CGminer Bitcoin/Litecoin Crash

[RyanRed]

Hey all,

Any help would be much apperciated. Heres my issue.

I recently added a second video card into my computer. I am now running a ATI 6750, and a ATI 5850

When I mine for bitcoin, and I get the speculated hashrates as I should. I use this command line, and it seems to work ok.

cgminer.exe -o http://mmpool.bitparking.com:15098 -u username -p password -I 8,d -w 256 -g 1 --auto-fan --queue 1 --temp-target 70 --temp-overheat 80 --gpu-fan 75-85 --gpu-engine 850 --gpu-memclock 1150 --shaders 1440,720




When I use the same command line but for Litecoin, and of course I change the intensity I crash

cgminer --scrypt -o http://mine.pool-x.eu:8080 -u username -p password -I 18,d -w 256 -g 1 --auto-fan --queue 1 --temp-target 70 --temp-overheat 80 --gpu-fan 75-85 --gpu-engine 850 --gpu-memclock 1150 --shaders 1440,720

(no need for a screenshot)

Anything above intensity 12 makes me crash while mining litecoin. I can get the ATI 5850 mining litecoin at around 250 mhash/s without a crash. Anything above that locks my computer. I can get my bitcoin mining to the above mhash/s at around 330 and be just fine. I dont understand why mining litecoin would crash my system at the desired mhash/s of 330ish.

Any incite would be much appreciated. If my command line needs help, please feel free to toss some constructive criticism my way Ill take any help I can get!

Thanks for taking the time to look this over!

-Ryan

P.S. I'm aware my GPU 1 (ATI 6750) runs ridiculously hot, but Im ok with that. The card is lo profile card with a crappy Heatsink and fan. Not much I can do about it. Figured I'd burn that mother till its dead lol

[kano]

2 things:

As per the README - if you crash it due to running it too hard (higher intensity) then don't do that

Also - use the current version ...

[RyanRed]

I couldnt find version 2.7.6 for windows. I looked at the github link in the main thread about CGminer, but all I found was 2.7.5 for windows. Maybe I missed it?

But I am currently on 2.7.5

But yeah I figured I was running it to hard. I just didnt understand why I could hash at 330 on it for Bitcoin, but not Litecoin.

Before I added this ATI 5850 in today, all I had was the 6750. The 6750 would hash at 160 for litecoin and bitcoin no problem. This made me question why I couldnt do the same for the newly added 5850 as well.

And thank you for the advice

[kano]

...
All files available from here:
http://ck.kolivas.org/apps/cgminer

...

---

This code is provided entirely free of charge by the programmer in his spare
time so donations would be greatly appreciated. Please consider donating to the
address below.

Con Kolivas <kernel@kolivas.org>
15qSxP1SQcUX3o4nhkfdbgyoWEFMomJ4rZ

It's been there 4 days - maybe you last checked before 2.7.6 came out?

In this case it won't make any difference, but when something doesn't work, it's best to then use the latest version before asking questions.

Yes I can tell from your display it's not 2.7.6

Also, gotta say - either your network is crap or the pools is crap.
Getting the LP 7 seconds after you find out from a getwork is pretty piss poor effort for the pool.

[RyanRed]

Oh no kidding, I must be blind. I see the new version now thanks again. Ill load it up now.

Ive been on Bitparking pool. I really don't know what a good one is to use. I have a fairly decent internet connection via cable, so I dont think its on my end. Never have any latency issues. I was thinking of swapping pools regardless. Any recommendations?

[kano]

EMC, OzCoin, BitMinter to name a few

[n4l3hp]

Try lowering the intensity or the core clock when mining LTC. Download GPU-Z and monitor your temps. Sweet spots can only be found by trial and error. Since LTC need high mem clock, I think the culprit are your other temps (temp #3 is probably 120-130C).

I have a sapphire 5850 and I run it at 775MHz (0.85v), getting 323Mh/s in BTC.

[RyanRed]

Try lowering the intensity or the core clock when mining LTC. Download GPU-Z and monitor your temps. Sweet spots can only be found by trial and error. Since LTC need high mem clock, I think the culprit are your other temps (temp #3 is probably 120-130C).

I have a sapphire 5850 and I run it at 775MHz (0.85v), getting 323Mh/s in BTC.

Fantastic info man! I did not know that. I did however notice my hash drop A LOT when I changed my memory clock. I got so tired of toying with it yesterday I gave up. I was at it for a few hours trying to figure out what the main problem was. I can always get it stable at around 250 mhash, but nothing higher. Ill try toying with the memory clock more today and see what happens. Thanks again!

P.S. And yes thats about what I get on my 5850 (Asus I believe) mining bitcoin as well. Just gotta sort this Litecoin issue

[-ck]

scrypt is very memory intensive and the response to changes in clock speeds will be unpredictable. You may find keeping your memory clock at full speed and lowering engine clock will lower temps without affecting hashrate as much. Scrypt gpu mining is weird voodoo.

