3x7970 Mining Results.

[m3sSh3aD]

The real question is how did he do it and not crash the card.

Why would the card crash? Odd...

Easy to do.. Get MSI AB Beta 10. Set mem to min, apply.. close, open, set to min again, apply, close, repeat again...

Same with trixx but you dont have to close trixx to do it

[yochdog]

fuck, updated the OP again with correct single card wattage.

OP - may be a silly question, but I haven't figured out how to get the voltage down that low yet.. what tool are you using?

thanks!

MSI Afterburner. Make sure you set overclocking mode to 2.

where does one set the mode to 2? 

[portron]

fuck, updated the OP again with correct single card wattage.

OP - may be a silly question, but I haven't figured out how to get the voltage down that low yet.. what tool are you using?

thanks!

MSI Afterburner. Make sure you set overclocking mode to 2.

where does one set the mode to 2?  

It's in the Afterburner config file.. MSIAfterburner.cfg

UnofficialOverclockingEULA   =
UnofficialOverclockingMode   =
AccessibilityCheckingPeriod   =

Edit here's a link explaining it:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=18102.0

[Elmojo]

Hi guys,
I just got my first 7970 installed and running...kinda.
My system has my GTX480 installed with a water block for general computing and gaming.
The 7970 is currently on the stock (air) cooler, but may be water cooled shortly, and will be a mining-only card.

Here's my issue(s):
I'm trying to duplicate the OP's settings for a single card, on air.
I've installed MSI afterburner beta 12 (latest) and tried tweaking the cfg file as directed in multiple places.
The problem is that the card seems to be mostly ignoring the settings from AB.
I've disabled overdrive in the Catalyst control panel.
The screenshot attached shows the closest I have been able to get.
In fact, I have to go into the AB cfg file and turn the "UnofficialOverclockingMode" switch back to 0 (not 1 or 2), or AB refuses to let me change anything but the core clock. (EDIT: Core Voltage, not Core Clock)
With "UnofficialOverclockingMode" set to 0, I get what's shown in the screenshot.
I can slide the Mem clock down to 710, but that's it. I tried closing/reopening AB, but it stays at 710 and doesn't allow me to go further.
My card is the XFX Black Edition, if that matters.
I've tried about every combination of config file settings, with and without the EULA statement, reinstalling AB, etc...
I'm lost!
Can anyone shed some light here?
-Elmojo

*NOTE: The temps shown in the screenshot are not stable temps, it was just getting going at that point. It levels off at about 82c @ 55% fan  O.o
http://img828.imageshack.us/img828/8513/loweststable.jpg

[waterboyserver]

Hi guys,
I just got my first 7970 installed and running...kinda.
My system has my GTX480 installed with a water block for general computing and gaming.
The 7970 is currently on the stock (air) cooler, but may be water cooled shortly, and will be a mining-only card.

Here's my issue(s):
I'm trying to duplicate the OP's settings for a single card, on air.
I've installed MSI afterburner beta 12 (latest) and tried tweaking the cfg file as directed in multiple places.
The problem is that the card seems to be mostly ignoring the settings from AB.
I've disabled overdrive in the Catalyst control panel.
The screenshot attached shows the closest I have been able to get.
In fact, I have to go into the AB cfg file and turn the "UnofficialOverclockingMode" switch back to 0 (not 1 or 2), or AB refuses to let me change anything but the core clock. (EDIT: Core Voltage, not Core Clock)
With "UnofficialOverclockingMode" set to 0, I get what's shown in the screenshot.
I can slide the Mem clock down to 710, but that's it. I tried closing/reopening AB, but it stays at 710 and doesn't allow me to go further.
My card is the XFX Black Edition, if that matters.
I've tried about every combination of config file settings, with and without the EULA statement, reinstalling AB, etc...
I'm lost!
Can anyone shed some light here?
-Elmojo

*NOTE: The temps shown in the screenshot are not stable temps, it was just getting going at that point. It levels off at about 82c @ 55% fan  O.o
http://img828.imageshack.us/img828/8513/loweststable.jpg

Have you by any chance tried using Sapphire Trixx to manipulate clocking and voltage? I never needed to alter any config files, and I never tried AB, but I can configure my 7970 rather well with catalyst (latest drivers) or Trixx even if both run simultaneously (changing the settings on one overrides the other and vice versa).  The only issue I have is not being able to get my ram lower than 1150 MHz (according to GPU-Z), but not a major issue. Did you change the physical BIOS profile switch on your card?

