Sapphire 7950 only gets 500kh/s. what is wrong?

[cottonpaper]

guys, ran into an odd issue, need your help. thanks in advance.

  cgminer version 3.5.0 - Started: [2014-01-01 22:38:28]

 (5s):2.069M (avg):2.074Mh/s | A:1368896  R:26880  HW:0  WU:1901.9/m
 ST: 2  SS: 0  NB: 773  LW: 11974  GF: 1  RF: 1
 Connected to cage.n0nplusultra.net diff 64 with stratum as user xxx
 Block: 1bb916a0ed28bc83...  Diff:450K  Started: [10:52:14]  Best share: 1.11M

 GPU 0:  75.0C 2435RPM | 512.6K/510.0Kh/s | A:337024 R:6272 HW:0 WU: 467.2/m I:19
 GPU 1:  75.0C 2352RPM | 523.1K/522.4Kh/s | A:340864 R:7104 HW:0 WU: 474.6/m I:19
 GPU 2:  76.0C 2238RPM | 520.8K/518.7Kh/s | A:345472 R:7360 HW:0 WU: 481.1/m I:19
 GPU 3:  76.0C 2267RPM | 525.8K/523.3Kh/s | A:345536 R:6144 HW:0 WU: 479.0/m I:19

 [2014-01-02 10:52:14] Rejected 2ee410d7 Diff 94/64 GPU 1  (Job '258' not found)
 [2014-01-02 10:52:20] Accepted f579715b Diff 165/64 GPU 3
 [2014-01-02 10:52:23] Accepted e9def790 Diff 78/64 GPU 0
 [2014-01-02 10:52:26] Accepted ea1393f9 Diff 159/64 GPU 1
 [2014-01-02 10:52:26] Accepted feb98922 Diff 390/64 GPU 3
 [2014-01-02 10:52:30] Accepted 154ecec1 Diff 75/64 GPU 0
 [2014-01-02 10:52:30] Accepted 0273102f Diff 122/64 GPU 0
 [2014-01-02 10:52:31] Accepted f9495365 Diff 76/64 GPU 3
 [2014-01-02 10:52:35] Accepted 4a5b3f0d Diff 129/64 GPU 0

Question:
those are my out-of-box hashrate. seem pretty low. I googled and tried to increase memory and gpu speed, but improvement is not significant, still within 500 kh neighbourhood. any idea why it is still so low? how to improve hashrate?  thanks a lot.


hardware:
ASRock 970 Extreme4
AMD Sempron 145
4GB G.SKILL DDR3 SDRAM (2 x 2GB)
4x sapphire 7950 3G GDDR5
Seasonic 1050w  PSU

software:
win 8 64bit
amd_catalyst_13.8_beta2
AMD-APP-SDK-v2.7-Windows-641
cgminer-3.5.0-windows


command to run cgminer.
setx GPU_MAX_ALLOC_PERCENT 100
setx GPU_USE_SYNC_OBJECTS 1
cgminer --scrypt -I 19 -g 1 -w 256 --thread-concurrency 22400 --gpu-engine 1050g --gpu-memclock 1475 --gpu-vddc 1.087 --temp-target 78 --auto-fan -o stratum+tcp://www.weloveltc.com:3333 -u username -p pwd --failover-only -o stratum+tcp://us2.stratum.ltc.nushor.net:3333 -u username -p pwd

[braxx]

have you compared your settings with the mining hardware comparison wiki?
https://litecoin.info/Mining_hardware_comparison

I see this settings for a sapphire 7950 11196-00

type                  KH/s     core   mem     volt                    version               settings

7950, 11196-00    650    1075    1250    0.962 U       cgminer 3.2.1    -I 20 -w 256 --thread-concurrency 24000   


greets

[braxx]

cgminer --scrypt -I 19 -g 1 -w 256 --thread-concurrency 22400 --gpu-engine 1050g --gpu-memclock 1475 --gpu-vddc 1.087 --temp-target 78 --auto-fan -o stratum+tcp://www.weloveltc.com:3333 -u username -p pwd --failover-only -o stratum+tcp://us2.stratum.ltc.nushor.net:3333 -u username -p pwd

that gpu-engine code has a g behind the 1050...  is that a typo or is this the problem...

