7970 mining thread

[yochdog]

Now that several of us have these cards hashing away, I thought it would be nice to start a thread dealing with the how to best mine with it.

I am running 2x 7970's currently, and will have 4 mining by the end of the day.

Tidbits of info:

-Will not work with GUIminer
-Works great with Diablo
-Runs stable even with massive overclock


I am getting just over 600 MH/s per card with core set @ 1050 MHz.  Memory is underclocked to 600.  I had it clocked at 1100 at one point, but the increased hashing rate did not seem to justify the power usage.   


I am very ignorant on tweaking settings other than voltage and clocks, so I am hoping people smarter than me can add to this thread.  Lets figure out how to optimize these bad boys!

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[naz86]

read at tomshardware that all cards are rev design at the moment even the pcb is from the same manufacturer..... you should pick the cheapest

[jjiimm_64]

My 4x7970 xfx are hashing away happily at

v  1068
c  1125
m  1020

mh  2663

it was pulling 1025 watts at these setting, but I have since moved to a 220 line so I cannot tell now.

[despoiler]

Looks like I will be getting 3 or 4 7970s  Can I just assume ASUS has the best card?

Sapphire makes the best AMD cards. 

[jjshabadoo]

how many Jimm? you didn't say in your post.

[jjiimm_64]

how many Jimm? you didn't say in your post.

4 cards   xfx7970

[-ck]

I committed a little more 79x0 specific code and built a windows binary. Again, no idea if it works, nor if it performs, but here is a windows build:
http://ck.kolivas.org/apps/cgminer/temp/cgminer.exe

Just drop it into a 2.1.2 directory, replacing the existing exe.

[sveetsnelda]

Sapphire makes the best AMD cards. 

^This x 1000

[RyNinDaCleM]

Sapphire makes the best AMD cards. 

^This x 1000

Try to RMA it! 

[-ck]

I committed a little more 79x0 specific code and built a windows binary. Again, no idea if it works, nor if it performs, but here is a windows build:
http://ck.kolivas.org/apps/cgminer/temp/cgminer.exe

Just drop it into a 2.1.2 directory, replacing the existing exe.

Still broken it appears, never mind for now... Should change when I get a 7970 from the sponsor thread

[ssateneth]

Now that several of us have these cards hashing away, I thought it would be nice to start a thread dealing with the how to best mine with it.

I am running 2x 7970's currently, and will have 4 mining by the end of the day.

Tidbits of info:

-Will not work with GUIminer
-Works great with Diablo
-Runs stable even with massive overclock


I am getting just over 600 MH/s per card with core set @ 1050 MHz.  Memory is underclocked to 600.  I had it clocked at 1100 at one point, but the increased hashing rate did not seem to justify the power usage.   


I am very ignorant on tweaking settings other than voltage and clocks, so I am hoping people smarter than me can add to this thread.  Lets figure out how to optimize these bad boys!

The hash rate increase is completely justified if you keep it cool and don't increase voltage, since it'll be a linear increase of hashes and watts. Spend $20 for electricity and gain $50 from bitcoin or spend $40 for electricity and gain $100 from bitcoin? I think the choice is obvious.

[yochdog]

Now that several of us have these cards hashing away, I thought it would be nice to start a thread dealing with the how to best mine with it.

I am running 2x 7970's currently, and will have 4 mining by the end of the day.

Tidbits of info:

-Will not work with GUIminer
-Works great with Diablo
-Runs stable even with massive overclock


I am getting just over 600 MH/s per card with core set @ 1050 MHz.  Memory is underclocked to 600.  I had it clocked at 1100 at one point, but the increased hashing rate did not seem to justify the power usage.   


I am very ignorant on tweaking settings other than voltage and clocks, so I am hoping people smarter than me can add to this thread.  Lets figure out how to optimize these bad boys!

The hash rate increase is completely justified if you keep it cool and don't increase voltage, since it'll be a linear increase of hashes and watts. Spend $20 for electricity and gain $50 from bitcoin or spend $40 for electricity and gain $100 from bitcoin? I think the choice is obvious.

Thanks for the tip.....I will definitely keep that in mind. 

[tacotime]

Looks like I will be getting 3 or 4 7970s  Can I just assume ASUS has the best card?

Sapphire makes the best AMD cards.  

Most of the 7970s out right now are reference boards and are pretty much the same
Sapphire is just AMD's OEM branding and is mostly okay -- not great, not bad
XFX has by far the best warranty on their cards (lifetime)
Asus, Gigabyte and MSI all make good cards with decent aftermarket cooling options.  If you want a card that is going to live a long time, get something with solid cooling on the VRMs, RAM and GPU
Personally I would buy this one if you're on risers: http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/graphics/33697-gigabyte-radeon-hd-7970-oc-gv-r797oc-3gd/?page=14

[despoiler]

Looks like I will be getting 3 or 4 7970s  Can I just assume ASUS has the best card?

Sapphire makes the best AMD cards.  

Most of the 7970s out right now are reference boards and are pretty much the same
Sapphire is just AMD's OEM branding and is mostly okay -- not great, not bad
XFX has by far the best warranty on their cards (lifetime)
Asus, Gigabyte and MSI all make good cards with decent aftermarket cooling options.  If you want a card that is going to live a long time, get something with solid cooling on the VRMs, RAM and GPU
Personally I would buy this one if you're on risers: http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/graphics/33697-gigabyte-radeon-hd-7970-oc-gv-r797oc-3gd/?page=14

1) Sapphire makes the most AMD cards in the entire world
2) Sapphire has made AMD since the dawn of AMD time
3) because of 2) Sapphire has an R&D role with AMD
4) Sapphire makes all of the FirePro cards
5) regardless of branding Sapphire makes all of the dual GPU cards

Sapphire makes the best AMD cards.  XFX is nothing more than a tier 3 card maker.  That is why their warranty has to be so good.  Their cards suck.  

