovered unless your willing to take ever more chances with frying a card(s). FYI my two Asus cards (according to 50Miners Overclock window) reports I run them at 1.09 volts for those two cards, and 1.169 volts for the Sapphires card, Off Boost as I recall, or maybe that's on boost because On Boost the card runs at higher Overclock settings, I forget.
On boost (or off???) it runs at around 1.25 or 1.26 volts as I recall and that high it runs way too hot at 1050/1500 Overclock and doesn't really add much to the bottom line either. Merely Overclocking does. At 1050/1500 I get up to about 625Mhz plus or minus a couple of Mhz per card. I lower those numbers when away for long stretches to be extra sure exess room heat doesn't play any critical factors. Now that summer is over though that shouldn't be a problem with a window open a bit.
To add further twist AFTERBURNER sync's all three cards, matching up to whatever card is set as the master to it as far as Overclock settings go, so trying to run that one Sapphire On Boost (or Off??) at 1.26 volts while cranking up the Overclocking together with the two Asus cards would result in a huge mess at best (extreme heat, crashing, unstable, etc. because the Shappire would become too hot/unstable I fear, sooner or later). Can't have it all.
I choose moderately high Overclocking with great stability, locking all three to an Asus as the Master inside AFTERBURNER, then cranking up the Overclock. Leaving alone the voltages altogether in Afterburner since the only setting not shaded out is the Power Setting whatever that would do. I leave that alone as well as even in AMD's panel I go lousy hashing results higher or lower that default with that.
To check voltages 50Miner software has an Overclock window. Afterburner wont display voltages on "locked cards". But will display "Power Limits" setting instead. So look elsewhere such as with 50Miner's Overclock window for that if their voltage locked and you want to know what the voltages are. Or of course inside HWMonitor x64 or their 32 bit version as desired. That's great for monitoring temps while figuring out how high you can safely dial up your cards.
I hear one can flash different bios to unlock voltages but it's just not worth the possibility of maybe bricking a card doing so. But I did backup the BIOS with Sapphires Trixx, even the Asus BIOS too. Interestingly that was about all Trixx offered me in the end. Otherwise Afterburner is way the best that I found for Overclocking/Syncing all the cards and getting supreme stability at Overclock speeds.
Anyway hope this helps.
Caveat empore!
For Overclocking and voltage control you may want to try out MSI Afterburner Version 2.3.1
I found that AFTERBURNER is by far the best thing for Overclocking 7950's. At least Afterburner Version 2.3.1 works great here!
I also tried out Sapphire Trixx for the same thing but it was disappointing to say the least compared to Afterburner. Version 2.3.1 is stable. I wont even bother testing newer versions. I stick to what is stable and reliable.
Afterburner Version 2.3.1 functions extremely well, and after setting it for Overclocking, configuring it for my lousy eyeballs, and it is closed up, the PC will stay at those settings until I change them again. 5 different sets of settings for Overclocking can be saved for quick on the fly changes for temperamental mining pools, but be certain to stop the cgminers inside GUIMiner before changing Overclock speeds or risk instability while doing that at best, and a full on Video Driver freeze up at worst, plus a hard reboot. No sense in keeping Afterburner open after settings are done either. Close it up and the whole rig is more stable, with a tiny bit less energy draw and drain on resources. Just don't open or close Afterburner while your miners are running. Leaving the STRATUM on is okay, but not the cgminers inside GUIMiner.
See a prior post of mine for various overclock settings that work great for 7950's above this post.
And remember to multiply the memory overclock setting by 70% to get the proper setting for the Core Clock setting. Ie: 1500/1050.
===================================================================================
I run at 1050/1500 nonstop 24/7 with three 7950's.
Of course those are good 7950's, not the rejects or lousy built cards.
2 great, absolutely awesome Asus 7950's, and one out of three 7950 Sapphires that didn't get returned, lol, it was the lone keeper of three of them. Sadly that lone Sapphire now has one flaky fan that spins slower at idle due to a rough bearing, but still spins fine on full load interestingly speaking so I will run it as is until it grows worse.
Running with AMD Catalyst 13.4 straight from AMD's download site. Skip the crap that comes with any of the cards, fyi, unless it's already installed and then try it as is, if there is stability issues use AMD Catalyst Un-install utility 1.2.1.0 to uninstall whatever is there and then try version 13.4, or what Tacotime recommends. Again, I find what is stable, and stick to it, or if not stable I find whatever is very stable and reliable for 24/7/365 not to worry, set it and forget it, but do monitor it a few times a day if possible. I greatly reduce overclocking back to near stock setting when gone for weeks, no problems, runs super cool, but hash results are roughly 15% to 20% lower. Still, at least I don't worry about it when far away for long lengths that way.
