3 x 6970 in Windows...Help needed (.5 BTC bounty) [SOLVED]

[the joint]

Hello,

So, I just set up my new gaming/mining rig.  I'm running Windows 7 64-bit, and currently my 3 6970's are connected via crossfire bridges.

When I launch GUIminer with crossfire enabled, all 3 cards generate the output of 1 card (about 370-380 m/hash at stock speeds.  If I turn off crossfire in Catalyst Control Center, one card gets all 370-380 m/hash and the other 2 generate 1 m/hash.

My questions:
1)  Do I need to take off the crossfire bridges?
2)  Will I need HDMI dummy plugs for the other 2 cards?

Thanks in advance

[1715118860]

1715118860

[1715118860]

1715118860

[1715118860]

1715118860

[1715118860]

1715118860

[tinman951]

I have heard that the 6970 doesn't work well with guiminer.  But that it works great with diablo miner.

[the joint]

I prefer GUIminer due to familiarity.  Anyone else?

[the joint]

Update:  Tried disconnecting Crossfire bridges and still have the same problem.


Advice please? Anybody who can fix this for me gets .5 BTC

[bittenbob]

Update:  Tried disconnecting Crossfire bridges and still have the same problem.


Advice please? Anybody who can fix this for me gets .5 BTC

I think you should try diablo miner.

Also what is your CPU usage like while you are mining?

I have not tried mining with multiple cards but I might be able to help. Have you tried different miners in guiminer and what kernel are you using? I find the phatk kernels with polcbm to be vastly superior to my 6950 which is a 6970 with locked cores but that is only with one.

One more thing to try is to reduce the aggression on the mining as this may be causing a limitation

[EDIT]

Also try just running 2 cards to see if you have the same problem. I would assume you have a 1000W P/S you are powering these cards with. I dont think that would be a problem though as likely the power supply would blow up if it were overloaded.

[the joint]

Update:  Tried disconnecting Crossfire bridges and still have the same problem.


Advice please? Anybody who can fix this for me gets .5 BTC

I think you should try diablo miner.

Also what is your CPU usage like while you are mining?

I have not tried mining with multiple cards but I might be able to help. Have you tried different miners in guiminer and what kernel are you using? I find the phatk kernels with polcbm to be vastly superior to my 6950 which is a 6970 with locked cores but that is only with one.

One more thing to try is to reduce the aggression on the mining as this may be causing a limitation

[EDIT]

Also try just running 2 cards to see if you have the same problem. I would assume you have a 1000W P/S you are powering these cards with. I dont think that would be a problem though as likely the power supply would blow up if it were overloaded.

Honestly, I'm exhausted at the moment (haven't sat down in 18 hours) and I don't really know anything about kernals, aggression settings,  and have never experimented with other miner programs.

I have a 1050W PSU.

If you have any other advice, leave it here and I will check it tomorrow or Friday when I get a chance.  Bounty is still on the table and it may be increased if this is really a pain in the ass.

Thanks so far

(BTW, an explanation of kernals and aggression would be awesome!)

[BCMan]

 Have you tried to run 3 different instances of guiminer? I can't even get it to work with 2nd tab opened in one instance.

[bitlane]

Check your driver version (I like 11.8, no dummy plugs needed).
Make sure you are selecting the appropriate DEVICES in GuiMiner (Cayman 0-1, 1-1, 2-1 etc), when setting up the 2nd and 3rd card mining Tabs.
No Crossfire Fire.

[bluefirecorp]

Try installing OpenCL manually (I had to on all my computers):
C:\ATI\Support\11-12_vista64_win7_64_dd_ccc_ocl\Packages\Apps\OpenCL64

Was my location for 11.12...also no need for dummy heads.

Also, make sure python is installed [if you are using poclbm or something].

Good site for automatic installs:

http://www.ninite.com

[RandyFolds]

Also try just running 2 cards to see if you have the same problem. I would assume you have a 1000W P/S you are powering these cards with. I dont think that would be a problem though as likely the power supply would blow up if it were overloaded.

My 3x6970 rig drew right about 800w at the wall doing 1.2gh/s.

[bittenbob]

Also try just running 2 cards to see if you have the same problem. I would assume you have a 1000W P/S you are powering these cards with. I dont think that would be a problem though as likely the power supply would blow up if it were overloaded.

My 3x6970 rig drew right about 800w at the wall doing 1.2gh/s.

That sounds about right. You should always design for about 80% with PSU so you have some headroom. Have you tried a BIOS update to see if it is just a firmware issue?

[the joint]

Bounty goes to BitLane

BitLane, please send me your BTC address and I will send you .5 BTC.  Be advised that I will not be able to send until later today because I need to buy a new network cable.  After you post your address, I will post again after I have sent the .5 BTC. 

I think you got lucky   I was very tired last night and made the dumb mistake of opening 3 tabs but NOT changing the devices from Cayman-0 to Cayman-1 and Cayman-2.

Thanks for the easy fix!

[bitlane]

Bounty goes to BitLane

BitLane, please send me your BTC address and I will send you .5 BTC.  Be advised that I will not be able to send until later today because I need to buy a new network cable.  After you post your address, I will post again after I have sent the .5 BTC. 

I think you got lucky   I was very tired last night and made the dumb mistake of opening 3 tabs but NOT changing the devices from Cayman-0 to Cayman-1 and Cayman-2.

Thanks for the easy fix!

Glad to see you got it fixed. Although I didn't offer up the advise for the bounty, I will accept it none the less
Thanks.

