SAVE money - undervolting 7970 XFX, self made VBE7 bios = TABLE OF CONTENTS =

[metraque]

Can someone confirm its worth reading because it works for my XFX R9 280X BLACK OC DD "TDBD" model and XFX R9 280X DD "TDFD" model?, I'm ready to tip you!

[1714628535]

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[1714628535]

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[flowerpots]

To drakoin:

Thank you big time!! You did an awesome job. Because of this thread I bought 2x 7970 XFX and I got it all done in a snap. Right now I will mine for some hours as a thank you. I get some rejections on your mining pool. On my own I don't (or maybe 1-2%).



I used your (C) settings and have put my vddc on 0.925 right now. Will try to lower it later.

Thanks again!!

[uranian]

Inspired by these peculiar settings ...

I suggest try value like these.... power usage is about 180W x card.
GPU 1: 625.1 Kh/s | I:13
58.0 C  F: 51% E: 915 MHz  M: 960 Mhz  V: 0.981V

... I have searched for sweet spots in completely new places. And found one in an unexpected area!

Usually, the optimal khash appeared around engineclock/memclock = 0.62 to 0.64.
But now I have found a new one, at memclock/engineclock = 1.06, that is more engineclock than memclock (!).
It has less khash, but so much less Watt that it's worth it.

It's the third (C) in this before-and-after table:

	CC	MC	Volt	Celsius	khash	Watt	khash/watt
(A)	907	1450	1.175	74	622	277	2.25
(B)	1025	1635	1.038	73	692	240	2.88
(C)	854	799	0.893	70	578	153	3.78

(A) = before undervolting (before I started this thread)
(B) = best undervolting (stable > 39 hours)
(C) = best undervolting & underclocking (stable for many days now)

3.78 instead of 2.88 is pretty amazing.

Yes, compared to the max possible hashing performance, I loose out on 16% hashrate - that is like throwing away 38 euros worth of 229 euros hardware; but on the other hand, the new settings (C) are saving 36% electricity compared to the max hashing performance (B), and 45% of electricity compared to before-the-undervolting (C).

This new sweet spot is cool:
Mem clock slightly lower than engine clock, for an XFX 7970!!

People in Solomon, Virgin, Turks, Caicos and Marshall Islands, Tonga, Jamaica, Niue, Denmark, Samoa, Tuvalu, Germany, Philippines, Cook Islands, Brazil, Kiribati, Belgium, Netherlands, Italy, Ireland and Sweden - we are the good ones, because our governments actually care about the environment *g*. But here's a way for us, to also participate in cryptomining - we have to undervolt and underclock our coinmining rigs dramatically.

 

thanks for this post in particular, and this thread. i've got an XFX 795A TDFC and i had a mare getting it to work properly. your post about using VBE7 to edit the BIOS boot state as that allows you to unlock the voltage was helpful, as my card was running toooo hot; then these odd settings with the memclock lower than the engine clock helped more. the card is now producing a few less kh/s but at a much lower wattage and heat. good thread!

[stsonic]

I have not been able to post on this site for a while now due to the site thinking my IP is posting to much.

The stilts bios worked for my revision TDBC. So anyone having the same issue, whatever the stilt did worked. Just download his bios then mod it with VBE7 to undervolt.

Darkoin I promised you $5 if you helped me fix the card so please send me your paypal address.  

[petitbas]

Is anyone able to download the stilts bios files? All his dropbox links seem to be broken.

[masterbuyer]

Can someone help me here please
This is the setup I have

My pc spec
win 8
8G RAM
7970 XFX
650w XFC power supply

,
"intensity" : "13",
"vectors" : "1",
"worksize" : "200",
"worktime" : true,
"kernel" : "scrypt",
"lookup-gap" : "2",
"gpu-threads" : "1",
"thread-concurrency" : "8192",
"shaders" : "2048",
"gpu-engine" : "925-925",
"gpu-fan" : "0-100",
"gpu-memclock" : "990",
"api-listen" : true,
"gpu-memdiff" : "0",
"gpu-powertune" : "0",
"gpu-vddc" : "0.000",
"temp-cutoff" : "95",
"temp-overheat" : "85",
"temp-target" : "75",
"api-mcast-port" : "4028",
"api-port" : "4028",
"expiry" : "120",
"failover-switch-delay" : "60",
"gpu-dyninterval" : "7",
"gpu-platform" : "1",
"log" : "5",
"log-dateformat" : "0",
"no-pool-disable" : true,
"queue" : "0",
"scan-time" : "30",
"scrypt" : true,
"temp-hysteresis" : "3",
"shares" : "0",
"kernel-path" : "/usr/local/bin"
}


