Where to find info on how to tweak a video card?

[elrodvoss]

Pardon the newbie question, but a quick search didn't give me any good results. 

My current start up system, has a Nvidia 550 TI and a newly added Sapphire 5850.

I know its a miss-mash of cards but I was a Nvidia fan before I started into the BitCoin project.  Now slowly going to ATI.

What I am interested in is where do I get the software to control the video card and tweak the settings that I see everyone posting about.

Currently the 5850 is getting around 270-285 Mhash/s using the -v -w128 flags, but that is stock card/settings using the most current drivers.

Thanks in advance.

-elrodvoss

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[DeaDTerra]

I recommend getting either msi afterburner or Sapphire trixx, both are really good programs for overclocking
https://www.sapphireselectclub.com/ssc/TriXX/TriXX.aspx
http://event.msi.com/vga/afterburner/download.htm
Both programs can be used to overclock as well as controll fan speeds, what I recommend is starting of which setting up a fan curve in either of these programs and then slowly increasing the core clock while taking down the memory clock of the 5850 down to 300. That is how you will get the best results, when the computer starts to crash you have gone to far and you have to reduce the clock

//DeaDTerra

[P4man]

First of all, dont use the most current ATI drivers for mining. They suck. Go back to 11.10 drivers or so.
To manage your videocard fans, clocks, voltages etc, Id recommend installing cgminer. Its a miner app with everything you need to manage the card. It may be a little daunting initially, but if you read the documentation im sure you'll get it figured out.

Also, forget about the 550 for mining. Keep it for gaming if you want, or sell it and buy another ATI card if you want to mine bitcoins.

[jake262144]

Roger that, just follow P4's advice and never look back. One program will take care of mining, overclocking, and thermals.
One miner to rule them all, so to speak

[elrodvoss]

Hey everyone,

Ive made a little progress.  I have not dived into the "farming" market yet, as that is about a $2000 investment for what I want to strive for, but I have upgraded my system a bit and doing Much better then before.

Alas, since I am still learning much about this and have not gone to another OS yet or move away from GUIMiner I wanted to get your help on another thing on tweaking.


Currently I have a XFX 5850 (just got it) and a Sapphire 5850 (had about 2 weeks).  I removed and uninstalled the Nvidia 550 TI completely. 

Using some of the info from the boards and this post I have gotten the XFX running at 900 Core & 400 Memory.  It is currently running about 330-350 Mhash/s.  This number is of course me just looking at it on the screen for a few seconds. 

Now I used the Sapphire TriXX Utility, currently running 11.10 drivers. 

Now the TriXX does not give you an option to choose which driver to tweak.  I do have "synchronize cards in multi-GPU config" checked, but the Sapphire card is still running about 280-290 Mhash.  Which is what both of them were running before I tweaked them.  So I assume the Sapphire is NOT OCed.

I have attempted to use the MSI version, but it will not let me save the Core or the Memory settings, though it will allow me to select each one as I need them.

Is the Sapphire one not able to OC or do I need something else to unlock it?

Thanks in advance for the help.

[phr0stbyt3]

It's my understanding that you need to unlock the bios to achieve higher clock speeds.
My 4x 5850's are maxed at 775 mhz and I haven't quite figured out how to unlock them yet.

[Miner612]

Crazy thing called Google, might be a place to start.

[phr0stbyt3]

Crazy thing called Google, might be a place to start.

"Here, let me google that for you" was so last year.