7970 underperformance

[deepskydiver]

Hi all,

I have a new Sapphire HD 7970 Dual X I got a few days ago for my Windows 7 system.

Despite a lot of reading here and testing various mining and card options, I can't get more than 540 Mh/s out of it.

cgiminer (best I've tested)
"intensity" : "7",
"vectors" : "1",
"worksize" : "256",
"kernel" : "diablo"

Temperature = 67-68 degrees
Fanspeed = ~2400 - 2500 rpm
GPU Clock = 1000 Mhz (It won't go above that without a catalyst fault which then resets it to 950)
Running Catalyst 13.3 Beta though find them no different to the 13.1

Desktop remains very usable..

Now I've resigned myself to not getting above 1000 clockspeed - but I'd still expected more than 540Mh/s. I get around 390 from even my old 6970!

What variables are left to play with..?

[1713287776]

1713287776

[1713287776]

1713287776

[1713287776]

1713287776

[1713287776]

1713287776

[1713287776]

1713287776

[ltc_foundry]

2 vector, higher intensity.

[sagiko]

my 7970 is peak at Intensity 13 also on Win7 64Bit.

[deepskydiver]

Unfortunately they take me backwards..

Intensity above 10 causes CGminer to fault. These settings get me only 530:

"intensity" : "10",
"vectors" : "2",
"worksize" : "256",
"kernel" : "diablo"

Maddening..

[2x0ninja]

Hi all,

I have a new Sapphire HD 7970 Dual X I got a few days ago for my Windows 7 system.

Despite a lot of reading here and testing various mining and card options, I can't get more than 540 Mh/s out of it.

cgiminer (best I've tested)
"intensity" : "7",
"vectors" : "1",
"worksize" : "256",
"kernel" : "diablo"

Temperature = 67-68 degrees
Fanspeed = ~2400 - 2500 rpm
GPU Clock = 1000 Mhz (It won't go above that without a catalyst fault which then resets it to 950)
Running Catalyst 13.3 Beta though find them no different to the 13.1

Desktop remains very usable..

Now I've resigned myself to not getting above 1000 clockspeed - but I'd still expected more than 540Mh/s. I get around 390 from even my old 6970!

What variables are left to play with..?

I think I have the same card you do. I was only able to get it up to 1055 without overvolting. I'm getting 717Mh/s plus on mine with an overvolt and clock bump. I use vectors 1, setting it to 2 drops my Mh/s by at least 90.

Here's my config:

Code:

"intensity" : "9",
"kernel" : "poclbm",
"vectors" : "1",
"gpu-threads" : "5",
"worksize" : "256",
"queue" : "1"

I do my OC with afterburner.

I did a little thread on OCing the card here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=162739

[FloridaBear]

On my Gigabyte 7970:
At core 1000, intensity 9, I'm getting about 600 MH/s, and I 7 it is just about the same.
My normal params are:
-I 9 --auto-fan  --gpu-fan 40-85 --temp-target 78 --auto-gpu --gpu-engine 750-1100 --gpu-memdiff -150

Here's a shot after running awhile at 1000/850, I 9. Not sure why you'd be ~10% lower.

Code:

cgminer version 2.11.3 - Started: [2013-04-07 23:03:44]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 (5s):584.4M (avg):595.7Mh/s | Q:8  A:6  R:1  HW:0  E:75%  U:3.0/m
 ST: 2  SS: 0  DW: 11  NB: 2  LW: 40  GF: 0  RF: 0  WU: 7.9
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 GPU 0:  79.0C 3330RPM | 596.0M/596.9Mh/s | A:6 R:1 HW:0 U:2.95/m I: 9
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Temp: 79.0 C
Fan Speed: 85% (3322 RPM)
Engine Clock: 1000 MHz
Memory Clock: 850 Mhz
Vddc: 1.170 V
Activity: 99%
Powertune: 0%

[deepskydiver]

OK - there is something different about my card. Here are the defaults:

core voltage: 1025 mV
core clock: 950 MHz
memory clock: 1425 MHz

540 MH/s

Two things are odd. First the default core voltage seems lower than 2x0ninja and others I've seen have. I can set it to what his default is (1170) and that allows me to get to a GPU clockspeed of 1100. At that I'm getting 590 MH/s - but as I increase the voltage or clock from there the has rate moves up and down over a range of 50 - 100 MH/s but ultimately leaving me at a lower rate.

core voltage: 1170 mV
core clock: 1100 MHz
memory clock: 1425 MHz

590 MH/s

I also don't understand why my memory clock is 1425 when in forums everywhere they talk about it being the core clock - 150. Mine is higher - to no benefit. Maybe they've recently changed the design? It may present a new tuning problem. Varying the memory clock doesn't seem to make any difference. FloridaBear - I do get around 520 for the same settings you are seeing 584, yes. Weird. :-/

[2x0ninja]

OK - there is something different about my card. Here are the defaults:

core voltage: 1025 mV
core clock: 950 MHz
memory clock: 1425 MHz

540 MH/s

Two things are odd. First the default core voltage seems lower than 2x0ninja and others I've seen have. I can set it to what his default is (1170) and that allows me to get to a GPU clockspeed of 1100. At that I'm getting 590 MH/s - but as I increase the voltage or clock from there the has rate moves up and down over a range of 50 - 100 MH/s but ultimately leaving me at a lower rate.

core voltage: 1170 mV
core clock: 1100 MHz
memory clock: 1425 MHz

590 MH/s

I also don't understand why my memory clock is 1425 when in forums everywhere they talk about it being the core clock - 150. Mine is higher - to no benefit. Maybe they've recently changed the design? It may present a new tuning problem. Varying the memory clock doesn't seem to make any difference. FloridaBear - I do get around 520 for the same settings you are seeing 584, yes. Weird. :-/

What model/SKU number is your card? Should be on the box with the barcodes and partially printed on a label on the PCB. I have a 11197-03-40G. Sapphire makes quite a few 7970s variants.

