further improved phatk_dia kernel for Phoenix + SDK 2.6 - 2012-01-13

[CanaryInTheMine]

i've noticed a 2 degree temp drop using phatk2 with the 1.6 phoenix. Nice!

allowed me to increase the clock speed to a level that before wasnot stable. now it's stable a a little bit higher clock rate.

will try lowering mem some more based on other's feedback here.

[Diapolo]

Download version 2011-08-27: http://www.mediafire.com/?697r8t2pdk419ji

This version is a bit faster on 58XX cards, reports indicate it can be faster on 69XX cards, too ... I guess this is because of the optimized writing to the output buffer.
You can leave out the BFI_INT switch, but remember to supply the VECTORS2 switch ! This version takes care of wrong WORKSIZE arguments, too ... if you forget that switch, if it has an too big value or if it's not a power of 2, the maximum supported WORKSIZE for each device is used.

Thanks,
Dia

[sd]

Download version 2011-08-27: http://www.mediafire.com/?697r8t2pdk419ji

This version is a bit faster on 58XX cards, reports indicate it can be faster on 69XX cards, too ... I guess this is because of the optimized writing to the output buffer.
You can leave out the BFI_INT switch, but remember to supply the VECTORS2 switch ! This version takes care of wrong WORKSIZE arguments, too ... if you forget that switch, if it has an too big value or if it's not a power of 2, the maximum supported WORKSIZE for each device is used.

Thanks,
Dia

I get a lot of hardware errors with this kernel but none from the phatk-2.2 kernel:

...
[30/08/2011 21:03:37] Kernel error: Unusual behavior from OpenCL. Hardware problem?
[30/08/2011 21:03:42] Kernel error: Unusual behavior from OpenCL. Hardware problem?
[30/08/2011 21:03:53] Kernel error: Unusual behavior from OpenCL. Hardware problem?
...

That's with the core clocked to 940 and ram clocked down to 300. I'm using phoenix 1.5 and SDK 2.4 with both kernel versions. The GPU is a HD5870.

Is this a kernel fault, a hardware fault, or am I doing something wrong?

[Diapolo]

Download version 2011-08-27: http://www.mediafire.com/?697r8t2pdk419ji

This version is a bit faster on 58XX cards, reports indicate it can be faster on 69XX cards, too ... I guess this is because of the optimized writing to the output buffer.
You can leave out the BFI_INT switch, but remember to supply the VECTORS2 switch ! This version takes care of wrong WORKSIZE arguments, too ... if you forget that switch, if it has an too big value or if it's not a power of 2, the maximum supported WORKSIZE for each device is used.

Thanks,
Dia

I get a lot of hardware errors with this kernel but none from the phatk-2.2 kernel:

...
[30/08/2011 21:03:37] Kernel error: Unusual behavior from OpenCL. Hardware problem?
[30/08/2011 21:03:42] Kernel error: Unusual behavior from OpenCL. Hardware problem?
[30/08/2011 21:03:53] Kernel error: Unusual behavior from OpenCL. Hardware problem?
...

That's with the core clocked to 940 and ram clocked down to 300. I'm using phoenix 1.5 and SDK 2.4 with both kernel versions. The GPU is a HD5870.

Is this a kernel fault, a hardware fault, or am I doing something wrong?

I run a 5870 with 900 Core and 350 Mem, NO errors at all ... so you could try to lower your Core clock a little. Strange that phatk2 gives you no errors.
What Hasrate are you achieving?

Dia

[sd]

I run a 5870 with 900 Core and 350 Mem, NO errors at all ... so you could try to lower your Core clock a little. Strange that phatk2 gives you no errors.
What Hasrate are you achieving?

434.39 Mhash/sec On Phatk2.2. I got no hardware errors for weeks on the phatk 2.2 kernel. I'll try adjusting the clockrate.

Nice work BTW. I've sent you ( small ) donations in the past.

[sd]

I run a 5870 with 900 Core and 350 Mem, NO errors at all ... so you could try to lower your Core clock a little. Strange that phatk2 gives you no errors.
What Hasrate are you achieving?

On phatk2.2 I'm getting 433.5 MHash/Sec.
On the new kernel I'm getting 345.35 MHash/Sec and hardware errors a few times a minute. 80MHash/Sec less!

That's with all other settings being equal. The only thing I changed was VECTORS to VECTORS2 and I removed BFI_INT from the kernel arguments.

Upgrading phoenix won't actually change anything relevant will it?

[iopq]

Download version 2011-08-27: http://www.mediafire.com/?697r8t2pdk419ji

This version is a bit faster on 58XX cards, reports indicate it can be faster on 69XX cards, too ... I guess this is because of the optimized writing to the output buffer.
You can leave out the BFI_INT switch, but remember to supply the VECTORS2 switch ! This version takes care of wrong WORKSIZE arguments, too ... if you forget that switch, if it has an too big value or if it's not a power of 2, the maximum supported WORKSIZE for each device is used.

Thanks,
Dia

I get a lot of hardware errors with this kernel but none from the phatk-2.2 kernel:

try rebooting your computer before running the kernel
any time I switch kernels I get hardware errors

[sd]

try rebooting your computer before running the kernel
any time I switch kernels I get hardware errors

I tried it and but it didn't help. I get the exact same low hashrate and hardware errors after the reboot.