EDIT:Gigabyte, Asus, and MSI all make really good cards too.  I would consider them top tier makers along with Sapphire.

[sveetsnelda]

XFX finds any way possible to cut costs -- even if it means sacrificing long-term reliability.  Part of this is just good business sense I guess, but I find it completely obnoxious when I pay for a top-tier card and don't get any of the accessories with it (and pay the same price).  My Sapphire 7970s came with:

• Crossfire bridge
• 4-pin to 6-pin adapter
• 4-pin to 6-pin adapter
• 4-pin to 8-pin adapter
• DVI to VGA
• Mini DP to DP
• Mini DP to HDMI
• HDMI to DVI
• HDMI 1.4a cable

My XFX 7970s came with:

• Crossfire bridge
• HDMI to DVI
• a door hanger

They're the same price (although some vendors are marking up the Sapphire cards currently).  I only ordered the 2 XFX cards because they were the only ones in stock at the time.

Also, *every* non-ref Sapphire card I've ordered (and I've ordered a lot) have been absolutely top-notch.  Their coolers always seem to do such a good job at removing heat without needing some 5 pound gaudy HSF with flimsy fans (hi, Gigabyte).  Gigabyte's heatsinks themselves have been great though...

[jjiimm_64]

posting initial results of test:

2 rigs  each has:
mobo:  crosshair V
cpu:    phenomx4
psu:   seasonic 1250
mem:  4g 1600
all defaults

4x5970
filesys:    4g corsair mini  linuxcoin cgminer
voltage:  1.05
clocks:   820/300
killwatt:  1170
Mh:        2970

5x7970
filesys:    wd green 500g  win7  diablo
voltage:  1.056
clocks:   1049/685
killwatt:  1160
Mh:        3120


looks to me like the 7970 can/will compete head to head with the king

[ssateneth]

Newest version of HWiNFO64 supports reading VRM data (CHL8228):



Second entry looks to be the ram vreg.

I see you're underclocking ram. Can you try it with stock memory clocks (idk what it is, 1350?) and screenshot again? I'm curious as to where the extra power is going. My money is most of the extra power gets sucked by the GPU since it has to control the RAM. It's just a curiosity more than anything. Could also give me a point of refernce as to how much heat the ram is actually outputting. 0.5w/chip looks like no extra cooling is actually needed (heat can escape through the BGA and into the PCB). Even if its 2W/chip, I imagine the same will hold true.

[ssateneth]

I do notice the power draw -- and heat -- of the higher memory clock more than this would indicate. And I've just got the single card.

FWIW the newest Afterburner supports undervolting memory. I had trouble downclocking my memory with that version so I reverted to b10. I did try memory at 1.1550V when my memclock was ~685 and it seemed stable, no noticeable power draw change for me. The min voltage seemed to be 1.500V ... who knows, on a 4x rig maybe you could squeeze out 10W.

INteresting, thanks. I suppose power is being used somewhere that the two VRM sensors would indicate.

[film2240]

I'd be interested in getting one of these cards HD7970 (or HD7990 when its out).Only issue is the cost and that additional cost for upgrading my PSU.In UK both are expensive.
I saw was this: http://www.kikatek.com/product_info.php?products_id=241798&strAction=NoStock for £416.I noticed also that in UK a lot of these cards are out of stock.Could there be a high demand in UK for mining/gaming?

The hashrate (600MHash) is much better than my heavily OC'd HD6950 (which gives ~400Mhash/s stable as PSU can't seem to cope above this).Lets see,my HD6950 only cost me £177.50 whereas HD7970 costs £416 for a 200Mhash/s boost.So in UK,I'd be paying (£416 - £177.50) £238.50 extra just for a boost in 200Mhash/s so not a really good path for me yet.

In my case,you'd also have to factor an upgrade in PSU and the lesser value you'd get from my old one (current PSU is 5yrs old+) so that would add to costs even more.

I just wish that these HD7970s were much cheaper so I could get my hands on one.I wonder why it won't work with GUIMiner (thats the only mining app I can use as the others are too complex/cumbersome for me) ?

I'm happy to know that I can get 0.6GHash/s (600M/hashs) from 1 GPU.

[yochdog]

I'd be interested in getting one of these cards HD7970 (or HD7990 when its out).Only issue is the cost and that additional cost for upgrading my PSU.In UK both are expensive.
I saw was this: http://www.kikatek.com/product_info.php?products_id=241798&strAction=NoStock for £416.I noticed also that in UK a lot of these cards are out of stock.Could there be a high demand in UK for mining/gaming?

The hashrate (600MHash) is much better than my heavily OC'd HD6950 (which gives ~400Mhash/s stable as PSU can't seem to cope above this).Lets see,my HD6950 only cost me £177.50 whereas HD7970 costs £416 for a 200Mhash/s boost.So in UK,I'd be paying (£416 - £177.50) £238.50 extra just for a boost in 200Mhash/s so not a really good path for me yet.

In my case,you'd also have to factor an upgrade in PSU and the lesser value you'd get from my old one (current PSU is 5yrs old+) so that would add to costs even more.

I just wish that these HD7970s were much cheaper so I could get my hands on one.I wonder why it won't work with GUIMiner (thats the only mining app I can use as the others are too complex/cumbersome for me) ?

I'm happy to know that I can get 0.6GHash/s (600M/hashs) from 1 GPU.

Its all about density for me now.....MH/dollar is secondary.  Thus, I am basically down to only using 7970's and 5970's where they are able to fit.