Tweaking the 5970s

[MajorMiner]

With all the 5970 cards I hope folks find this info useful and share their experiences. I am running a total of 5x5970 in two mining systems under Windows 7 and GUIMiner.

Drivers:
ATI 11.7 drivers appear to be the most stable so far. I had absolutely miserable time trying to clock down the memory under 11.8 below 500, kept crashing. Under 11.7 I am able to clock down the memory to 250, and overclock the core to 785 without any problems and without screwing around with the voltage. At 785/250 I am squeezing around 720 MHs per card. I am sure I can squeeze a little bit more but I really like the 79C the cards settled at.

OCing Software:
I use the Sapphire Trixx 4.0.2 http://www.sapphireselectclub.com/ssc/TriXX/TriXX.aspx to handle the core overclocking and memory underclocking. Once the parameters are set, I kill Trixx and run the MSI Afterburner http://event.msi.com/vga/afterburner/download.htm because it has nice temp/GPU usage display that I can check remotely. If this doesnt sound very efficient, I apologize - I AM QUIRKY

Mining Software:
GUIMiner - Extra Flags -v -w256 -f1

Remote Access Software:
Teamviewer http://www.teamviewer.com/en/index.aspx its free and works great.

Thank you!

[Mousepotato]

Drivers:
Win7 64-bit
ATI 11.5/SDK 2.4

OCing Software:
Trixx for Core/Memory clocking
MSI Afterburner for fan control

910/300MHz/1.100v both cores

Mining Software:
Phoenix 1.50 with Phatk 2.2

VECTORS2 WORKSIZE=256 FASTLOOP=FALSE AGGRESSION=11 -k phatk

Remote Access Software:
N/A

Results:
411 MH/s per core

[MajorMiner]

TeamViewer lets you log in remotely, even though a smart-phone  

I am proficient with Linux, but I also dragged a bunch of my friends into Bitcoin mining, so I had to set up and debug a newbie friendly rig that could be easily replicated without me having to teach Linux and answer questions at odd hours  , hence the Windows 7 setup. I also got a Backtrack 5 R1 based setup that runs off a 16GB Micro SD but thats a story for another time...

[MajorMiner]

Drivers:
Win7 64-bit
ATI 11.5/SDK 2.4

OCing Software:
Trixx for Core/Memory clocking
MSI Afterburner for fan control

910/300MHz/1.100v both cores

Mining Software:
Phoenix 1.50 with Phatk 2.2

VECTORS2 WORKSIZE=256 FASTLOOP=FALSE AGGRESSION=11 -k phatk

Remote Access Software:
N/A

Results:
411 MH/s per core

Nice! How are your temps? Is it a cased or caseless setup?

[Mousepotato]

Nice! How are your temps? Is it a cased or caseless setup?

Cased, but with the side off.  C1@74C and C2@86-87C.  I've actually clocked it up to 950MHz per core and got 425-427 MH/s out of it, but the fan was at 100% and C2 was cresting 100C.  It's not worth a few extra MH/s to put that kind of thermal stress on my new card

[mikethebodacious]

Drivers:
Win7 64-bit
ATI 11.6/SDK 2.4

OCing Software:
MSI Afterburner

850/250MHz/1.100v both cores, fan @ 60% with 79C GPU temp and 90C on VRMs

Mining Software:
GUI Miner with modified Phatk kernal

-k phatk VECTORS BFI_INT AGGRESSION=13 fastloop=FALSE WORKSIZE=256

Results:
380 MH/s per core
 
Just got the card so I'm trying not to OC it too much until I burn it in for a week.  Started on stock clocks and slowly went up 10MHz every 20 minutes, seems to help ease it into OC (that's what Furmark burn-in does).

My biggest recommendation would be to put 2x120mm high RPM fans over the card to lower the temps immensely on BOTH cores that way.  I wouldn't worry about dBA levels since this card cranks out 50+ dBA over 60% fan speed.  You'll get used to it, other than this card is a permanent blowdryer

[kjlimo]

Drivers:
Win7 64-bit
ATI 11.6/SDK 2.4

OCing Software:
MSI Afterburner

850/500MHz/1.075v both cores, fan @ 77% with 77C GPU temp

Mining Software:
GUI Miner with poclbm

-v f30 w256

Results:
350 ~ 370 MH/s per core

[mikethebodacious]

Also: try downclocking your RAM to 300Mhz, 500 is too much (cgminer
will also do that for you, btw).

I agree, 300Mhz seems to be the sweet spot for most higher-end 5000 and 6000 series cards.  My 5770s are downclocked to 250Mhz even without it affecting the hashing rate.

[Sekioh]

I'm running a rig on windows with most services/startup disabled, though it's being a PITA right now, I can't get CCC to install/run at all so I can't seem to enable overclocking to tweak down the memory and nobody seems to be helpful to solve it. :| I've done wiped and reinstalled windows with fresh 11.6 and 11.8 and neither works, just get busy cursor for a second and the process activates in taskmanager but nothing ever comes up, all the third party clock tools have clock/memory greyed out and reports as range of 0-0.