http://imageshack.com/a/img46/7379/kae4.png

I get 420-520 KH/s

http://imageshack.com/a/img20/4209/bs4g.png

How do you get it to 700+ KH/s ><?

[drakoin]

The stilts bios worked for my revision TDBC. So anyone having the same issue, whatever the stilt did worked. Just download his bios then mod it with VBE7 to undervolt.
Darkoin I promised you $5 if you helped me fix the card so please send me your paypal address.  

Thank you very much. Please consider cryptos instead of fiat: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=395004.msg4690974#msg4690974

Happy that it worked out for you in the end!

[drakoin]

I get 420-520 KH/s
How do you get it to 700+ KH/s ?
"gpu-threads" : "1",
"gpu-engine" : "925-925",
"gpu-memclock" : "990",
"gpu-powertune" : "0",
"gpu-vddc" : "0.000",
"log" : "5",

First try out settings (A) from posting
#5 https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=395004.msg4276538#msg4276538 and again
#28 https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=395004.msg4358354#msg4358354
for a starter.   You can do that without undervolting.

I guess your low performance is mainly because of 1 instead of 2 threads.


Then read everything about undervolting & BIOS flashing, because you want to reduce temperature & power consumption, too.
The table of contents in posting #1 will help you https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=395004.msg4260763#msg4260763


Finally, it will be easy to max it out to really high hashrates - but that turns out to be actually quite stupid.
Why? Read my standpoint about it there:  http://ecoiner.org/mining-hardware/save-electricity-save-money-undervolting-7970-xfx-self-vbe7-bios-1017

 

[masterbuyer]

any way i can sit at 600-650 KH/s without tweaking with Bois or undervolting?
I'm sorry kind of a noob in this ... what setting can i have on conf file.

[Amph]

how much is the consumption at 1v vcore?

[masterbuyer]

how much is the consumption at 1v vcore?

how do you find that out?

This is what i got right now on cgminer-3.7.2-windows

PC spec

window 8

8gb Ram

7970 XFX

This is the setting i have for example.conf

{
"pools" : [
   {
      "url" : "stratum+tcp:--------",
      "user" : "LZ8tvXYFsJCfpmUDbG7tSZoL45kRJ68ZcQ",
      "pass" : "-----"
   }


],
"intensity" : "13",
"vectors" : "1",
"worksize" : "200",
"kernel" : "scrypt",
"lookup-gap" : "2",
"thread-concurrency" : "8192",
"shaders" : "2048",
"gpu-engine" : "1044",
"gpu-fan" : "0-95",
"gpu-memclock" : "1600",
"gpu-memdiff" : "0",
"gpu-powertune" : "20",
"gpu-vddc" : "0.000",
"auto-fan" : true,
"temp-cutoff" : "95",
"temp-overheat" : "85",
"temp-target" : "75",
"api-port" : "4028",
"expiry" : "120",
"gpu-dyninterval" : "7",
"gpu-platform" : "0",
"gpu-threads" : "1",
"log" : "5",
"no-pool-disable" : true,
"queue" : "1",
"scan-time" : "60",
"scrypt" : true,
"temp-hysteresis" : "3",
"shares" : "0",
"no-submit-stale" : true,
"kernel-path" : "/usr/local/bin"

setting i have for My Miner.bat file are

setx GPU_MAX_ALLOC_PERCENT 100
setx GPU_USE_SYNC_OBJECTS 1
cgminer --scrypt -o stratum+tcp://------- -u LZ8tvXYFsJCfpmUDbG7tSZoL45kRJ68ZcQ -p -----
-I 20 -g 1 -w 200 --thread-concurrency 40960

getting 14-20k KH/s now ...

http://imageshack.com/a/img607/4225/jz7v.png

[Amph]

i flashed it at 1v

[drakoin]

how much is the consumption at 1v vcore?

it really depends on the clockspeed.

