Low Hash- Gigabyte HD 7970(R797OC-3GD) BIOS Flash Help

[emunebtk]

I think I am ready to flash my bios but need a little help as this will be my first time doing a flash but am confident with a little guidance on the right BIOS I can make it happen. I bought a used Gigabyte HD 7970 3072MB GDDRS the other day on craigslist and have tried everything to get past 550 Kh/s via scrypt mining. When mining BTC i get around 650 Mh/s but havent played to much with that area as I am trying to get the scrypt mining down. At this point It seems I have tried almost everyones configurations on the forums and even started from ground up with the README file and still nothing above 550 Kh/s. That is also using -g 1 as when i use -g 2 it stays under 390 kh/s? I am thinking at this point my BIOS may be too old on the card as these are my current stats on my windows 7 rig:

Display device       : AMD Radeon HD 7900 Series on Tahiti GPU
Display driver       : 9.14.10.0969, Catalyst 13.4
BIOS                 : 015.022.000.004
GPU: Gigabyte HD 7970 3072MB GDDRS - GV-R797OC-3GD


Looking at http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/index.php?manufacturer=Gigabyte&model=HD+7970 there seems to be much newer BIOS versions although I am not sure which BIOS to flash with since i have a OC model and I have read that is not the best for scrypt mining hence needing to try a TO??

My current config for cgminer is :

Code:

setx GPU_MAX_ALLOC_PERCENT 100
cgminer --scrypt -w 256 -g 1 --thread-concurrency 8192 --intensity 13 --gpu-engine 1100 --gpu-memclock 1500 --gpu-fan 100 -o http://mining.usa.la.hypernova.pw:9332 -u worker.1 -p xxxxx

As I mentioned I tried -g 2 as suggested from everyone and every time it drops dramatically down to 380 Kh/s from 540 when using -g 1. When following the ReadME file for Cgminer my ThreadConcurrency speed came out to be 22400 but have read to use 8192 and see no difference in speed between the two. So at this point I am thinking a flash of the bios will be the way to go although I am still up for hearing anyones suggestions Thanks for the help in advance! this is driving me crazy..rawwr

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[ssateneth]

you dont need to bios flash. scrypt mining is strange voodoo and requires a magic combination of core speed, memory speed, thread concurrency, intensity, and -g switches to get the optimum hashrate without hw errors. The only way to do this is trial and error.

[Charles999]

you dont need to bios flash. scrypt mining is strange voodoo and requires a magic combination of core speed, memory speed, thread concurrency, intensity, and -g switches to get the optimum hashrate without hw errors. The only way to do this is trial and error.

wouldn't flashing allow him to undervolt and raise mem and gup??

[emunebtk]

you dont need to bios flash. scrypt mining is strange voodoo and requires a magic combination of core speed, memory speed, thread concurrency, intensity, and -g switches to get the optimum hashrate without hw errors. The only way to do this is trial and error.

wouldn't flashing allow him to undervolt and raise mem and gup??

That is my take on it as pretty sure that is my issue right now? oh to flash or not to flash

[ssateneth]

you dont need to bios flash. scrypt mining is strange voodoo and requires a magic combination of core speed, memory speed, thread concurrency, intensity, and -g switches to get the optimum hashrate without hw errors. The only way to do this is trial and error.

wouldn't flashing allow him to undervolt and raise mem and gup??

That is my take on it as pretty sure that is my issue right now? oh to flash or not to flash

\

gigabyte triple fan gpus are voltage locked, period. no amount of software changes or bios changes will change the voltage. it's hardware locked because gigabyte is too cheap to to put components on the PCB that allow the user to change voltage. unless you have multimeter probe reading or kill-a-watt reading to prove me wrong, this is what I will continue to believe and spread.

[emunebtk]

good to know and thanks for the advice! Going to hold off on flashing for another week and so some more trial and error as well as try going back to 13.1 from 13.4 catalyst. I used to have a NVIDIA GPU in the system so do you think any of that software might be messing with the new AMD Catalyst?

[zvs]

never buy gigabyte cards

[emunebtk]

never buy gigabyte cards

does that mean I am stuck with a 550 Kh/s? or just that it will take me forever to find the right magic code?

[suryc]

For scrypt mining you should increase intensity to 18 or 19.
Maybe that will help you.