[meebs]

scrypt is very memory intensive and the response to changes in clock speeds will be unpredictable. You may find keeping your memory clock at full speed and lowering engine clock will lower temps without affecting hashrate as much. Scrypt gpu mining is weird voodoo.

amen...

getting the best performance out of a card is absurdly difficult to get. I have yet to find that sweetspot on my 7870s but got the config from a forum member for my 7950.

Its like literally a 50% boost if you can get that perfect combo of settings and then BAM you get some nice khash.

but on a side note.. I use reaper for LTC gpu mining.. i never could get cgminer to work well with it, but 5/6 series cards might be different.

[n4l3hp]

Is the stock mem speed of your 5850 at 1150 mhz? Try changing it to 1000, and gpu core at 775 (should get about 310-320 kh/s) at 0.95v. Then bump the core clock 5mhz at a time while monitoring the temps, also bump the voltage a little if it crashes (expect more heat). Do this while setting intensity at 14. After you find your stable settings, you can then bump the intensity.

Raising the mem speed of my card above 1000 only gained me a few kh/s and not worth the additional watts and heat.

BTW, use 2.6 when mining LTC.

[RyanRed]

Im still tinkering with it. Ive got it stable with 800 memclock and 820core. Runs flippin hot though! For both the cards. The 6750 runs at 75c and the 5850 runs at 72c once the hash has stabilized. 160khash out of the 6750, and 330ish out of the 5850. Mining bitcoin the 5850 stays about 10c cooler while the 6750 about 5c cooler. I hear that its hotter due to the algorithm?

Ill still tweak with it some more today. I appreciate all the posts! Oh one last thing. You say version 2.6 for litecoin? May I ask why? Just curious

-Ryan

[stoppots]

Is anyone familiar with the openCL versions and whether the ATI Stream 2.1 is compatible when scrypt mining with cgminer? Would a later version of the APP/SDK be better suited?

Running some 5830's on Win7 and on one machine with multiple sdk's installed, when switching SDK platforms to 2.4 I seem to get a little further in getting it to successfully run. Any time I use the 2.1 platform it comes back with the same errors that the other machines show that only have the single 2.1 SDK installed.

Appreciate any knowledge or experience others may have concerning this. Thanks

[kano]

I don't think you will find anyone using it successfully with anything before 2.6
(I can mine on 11.6+2.4 - but it's like less than 10% of the expected performance)

[stoppots]

currently running 11.12 driver version, is a 12.X + 2.6 version gonna get any better performance that just using the 11.12 + 2.6

Thanks for the response

[-ck]

currently running 11.12 driver version, is a 12.X + 2.6 version gonna get any better performance that just using the 11.12 + 2.6

Thanks for the response

Performance is almost entirely tied to the SDK version, not the driver, so no.

[420]

Would having my main display on onboard display cause me problems? I keep crashing with shaders 1600 on my 5970's but in GPU-Z when i ran the program it was trying to set my core at 822mhz! maybe my miner OC settings were still in effect even though I restarted?

[KillaGT]

hey there, tried to set up an ltc miner as well. I usually mined bitcoins with my two 5770. I got the problem, that my hashrate comes not over 140 k/has per card and my temp's are extremly high at this point (~95°C) with 80% cpu fan max.

I tried the following settings:


Coreclock 700Mhz - 850Mhz (at 850 more k/hash - at 700 arround 115 - 120k/hash)
Memclock 1200
Voltage 1.125V per Card - 1.200V

normally i got the tempreture down at bitcoin-mining when i put the memclock to 300 ....but in ltc mining the hashrate drops to 50 - 60 k/hash

the following scrypt i use at the cgminer version 2.10.4

cgminer --scrypt -o http://mine.pool-x.eu:8337 -u username -p password --shaders 800 --worksize 256 --lookup-gap 2 --intensity 12 -g 2

when i put a higher score at "shaders" the hashrate didn't change =/

Any ideas what i can try, to bring my temp's down and not set the fan to 100% ...at 80% the noise is quite acceptable, i usually had it about 70% fixed at bitcoin mining and got a temp arround 80°C

thanks for helping =)

Killa

[420]

KIlla; immediately let your fan go to 100% or lock in at 100

dont let the cards get that hot

[KillaGT]

yeah but 100% makes no big difference ~ 88°C - 90°C and i only get ~150 - 160 k/hash per Card. When i go up whith the intensity i can only go till 17 than my system hungs up. at 15 till 17 there's no diffrence between the hashrates any more =/ I don't know how other one's get 210 k/hash out of the 5770. When i mine Bitcoins i can go to 215M/Has per Card at 78°C with no Problems for over one year.

Reached the 95° only for a short moment when i was reading some settings in firefox (didn't recogniced it directly, went back to cgminer which was about 95°) - and closed cgminer instantly ....to risky but the cards have not been damaged o.O

greets Killa