[Elmojo]

Have you by any chance tried using Sapphire Trixx to manipulate clocking and voltage? I never needed to alter any config files, and I never tried AB, but I can configure my 7970 rather well with catalyst (latest drivers) or Trixx even if both run simultaneously (changing the settings on one overrides the other and vice versa).  The only issue I have is not being able to get my ram lower than 1150 MHz (according to GPU-Z), but not a major issue. Did you change the physical BIOS profile switch on your card?

I did try Trixx last night, but the interface wasn't as good as AB, and it didn't seem to work any better.
I totally forgot about the switch. Where is it? I don't see anything visible on the outside of the case.

[waterboyserver]

The bios profile switch is located right beside the crossfire fingers, its very small; I was only able to lower my memory clocks after setting the switch to the second profile, I do not know if the same will happen to your card.  Other than the switching the bios profile I guess the remaining options might be drivers or driver settings, but it guess you might have already tried both.  Unless if you decide to flash the bios profile (2nd profile), and set your own values for the card's default core voltage, core frequency, and memory speed: this approach would be more effective than AB or other programs, I seen it done, yet I never attempted it, I'm sure others control power consumption better with this approach in their mining rigs. If I am not mistaken you need to capture your video bios, edit to alter its power/frequency profile settings (if not all of them), then use ATIflash; that is as much as I know.  I don't know if this helps, if not hopefully you find a solution that might not need re-installing an OS.

[Elmojo]

The bios profile switch is located right beside the crossfire fingers, its very small; I was only able to lower my memory clocks after setting the switch to the second profile, I do not know if the same will happen to your card.  Other than the switching the bios profile I guess the remaining options might be drivers or driver settings, but it guess you might have already tried both.  Unless if you decide to flash the bios profile (2nd profile), and set your own values for the card's default core voltage, core frequency, and memory speed: this approach would be more effective than AB or other programs, I seen it done, yet I never attempted it, I'm sure others control power consumption better with this approach in their mining rigs. If I am not mistaken you need to capture your video bios, edit to alter its power/frequency profile settings (if not all of them), then use ATIflash; that is as much as I know.  I don't know if this helps, if not hopefully you find a solution that might not need re-installing an OS.

I did some checking, and discovered that the bios switch only flips between the "user accessible" (#1) and "factory default-Backup" (#2) bios.
It turns out that the issue is some changes AMD made to the latest drivers. It breaks compatibility with some of AB's features. The latest (12.x Beta) driver even disables the voltage AND Mem clock control!
The latest (Beta 14) version of AB restores the core clock unlock, but the "unofficial overclocking mode" does basically nothing anymore. Hopefully future versions of AB and AMD drivers will restore those options.

As far as flashing the bios, I'm all for that, but none of the current bios tools work with this card. GPU-Z can't read the bios, RBE can't edit the bios, ATIFlash can't write the bios; so we're kinda stuck with software options at the moment. Hopefully that will change soon as the development matures. FYI, any custom bios work would be done on bios 1, not 2.

However, on a more positive note, the +/- 20% slider still works in the settings menu of AB, and I'm currently able to run at 1150 core, 1375 mem @ 0.998v (-20%), hovering around 84c @ 52% fan.
This gives me ~680 Mh/s, so I'm pretty pleased. Once my water block comes in sometime this week, I'll have that way over 700 and will be nearly silent.

-Elmojo

[waterboyserver]

Oh man you will have a thrill on the waterblock. I am using the full card EK block, with the cold winter air outside I can reach 1300 MHz (+800 MH/z) on 1.1V at 32 degrees Celsius. Anything higher settings for the core results in artifacts and crashes (possible to reach 50% overclock with max overvolt on Trixx = 1375 MHz, but not feasible). I keep mine clocked conservatively at 1250 MHz (760-770 MH/z). Enjoy!