But, you should definitely get more than 550 with a 7970 (should get close to 700)
I only have the MSI ones, so not sure if my settings would be good for you, but every card is actually a little different and the best way is to just play with different values until you find something that works.

Also, I suggest --temp-target 81 --auto-fan (instead of --gpu-fan 100), because no need to waste the power to run the fans at full speed unless you have to, but that's less important.

[emunebtk]

For scrypt mining you should increase intensity to 18 or 19.
Maybe that will help you.

But, you should definitely get more than 550 with a 7970 (should get close to 700)
I only have the MSI ones, so not sure if my settings would be good for you, but every card is actually a little different and the best way is to just play with different values until you find something that works.

Also, I suggest --temp-target 81 --auto-fan (instead of --gpu-fan 100), because no need to waste the power to run the fans at full speed unless you have to, but that's less important.

anytime I go to a intensity other then 13 it shoots down from 550 to a 380ish. recently switched to autofan which seems to be a little less noisy and am going to put temp 81 going forward. What catalyst and sdk versions are you running?

[suryc]

anytime I go to a intensity other then 13 it shoots down from 550 to a 380ish. recently switched to autofan which seems to be a little less noisy and am going to put temp 81 going forward. What catalyst and sdk versions are you running?

I just realized you're on Windows. I have heard that the catalyst 13.x drivers have known problems. Maybe you should try rolling back to 12.8 or 12.10 (do custom install for the driver only) and install SDK version 2.7 separately.

Maybe someone else has some more insight... I am probably not the best to give you advice though as all my rigs are Linux (I use catalyst 12.8 and SDK v 2.8, for what its worth).

[emunebtk]

anytime I go to a intensity other then 13 it shoots down from 550 to a 380ish. recently switched to autofan which seems to be a little less noisy and am going to put temp 81 going forward. What catalyst and sdk versions are you running?

I just realized you're on Windows. I have heard that the catalyst 13.x drivers have known problems. Maybe you should try rolling back to 12.8 or 12.10 (do custom install for the driver only) and install SDK version 2.7 separately.

Maybe someone else has some more insight... I am probably not the best to give you advice though as all my rigs are Linux (I use catalyst 12.8 and SDK v 2.8, for what its worth).

I am actually going to try just that tonight as I have heard the same thing now a few times so lets hope for the best! although I keep seeing something about installing Chip sets? Is that different then the catalyst and sdk installations?

[Joori]

FWIW, Win7 64bit, 13.6 beta2 drivers here CGminer 3.2.1. 2 x Gigabyte 7970 GHz Editions (voltage locked). Hashing ~769Kh/s on stock 1100/1500 clocks. I have them on powered risers now but before that they were doing ~734Kh/s with 1045/1500 clocks, anymore or less on the core clock would see the hash rate drop sharply both with or without risers. Same deal with memory increase/decrease... Setting intensity to anything other than 13 would also drop hash rate sharply. Using --shaders instead of --thread-concurrency also dropped hash rate sharply as did using -g 1. Side note, despite setting --thread-concurrency to what cgminer detected originally (22400) it too resulted in a massive hashrate drop.

Without risers - Catalyst 12.6 beta, 13.4, 13.6 beta drivers ~734Kh/s

Code:

C:\cgminer3.2.1\cgminer.exe --scrypt -o stratum+tcp://eu.wemineltc.com:3333 -u xxxx -p xxxx --temp-cutoff 90,90 --gpu-engine 1045,1045 --gpu-memclock 1500,1500 --thread-concurrency 8192 -g 2 -w 256 -I 13

With risers - Catalyst 13.6 beta, 13.6 beta2 drivers ~769Kh/s

Code:

C:\cgminer3.2.1\cgminer.exe --scrypt -o stratum+tcp://eu.wemineltc.com:3333 -u xxxx -p xxxx --temp-cutoff 90,90 --gpu-engine 1100,1100 --gpu-memclock 1500,1500 --thread-concurrency 8192 -g 2 -w 256 -I 13

You can view my "before risers, driver/cgminer upgrade, remove rig from open case and put on shelf" stats Here.