1WgDXsc8b9QjnyV74Q2wMGzrz5AK4zod1

[bitlane]

If I could offer up 1 more small, but hopefully relevant piece of advise ? (no charge....unless you think it's worth something...lol)

Ditch GUIMiner and get on the CGMiner train.

I use it on all my Win7 x64 machines and it rocks. It has the ability to use a config file, but I still find it easier to launch it from a BAT file.

1- Create a new TXT file in Windows.

2- Paste in the following (change where needed)

start /affinity 1 cgminer -o http://YOURPOOL.COM:8332 -u YOURUSERNAME -p YOURPASSWORD -I 9 --gpu-engine XXX --gpu-memclock 300 --auto-fan --temp-target 69

3- Close TXT File, SAVE, RENAME the file something.BAT (have 'hide known file extensions' disabled, or it will remain a TXT file, regardless of extension)

4- Right-Click the BAT file, choose EDIT (opens in Notepad), Make the required changes, adding your POOL, USERNAME, PASSWORD, GPU Clock Speed (replace XXX). CLOSE/SAVE

5- DOWNLOAD the latest CGMiner (2.1.2) for Win32 (no x64 version, doesn't matter, runs fine). Unzip it anywhere you like.
Thread - https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=28402.0  .........  Direct Download Link (From Developer) - http://ck.kolivas.org/apps/cgminer/cgminer-2.1.2-win32.zip

6- CUT/PASTE the something.BAT file into your CGMiner directory and Double-Click it.....VOILA!


The above CMD is set to run MEM @ 300Mhz and your Target Temp with Auto Fan control at 69C, but these values can be changed also.
Regardless of whatever driver, the CMD is also set to run on a single CPU core, rather than 100%, or all 4 cores of your Quad Core, if that's what you have (affinity = quick fix for 100% CPU Bug).

This will automatically control all 3 of your cards and give you 2 mining threads per card (default setting). Once you get your 'feet wet' with it, you can explore more options.
What I provided above is a basic (pretty much what I use exactly) setup for most of my cards, including my quad 6950 Miners (using I=9 Intensity as above).

Give it a try....you WON'T be dissapointed.

CGMiner replaces Overclocking Software, Fan Control and Miner - ALL IN ONE

[the joint]

Bounty goes to BitLane

BitLane, please send me your BTC address and I will send you .5 BTC.  Be advised that I will not be able to send until later today because I need to buy a new network cable.  After you post your address, I will post again after I have sent the .5 BTC. 

I think you got lucky   I was very tired last night and made the dumb mistake of opening 3 tabs but NOT changing the devices from Cayman-0 to Cayman-1 and Cayman-2.

Thanks for the easy fix!

Glad to see you got it fixed. Although I didn't offer up the advise for the bounty, I will accept it none the less
Thanks.

1WgDXsc8b9QjnyV74Q2wMGzrz5AK4zod1

.5 BTC sent about 10 seconds ago  

BTW, Ill try out the CGMiner sometime soon.

[bitlane]

GOT IT ! thanks.

As far as CGMiner, make sure and give it a try. You will LOVE IT.

[the joint]

GOT IT ! thanks.

As far as CGMiner, make sure and give it a try. You will LOVE IT.

No problem

[jjiimm_64]

If I could offer up 1 more small, but hopefully relevant piece of advise ? (no charge....unless you think it's worth something...lol)

Ditch GUIMiner and get on the CGMiner train.

I use it on all my Win7 x64 machines and it rocks. It has the ability to use a config file, but I still find it easier to launch it from a BAT file.

1- Create a new TXT file in Windows.

2- Paste in the following (change where needed)

start /affinity 1 cgminer -o http://YOURPOOL.COM:8332 -u YOURUSERNAME -p YOURPASSWORD -I 9 --gpu-engine XXX --gpu-memclock 300 --auto-fan --temp-target 69

3- Close TXT File, SAVE, RENAME the file something.BAT (have 'hide known file extensions' disabled, or it will remain a TXT file, regardless of extension)

4- Right-Click the BAT file, choose EDIT (opens in Notepad), Make the required changes, adding your POOL, USERNAME, PASSWORD, GPU Clock Speed (replace XXX). CLOSE/SAVE

5- DOWNLOAD the latest CGMiner (2.1.2) for Win32 (no x64 version, doesn't matter, runs fine). Unzip it anywhere you like.
Thread - https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=28402.0  .........  Direct Download Link (From Developer) - http://ck.kolivas.org/apps/cgminer/cgminer-2.1.2-win32.zip

6- CUT/PASTE the something.BAT file into your CGMiner directory and Double-Click it.....VOILA!


The above CMD is set to run MEM @ 300Mhz and your Target Temp with Auto Fan control at 69C, but these values can be changed also.
Regardless of whatever driver, the CMD is also set to run on a single CPU core, rather than 100%, or all 4 cores of your Quad Core, if that's what you have (affinity = quick fix for 100% CPU Bug).

This will automatically control all 3 of your cards and give you 2 mining threads per card (default setting). Once you get your 'feet wet' with it, you can explore more options.
What I provided above is a basic (pretty much what I use exactly) setup for most of my cards, including my quad 6950 Miners (using I=9 Intensity as above).

Give it a try....you WON'T be dissapointed.

CGMiner replaces Overclocking Software, Fan Control and Miner - ALL IN ONE

agreed, but I still use the config file:

start /affinity 1 cgminer -c myconfigfile.conf

[hmblm1245]

GOT IT ! thanks.

As far as CGMiner, make sure and give it a try. You will LOVE IT.

+1 made the switch a few months ago and will never look back.

[bitcool]

GOT IT ! thanks.

As far as CGMiner, make sure and give it a try. You will LOVE IT.

works great.