Underclocking Memory Speeds Correctly on 7xxx Series Cards With Afterburner

[Radacoin]

Why do I need Afterburner at all? Can I not just use cgminers "--gpu-memclock" flag to underclock my memory?

[crazyates]

Why do I need Afterburner at all? Can I not just use cgminers "--gpu-memclock" flag to underclock my memory?

You can, but there are limitations. CGMiner uses the official ATI ADL, which has limitations. Specifically, you cannot set the memory speed lower than 150MHz lower than the core speed. For my 7970 @ 1100MHz, this means CGMiner cannot set the memory lower than 950MHz (1100-150=950). A better option for CGMiner is the "--gpu-memdiff -150" option.

MSI AB can use unofficial methods to force the clocks lower, all the way down as loooow as you can go. I ran mine at 275, 375, and 410, depending on the day.

[ryantc]

It seems cards on PCIe 1x connection can't go below 625 in memory clock, or it's just me?
I can adjust the memory clock to as low as 150 on a card in regular 16x slot with multiple restart of MSI AB, but not the case for a card in 1x to 16x riser slot.

[crazyates]

It seems cards on PCIe 1x connection can't go below 625 in memory clock, or it's just me?
I can adjust the memory clock to as low as 150 on a card in regular 16x slot with multiple restart of MSI AB, but not the case for a card in 1x to 16x riser slot.

Hmm never heard of that. The PCIe bandwidth shouldn't affect anything having to do with the underclocking.

[BBQKorv]

This is a very nice tutorial indeed. MSI-A really needs some whipping in a form of deleting profiles and couple of restart to get the slider down from 685, but after that it seems to do a good job.

My 7990 and 7970 are now doing 650Mh @ 1090/150 with stock volts. Temps went down around 5C and fan noise more than halved. I have to plug this computer to KillAWatt to see how effecient this became. Feels really good now.

[dogie]

What are the measurable benifits of UCing RAM?

My testing on nvidia cards (fml hurry up and arrive 7950s!) is it made zero different to temps (so potentially heat output so potentially power draw) with steady state conditions and fixed cooling.

Does anyone have any data?

Or does it just allow higher core speeds?

[BBQKorv]

What are the measurable benifits of UCing RAM?

My testing on nvidia cards (fml hurry up and arrive 7950s!) is it made zero different to temps (so potentially heat output so potentially power draw) with steady state conditions and fixed cooling.

Does anyone have any data?

Or does it just allow higher core speeds?

Okey, I took few measurements. One of my box systems: P7P55D, 875K, 2TB HDD, 8GB RAM, AX1200 PSU, 2x7970, 5 fans
1100/1375 ~660Mh/card, system power 590W total
1100/150 ~660Mh/card, system power 524W total

Savings from lowering GPURAM alone, 33W per card. Temps went down nicely too and that allows fans to spin slower so they might last longer.
Next I'm trying to measure other system with 7990 and 7970, we'll see if thats more power efficient.

[Joerii]

I changed the .cfg to what it says in the instruction, but when I open afterburner the volt setting is still greyed out.

There's a "enable low level hardware acces interface" option with a drop down box with "kernel" and "user" option, is that what you mean in step 5 ?

[ssateneth]

Can someone re-upload the dll file? its remove from all the mirrors

[berryzat]

Hello,
I would realy use the dll file.
Thank you.

[Hippie Tech]

Can someone re-upload the dll file? its remove from all the mirrors

Give me a pop up free, hardware acceleration free hosting site and I'll upload them.

[Oldie]

Has anyone found a place to host these?  I would love to get my hands on the files.

[nwoolls]

It seems cards on PCIe 1x connection can't go below 625 in memory clock, or it's just me?
I can adjust the memory clock to as low as 150 on a card in regular 16x slot with multiple restart of MSI AB, but not the case for a card in 1x to 16x riser slot.

I've got two Sapphire 7950's, neither using risers. Right now one is in a 16x slot and one in a 4x. I cannot get AB to take either of them below 625.

Update: Scratch that. Found instructions earlier in the thread to delete the contents of the Profiles folder in the AB folder. That did the trick, I can now clock lower than 625.