As mentioned earlier, you really do need to just 'fudge' with it as it's all trial and error... I also read it's a good idea to delete the .bin files in the cgminer folder when adjusting settings on the command line. I found 50% of the time this would solve any issues I might have had tho the other 50% of the time I saw no change in my issues. The biggest change I saw was going from 13.6 beta to 13.6 beta2 drivers, an increase of ~30Kh/s although I'm unsure if this was due to the driver upgrade since I did so when I installed the cards on their risers. To achieve these results I cleared the .bin files, turned off AMD Overdrive in catalyst and just ran cgminer.exe -I 13. Let it decide what to use and go from there increasing/decreasing clocks and/or intensity within the running app. You'll hit a sweet spot eventually, or be like me, try the same settings over and over then one day like pure voodoo magic those same settings work a treat when previously they made things worse

Don't flash your bios, you shouldn't really need to and I considered going down that route after pulling my hair out trying to get these darn things to play nice... If you do flash, make sure you backup your original bios. ALWAYS BACKUP...just incase...

[BlazinBeaches]

--gpu-powertune 10 --gpu-engine 1090 --gpu-memclock 1500 --thread-concurrency 8192 --gpu-reorder -I 13 --worksize 256 -g 2

gets me 750-760s on Sapphire 7970s

[emunebtk]

First off thanks everyone for trying to help me solve this. Right now this is the best I can get at 560 kh/s  :

Code:

setx GPU_MAX_ALLOC_PERCENT 100
cgminer --scrypt -I 13 -w 256 --gpu-engine 1092 --gpu-memclock 1500  --auto-fan --thread-concurrency 8132 -o 

I am now on Catalyst 12.8 with SDK 2.7 and have tried 13.1 with 2.7 as well as 13.4 and all the same not going past 550 kh/s

--gpu-powertune 10 --gpu-engine 1090 --gpu-memclock 1500 --thread-concurrency 8192 --gpu-reorder -I 13 --worksize 256 -g 2

gets me 750-760s on Sapphire 7970s

Using this config I drop to 530 so that was a no go.

FWIW, Win7 64bit, 13.6 beta2 drivers here CGminer 3.2.1. 2 x Gigabyte 7970 GHz Editions (voltage locked). Hashing ~769Kh/s on stock 1100/1500 clocks. I have them on powered risers now but before that they were doing ~734Kh/s with 1045/1500 clocks, anymore or less on the core clock would see the hash rate drop sharply both with or without risers. Same deal with memory increase/decrease... Setting intensity to anything other than 13 would also drop hash rate sharply. Using --shaders instead of --thread-concurrency also dropped hash rate sharply as did using -g 1. Side note, despite setting --thread-concurrency to what cgminer detected originally (22400) it too resulted in a massive hashrate drop.

Without risers - Catalyst 12.6 beta, 13.4, 13.6 beta drivers ~734Kh/s

Code:

C:\cgminer3.2.1\cgminer.exe --scrypt -o stratum+tcp://eu.wemineltc.com:3333 -u xxxx -p xxxx --temp-cutoff 90,90 --gpu-engine 1045,1045 --gpu-memclock 1500,1500 --thread-concurrency 8192 -g 2 -w 256 -I 13

With risers - Catalyst 13.6 beta, 13.6 beta2 drivers ~769Kh/s

Code:

C:\cgminer3.2.1\cgminer.exe --scrypt -o stratum+tcp://eu.wemineltc.com:3333 -u xxxx -p xxxx --temp-cutoff 90,90 --gpu-engine 1100,1100 --gpu-memclock 1500,1500 --thread-concurrency 8192 -g 2 -w 256 -I 13

You can view my "before risers, driver/cgminer upgrade, remove rig from open case and put on shelf" stats Here.

As mentioned earlier, you really do need to just 'fudge' with it as it's all trial and error... I also read it's a good idea to delete the .bin files in the cgminer folder when adjusting settings on the command line. I found 50% of the time this would solve any issues I might have had tho the other 50% of the time I saw no change in my issues. The biggest change I saw was going from 13.6 beta to 13.6 beta2 drivers, an increase of ~30Kh/s although I'm unsure if this was due to the driver upgrade since I did so when I installed the cards on their risers. To achieve these results I cleared the .bin files, turned off AMD Overdrive in catalyst and just ran cgminer.exe -I 13. Let it decide what to use and go from there increasing/decreasing clocks and/or intensity within the running app. You'll hit a sweet spot eventually, or be like me, try the same settings over and over then one day like pure voodoo magic those same settings work a treat when previously they made things worse

Don't flash your bios, you shouldn't really need to and I considered going down that route after pulling my hair out trying to get these darn things to play nice... If you do flash, make sure you backup your original bios. ALWAYS BACKUP...just incase...

