Cgminer slower after updating

[spiral_mind]

I was using Cgminer version 2.1.1 for a long while and with a high intensity I could max my Radeon 7870 out at 400 MH/s. I normally had my intensity set to 7 for a cool running 360 MH/s.

After upgrading to version 3.2.1 I've found the highest stable MH/s I can get is around 305 MH/s at any intensity.  

Here's my conf file:

{
"pools" : [
   {
   }
]
,
"intensity" : "7",
"vectors" : "1",
"worksize" : "256",
"kernel" : "phatk",
"lookup-gap" : "2",
"thread-concurrency" : "10000",
"shaders" : "1280",
"gpu-engine" : "0-0",
"gpu-fan" : "0-85",
"gpu-memclock" : "0",
"gpu-memdiff" : "0",
"gpu-powertune" : "0",
"gpu-vddc" : "0.000",
"temp-cutoff" : "95",
"temp-overheat" : "85",
"temp-target" : "75",
"api-port" : "4028",
"expiry" : "120",
"gpu-dyninterval" : "7",
"gpu-platform" : "0",
"gpu-threads" : "2",
"hotplug" : "5",
"log" : "5",
"no-pool-disable" : true,
"queue" : "1",
"scan-time" : "60",
"temp-hysteresis" : "3",
"shares" : "0",
"kernel-path" : "/usr/local/bin"
}

Anyone have any ideas why this could be happening?

[os2sam]

"intensity" : "7",

"thread-concurrency" : "10000",
"shaders" : "1280",
"gpu-engine" : "0-0",
"gpu-fan" : "0-85",
"gpu-memclock" : "0",
"gpu-memdiff" : "0",

I don't use a .conf file but the command line options instead.  So I'm not familiar with allot of these settings.  But it looks like you have allot more stuff in there than you need.

thread-concurrency and shaders don't need to be there since they are scrypt options.

Your setting your GPU Engine clocks to 0 so I'm amazed it works at all.  So try setting your gpu-engine range to 600-1100 to 1250 per the hardware comparison chart

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison

Get rid of the gpu-memclock and use a gpu-memdiff of 150.

Enable auto-gpu and auto-fan.

Then lets see if that does anything for you.
Sam

[spiral_mind]

I did what you said, Sam

Now for some reason I'm only getting around 100 MH/s at intensity 7

Turning the intensity up to 13 gives me about 280 MH/s but that's still really slow

[spiral_mind]

Switching to Diablo kernel seems to have fixed my problem! getting 300 MH/s with 7 intensity and around 370-390 with 13

Is this kernel safe to use ?

[os2sam]

Switching to Diablo kernel seems to have fixed my problem! getting 300 MH/s with 7 intensity and around 370-390 with 13

Is this kernel safe to use ?

Right, 7xxx GPU's require SDK 2.6 or higher and ckolivas' modified diablo kernel.  That is in the FAQ section of the readme and CGMiner thread top post, now that you reminded me.  Good call.

So yes it is safe to that kernel.

Are you good to go now?
Sam

Edit: Still seems kind of low compared to the other cards in the comparison list.

[-ck]

GPU-README

See:
Q: I upgraded cgminer version and my hashrate suddenly dropped!

[os2sam]

Switching to Diablo kernel seems to have fixed my problem! getting 300 MH/s with 7 intensity and around 370-390 with 13

Is this kernel safe to use ?

Right, 7xxx GPU's require SDK 2.6 or higher and ckolivas' modified diablo kernel.  That is in the FAQ section of the readme and CGMiner thread top post, now that you reminded me.  Good call.

So yes it is safe to that kernel.

Are you good to go now?
Sam

Edit: Still seems kind of low compared to the other cards in the comparison list.

I was in error, again, it's poclbm that ckolivas modified, you probably should be using it or diablo.  This from the FAQ in the CGMiner top post

-----------------------FAQ-----------------------------
Q: Which AMD SDK is the best for cgminer?
A: At the moment, versions 2.4 and 2.5 work the best for R5xxx and R6xxx GPUS.
SDK 2.6 or 2.7 works best for R7xxx. SDK 2.8 is known to have many problems.
If you are need to use the 2.6+ SDK or R7xxx or later, the phatk kernel will
perform poorly, while the diablo or my custom modified poclbm kernel are
optimised for it.

Q: Which AMD driver is the best?
A: Unfortunately AMD has a history of having quite a few releases with issues
when it comes to mining, either in terms of breaking mining, increasing CPU
usage or very low hashrates. Only experimentation can tell you for sure, but
some good releases were 11.6, 11.12, 12.4 and 12.8. Note that older cards may
not work with the newer drivers.