I can't say enough great things about the ASUS 7950's. Wow what a difference. Finally was able to grab a couple from Newegg (they finally got them in stock again last June) and wow. Super Solid builds, huge, hearty things but they wont be easy to fit later on into tighter places. Had to use foam under one of them to kinda brace the weight of the thing! Not too long, but much beefier/wider than other 7950s, each taking up three slots so beware of that if anyone cares to run them on-board. And way overbuilt. But perfect for mining compared most 7950s. Likely the very best builds too. By far the least problematic compared to the Sapphires that I had. But it's pot luck from what i understand about all these AMD GPU's in all the 7950 cards no matter what brand one gets. Either it's a stable, solid AMD GPU inside, or not. Interestingly there is not a bit a difference though in the two Asus cards in hash rates, unlike the Sapphires.
As for over-volting. I tried it on the one Sapphire that was unlocked but instead it's best to lower the voltage a tad if your cards are voltage adjustable (most are voltage locked). Turn off or on the boost switches on the cards, experiment, and watch the temps. AFTERBURNER has plenty to offer those that want to over/under volt if your cards are voltage unlocked, and one can save a bit of electricity under-volting a tad bit. But too low and it will result in PC hanging up. From what I understand almost all the newer cards are voltage locked now. Guess too many fried cards, lol, got returned under warranty so they locked them from what I gather.
Best to just stick to overclocking from what I uncovered unless your willing to take ever more chances with frying a card(s). FYI my two Asus cards (according to 50Miners Overclock window) reports I run them at 1.09 volts for those two cards, and 1.169 volts for the Sapphires card, Off Boost as I recall, or maybe that's on boost because On Boost the card runs at higher Overclock settings, I forget.
On boost (or off???) it runs at around 1.25 or 1.26 volts as I recall and that high it runs way too hot at 1050/1500 Overclock and doesn't really add much to the bottom line either. Merely Overclocking does. At 1050/1500 I get up to about 625Mhz plus or minus a couple of Mhz per card. I lower those numbers when away for long stretches to be extra sure exess room heat doesn't play any critical factors. Now that summer is over though that shouldn't be a problem with a window open a bit.
To add further twist AFTERBURNER sync's all three cards, matching up to whatever card is set as the master to it as far as Overclock settings go, so trying to run that one Sapphire On Boost (or Off??) at 1.26 volts while cranking up the Overclocking together with the two Asus cards would result in a huge mess at best (extreme heat, crashing, unstable, etc. because the Shappire would become too hot/unstable I fear, sooner or later). Can't have it all.
I choose moderately high Overclocking with great stability, locking all three to an Asus as the Master inside AFTERBURNER, then cranking up the Overclock. Leaving alone the voltages altogether in Afterburner since the only setting not shaded out is the Power Setting whatever that would do. I leave that alone as well as even in AMD's panel I go lousy hashing results higher or lower that default with that.
To check voltages 50Miner software has an Overclock window. Afterburner wont display voltages on "locked cards". But will display "Power Limits" setting instead. So look elsewhere such as with 50Miner's Overclock window for that if their voltage locked and you want to know what the voltages are. Or of course inside HWMonitor x64 or their 32 bit version as desired. That's great for monitoring temps while figuring out how high you can safely dial up your cards.
I hear one can flash different bios to unlock voltages but it's just not worth the possibility of maybe bricking a card doing so. But I did backup the BIOS with Sapphires Trixx, even the Asus BIOS too. Interestingly that was about all Trixx offered me in the end. Otherwise Afterburner is way the best that I found for Overclocking/Syncing all the cards and getting supreme stability at Overclock speeds.
Anyway hope this helps.
Caveat empore!
I like guiminer, but since it doesn't have the features as the standalone reaper or cgminer, I usually do all the oc and voltage control in there. I just make the proper bat and conf files. Less clutter then using MSI and AMD utilities. I had my 3 cards undervolted at 1.025v and oc'd: 2x HD 5870's and a 5850. They all ran stable until one 5870 and the 5850 just finally died, guess it was time for them. I hardly GPU mine now because it's not as profitable and I no longer have the hash power to get the be turn around rate.
What's the price in btc?
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