Tried both of those configs and nothing past 530/540 which is another dead end. One thing i did notice thought when going from 13.4/13.1 Catalyst down to 12.8 I can now get 560 using -g2 where I could only get 550 using -g 1 before and a -g 2 would always bring me down to 380? Does that mean 12.8 might be the right version going forward? I guess i should also try going to your 13.6 beta and see what happens.

I did readme from scratch again and my TC came out to 22400 every time and Memclock crashed on 1675 so brought it down to 1650 s it stated to do so. Crashed 10 minutes later so went to 1625 and testing it there but from the looks of it 1500 seems to be the way to go from everyone else so should I just play with that instead of wasting time going down from 1625? I then tried every engine speed going up by 5 from 850 and then down 1 at a time until I came to Engine speed of 1080 giving 560/khs setting. From there I tried everything else in the book, then scratched my config and tried 30 more and am still stuck at nothing past a 560..crap! BAck to square one but going to keep trying every little config in the book until it is right! thanks for everyone's help

[Joori]

I'm sorry you're having such difficulty with these cards. I'd probably stick to 1500 mem as MSI Afterburner is showing me very little memory usage while scrypt mining, seems rather odd but I can live with that. I saw no hashrate difference when adjusting the mem except for the card crashing past 1800 mem so I left it at it's stock. It's certainly helped with keeping the silly VRM's temp down thats for sure... Give the beta2 drivers a shot they won't hurt the card might actually give you a small increase. Then again, it might not but it's nice to rule out that version nonetheless...

Just be sure to use the amd driver cleanup utility when changing drivers. You don't want any remnants of previous drivers screwing with your results, that and amd overdrive = off. Other than that I really don't know what else to say. This card is being stubborn 

[emunebtk]

tiny update! So i ended up flashing the GPU with the most updated GIGABYTE BIOS and am now getting 590 kh/s almost out of the box settings =D that is about 40 more then I was able to get past for the last week so progress finally made.

I used the F3BIOS to flash : ATI Source BIOS Version:015.032.000.004
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4102&dl=1#bios

I then went back to 13.1 catalyst and am on 2.7 SDK as when I try to instal 2.8 SDK i get something about installation pkg error fail?

So the fact that I have pushed past the 550 mark pretty easily on the new BIOS means I am off to a good start right? Now to just get past 600 and maybe 7? If you think I should flash with a different BIOS please let me know as there were many to choose from and just chose the most recent. Thanks guys!

I'm sorry you're having such difficulty with these cards. I'd probably stick to 1500 mem as MSI Afterburner is showing me very little memory usage while scrypt mining, seems rather odd but I can live with that. I saw no hashrate difference when adjusting the mem except for the card crashing past 1800 mem so I left it at it's stock. It's certainly helped with keeping the silly VRM's temp down thats for sure... Give the beta2 drivers a shot they won't hurt the card might actually give you a small increase. Then again, it might not but it's nice to rule out that version nonetheless...

Just be sure to use the amd driver cleanup utility when changing drivers. You don't want any remnants of previous drivers screwing with your results, that and amd overdrive = off. Other than that I really don't know what else to say. This card is being stubborn 

thanks for the advice! going to keep with 1500 mem as that seems to be pretty norm for everyone else are just start messing with engine more so. Tempted to go to 13.6 as your the only one to say good things so far..hmmm what windows are your running?

[sprint347]

I spent weeks faffing around and couldn't get past 550kash with the same card.

Clock speeds set in Afterburner 1045/1500.

I use cgminer, make sure you run this first:

Code:

setx GPU_MAX_ALLOC_PERCENT 100

I use the following command and get 650khash+

Code:

cgminer.exe --scrypt -o http://pool:port -u xxx -p xxx --worksize 256 -g2 -I 13 --lookup-gap 2 --shaders 2048 --thread-concurrency 8192

I user Catalyst 13.5, haven't touched bios, voltages etc.