Have a look at postings #37 and #101

i flashed it at 1v

For higher clockspeeds that's not enough to have a stable system, but you can always put it higher from within cgminer.

If you are planning to run in "COOL settings "(C)" then 1.0 V is for sure enough to have a stable system, and still save some energy.

[drakoin]

fatal JSON error

Any of these will help you to find the error in your config file:
https://www.google.de/search?q=json+validator

[Mk2vr6]

Will this work with a 7950 FX795ATDJC?

[drakoin]

EDIT (LOTS OF READING LATER)  all seems cool, some updates are below. Still, as this posting that started off just from a speculation, has a general truth in it, I leave it unedited - for now:

--- --- - - -- -- - -- - - - -  - ----------- -- - - - -- - ------------ - - - - - -- - -- - - -- --- ---- - --

TheStilt's magical modded BIOS files

[...] trying to chase down sone of the Stilts modded BIOS for the XFX branded card and I see from your posts that you've got a copy of it (for Elpida memory) and was wondering if it would be possible to get a copy from you. [...]  He took down all his 7970 / 280X files so I'm just trying to locate one to test out...from reading some of the posts in his 290 / 290X thread it appears that he got ticked off with the lack of appreciation for his work, but I couldn't find any particulars. [...] Would like to test yours out, as well, if that's OK? [...]  

Oh man, that is bad news. Very bad. I am really sorry.

Petitbas in posting #145 mentioned it already, but I was busy, haven't been over at his thread in a while, and it's over a hundred pages long - so I don't know. Thanks for bringing that explanation over :-)

What a pity. TheStilt is a jewel. Such an important contribution to the whole scene.


And has he taken all his modded BIOSes with him?  
None of the links working anymore?  
Ouch.


I see two paths of actions now:

PLAN 1) Let us try to seduce him into coming back!!

by money. (I have just done that right now! It's easy, it takes not even a minute!)

by sweet words (TheStilt, if you read this: Weeee loooooveeee yoooouuu   Come back please! )

by hints "hey, I see a profitable opportunity here, invest in this, and you can make some money"

Why do I say that?  
Because there is a third way of helping each other out. I made it into an extra posting, have a look below...


PLAN 2) Let us together find all TheStilt BIOSes that we can collect.

So - get everyone in that thread who downloaded his BIOS to now post it somewhere. Then we at least have TheStilt's past work. It's much worse than Plan (1), but it's much better than having-no-plan.

I would prefer (1) very much.



About my (2), and your question - yes, it's already high on my priority list. I had not put it online, because I wanted people to go and visit TheStilt, and say thank you and pay some tip - and not everyone might have Elpida anyways.  So I never published my derivative of his work, but instead described how to do it yourself, in posting #67

But with these news, I will publish it. Soon. I have tweaked his result even further, anyways, to be able to undervolt that much, so I guess it makes sense to publish my version of his version of XFXs version of the ATI GPU :-)

As soon as I find the time, I will pack a parcel and upload it into the interwebs.  Sorry for the delay.

Is anyone able to download the stilts bios files? All his dropbox links seem to be broken.

[drakoin]

A third way of compensation - please consider to help drakoin a little bit

1) send some money, a dozen currencies are at your disposal
2) let your rig run for me for an hour / day / week / month, electricity costs are 5-35 cents (THANKS A LOT, flowerpots, you were the first one!)
3) Give me investment hints: Where can I play and earn superb profits?


Why this third idea?

... because honestly ... when I started all this, I also thought this community might have understood that SHARING this incredible wealth that is created in cryptocurrencies is the best way to go forward, with such a revolutionary tool. And I still don't get it, why not. Why isn't there a million of transactions between us every day - just because we can now?  Cryptocurrencies make it so easy to send each other a few coins, but hardly anyone is actually doing that?  If I see a cool text, a nice idea, a useful download - I can send some donations in 30 seconds. But if almost no one else seems to be doing that, it feels less and less beautiful to give away some of my "hard earned cash" ... and here we go, it's a vicious circle. Ouch, and I am in it. Have to be more aware of it, and start giving more myself, regardless of what the sheep do. Resolution: I will, from this moment on, press the "donate" button more often again!!! Even if it's only very little, every bit counts.

