Tuning my P104-100's. Low hash rates?

[Paycheck]

A month or so ago, I got 6 MSI P104-100 GPUs, and got them up and running in 3 PCs here.  They've always been stable.  

I mine through Nicehash and have the NBMiner 36.1 running on all 3 computers for consistency once I started noticing the hash rates.

First problem, 3 GPUs in one PC are mining about 25% faster than the other 3.  And with MSI Afterburner controlling the GPUs in all 3 computers (And Windows 7 Pro running on all 3), I started noticing the differences.  The 3 GPUs in one PC mine 25% faster than the other 3 GPUs spread across 2 other PCs.

In the "good" PC, NBMiner 36.1 runs the BeamV3 algorithm, and with the P104's on their stock settings (and they are all at 4GB of RAM, they haven't been BIOS updated to use all 8GB), they were getting me 19.2 to 19.4.... units, or megahashes, or Sols, or whatever unit of measurement BeamV3 uses.

After tweaking MSI Afterburner a bit, to 102% power limit, 80 degree C  temp limit (down from the stock 83, GPUs run in the low to mid 60s), +54 on the core clock and +707 on the memory clock, I was then getting 20.2 to 20.4 hash rates.  Is this good for BeamV3, or am I running slow?

Now the 2 P104's in my main PC, and the single P104 in another PC, they have all the same software and settings, but they were hashing BeamV3 in the mid 15's, and after applying the same MSI Afterburner tweaks, they were in the 16.2 to 16.3 range.

I don't know why the GPUs run such different speeds.  Ideas?

All 6 GPUs are running BIOS 86.04.7A.00.1D . I have GPU-Z on all 3 computers.

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[Paycheck]

Forgot to mention, all the GPUs are running driver version 461.09 .

[Paycheck]

I did some more troubleshooting.  In my main PC I have 2 P104's, each was hashing BeamV3 at 16.3 to 16.4.  In a separate mining PC with 3 P104's, they were all getting 20.3 to 20.4.  Same NBMiner program.

I had the bright idea to swap one P104 from one PC to the other, to see if the low hashrate problem follows the GPU.  And it didn't.  After exchanging one GPU between the 2 computers, each PC has the same hash rates it did before. 

So in these 2 PC's, something is messing up the hash rates.  But what? They're all 7 Pro 64 bit, same drivers, same mining programs on Nicehash, etc.

These 2 PCs are each running 16 GB of RAM, and the third has 10 GB.  Intel CPUs in all 3.

[Paycheck]

Thanks for all the useful answers so far.

[Paycheck]

I raised the temp limit back to the stock 83 C setting.  No change.  On my Gigabyte motherboard running 2 P104's, at 16.3 Sols, in the BIOS, under Miscellaneous settings, instead of "Auto", I used Gen 1, Gen 2, and Gen 3, none made much difference.

[philipma1957]

Did you try kapow?

Kapow may be a better choice for you to mine.

[Paycheck]

How do I do kapow mining?  Is it available on Nicehash?  I guess I'd need to use only a certain miner program to force it to use kapow?

[twan69666]

There are just so many factors to Windows mining like this between BIOS settings, cpus, memory sticks, and old school Windows 7 pro. You should look at Windows 10 to possibly get an apples to apples comparison since Windows 7 is EOL. If you have a couple of spare flash drives, giving HiveOS/Linux a shot in the short term might help even things out?

Anyway, yes, Nicehash supports KawPow natively. You'd just need to let it benchmark assuming you're running Nicehash.exe.

[Ceyflix-Rez]

I did some more troubleshooting.  In my main PC I have 2 P104's, each was hashing BeamV3 at 16.3 to 16.4.  In a separate mining PC with 3 P104's, they were all getting 20.3 to 20.4.  Same NBMiner program.

I had the bright idea to swap one P104 from one PC to the other, to see if the low hashrate problem follows the GPU.  And it didn't.  After exchanging one GPU between the 2 computers, each PC has the same hash rates it did before. 

So in these 2 PC's, something is messing up the hash rates.  But what? They're all 7 Pro 64 bit, same drivers, same mining programs on Nicehash, etc.