[nitrogenetics]

I think I am ready to flash my bios but need a little help as this will be my first time doing a flash but am confident with a little guidance on the right BIOS I can make it happen. I bought a used Gigabyte HD 7970 3072MB GDDRS the other day on craigslist and have tried everything to get past 550 Kh/s via scrypt mining. When mining BTC i get around 650 Mh/s but havent played to much with that area as I am trying to get the scrypt mining down. At this point It seems I have tried almost everyones configurations on the forums and even started from ground up with the README file and still nothing above 550 Kh/s. That is also using -g 1 as when i use -g 2 it stays under 390 kh/s? I am thinking at this point my BIOS may be too old on the card as these are my current stats on my windows 7 rig:

Display device       : AMD Radeon HD 7900 Series on Tahiti GPU
Display driver       : 9.14.10.0969, Catalyst 13.4
BIOS                 : 015.022.000.004
GPU: Gigabyte HD 7970 3072MB GDDRS - GV-R797OC-3GD


Looking at http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/index.php?manufacturer=Gigabyte&model=HD+7970 there seems to be much newer BIOS versions although I am not sure which BIOS to flash with since i have a OC model and I have read that is not the best for scrypt mining hence needing to try a TO??

My current config for cgminer is :

Code:

setx GPU_MAX_ALLOC_PERCENT 100
cgminer --scrypt -w 256 -g 1 --thread-concurrency 8192 --intensity 13 --gpu-engine 1100 --gpu-memclock 1500 --gpu-fan 100 -o http://mining.usa.la.hypernova.pw:9332 -u worker.1 -p xxxxx

As I mentioned I tried -g 2 as suggested from everyone and every time it drops dramatically down to 380 Kh/s from 540 when using -g 1. When following the ReadME file for Cgminer my ThreadConcurrency speed came out to be 22400 but have read to use 8192 and see no difference in speed between the two. So at this point I am thinking a flash of the bios will be the way to go although I am still up for hearing anyones suggestions Thanks for the help in advance! this is driving me crazy..rawwr

My GV-R797OC-3GD rev 2.1 gets about 720Kh/s with the following

Code:

cgminer.exe --scrypt -o stratum+tcp://xxxx:xxx -u xxxx -p xxxx --intensity 13 -g 2 --thread-concurrency 8192 --lookup-gap 2 --gpu-engine 1042 --gpu-memclock 1500

Catalyst 13.3
BIOS 015.025.000.007.000000
GPU_MAX_ALLOC_PERCENT unset

Hope that helps

[Joori]

tiny update! So i ended up flashing the GPU with the most updated GIGABYTE BIOS and am now getting 590 kh/s almost out of the box settings =D that is about 40 more then I was able to get past for the last week so progress finally made.

I used the F3BIOS to flash : ATI Source BIOS Version:015.032.000.004
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4102&dl=1#bios

I then went back to 13.1 catalyst and am on 2.7 SDK as when I try to instal 2.8 SDK i get something about installation pkg error fail?

So the fact that I have pushed past the 550 mark pretty easily on the new BIOS means I am off to a good start right? Now to just get past 600 and maybe 7? If you think I should flash with a different BIOS please let me know as there were many to choose from and just chose the most recent. Thanks guys!

thanks for the advice! going to keep with 1500 mem as that seems to be pretty norm for everyone else are just start messing with engine more so. Tempted to go to 13.6 as your the only one to say good things so far..hmmm what windows are your running?

Good stuff, glad you got an improvement through flashing looks like there's still hope for the card yet! If you're hitting 590Kh/s then realistically 600+ isn't that far off. It's a matter of just tweaking now and finding the right driver. I'm using Windows 7 Ultimate and Catalyst 13.6 beta2 drivers on my rig and one of the cards has a dummy plug I made with a few resistors. Despite the fact recent versions of catalyst dictate you no longer need a dummy plug, I find I still have to use one otherwise I'll either get a series of ADL/OpenCL errors and/or one of the cards will hash stupidly low. Like in the 30Kh/s-70Kh/s range :\

Also, why are people using both --shaders and --thread-concurrency together.. the latter overrides any value set by the former so it's kinda pointless.. as is lookup-gap since it's already set at a default of 2 anyway. I had so much trouble fiddling with settings wondering why my cards weren't hashing as everyone else's or even remotely close. Point being, 700+Kh/s should be easy to attain with minimal input parameters unless ofcourse the card really is defective or just plain shit