EDIT: After installing phoenix 1.6.2 the new kernel works perfectly. Either I screwed something up or the latest kernel just doesn't work with phoenix 1.5. It's working now but it's 2.5Mhash/Sec slower than the phatk2.2 one with the same settings.

[Diapolo]

try rebooting your computer before running the kernel
any time I switch kernels I get hardware errors

I tried it and but it didn't help. I get the exact same low hashrate and hardware errors after the reboot.

EDIT: After installing phoenix 1.6.2 the new kernel works perfectly. Either I screwed something up or the latest kernel just doesn't work with phoenix 1.5. It's working now but it's 2.5Mhash/Sec slower than the phatk2.2 one with the same settings.

That results seem accurate, phatk2.2 is a bit faster on VLIW5 hardware. Could you take a look at your temperatures or number of accepted shares in comparison to phatk2.2?

Thanks,
Dia

[sd]

try rebooting your computer before running the kernel
any time I switch kernels I get hardware errors

I tried it and but it didn't help. I get the exact same low hashrate and hardware errors after the reboot.

EDIT: After installing phoenix 1.6.2 the new kernel works perfectly. Either I screwed something up or the latest kernel just doesn't work with phoenix 1.5. It's working now but it's 2.5Mhash/Sec slower than the phatk2.2 one with the same settings.

That results seem accurate, phatk2.2 is a bit faster on VLIW5 hardware. Could you take a look at your temperatures or number of accepted shares in comparison to phatk2.2?

Thanks,
Dia

The temperature seems somewhere between 2 and 4 degrees cooler. I'm solo mining so the only shares I generate are real blocks. I can't tell if anything has improved in that regard.

[mute20]

I have finally found the 3% boost that I was talking about. Would this work with your improvement?

http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=23067.0

[Diapolo]

I have finally found the 3% boost that I was talking about. Would this work with your improvement?

http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=23067.0

This is in since I saw that thread, I'm sorry to say .

Dia

[Remember remember the 5th of November]

Diapolo, i tried the latest kernel and you say that if BFI int is supported it will be enabled, well on my 5870 it wasnt...
So from 385 i went to 334mh/s

[Diapolo]

Diapolo, i tried the latest kernel and you say that if BFI int is supported it will be enabled, well on my 5870 it wasnt...
So from 385 i went to 334mh/s

That's strange, could you check if your OpenCL driver reports cl_amd_media_ops as available (via GPU Caps Viewer).

Thanks,
Dia

[ssateneth]

Diapolo, i tried the latest kernel and you say that if BFI int is supported it will be enabled, well on my 5870 it wasnt...
So from 385 i went to 334mh/s

That's strange, could you check if your OpenCL driver reports cl_amd_media_ops as available (via GPU Caps Viewer).

Thanks,
Dia

Did he even bother to post what flags he was using? I know there was some confusion between VECTORS and VECTORS2 between yours and phateus kernels. It sounds like he's only doing 1 nonce per execution instead of 2.

[ssateneth]

Dead thread is dead. No more kernel updates?

[Dexter770221]

Bitcoin price don't encourage to work, and kernels are almost perfect efficient, so many threads are dead...

[Diapolo]

Bitcoin price don't encourage to work, and kernels are almost perfect efficient, so many threads are dead...

It's not only the BTC price, but the thankfulness in terms of donations was not really motivating anymore + most people compared my mod only in terms of raw performance with Phat's 2.X kernel, which made me think no one cares about a different approach or even to test out if there are differences in power draw or other factors. Well know I'm to far away anyway ^^.

Dia

[teukon]

Bitcoin price don't encourage to work, and kernels are almost perfect efficient, so many threads are dead...

It's not only the BTC price, but the thankfulness in terms of donations was not really motivating anymore + most people compared my mod only in terms of raw performance with Phat's 2.X kernel, which made me think no one cares about a different approach or even to test out if there are differences in power draw or other factors. Well know I'm to far away anyway ^^.

Dia

The donation problems throughout Bitcoin are rather strange.  Despite having a very easy way to send wealth across the internet even the most well known and respected developers receive very little as thanks for their efforts.  Perhaps this is partly due to the fact that Bitcoin (particularly Bitcoin mining) attracts people who are, on average, not so inclined to donations, and that most of the miners that care about the extra 0.5% of income from mining are naturally very tight with their money.

Ah well.  Thanks once again for all of your work.  Following this tread and trying out the patches as they came out was fun.  I hope you had fun too!

[Diapolo]

Bitcoin price don't encourage to work, and kernels are almost perfect efficient, so many threads are dead...

It's not only the BTC price, but the thankfulness in terms of donations was not really motivating anymore + most people compared my mod only in terms of raw performance with Phat's 2.X kernel, which made me think no one cares about a different approach or even to test out if there are differences in power draw or other factors. Well know I'm to far away anyway ^^.

Dia

The donation problems throughout Bitcoin are rather strange.  Despite having a very easy way to send wealth across the internet even the most well known and respected developers receive very little as thanks for their efforts.  Perhaps this is partly due to the fact that Bitcoin (particularly Bitcoin mining) attracts people who are, on average, not so inclined to donations, and that most of the miners that care about the extra 0.5% of income from mining are naturally very tight with their money.

Ah well.  Thanks once again for all of your work.  Following this tread and trying out the patches as they came out was fun.  I hope you had fun too!

I did , liked getting (positve) feedback and to be an interesting part of Bitcoin for a short period of time.

Dia