Need help: under/overclocking 5870 (Linux)

[Draradech]

Goal:
Being able to underclock the memory and overclock the core in a way, which allows me to change frequencies from a script. Preferrably directly with the aticonfig tool, but another command line solution is also OK.

System:
2x XFX HD5870
Debian Linux 6.0

Current state:
phoenix 1.48 is running fine with 380 Mhashes/s for each card with clocks 900core 1200mem
ATI Overdrive is enabled, the aticonfig tool restricts me in ranges [600-900] [1200-1300] for core and memory respectively.
Cards are currently flashed with an ASUS BIOS which reportedly should have allowed me to do what I want, but doesn't.

Already tried:
Using AMDOverdriveCtrl - The tools runs just fine, does nothing. A warning message in the console seems to tell me that this card does not support power states?
Flashing an ASUS image (see above) - Other than a changed fan characteristic curve (card is not as loud anymore - but hotter), no changes visible.



For a working solution I have no reservations doing any or all of the following:
flashing another bios on the cards
putting the cards into a windows (7 64bit) computer to do some setup or whatever
reinstalling linux, even another distribution, if you can convince me, that Debian is the problem here (don't know why it should be...)

I will be away from my rig until next monday, but I will have a look at this thread from time to time to comment on any questions. I also have remote access, so I can try anything which does not require physical presence


Your help is greatly appreciated.

[mono]

Hi,

i have the same configuration. I`m using Ubuntu x64 (http://forum.bitcoin.org/?topic=7514.0).
I flashed a ATI Bios und currently running 3x XFX 5870 @930/300 with 389Mhash/s STABLE with FAN @70%.

I used the ATI Bios Editor (http://www.techpowerup.com/rbe/) and edited the original ATI Bios to set 930/300!
The edited BIOS-File you have to flash with ATIFlash (http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/1968/ATIFlash_3.86.html)!

./phoenix.py -u http://USER:PASSWD@btcguild.com:8332/ -k poclbm DEVICE=1 VECTORS AGGRESSION=7 FASTLOOP BFI_INT WORKLOAD=128

In the next days i would like to test some more configs. It would be interesting to know some other configurations. So post your config when you also using a 5870.

have fun

[PaZer]

Same issue here: Ubuntu and 5870 not going over 900 MHz.
Is there really no way to go beyond this @ linux?

I mean, maybe I should switch my rig to Win 7 x64...

Running phoenix with phatk and Agrresion=13 @ 394 MHash/s.

Tahnks

[supa]

Use Radeon BIOS Editor with your currently working BIOS.

On the far right tab of RBE, there's an "Additional Settings" or something that has a "Method 1 - Hash" and "Method 2 - Not likely to work."

Use the setting above (the method 2 - not likely to work) to change your ceiling to whatever.  Save, reflash.

Next time you use aticonfig, check your ceiling through aticonfig --odgc

If it worked (seems to work on most of the 58xx cards I've used it on....) you'll see a higher ceiling.

[willphase]

./phoenix.py -u http://USER:PASSWD@btcguild.com:8332/ -k poclbm DEVICE=1 VECTORS AGGRESSION=7 FASTLOOP BFI_INT WORKLOAD=128

FWIW - I am getting (~20MH/s) better performance using phatk kernel with phoenix, but I'm running windows x64 so it might be different.

W

[PaZer]

@willphase
Same here on ubuntu 11.04. phatk kernel achieves approx. 15-20 MHash/s more than poclbm, also supporting long poll.

@supa:
coud you write some short tutorial how to do this? Do I need to switch the card to a Win$ client?

Thanks

[supa]

@supa:
coud you right some short tutorial how to do this? Do I need to switch the card to a Win$ client?

There are already dozens out there.

Here's my way -

1) Go get unetbootin - http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/
2) Use it to create a FreeDOS bootable thumb drive.
3) Go get atiflash.exe (google for it).  Put it on the thumb drive.
4) Boot the thumb drive.
5) head to C:, type "atiflash -s 0 mybios.bin"
6) Wait until that finishes, reboot
7) Go run Radeon Bios Editor  http://www.techpowerup.com/rbe/ notice that there's a link to a tutorial...
Here's a link to the RBE tutorial about "Additional Features" http://www.techpowerup.com/articles//overclocking/vidcard/154/7
9) Change the "Method 2" numbers for your CPU ceiling to something ridiculous - like 1100
10) Save your changes to newbios.bin and put it on the thumbdrive.
11) Boot FreeDOS again.
12) atiflash -p 0 newbios.bin
13) Boot linux, type "aticonfig --odgc" and see if your maximum is what you entered in RBE.

