Optimzing 7970 & Linux

[SirLouen]

I've recently been introduced in this community, and read some topics about gpu mining. I have an "ATI HD 7970 Sapphire Vapor X" card and would like to mine properly
Found some topics regarding this issue but nearly all point to Windows machines as optimal configurations, and the ones related to Linux are pretty old (>1 year)
I have some questions:

1. What ATI overclocking software can be used nowadays in Linux(Ubuntu)
2. Which ATI Catalyst drivers are better (13.1 or 13.3.Beta?)
3. I've been looking some bitmining software, found Bitminter java client, but I feel there should be something that can push further in Linux, any recommendations?

Kind regards

[SirLouen]

I've been reading this:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=76228.20

Still applyable?

[QuiveringGibbage]

Good morning Sir,

I'll share what little knowledge I have as I'm new too.

I've only tried cgminer (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=28402.0) it has GPU controls built in. Haven't done any OC my self. About to start to try on my 7970s to will report back if I get any decent results

The recommendations I've got on IRC was to try AMD Catalyst driver versions 12.8, 12.6 and 8.921 for 7970s. I've tried all of them but have been unsuccessful in loading them in Ubuntu12.10(I keep loosing Unity or X Server doesn't start). I will have to revisit these driver again on different OS. I've only ever gotten 13.1 to work in Ubuntu12.10. With that said, I failed to reload it last night and my miner sits dormant until I get home from work today.

Good luck.. btw, the word around is that GPU mining is not profitable any more (unless BTC prices keeps going up). Difficulty just shot up. So tune up and keep checking you numbers.

QG

[davecoin]

GPU mining is still profitable given your earnings exceed your cost of electricity.  You'd only really need to check your numbers at each difficulty change. 

[Frequency]

Here you can find ur answers compiling you 7970

Good luck it worked for mee..

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Gw7YPYgMgNNU42skibULbJJUx_suP_CpjSEdSi8_z9U/mobilebasic?pli=1

[SirLouen]

Thanks all for the responses

Quivering, when you say that cgminer have GPU control built in, you mean you can manage clock rates?

Frequency, I've also read that document, looks pretty neat, but I think it is pretty outdated (refers to Catalyst 12.3, thats why I was looking for more actual information)

About the electricity, how much does this graphic card consumes in terms of V? For example going up to 1200Mhz the GPU frequency?

[Frequency]

Thanks all for the responses

Quivering, when you say that cgminer have GPU control built in, you mean you can manage clock rates?

Frequency, I've also read that document, looks pretty neat, but I think it is pretty outdated (refers to Catalyst 12.3, thats why I was looking for more actual information)

About the electricity, how much does this graphic card consumes in terms of V? For example going up to 1200Mhz the GPU frequency?

Hi, the info stil works fine and the side notes are mostly updated..
Those 7970 are very power friendly i have 4 working on a 1200w psu incl mobo and fans ect.doing 2.8gh so almost 700 mh p/c my settings are 1165 mhz / 1050 mem if tried higher clockspeeds but that didn't run 24/7 so good luck and cgminer really rules due to it's controls of setting the cards

[SirLouen]

Frequency, what about ATI Catalyst driver? which version are you using now?

How have you tweaked the ATI card to get 1165/1050 in Linux, directly via cgminer?

[Frequency]

Frequency, what about ATI Catalyst driver? which version are you using now?

How have you tweaked the ATI card to get 1165/1050 in Linux, directly via cgminer?

I set up this rig almost 10 mnd ago i used the tutorials drivers and keep updating my rigs every now en then...

Al overclock settings are with cgminer... it also has somkind of protection built in so you cann't make typo or mistakes when setting up...

[QuiveringGibbage]

Cgminer supports initial setting of GPU engine clock speed, memory clock
speed, voltage, fanspeed, and the undocumented powertune feature of 69x0+ GPUs.
The setting passed to cgminer is used by all GPUs unless separate values are
specified. All settings can all be changed within the menu on the fly on a
per-GPU basis.