[Silvano]

i have a 7950 on my desktop, shappire code 11196-19-20g
an old athlon 5200+ 3 gb ram (on board 4 but it read only 3)
win 7 ultimate

i set my cgminer like this:
setx GPU_MAX_ALLOC_PERCENT 100
setx GPU_USE_SYNC_OBJECTS 1
cgminer --scrypt -o stratum+tcp://xxxxxxxx -u xxxxxxxxx -p xxxxxxxx -I 16 -g 1 -w 256 --thread-concurrency 18816 --auto-fan --shaders 1792 --gpu-memclock 1500 --gpu-engine 1100 --gpu-powertune -10

normally i start this config, wait 2 or 3 minutes and after i change powertune from -10 to 0
them i climb intensity 17 them 18 to 19 max

i made 618k hash/s and card is very stable, and power consume is 330w all togheter (pc and vga). i calculate only vga need 250/280w, i have a PSU corsair vs650.

hope to this setup help you to improve your hashrate

[btminer8]

I have the same card and i run them cool to save power

600khs stable

Core clock 1035
Memory clock 1450
GPU voltage 1.013
GPU temperature 69
Fan speed 43%

-I 16 -g 1 -w 256 --thread-concurrency 16384

[Spiffy_1]

Also try upping your difficulty.. At 64 you're strangling your pool and cards.. Let your cards crunch bigger numbers.. 128 or so..

[cottonpaper]

have you compared your settings with the mining hardware comparison wiki?
https://litecoin.info/Mining_hardware_comparison

I see this settings for a sapphire 7950 11196-00

type                  KH/s     core   mem     volt                    version               settings

7950, 11196-00    650    1075    1250    0.962 U       cgminer 3.2.1    -I 20 -w 256 --thread-concurrency 24000   


greets

what do you mean? 650 is the average?

[cottonpaper]

cgminer --scrypt -I 19 -g 1 -w 256 --thread-concurrency 22400 --gpu-engine 1050g --gpu-memclock 1475 --gpu-vddc 1.087 --temp-target 78 --auto-fan -o stratum+tcp://www.weloveltc.com:3333 -u username -p pwd --failover-only -o stratum+tcp://us2.stratum.ltc.nushor.net:3333 -u username -p pwd

that gpu-engine code has a g behind the 1050...  is that a typo or is this the problem...

got rid of g, but still the same hashrate

[cottonpaper]

Also try upping your difficulty.. At 64 you're strangling your pool and cards.. Let your cards crunch bigger numbers.. 128 or so..

how to change the difficulty? I don't have it in my cgminer command paramenters.

[cottonpaper]

I have the same card and i run them cool to save power

600khs stable

Core clock 1035
Memory clock 1450
GPU voltage 1.013
GPU temperature 69
Fan speed 43%

-I 16 -g 1 -w 256 --thread-concurrency 16384

tried your parameters, hovering around 420kh/s

[cottonpaper]

i have a 7950 on my desktop, shappire code 11196-19-20g
an old athlon 5200+ 3 gb ram (on board 4 but it read only 3)
win 7 ultimate

i set my cgminer like this:
setx GPU_MAX_ALLOC_PERCENT 100
setx GPU_USE_SYNC_OBJECTS 1
cgminer --scrypt -o stratum+tcp://xxxxxxxx -u xxxxxxxxx -p xxxxxxxx -I 16 -g 1 -w 256 --thread-concurrency 18816 --auto-fan --shaders 1792 --gpu-memclock 1500 --gpu-engine 1100 --gpu-powertune -10

normally i start this config, wait 2 or 3 minutes and after i change powertune from -10 to 0
them i climb intensity 17 them 18 to 19 max

i made 618k hash/s and card is very stable, and power consume is 330w all togheter (pc and vga). i calculate only vga need 250/280w, i have a PSU corsair vs650.

hope to this setup help you to improve your hashrate

tried yours as well, it became worse, around 450kh/s

man, this thing drove me nuts. I have tried so many, none seems to work.

is it because the AMD driver and SDK I installed? what version did you guys have?