[deepskydiver]

What model/SKU number is your card? Should be on the box with the barcodes and partially printed on a label on the PCB. I have a 11197-03-40G. Sapphire makes quite a few 7970s variants.

It's the same as yours, yeah. But I don't understand why my default is 1025mV and yours is 1170 mV. Similarly my default memory speed is 1425 MHz and yours isn't, is it? These differences mean I can't quite relate it to the other experiences people are having.

I have found out some interesting things playing with it. I can get it to 1150 @1125 mV. It will then mine @ 620MH/s and runs at only around 77 degrees without playing with the fan. That's cool but still not the mining performance I'd expected.

What's the dual bios though and how do I invoke it - is that the difference?

(I also found the cgminer will not set the voltage of clockspeed of it - is it the same for you?)

[Left]

What's the dual bios though and how do I invoke it - is that the difference?

The card should have a tiny switch on it which gives you two options --- default or overclocked bios.

Not sure on the specifics, but it goes like this:

Core Clock: 950 / 1000MHz if set to overclocked bios
Effective Memory Clock: 1425MHz(5.7Gbps) / 1450MHz(5.8Gbps) if set to overclocked bios

The switch is tiny, but once I found it, I get steady 590 Mhash/s on the overclocked bios bank using GUIMiner (I believe overclocked is bank #2)

[martynw2000]

You should get more than that out of a 7970 I think. I have two of them

One is overclocked to 1125 and I'm getting a steady 660mhps
The other is clocked at 1095 and getting 645

I made no changes to the memory clock speed or voltage.

Both are running at an average of 73C with a fan speed of 55%.

I'm using GUIMiner on Win 7 with flags set at -w256 -f1
Not using the popular -v flag (for vectors) as this seems to slow the 7970 down.

[deepskydiver]

The card should have a tiny switch on it which gives you two options --- default or overclocked bios.
The switch is tiny, but once I found it, I get steady 590 Mhash/s on the overclocked bios bank using GUIMiner (I believe overclocked is bank #2)

It does have a switch yes. But I couldn't see any difference with the switch in position 2, aside from it being more temperamental.. (The driver kept locking up)
My sweet spot now is just over 590 MH/s, at 1100MHz. I might be able to get 620 @1150 once I work out the ideal voltage, but it's tricky.

[deepskydiver]

You should get more than that out of a 7970 I think. I have two of them

One is overclocked to 1125 and I'm getting a steady 660mhps
The other is clocked at 1095 and getting 645

At 1100MHz I only get 590 MH/s, so as with others you're getting about 10% more than me. And you're running cooler. I'm not sure why.
I've tried many miners and options within them, and cgminer is the best from my tests.

[2x0ninja]

What model/SKU number is your card? Should be on the box with the barcodes and partially printed on a label on the PCB. I have a 11197-03-40G. Sapphire makes quite a few 7970s variants.

It's the same as yours, yeah. But I don't understand why my default is 1025mV and yours is 1170 mV. Similarly my default memory speed is 1425 MHz and yours isn't, is it? These differences mean I can't quite relate it to the other experiences people are having.

I'm guessing you're getting that voltage reading from GPUZ? It always gives a lower reading then afterburner, I think it might be because it reads the voltage of several components individually and other software reads them before they are split. Not sure on that though, but my GUPz reading are always lower then afterburner.

My default core voltage was 1175 mV or 1.175 V. I don't think I mentioned the default memory clockspeed, it was the same as yours, 1425. I keep it underclocked 150 MHz less then my core clock. Any lower and the card becomes unstable. So at 1150 it's safe to clock the memory down to 1000.

The dual BIOS comes in handy if you want to flash a modified bios with an overclock as the default setting.

[deepskydiver]

I'm guessing you're getting that voltage reading from GPUZ? It always gives a lower reading then afterburner, I think it might be because it reads the voltage of several components individually and other software reads them before they are split. Not sure on that though, but my GUPz reading are always lower then afterburner.

My default core voltage was 1175 mV or 1.175 V. I don't think I mentioned the default memory clockspeed, it was the same as yours, 1425. I keep it underclocked 150 MHz less then my core clock. Any lower and the card becomes unstable. So at 1150 it's safe to clock the memory down to 1000.

I'm using afterburner and I've also tried Sapphire Trixx (Trixx shows a different voltage - for example it's now showing 1050 when afterburner shows it as 1087). If I change the clock above 1100 the mining rate seems to hunt around and never settle, ultimately not delivering much more. So what I've settled on is:

core voltage: 1087 mV
core clock: 1100 MHz
memory clock: 950 MHz (runs slightly cooler)
temp: 71 degrees
fanspeed 70%

595 MH/s

That's the best I can get - but thanks for your help! I think I have tuning fatigue. :-/

[segfault88]

Interesting, have to try some of this stuff.

[spixel]

Catalyst 13.1 gives 10 percent more mhash but causes artifacts with windows aero and firefox

[spixel]

You should get more than that out of a 7970 I think. I have two of them

One is overclocked to 1125 and I'm getting a steady 660mhps
The other is clocked at 1095 and getting 645

I made no changes to the memory clock speed or voltage.

Both are running at an average of 73C with a fan speed of 55%.

I'm using GUIMiner on Win 7 with flags set at -w256 -f1
Not using the popular -v flag (for vectors) as this seems to slow the 7970 down.

I get no advantage using -w256 -f1 apart from my pc becoming very unresponsive