Sapphire R9 280X Dual-X BIOS 15.041 - Low Hash

[Vyker]

Hello,

So it appears Sapphire made a change to their boards recently, all new stock of the Dual-X is arriving with BIOS 15.041 - Which has a really poor hash rate - I can't push it past 700kh/s.

Dropping it to 15.039 BIOS and you can forget about anything over 500kh/s.

15.040 has the temp throttling issue at 74c, this problem doesn't appear to be the case with the 15.041.

So I'm stuck on 15.041 and can't get high enough hash - remember these Dual-X's before the new batch arrived would push 750kh/s easily!

Has anyone else had this issue? is there a fix?

Thanks

[Gazza1]

15.041 BIOS does have throttle problem

[Vyker]

When does it trigger then?

I took it to 84C and was still happy at 690kh/s

[RussIT99]

I have one with the new bios (41) and I can just about get 730 (max) with 1050 core 1500 mem 1130 undervolt

[elpibemaxi]

I'm having the same issue...getting about 680 khs on my 280x dual-x with 041 bios...is there any other bios we can use? maybe another brand?

[Gazza1]

It's the vrm temps. 

[Vyker]

It's the vrm temps. 

Anything we can do about it?

[Delan]

Same card, same bios, same problem. Can't get above 708 Kh/s with this card and a engine clock of anything above 1050 lowers the hashrate.
Card gets 64C, but can't read the VRM temps as there are no VRM sensors anymore. Thinking of returning this card if there isn't a fix available.

Some more people seem to think the problem is the VRMs. This is probably a related post on a different forum:

Anyone can help me with updating my bios of a "Sapphire R9 280X OC Dual-X 3GB GDDR5 11221-07-20G"?

Here is the link.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0h262BAwjKuaVNvaWt1bWJpS1U/edit?pli=1

There was no timing or VRM issue in this one, but as it is a previously unseen version: https://www.dropbox.com/s/vp6e4u9oqlemofy/Sapphire_E210400-OX2_AGR.zip

Hi, I got the same card
i've used your bios linked, no changes, if i go over engine 1050 / memory 1500 hasrate down

i've try the vapor-x version too

Sapphire Radeon R9 280X Dual-X 3G GDDR5 OC UEFI Edition (11221-07-20G)    
Elpida   EDW2032BBBG
Try this one, it should work. It is the Vapor-X bios which has 20MHz higher engine clock.
There should be no throttling as the VRM temperatures are around 20°C lower.   https://www.dropbox.com/s/j584q8qh0rd6hyv/Sapphire_E21004_V44_K2_NT_AGR_ELP.zip

got the same perf and same pb going over 1050 / 1500
is there a way to boost those card?

orignal Bios Version       :  015.041.000.000.000000
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-Zrpt5MaTNPQ0RSZmRyV3AwRE0/edit?usp=sharing

tryed
Sapphire_E21004_V44_K2_NT_AGR Bios Version       :  015.039.000.001.000000
Sapphire_E210400-OX2_AGR    Bios Version       :  015.042.000.001.000000

got the same results

The VRM is probably overheating, a very common issue on recent Sapphire cards.
There is no timing issue with the original bios.

source: https://litecointalk.org/index.php?topic=12369.1215

And probably another related topic:
https://litecointalk.org/index.php?topic=13554.0

[elpibemaxi]

I am now getting about 730 kh/s on mine, using TC 8193, gpu clock 1065, memory clock 1500. Staying at 72-73C at the moment.
Also lowered my screen res to 1024x768, and made sure what is displaying on the screen is static. As soon as something is moving (cgminer window, or whatever) the hashes go down to about 690. Yes, I know, crazy.

[Delan]

I am now getting about 730 kh/s on mine, using TC 8193, gpu clock 1065, memory clock 1500. Staying at 72-73C at the moment.
Also lowered my screen res to 1024x768, and made sure what is displaying on the screen is static. As soon as something is moving (cgminer window, or whatever) the hashes go down to about 690. Yes, I know, crazy.

With those exact settings I get 717 Kh/s, so it's a bit better than before. First setting where a clock above 1050 isn't counterproductive.

[elpibemaxi]

Has anyone tried flashing a different bios? Maybe from the ones on this thread: https://litecointalk.org/index.php?topic=12369.225
I am a complete noob with flashing..maybe if someone gets good results I'd man up and do it   

[Delan]

Not tried it myself, but see my post above. Someone tried some different roms, but there were no changes for this new sapphire revision.
Some actually give worse results.

[barabashko]

I tryed different bioses, different configs, i have 10 of this fuking cards 
I dont know why they done this.
Now i allways go to think before buying this cards.
Vapor-x now comes also with this dumb 15.041 bios and trottles.

No guarantee that new cards wount come with this bug. Thinking about migration to other brand.

[gtac01]

Any solution to this problem? I have the same card and i can't get past 680 khs :/

[rcg]

Same problem here. Bought Sapphire Dual-X this week and cannot get over 650kH/s.
Tried flash bios a no sucess.

[Vyker]

What I've uncovered through reading many forum posts is that Sapphire "cheaped" out on their recent batches - Their cards are more inline with the likes of PowerColor, XFX, MSI etc...

The Memory Chips are no longer the better of the Hynix pairs, but are now from Elipda. And also the BIOS memory timings heat up the VRM's too much that the card throttles.

There are many optimised Dual-X BIOS's out there - but you'll need to extract your own one and allow TheStilt to modify from the litecoin forum [Google him]

Memory timings are confidential, and he works on the inside - donations is all he would like.

[rcg]

yeah 20 hours of optimizing cgminer.conf and now 730 kH/s stable per card. Orig bios 015.041.000.000,  no undervolting, GPU 1070, MEM 1500,  2 cards 660 W power consumption.  Seasonic bronze 850W.

[Vyker]

What voltage you running at?

[Jimpyone]

Hello,

So it appears Sapphire made a change to their boards recently, all new stock of the Dual-X is arriving with BIOS 15.041 - Which has a really poor hash rate - I can't push it past 700kh/s.

Dropping it to 15.039 BIOS and you can forget about anything over 500kh/s.

15.040 has the temp throttling issue at 74c, this problem doesn't appear to be the case with the 15.041.

So I'm stuck on 15.041 and can't get high enough hash - remember these Dual-X's before the new batch arrived would push 750kh/s easily!

Has anyone else had this issue? is there a fix?

Thanks

I am same but using the optimized SCRYPT kernel I get a steady 750 k/hs. I don't get throttled and havn't can't blame the BIOS for anything, it runs steady at 77 C it is set to overheat at 80 it hasn't gone higher than 81. Sometimes it runs at 75 C. The problem I am having is with the HW monitor and GPU-z doesn't show Vrm temps the sensors for it just don't seem to show anything.
 I am running the engine clock at 1070Mhz and the stock meclock and voltage and it has crashed while running cgminer due to errors but I have had running stable for about 48 hours wihtout a problem. However,  my PC has froze randomly while at very low load i.e. basically idle or browsing  possibly due to Ram or Vram.

[Vyker]

Thats good, can we get a bit more detail?

Can you share the optimised scrypt file?

How many cards you running on the rig? and what Driver version?

750kh/s on this card seems too good to be true.

Can we check that you are in fact using the same card as this one?

What is your memory manufacturer? Hynix AFR MFR or Elpida?

And lastly, your Card version are you using, should be written in the ( )'s on the BIOS version field on GPU-z

Thanks