BUT all this described reluctance to share ... also means, that I myself, I have recently spent much less time with this energy-saving-thread here, and much more time chasing profit opportunities. I am trying crypto full time, so I have no option but to ask for tips, dig through garbage, seek chances, and be lucky :-)

So, if you are not the donate type of guy - or girl (the only girl I met here, actually donated me ... some Doge)...

... I have come up with a new idea:

I am encouraging you, to at least share some secrets / insights / experiences with me. TELL ME WHERE I CAN GET RICH RIGHT NOW - that's a nice way for compensating me if you like my work. There is so much going on here, and I hardly can see 1 % of it.  It might be a fantastic new coin, like Vertcoin; or an amazing game, like Insanitycoin; or the FAS-shares that I could buy with cheap C-Notes. The duckduckcoin IPO hasn't worked out for me, because I was not ruthless enough to just dump in the first moment (and I still hope for a future-in-the-pond, actually, hodling my duckduckcoin).
I found all those four chances myself, after a lot of digging - and I am sure there is more around, so please share your newest opportunities with me when you read this, and send me a PM.. Thanks a 10^6!

(TheStilt, when you read this: Check out InsanityCoin, it was a crazy Saturday & Sunday last weekend, and I made a pretty profit after thinking about it for many hours; you might also simply like the challenge of the game, it's a bit crazy, but it's very exciting. Be careful especially this next weekend, and don't be too greedy. It will run 8 more weeks, but earlier = better, is my guess.)


So, TLDR - to cut this short:

PMESSAGE ME PROFITABLY LOOKING OPPORTUNITIES IF YOU SEE ONE.
Perhaps that's weeks from now - but then remember me, please.

Thx  

[drakoin]

There is no way of contacting TheStilt right now, he has blocked PMs in litecointalk.

But I dug around a little bit:

Interesting explanations about cheap cards, and the need for undervolting, here:
https://litecointalk.org/index.php?topic=15579.msg125979#msg125979

"Memory latency tuning on Radeon 290 series cards, guinea pigs wanted" is his new project
https://litecointalk.org/index.php?topic=12830.0

Some insight into how he works:
https://litecointalk.org/index.php?topic=12830.msg100881#msg100881


wow, that thread about the R9-290 is also already 59 pages long.


What does "Don't rehost anything" mean?
https://litecointalk.org/index.php?topic=12830.msg128606#msg128606


Good news:
"I will sort and post ALL of the bioses posted in the original thread. Some of the first bioses get an additional overhaul & adjustments as some of the tricks were not available in the beginning. [...] I have released 297 different bioses until today. Sorting, recompiling, dumping their information and reuploading (thanks Dropbox  ) will take SOME time. How long I have no idea at the moment, but I will be uploading the files as soon as they are done. There is obviously no ETA I can give as this is 95% pro bono."
https://litecointalk.org/index.php?topic=15902.msg128577#msg128577



So I guess, your speculations about "lack of appreciation for his work" are fortunately not true - yet :-)

[drakoin]

If anyone wants to start drilling into the GPU itself, this seems to be a useful tool:
http://cgit.freedesktop.org/~mhopf/AtomDis/
AtomBIOS disassembler for ATI R4xx and up.

keep us updated!

[Wipeout2097]

If anyone wants to start drilling into the GPU itself, this seems to be a useful tool:
http://cgit.freedesktop.org/~mhopf/AtomDis/
AtomBIOS disassembler for ATI R4xx and up.

keep us updated!

Unfortunately, I was unable to disassemble the pertinent memory timings block, so I couldn't figure out the exact locations where to hex edit the bios of my cards, and I'm too chicken to test based on guesses. I have however a semi-damaged 7870 card (locks up systems) and I'm willing to try when I have peace of mind, on the next weekend or so ...