5850 core clock.

[Niann]

What is the highest hash rate that someone achieved with a 5850 without blowing up the card?

Just curious.
 

[slammed]

i make

398,8 mhash

core 964/310

[Niann]

What sort of voltage do you use?

[Tx2000]

http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=printpage;topic=24949.0

Check that thread out for some past attempts.


I hit about 432.5 (think it was at 1010 Mhz core) but I didn't run very long because I was worried about VRM temps (114c).  I think teukon even went further than that but I lost track of the thread thereafter.  Instead focusing on energy efficiency as being that high voltage decrease the actual amount of bitcoin worth earned.

At any rate, my old reference 5850 (the one above) seems to get more Mhash than my second non-ref 5850.  Ref version is at 920/320 1.1v and gets 397MH/s while my other non-ref is at 975/320 1.088v and is getting only 404MH/s.  Tried to replicate and even installed it on my system where the 5850 ref is but no go. Just a different beast.

[gellimac]

I had 434.4 with my HD 5850 ^^

[Niann]

Damn... that's a lot...
I'm getting about 372 mhash/s.
940/1000 at 1.125 v, I use the computer for other things as well, that's why the memory clock is high.

 

[fcmatt]

Damn... that's a lot...
I'm getting about 372 mhash/s.
940/1000 at 1.125 v, I use the computer for other things as well, that's why the memory clock is high.

 

that is exactly what I run mine at. anything more and stability suffers for the most part.
sure i can increase the clock and it will run higher for several days on end but eventually
it screwed up and would be down for several hours until i noticed/fixed it (always at night)
thus defeating the extra mh/s i was getting.

[Transisto]

the safest common speed for sapphire Xtreme is only ~830mhz @ stock

or I must be doing something really wrong...

[Niann]

Actually most ppl run over 900 mhz o.o
Normally that is.

[edtks86]

I'm running 900/300 getting 380Mhash

[teukon]

In testing I got my 5850 over 460 MH/s (can't remember the exact figure) at 1110 MHz core clock, 370 MHz RAM, 1.25V.  I can't vouch for the long term stability of my settings (I managed a continuous 3 hour run and then the card crashed immediately when I started mining on an adjacent card).

These days the same card is giving me 373.1 MH/s (890 MHz core, 300 MHz RAM, 0.9875V).  I haven't tried the Catalyst 11.7 or SDK 2.5 yet as I've been away for 2 weeks.  I personally prefer the lower voltage and my dual 5850 rig is currently running at 300W, giving me about 2.43 MH/J.

[STP]

I am running my 5850's at 950/300 1.115v and pulling 390 mh/s.

[mike678]

Do you guys have to change the voltage to get the memory so low? On stock voltages I have a really hard time with anything less then 500.

[STP]

Do you guys have to change the voltage to get the memory so low? On stock voltages I have a really hard time with anything less then 500.

I ran 900/300 on stock voltage. I have the Sapphire extremes if that makes any difference. Card was stable and started to crash driver in the 900-925 range. Lowering memory on the other hand has never made it unstable for me.

[teukon]

Do you guys have to change the voltage to get the memory so low? On stock voltages I have a really hard time with anything less then 500.

I ran 900/300 on stock voltage. I have the Sapphire extremes if that makes any difference. Card was stable and started to crash driver in the 900-925 range. Lowering memory on the other hand has never made it unstable for me.

My cards run fine with the RAM at just 50MHz with no change in voltage.  I doubt there are stability issues with low RAM clocks.

I'm assuming you're having difficulty setting a low RAM clock speed in the first place.  For this I use AMDOverdriveCtrl.  I create a simple overdrive profile such as

Code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<OVERDRIVE_PROFILE>
  <PERFORMANCE_LEVEL level="2" gpu="89500" mem="30000" voltage="988"/>
  <PERFORMANCE_LEVEL level="1" gpu="55000" mem="30000" voltage="988"/>
  <PERFORMANCE_LEVEL level="0" gpu="15700" mem="30000" voltage="988"/>
</OVERDRIVE_PROFILE>

and then apply the profile to the card with the command

Code:

AMDOverdriveCtrl -b MyProfile.ovdr -i 0

I imagine in Windows this would be even easier.  I found it was necessary to give the same RAM clock speeds for all three performance levels for the setting to apply.  I don't think AMDOverdriveCtrl can handle lower performance levels to have higher RAM clock speeds but I could be wrong.

My cards are also Sapphire Xtreme's but they are a few months old which might make a difference.  I've heard that the latest BIOSes Sapphire have put on their cards are more restrictive.

[mike678]

Yea I just got the sapphire extremes from ncixus for 145. Anything below 500 tends to freeze the entire computer

You say the new bios for the 5850 may be more restrictive? How hard would it be to flash to an older version and would I risk bricking them?

[Niann]

Some cards have way more safeguards than others, the XFX for instance is a pain to overclock..

Try MSI afterburner and TRIXX, if you are not able to do it, flash your BIOS, but be sure to know
what you are doing, because you are going to void the warranty of your card.

 

[teukon]

Yea I just got the sapphire extremes from ncixus for 145. Anything below 500 tends to freeze the entire computer

You say the new bios for the 5850 may be more restrictive? How hard would it be to flash to an older version and would I risk bricking them?

I'm genuinely surprised that low RAM clocks cause your computer to freeze.  It doesn't seem logical to me and runs contrary to the collective experience of the forum members.  Are there any other programs using your cards?  Is one of your cards driving a window manager for example?  Have you tried lowering the RAM clock on a card which is not being used by any programs?

I'm not the best guy to ask about flashing BIOSes and just try to do the best I can with the given BIOS.  There was a time when I was limited to 900 MHz core clock which was very frustrating but flashing the BIOS was simply too much work to be worth doing.

Best of luck.

[STP]

Yea I just got the sapphire extremes from ncixus for 145. Anything below 500 tends to freeze the entire computer

You say the new bios for the 5850 may be more restrictive? How hard would it be to flash to an older version and would I risk bricking them?

I got mine from them in that last batch as well. No problems here on 300. So far these cards let me throttle them at will long as they have ample voltage.

[mike678]

I tried trixx again since I changed to 11.7 yesterday and haven't tried trixx since the change. That fixed everything. I still cant use afterburner though it makes the cards extremely unstable. I'm running at 940/325 and I get 390