I preferred windows because I had the disk on hand, and it's very easy to use built in windows RDP to doubleclick an icon and get native remote control for maintenance to run it headless. Every guide I see has you have to run two large commands to enable remote prompt, then another few larger complex lines to redirect the gui EVERY TIME you restart/want to log in, and that sounds like a bigger PITA.

[Sekioh]

Again, I would strongly suggest using cgminer.

It may be command line, but it runs on both windows and linux,
and on windoze, a simple .bat file will launch it at the click of a
mouse, and it will take care of _everything_ in one fell swoop:

    - mining
    - multiple GPUs
    - overclocking cores
    - underclocking mem
    - fan control

Fiddling with 3 different utilities is just not worth it.

Except that it doesnt D: the fan/memory/clock all report 0 and wont set or read. No third party do, something isn't right with CCC therefore nothing has API access to the cards. FRESH install of windows, FRESH install of driver+ccc set package... and... windows detects the card and can mine with them, thats it, over/underclocking even with cgminer. I did switch over from GUIMiner a few days ago, and had to switch back because GUIMiner I have the sleep flag set to keep the card cooler than 100*c (-s0.004 to be precise) D:

[CanaryInTheMine]

With all the 5970 cards I hope folks find this info useful and share their experiences. I am running a total of 5x5970 in two mining systems under Windows 7 and GUIMiner.

Why would anyone run Windows on dedicated rigs

Can your log in remotely when something needs restarting ?

because it works fine.
yes.

[Splirow]

I need help!

I am totally lost..... I have 3 5970's on MSI 890FXA GD70 with 1200W cooler master.

For some reason, MSI afterburner does not show GPU5 temp.. on the monitor. Why? (yes i checked the settings)

Also, why can the slider for the fan speed work? it work briefly 1-2 times when i first installed it....but now, nothing. I even uninstalled it and reinstalled it and still. I know i can set the setting to allow manual use. I did that.

[mikethebodacious]

I need help!

I am totally lost..... I have 3 5970's on MSI 890FXA GD70 with 1200W cooler master.

For some reason, MSI afterburner does not show GPU5 temp.. on the monitor. Why? (yes i checked the settings)

Also, why can the slider for the fan speed work? it work briefly 1-2 times when i first installed it....but now, nothing. I even uninstalled it and reinstalled it and still. I know i can set the setting to allow manual use. I did that.

In GPU-Z and MSI Afterburner the fan monitors don't work on the 5970.  Just set the fan speed manually in MSI Afterburner, you may have to apply and save settings several times for it to be at the proper fan speed you input.  Just listen to the fan speed and watch the fan RPM in GPU-Z to figure out the fan speed.  I really wouldn't worry about the GPU5 temp, the VRMs are what you need to keep an eye on.

[CanaryInTheMine]

With all the 5970 cards I hope folks find this info useful and share their experiences. I am running a total of 5x5970 in two mining systems under Windows 7 and GUIMiner.

Why would anyone run Windows on dedicated rigs

Can your log in remotely when something needs restarting ?

because it works fine.

And you have actually bought a Windoze license for
your dedicated miner ? That's neat. Next time you feel
overburdened by cash, let me know, I'm sure I can
help out 

You are a clueless soul.

[Mousepotato]

Again, I would strongly suggest using cgminer.

It may be command line, but it runs on both windows and linux,
and on windoze, a simple .bat file will launch it at the click of a
mouse, and it will take care of _everything_ in one fell swoop:

    - mining
    - multiple GPUs
    - overclocking cores
    - underclocking mem
    - fan control

Fiddling with 3 different utilities is just not worth it.

My experience with CGminer has been positive, though I don't think it's the best for all-out performance.  I suppose it works ok if you don't want to fiddle with command line parameters, but I like to fiddle, and I usually see about 2-3% better performance and less rejected shares with Phoenix with modded kernel.cl on all of my 5000-series cards.

[bou707]

^ what flags/ settings do you use? with cgminer

[jamesg]

My 5970s seem to be *much more* sensitive to ambient temperature than other cards like 5830s and 6950s. Needless to say, I have 4 cards out for replacement and have learned my lesson.

[Mousepotato]

Mmmh. My experience has been the exact opposite.

I've fiddled extensively with both phoenix and cgminer,
keeping track of all the latest kernels for the past month.

The latest release of cgminer beats phoenix hands
down, on hash rates, stales, and especially ease of
use (no more other programs to set fans, clocks, etc ...)

I wonder, have you tried it recently ? The guy who maintains
it is extemely active on it and produces a slew of new patches
and features for it pretty much every day.

TBH, I'm not sure what version of CGminer I have.  I downloaded it about two weeks ago though, but I'll give it another shot.  I didn't know there were optional parameters we can feed it.

[Splirow]

I have 3 5970 on a MSI 890FXA.... with only 1 monitor.

Do I need dummy plug? why? Seems like everything is working good now.

[MajorMiner]

I have 3 5970 on a MSI 890FXA.... with only 1 monitor.

Do I need dummy plug? why? Seems like everything is working good now.

Not if you are running 11.7 or later AMD drivers - no need for the dummy plugs