[PaZer]

Hi supa!

big thanks, will have a try within next couple of days! Will report here.

[minerX]

@supa:
coud you right some short tutorial how to do this? Do I need to switch the card to a Win$ client?

There are already dozens out there.

Here's my way -

1) Go get unetbootin - http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/
2) Use it to create a FreeDOS bootable thumb drive.
3) Go get atiflash.exe (google for it).  Put it on the thumb drive.
4) Boot the thumb drive.
5) head to C:, type "atiflash -s 0 mybios.bin"
6) Wait until that finishes, reboot
7) Go run Radeon Bios Editor  http://www.techpowerup.com/rbe/ notice that there's a link to a tutorial...
Here's a link to the RBE tutorial about "Additional Features" http://www.techpowerup.com/articles//overclocking/vidcard/154/7
9) Change the "Method 2" numbers for your CPU ceiling to something ridiculous - like 1100
10) Save your changes to newbios.bin and put it on the thumbdrive.
11) Boot FreeDOS again.
12) atiflash -p 0 newbios.bin
13) Boot linux, type "aticonfig --odgc" and see if your maximum is what you entered in RBE.

Know a method to increase the voltage in RBE?  When I use RBE to increase voltage on my ASUS 5850 it is no longer recognized by ATIConfig.   I changed the voltage in the "boxes up top" (stepping methods) basically the highest ones I just set higher.

[supa]

Not sure how to do it with RBE, but you can save an AMDOverDriveCtrl profile with the voltage adjustment and reload it on startup... I think...?

The cards I had access to were all Diamonds - no voltage control for me.

[PaZer]

Hi supa!

big thanks, will have a try within next couple of days! Will report here.

Well, it's done and it worked perfectly for me. No issues.
No I'm running phoenix with phatk kernel on Ubuntu 11.04 @ 410 Mhash/s at GPU 930 MHz. 950 MHz and 980 Mhz were not stable for me, screen freezes. But for some seconds I reached 435 Mhash/s, but what is it worth not beeing stable...

AMDOverDriveCtrl recognizes my changes to the ATI BIOS, so I can go up to 1050 MHz, if this could work stable :-/

Thanks again supa!

[supa]

Good job!

You can step up in increments of 5, too.  For miners, there's  no real application for having proportional clocks.

Also.... who cares if the screen freezes?

On the rig I keep at home, my X session is completely unresponsive.  I manage everything through ssh with the monitor turned off and the screen set to blank after 5 minutes.

[Crispin]

@supa:
coud you right some short tutorial how to do this? Do I need to switch the card to a Win$ client?

There are already dozens out there.

Here's my way -

1) Go get unetbootin - http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/
2) Use it to create a FreeDOS bootable thumb drive.
3) Go get atiflash.exe (google for it).  Put it on the thumb drive.
4) Boot the thumb drive.
5) head to C:, type "atiflash -s 0 mybios.bin"
6) Wait until that finishes, reboot
7) Go run Radeon Bios Editor  http://www.techpowerup.com/rbe/ notice that there's a link to a tutorial...
Here's a link to the RBE tutorial about "Additional Features" http://www.techpowerup.com/articles//overclocking/vidcard/154/7
9) Change the "Method 2" numbers for your CPU ceiling to something ridiculous - like 1100
10) Save your changes to newbios.bin and put it on the thumbdrive.
11) Boot FreeDOS again.
12) atiflash -p 0 newbios.bin
13) Boot linux, type "aticonfig --odgc" and see if your maximum is what you entered in RBE.

I need to do something like this with my 6790s. What would need to be changed to make it happen? I am tired of my mem clocks running so high, and I cant undervolt at all when I use AMDOverdriveCtrl. I followed Inaba's guide for 2.4/64bit for Natty.

Thanks