There's a whole section on Over clocking under the "OVERCLOCKING WARNING AND INFORMATION" section in the cgminer Readme.

QG

[SirLouen]

I've started my first approach

Mining at 1100/950 ~650Mh/s GPU Fan 80% and 69º constant... is this a fine temp or i'm overheating? can i push the temp a little bit further or may I burn the card?

[SirLouen]

My first impressions

About Power Usage:

@ 900/750 ~ 200W ~ 550Mh/s ~ 59-60º
@ 1000/850 ~ 225W ~ 600Mh/s ~ 65º
@ 1100/950 ~ 250W ~ 650Mh/s ~ 69-70º
@ 1165/1015 ~ 260W ~ 680Mh/s ~ 71-72º

Fan speed doesn't make much difference in the power usage (5-10W up or down max), btw the Sapphire Vapor-X fan speed is abut 3500rpm dual fans so I keep it there too cool as much as possible

Best value is 1165... over that the card goes wild and system freezes (tried 1200/1050)
Considering that values are for not dedicated miner. I get like a 5% extra mining power in linux with cgminer using KDE desktop (my regular desktop environment) vs Windows with GUIMiner

The only thing I'm not sure about is forcing the card to 72º @ 1165 or leaving it at 1100 at 69-70º, are only 2º but I know that the threshold of 75º is card killer.

Some additional info: I'm using default "fglrx-update" Ubuntu 12.10 drivers (9.00.11-120920a-147436C-ATI) that are equivalent to 12.9 Catalyst version. I prefer to stick to Ubuntu distribution packages because they are self-configurable and less issues in general.
And about the overclocking software, instead of using the cgminer built-in clocking system, I'm using AMD OverDrive CTRL for Linux, is similar as the Official AMD Overdrive for Windows. Maybe in a week or so, If I find optimal values I may switch to the cgminer built-in clocking system.

[SirLouen]

Lastly I've been tweaking a little bit further my system

Now I have this settings: 1180/1030 ~ 240W ~ 700Mh/s ~ 72-73º (notice I've reduced the power consumption, while increasing the Mh/s)

I've read somewhere in the forum that 73º is still ok for this card.

Is this temperature ok? I think I may stick with this config since is the most balanced I could manage to adjust.

[philips]

Before I used to undervolt at 1.09v and underclocked memory at 150Mhz:



Driver: 8.921 (Catalyst 11.12)
SDK: 2.6 (according to ckolivas 2.7 is even better)

[SirLouen]

Impressive 67º at 1180??? Do you have watercooling?

[philips]

Impressive 67º at 1180??? Do you have watercooling?

No, air cooling. The rig is placed next to the window and all the hot air expelled outside.

[jordan.dev]

Sorry, I'm not trying to jack your thread.

I have a similar setup but I am not getting anywhere near those results (stuck at 150Mh/s)..and I'm curious what your CPU/RAM configuration is?

I feel like I might be bottle necking ... with my AMD Sempron 140 and 4Gb DDR3-1366 and 4x 7970s on xUbuntu

More details on my similar setup ...

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=161047.0

[philips]

Before anything else raise the intensity to 10 or more. Start with 10.

[QuiveringGibbage]

Running stable I was stuck at 200MH/s on 3 of my quad 7970s. GPU1 was running 3 times the speed of the others. It's also the card in PCIe1 and was the coolest. Graet from #ozcoin pointed out it's running that fast because it's the coolest as it's back PCB is the only 1 exposed to cool air.

So I popped opened my case and turned it side ways and was able to pump more juice into the 3 under hashing cards.

I'm now running:
MH/s: 400, 700, 400, 400
intensity: 7,7,7,7
gpu-engine: 600, 1100, 600, 600
gpu-memclock: 600, 1100, 600, 600
gpu-vddc: 0.950, 1.200, 0.950, 0.950

but cards are HOT:
temp.: 89, 86 , 84, 82 degrees c.

Drawing 700W at the wall atm. Once I figure out a way to cool the GPUs further I'll jack up the juice more. 

QG