[inspireweb.ro]

@nwoolls thanks for the tip, i have delete the content of profile folder and now i can downclock my mem at 310Mhz on my HD7950.

[greaterninja]

its a good thread except for one major thing...the dll site tries to install adware on your machine.  that is a really bad thing.

http://www.mediafire.com/?hlulrwjbk72ldly


should allow you to download the zip without installing adware.  no promises though as I will not monitor the link constantly.


update:   dude....GENIUS!!


thank you for the tip!

I've lowered temps on my 7990 malta from 79-86 range to 71-73C....hell yeah!!!!!

gpus 925-1000mhz, ram on all cards is now at 300mhz...this drastically reduced my heat...i am running stock cooling too...will post pics soon.

[linc0ln]

12.6+ AMD drivers do not let you change the memory speed of 7xxx (7950, 7970, etc) cards below a certain threshold.  To underclock memory, use Afterburner and a dll file.

1) Install MSI afterburner.
...

I have done all this, but I can't go lower than 685MHz on my Sapphire 7970 (Afterburner won't let me).

I use:
Windows7 64bit
MSI Afterburner 2.3.1
Catalyst 13.1

What might be the problem?

Clost MSI AB. Go into the program folder, and delete everything in the "Profiles" folder. Reopen MSI AB, and your slider should reset to middle at whatever clock rate you left it off at. It will ask you to reboot, and just choose no.

I do that and it work 7950 lowered to 155, but after restart my rig i always have all settings restarted to default(if i put 150,155,300,400) alway back to 1250.

What I do wrong?

If I adjust 625(is what AB left me adjust normally) work ok.

[nwoolls]

I do that and it work 7950 lowered to 155, but after restart my rig i always have all settings restarted to default(if i put 150,155,300,400) alway back to 1250.

What I do wrong?

If I adjust 625(is what AB left me adjust normally) work ok.

Same here. It's not just you. I then have to delete the contents of the Profiles folder and do it all again.

[crazyates]

12.6+ AMD drivers do not let you change the memory speed of 7xxx (7950, 7970, etc) cards below a certain threshold.  To underclock memory, use Afterburner and a dll file.

1) Install MSI afterburner.
...

I have done all this, but I can't go lower than 685MHz on my Sapphire 7970 (Afterburner won't let me).

I use:
Windows7 64bit
MSI Afterburner 2.3.1
Catalyst 13.1

What might be the problem?

Clost MSI AB. Go into the program folder, and delete everything in the "Profiles" folder. Reopen MSI AB, and your slider should reset to middle at whatever clock rate you left it off at. It will ask you to reboot, and just choose no.

I do that and it work 7950 lowered to 155, but after restart my rig i always have all settings restarted to default(if i put 150,155,300,400) alway back to 1250.

What I do wrong?

If I adjust 625(is what AB left me adjust normally) work ok.

Yep MSI AB likes to recreate those profile files every time you restart your rig. Just delete the files again, and you'll be all set.

[zvs]

its a good thread except for one major thing...the dll site tries to install adware on your machine.  that is a really bad thing.

http://www.mediafire.com/?hlulrwjbk72ldly


should allow you to download the zip without installing adware.  no promises though as I will not monitor the link constantly.


update:   dude....GENIUS!!


thank you for the tip!

I've lowered temps on my 7990 malta from 79-86 range to 71-73C....hell yeah!!!!!

gpus 925-1000mhz, ram on all cards is now at 300mhz...this drastically reduced my heat...i am running stock cooling too...will post pics soon.

i put it at www.nogleg.com/archive/bitcoin.misc   as atiocdll.rar

i assume the DLL files are legit, i didn't use them myself (just ran through a couple virus scanners)

[linc0ln]

Very good news!!! After 48h without sleep, have memory working at 150 on my 7950 Vaporx's rig with auto starting with system will work for any 7xxx card!!! Now I go sleep but when i wake up i will release some some files and will write tutorial. I will be hard part of it due to my english.
I some one want to give me some motivation here is my BTC adress 19tohyQ7WjRD6n47HxyoPAiPGtsddYszgU