These 2 PCs are each running 16 GB of RAM, and the third has 10 GB.  Intel CPUs in all 3.

The question is why beam? Why not something like Ravencoin or turtle coin? I'm guessing those cards only have 4gb memory onboard? Have you even try using lolminer zombie mode? You could get better hashrate mining eth with lolminer

[Paycheck]

I didn't choose Beam for the GPUs to mine, that's the only option I get.  I'll look again for the Kapow benchmark in Nicehash.  And yes I do use the Nicehash mining client on all 3 PCs.

[Winscosinally]

I didn't choose Beam for the GPUs to mine, that's the only option I get.  I'll look again for the Kapow benchmark in Nicehash.  And yes I do use the Nicehash mining client on all 3 PCs.

Kawpow algorithm is more profitable on nvidia cards right now and also look into conflux, it's a coin running on octopus algorithm, it's far more profitable than even kawpow algorithm

[Paycheck]

Okay, here is a good update.  I downloaded the Nicehash OS to a flash drive, and put in my wallet ID, but no worker name yet.  I shut down my mining PC that had 3 P104-100s in it, disconnected the hard drive, and booted it up from the flash drive running Nicehash OS.

Well they were right, it certainly is a lightweight client!  It has barely enough text on the screen on a black background to let you know it is running, and that's about it.  

Under the list of the 3 GPUs, it says "WARNING!  Onboard GPU detected. Please disable onboard GPU in BIOS.".  Well, I need that onboard graphics turned on so I can see the screen.

So it got all 3 GPUs mining, and my Nicehash stats screen was showing each GPU cranking 17.2 to 17.3 in Kawpow (a dumb name, Kapow would be better).  Is 17.2-17.3 a good speed for these GPUs in Kawpow?  With no stats on the monitor, I have no idea what I have for rejects or invalid shares.  BTC per 24 hours is about double what I was getting in BeamV3.  My Kill-a-watt meter is showing 622 watts draw, compared to 617 with the same pc at stock clock speeds and tunings under Windows 7.

So all is good and after about 10 minutes... the whole PC rebooted.  I'll watch and see if it keeps doing that.

A few new questions:

1. Why does the Nicehash OS have no problem using Kawpow, but I couldn't get it to use anything other than BeamV3 when running under Windows 7?
2. How do I tune the GPU clocks and voltages for better performance?  I don't think MSI Afterburner will work on this Linux OS install.  EDIT - I read the online guide for Nicehash OS, I see how I have to make clock changes.
3. Tell me more about this whole disabling the onboard GPU thing it is warning me about.
4. How do I do.... ANYTHING in Nicehash OS?  Is there a list of key commands somewhere that will display other things on the screen?

If it is successful, I'll reflash the USB drive with worker names, as it is, I just put in my wallet address and nothing else.

[Paycheck]

Good news since yesterday.  I downloaded the Nicehash Linux operating system (NHOS) to 2 flash drives and got 2 of my 3 mining PCs up and running on it.  It took a little while to figure out the details, and what to read and look for in the config file, but before long I was able to go in and adjust overclocks with no problem.  My main PC is setup with a second hard drive, so I can restart it and boot into Linux Mint easily by just hitting F12 and select the other disk, so I only had to do that to put the flash drives in and read the files and adjust them as needed.

For anyone who hasn't done it, you need to know the algorithm ID numbers so you know which parts to modify for overclocking.  Since I was mining Kawpow, it was ID #52, and it lists each GPU separately.

With the cpu power at 103 percent, cpu clock +50, and memory clock +700, my P104-100s are all right around 17.3 MHashes each in Kawpow.  I cleared out my Nicehash wallet right about midnight, so we'll see how long it takes to get back to $100 in it.  I've had 3 payouts since last night of $2.87, $2.83, and $3.05 .

But I still don't understand why I can't make the Windows 7 PC mine anything other than BeamV3.  This is my main everyday PC, so changing it off Windows isn't an option.

But things are going better.

For my mining PC with 3 104's in it, it showed 622 watts draw before I applied the overclocking and 640 watts afterwards.

[Paycheck]

Pop up.  The miners have been running smoothly on NHOS all week, but I still don't know why the Window machine will only mine BeamV3.  Why is this?