[Elmojo]

Yeah, I'm hoping the block helps.
Right now, I'm having other issues.
With the latest drivers, I have basically no overclocking ability.
I uninstalled AB, rebooted, and reinstalled it.
At that point, NOTHING worked right.
I had no voltage control, no mem control, no core control. The card wouldn't drop to 300/150 at idle anymore.
The core clock was stuck at 925, not even the 1000 that it defaults to!
I uninstalled AB again, shut down, switched to bios #2, and rebooted.
Now, I'm controlling the clocks with the built-in AMD overclocking panel.
I can get the core to 1125 and the mem down to 975, but still have no real control over voltage.
Most oddly of all, if I slide the power slider to anything less than 0%, the voltage goes UP. O.o
I'm running it at 0% right now, and I'm mining at about 675Mh/s @ 1.00v.
Once the water block is on, I'll investigate more.

[waterboyserver]

I never encountered your set of problems before.  I had trouble initially with the card after a few light overlclocks: the card would not boot up, and windows would artifact then crash if I opened any app (even driver settings) that involved using the gpu. I realized after a few hours the problem was in my motherboard (H55n), I tweaked with bios and found the most stability with an overclocked PCI-E bus at 120 MHz, I have no idea why this is. Afterwards, I was not able to alter the gpu core or mem clock (only gpu voltage), even in drivers settings page, because the card was set at ULPS mode (according to Trixx), I did a clean windows install and all problems went away (last option on the table). But I will be getting a new motherboard and cpu soon, I am curious to know what is the cause for your computer not allowing you to change clock settings, I hope I don't run into the same issue on my new setup.

[Elmojo]

FYI,
I'm running 3x7970 cgminer on Win 7 with
cores: 1150, 1130, 1150
memory: 800, 800, 800
It takes 850W from the wall.

Wow, that's awesome!
Not the clocks, the wattage. Mine pulls 750w
Granted, that's with 1x7970 and 2 monitors, plus the GTX480 doing desktop duty, but still....
How did you get the mem clocks that low? What tool/driver combo?

[Elmojo]

I'm running with catalyst 12.3, 8.95.0.0 driver.

Using AB, beta 14 with overclocking mode set to 2 (in cfg) and voltage control
setting enabled under settings.  AB is great, I can reboot and it preserves the OC settings.

That's odd, since AB voltage control doesn't work anymore with the 12.3 drivers for most people.
I can control the mem and core clocks in OC mode 2, but not the voltage. It's completely unavailable.
If I set the power slider in the settings menu to anything, it seems to have no effect.
I can't get my card over 1.016v to save my life!
It's buggin' me, since I think I could get my card over 1200 core, if I could pump up the juice a bit.
I tried downgrading to 12.1 drivers, but it absolutely refused to let me, even when I used ATIMAN to strip it all out and start from stratch.
In the end, I had to go back to 8.96 Feb 28 drivers to even get diablominer to run at all.
I kept getting "no OpenCL devices found" errors, like the SDK wasn't installed.
So frustrating....

[ZPK]

rus: http://radeon.ru/?select=more&f=2012_03&new=13
eng: http://vr-zone.com/articles/sapphire-demos-6gb-radeon-hd-7970-card-at-cebit-might-be-the-next-toxic-card/15149.html

[cmg5461]

How did you get your memclock < 710?  Did you bios flash?

[Roadhog2k5]

How did you get your memclock < 710?  Did you bios flash?

No, Just used MSI Afterburner.

[bulanula]

Are there any tools for Linux that support reading VRM, downclocking memory etc. for 7xxx ?

Thanks !

[Elmojo]

How did you get your memclock < 710?  Did you bios flash?

No, Just used MSI Afterburner.

More specifically, MSI AB on OC mode 2 will allow mem clocks less than core-150, but you lose the low power state idle options, if you care.

[ZPK]

in russia topic was 1 comment: then mem clock <1000 in cgminer man have trouble....many more HW

[ge0rgieee]

How did you get your memclock < 710?  Did you bios flash?

No, Just used MSI Afterburner.

I don't think it works anymore, I changed to mode=2, moved the slider all the way down to 340, saved, closed, reopened and the slider was still all the way down to 340