Sapphire R9 290 low khs?

[elpibemaxi]

Hey guys, I'm looking to buy an R9 290, but where I live they're quite hard to find...here's the thing, one guy's selling me a used one (Sapphire R9 290, 1 month used), but he says he could never get more than 550-660 khs from it...do you think it's likely that there's something wrong with the card, is it typical card to card performance variance or is it just a matter of properly configuring it? I know you can't know that without even looking at the card in question, but is a hardware issue like this common?  
I'd appreciate any input, cheers!!

[crazyates]

Depends. Some cards are just really flaky, and don't like to hash. I had a 7970 GHz card that HATED anything above 550KH/s. Other times, it's just bad settings.

Even with the right TC, which you'll have to find, something stupid like using 1 thread instead of 2 (or vice-versa) can crash you rate. Using the wrong intensity can cause problems. I've seen a 5MHz increase in memory speeds drop my rate by 200KHs! PowerColor 290 - 810Kh/s @ 1050/1500, and 615Kh/s @ 1050/1505. It can be very picky. Lots of trial and error, and you can prolly get it to acceptable rates.

[elpibemaxi]

Thanks for the answer. So is this the case with all cards? or is just the 290 a little finicky? what card would you recommend that is more of the "plug and play" kind with less trial and error? Since I can't really dedicate that much time to mining right now...

[crazyates]

This is the case with most cards, but you can take a look at what other people are using, and use that as a good starting ground.

I reference here a lot when looking at buying a new card: https://litecoin.info/Mining_hardware_comparison

[Morbid]

my sapphire r9 290 gave me hash of 800+ when there were 13.11 drivers. when 13.12 got released i only had about 600+. hashing back at at 13.11 on win8. ether way if its reference card you can always flash it to other manufacturer bios to avoid certain restrictions. i say get it and prove that he didnt research/try to fix before selling.

[netos]

It seems like wrong parameters used by cgminer. Try like this "-I 13 -g 2 -w 256 --thread-concurrency 8192 --gpu-engine 1080 --
gpu-memclock 1500 --temp-target 78 --auto-fan". This is what I am using myself for my Sapphire R9 280X card and it makes me approx. 740 kh/s.

[tkweav]

My Sapphire 290 is hashing at around 860kh/s.  It is very important to have the correct configuration as many have said.  Mine runs at 1000core and 1500mem.  If I change it more than 5 either way the hashes go into the 600's or less.  I haven't tweaked voltage yet, but am pretty content at this setting.  Research the threads as some brands of 290's have better memory brand than others that do better with higher clocks.  My sapphire is not one of those cards!

[Morbid]

i also noticed that as soon as i fiddle about with clocks ether way i lose hashrate. i keep it at stock and they give me 800-820 on 32765 tc - im satisfied.

[crazyates]

It seems like wrong parameters used by cgminer. Try like this "-I 13 -g 2 -w 256 --thread-concurrency 8192 --gpu-engine 1080 --
gpu-memclock 1500 --temp-target 78 --auto-fan". This is what I am using myself for my Sapphire R9 280X card and it makes me approx. 740 kh/s.

That's for a 280x. A 290 is totally different. We use both, and yes, a 280x runs at I:13, 2 threads, and a TC of 8192 @ 1040/1500 for 725Kh/s.

A 290 runs at I:20, 1 thread, and TC of 32765. Our 290s work well at any core/mem ratio of .73-0.75, so anywhere in there works. 1105/1500 gets us 850+Kh/s, but we run at 1050/1400 for 810Kh/s for temp reasons.

[janos666]

This is what I could squeeze out of my R9 290(X)s:

The slots of a 990FX board are populated as follows:

Gigabyte 290X (I forgot to check the RAM type) 16x 2.0 PCI-E lines
ASUS 290 (Elpida RAM) 4x 2.0 PCI-E lines
ASUS 290X (Hynix RAM) 16x 2.0 PCI-E lines
ASUS 290 (Elpida RAM) 4x 2.0 PCI-E lines
ASUS 290 (Hynix RAM) 1x 2.0 PCI-E lines

I still have an empty 1x 2.0 PCI-E slot and I guess my 2kW 12V PSU (plus a 750W ATX PSU) could handle the load but I am not sure if I should buy another 290 since the prices went up.

I installed the latest BIOS version from MSI a few days ago on all cards. This made zero difference for me.

OS: Xubuntu 13.10 AMD64 (I am planning a switch to Debian 8.0 test version)
CPU: Athlon XII 255 (stock) - I think I should upgrade it for a Bulldozer chip for their better power saving features and/or some small scale XPM mining on the sideline
RAM: 4Gb 1600Mzh Corsair (I couldn't pick up a 2Gb stick for significantly cheaper, so I used this, even though it's overkill)

cgminer: original 3.7.2 built from source with SDK 2.9 and ADL 6.0 (-Ofast)

My settings:

"intensity" : "20,20,20,20,20",
"thread-concurrency" : "36044,36044,36044,36044,36044",
"lookup-gap" : "2,2,2,2,2",
"gpu-threads" : "1",
"worksize" : "512,512,512,512,512",
"gpu-powertune" : "50,50,50,50,50",
"gpu-engine" : "920,1010,1015,1000,1080",
"gpu-memclock" : "1500,1500,1500,1500,1500",
"gpu-fan" : "40-100,40-100,40-100,40-100,40-100",
"temp-cutoff" : "99,99,99,99,99",
"temp-overheat" : "95,95,95,95,95",
"temp-target" : "85,85,85,85,85",
"temp-hysteresis" : "1",
"auto-fan" : true,

My hash rates:



I think somebody should really take a look at the scrypt code and optimize it a little bit more for the new drivers and SDKs to squeeze out a little bit more from these cards.

[elpibemaxi]

Thanks for the answers guys. I'm feeling more optimistic now. But one more thing, I am trying to decide between a Sapphire 280X Toxic and this Sapphire 290 I was telling you guys (for around 100 bucks more). It's between these 2 cards because I can get them right away. For another card I have like 10 days of shipping time (and they're mostly XFX brand only). Would you say it's worth it to go for the 290?

[crazyates]

Thanks for the answers guys. I'm feeling more optimistic now. But one more thing, I am trying to decide between a Sapphire 280X Toxic and this Sapphire 290 I was telling you guys (for around 100 bucks more). It's between these 2 cards because I can get them right away. For another card I have like 10 days of shipping time (and they're mostly XFX brand only). Would you say it's worth it to go for the 290?

Go for the Sapphire cards, not the XFX. Never liked XFX. I like the 280x cuz it's better Khs/$, as well as better Khs/Watt, even if only by a little bit for both. A 290 will obv get you better hashrates, but idk if it's worth the extra $100 for an extra 100Kh/s. Any 280x can be BIOS undervolted, which makes linux mining a breeze. Only some 290s can be undervolted, and even then it's Windows only.

OTOH, if you're only looking at getting one card, my gut would be to get the 290. When you're only dealing with one GPU, you better make that sucker count, right?! 

[Treggar]

There's nothing wrong with the R9 290 XFX Black Edition (factory OC to 980)

I bought 5 of them and I get ~900KH/s with each one... here's a rig I setup with 3 of them with no risers, they're just sitting against each other in the board - that's why the high temps.