[cottonpaper]

i have a 7950 on my desktop, shappire code 11196-19-20g
an old athlon 5200+ 3 gb ram (on board 4 but it read only 3)
win 7 ultimate

i set my cgminer like this:
setx GPU_MAX_ALLOC_PERCENT 100
setx GPU_USE_SYNC_OBJECTS 1
cgminer --scrypt -o stratum+tcp://xxxxxxxx -u xxxxxxxxx -p xxxxxxxx -I 16 -g 1 -w 256 --thread-concurrency 18816 --auto-fan --shaders 1792 --gpu-memclock 1500 --gpu-engine 1100 --gpu-powertune -10

normally i start this config, wait 2 or 3 minutes and after i change powertune from -10 to 0
them i climb intensity 17 them 18 to 19 max

i made 618k hash/s and card is very stable, and power consume is 330w all togheter (pc and vga). i calculate only vga need 250/280w, i have a PSU corsair vs650.

hope to this setup help you to improve your hashrate

where did you find the shappire code? on the circuit board of the card? I dont see it

[Lexomatico]

4x 288w on full load equals 1152w plus your other hardware need some power too... New PSU required
4gb ram is too low for 4 cards...Upgrade to 8

Do this first and then consider tweaking your settings again

[Mr.V]

I avg 630kh/s on my 7950's stable. I took these to the highest value until the crashed and then moved it 5 points back from crashing

gpu-engine 1065,1060,1055,1055 --gpu-memclock 1485,1485,1485,1485

[fasbit]

command to run cgminer.
setx GPU_MAX_ALLOC_PERCENT 100
setx GPU_USE_SYNC_OBJECTS 1
cgminer --scrypt -I 19 -g 1 -w 256 --thread-concurrency 22400 --gpu-engine 1050g --gpu-memclock 1475 --gpu-vddc 1.087 --temp-target 78 --auto-fan -o stratum+tcp://www.weloveltc.com:3333 -u username -p pwd --failover-only -o stratum+tcp://us2.stratum.ltc.nushor.net:3333 -u username -p pwd

Almost all 7950's will run steady at 600kh/s-625kh/s for extended periods of time with "--gpu-engine 1150g --gpu-memclock 1250 -g 1 --thread-concurrency 19712 "  (just try adjusting the -I setting...starting at 16 until you overheat your target)

Personally I wouldn't use "--auto-fan".  I would set it at 85% - 90% and play with the setting to keep it at or near your desired temperature.

Also for some reason, the 7950 likes powertune.  Try 10 or 20 to fine tune your GPU.

[cottonpaper]

4x 288w on full load equals 1152w plus your other hardware need some power too... New PSU required
4gb ram is too low for 4 cards...Upgrade to 8

Do this first and then consider tweaking your settings again

I thought about that too. I unplugged two cards so 1050W can easily handle the rest two. still no improvement on hashrate.

would memory matter that much? I saw there are still around 2GB left all the time.

[Pleskac]

maan i had the same issue ia had also 1050W PSU check your 12 V rail mine 4x7950 were something like 105Ampers which i think any 1050W psu cant hande return your psu within 14 days if its new and buy or exchange it for stronger and thank me im also waiting for stronger psu i ordered 1500W with 6 rails each 30 amp ... and will buy another two card propabbly 280x when available


ps:  also im running on other rig 4 cards with only 4gb ram and no problem any time ..

[joulesbeef]

always delete the bin files... before each testing.


try lantis's optomised kernals, they gave me a good boost.(they are linked in there somewhere)

also try turning off ulps(sometimes makes things worse for me but most times better) look in msi under settings near the bottom.

Also a big one for 7950 go into catalyst control center and turn power levels to +20%.... before I did this my card would cycle between 100% and 64% .. just constantly and I had about 560 now 650