Any wisdom on optimizing 6970's?

[sveetsnelda]

I can reduce my 6970's mem to 300mhz (or lower) just fine with clocktweak- does this mean I have an unusual card?  Never did any BIOS mods or anything of the sort, just software OCing.

Clocktweak is for Windows.  Changing the 6970 memclock in Windows has never been a problem.  Linux is the issue...

[jjshabadoo]

Guys, CKolivas knows what he's talking about when it comes to cgminer and since he says he wosn some 69xx series cards, you can take the rest tio the bank. Sveetsnelda is helping me with linux, not windows.

Also, just an update. I'm going with 4 6970's on the board with a 480 rad, nice standard, stable water cooled set-up. Got all the stuff cheap, so I really don't feel the need to "max" everything out. This thing is going to live at someone else's house and I suck at networking so don't even feel like dealing with remote access. So I need this thing stable as hell. I'm going to take the extra two cards and put them into my dad's already water cooled gaming rig. He has plenty of water cooling already set-up to handle crossfire and he's a gamer. So I'm going to set him up with a nice 6970 crossfire rig and sell his water cooled gtx 470. When he's not gaming he can crank up afterburner or whatever windows tool we use and start the miner to make a few bucks.

Should work out just fine.

Thanks for the help and I'll report back when I have it set up.

[Fiyasko]

I can reduce my 6970's mem to 300mhz (or lower) just fine with clocktweak- does this mean I have an unusual card?  Never did any BIOS mods or anything of the sort, just software OCing.

Clocktweak is for Windows.  Changing the 6970 memclock in Windows has never been a problem.  Linux is the issue...

K, Cause i have a 6990, (yeah i know totally different in the hardcore aspects) and i can drop it's mem clock to 333 with the core at 925, Been running solid for 8months now

[cypherdoc]

I tried flashing the BIOS but the last few generations are hardware limited, not software so it had no effect (this is why I put the gpu-memdiff option in cgminer)

Negative.  The 6970 can have the memory clock changed easily with a BIOS flash.  I have 42 more recent cards all flashed with lower memclock and voltage.  There were problems with atiflash sending the correct commands to a certain ATMEL ROM though.  For a few of the cards, I had to pull them apart and temporarily short 2 pins on the ATMEL to disable write protection while the ROM was flashed.  This ATMEL chip was used on a lot of later 6970s.  Maybe you ran into this problem?  ATIFlash fixed this issue in 3.89:

Code:

Fix issue with flashing Atmel AT25F512B ROMs

With my XFX reference 6970s, I get 1580Mhash @ 683 watts on an OCZ ZX 1250W PSU.  (900Mhz/340Mhz @ 1.050).  They've been stable for months.  If this is a dedicated rig and you underclock the memory/undervolt the core, you can run 6 cards.  Definitely don't do this at stock clock/memory/voltage though.  Your PSU will hate you.


Totally unrelated -- thanks for CGMiner!  My mining operation would was so much more cumbersome before it existed.  Now that it's scaled up to 40Ghash, it would be a nightmare without it.  In fact, toying around with these 7970s has made me wonder how I dealt with it before.  I've silently tossed some donations your way here and there, but I said nothing because I wasn't looking for recognition.  Thanks for the good work!

can u give me a link to this atiflash utility for a cgminer rig with Win7 with 4 6970's please?

[jake262144]

ATIFlash 3.89 @techpowerup.com

[cypherdoc]

ATIFlash 3.89 @techpowerup.com

thanks Jake.

[jake262144]

NP Cypherdoc.
Remember that the flashing utility will require admin rights and be sure to start with creating a backup of your old bios.
Best of luck.

[cypherdoc]

NP Cypherdoc.
Remember that the flashing utility will require admin rights and be sure to start with creating a backup of your old bios.
Best of luck.

thanks to you guys i'm now pulling 400 Mh/s per card

[jake262144]

Is that bothering you? 

[jjshabadoo]

Which bios did you flash your 6970 cards to? just use the newest one or one in particular?

[the joint]

NP Cypherdoc.
Remember that the flashing utility will require admin rights and be sure to start with creating a backup of your old bios.
Best of luck.

thanks to you guys i'm now pulling 400 Mh/s per card

Hey cyperdoc, may seem like a dumb question, but how did you back-up you old bios?  In what folder are they located?

Also, after downloading the flash utility, what exactly happens?

I guess what I really want to know is this:  What steps did you take from the moment you downloaded the flash utility to when you were able to successfully lower your mem clock to below a -125 differential?

The reason I'm asking is because it's a very expensive computer and I want to make sure I don't jack something up through trial and error.

[jake262144]

Try that.
Worry about the flashed card, not the whole machine. It's not like it'll blow up in your face or melt down.
Don't flash until you have made (and verified) backups of your existing BIOSes. Use ATIFlash's -s switch for that.

[goxed]

Sapphire reference cards. They most definitely need a hardware modification to allow setting memory clock lower. There were some links showing how to do so with some wire and solder and shit and I decided against it <_<

You're most welcome and thanks for donations =)

Can you please post the link? I have a Weller soldering station, and would want to experiment a bit.

[-ck]

Sapphire reference cards. They most definitely need a hardware modification to allow setting memory clock lower. There were some links showing how to do so with some wire and solder and shit and I decided against it <_<

Can you please post the link? I have a Weller soldering station, and would want to experiment a bit.

It's in these forums somewhere but I would just be searching for it too, sorry, since I haven't kept the link.

[cypherdoc]

NP Cypherdoc.
Remember that the flashing utility will require admin rights and be sure to start with creating a backup of your old bios.
Best of luck.

thanks to you guys i'm now pulling 400 Mh/s per card

Hey cyperdoc, may seem like a dumb question, but how did you back-up you old bios?  In what folder are they located?

Also, after downloading the flash utility, what exactly happens?

I guess what I really want to know is this:  What steps did you take from the moment you downloaded the flash utility to when you were able to successfully lower your mem clock to below a -125 differential?

The reason I'm asking is because it's a very expensive computer and I want to make sure I don't jack something up through trial and error.

hey joint; you and i are in the same boat.  i haven't done it yet cuz like you the links aren't quite clear.  luckily i'm getting that 400 Mh/s w/o the flash.

[the joint]

NP Cypherdoc.
Remember that the flashing utility will require admin rights and be sure to start with creating a backup of your old bios.
Best of luck.

thanks to you guys i'm now pulling 400 Mh/s per card

Hey cyperdoc, may seem like a dumb question, but how did you back-up you old bios?  In what folder are they located?

Also, after downloading the flash utility, what exactly happens?

I guess what I really want to know is this:  What steps did you take from the moment you downloaded the flash utility to when you were able to successfully lower your mem clock to below a -125 differential?

The reason I'm asking is because it's a very expensive computer and I want to make sure I don't jack something up through trial and error.

hey joint; you and i are in the same boat.  i haven't done it yet cuz like you the links aren't quite clear.  luckily i'm getting that 400 Mh/s w/o the flash.

That's right where I'm at...400 Mh/s a card at 890/765 with +3 powertune, 95% fan with the hottest card sitting at right around 79C.  I'd feel much better if my hottest card was at 70C, or if I could at least drop my fan below 70%.  Sucks not being able to adjust the voltage either.

[cypherdoc]

NP Cypherdoc.
Remember that the flashing utility will require admin rights and be sure to start with creating a backup of your old bios.
Best of luck.

thanks to you guys i'm now pulling 400 Mh/s per card

Hey cyperdoc, may seem like a dumb question, but how did you back-up you old bios?  In what folder are they located?

Also, after downloading the flash utility, what exactly happens?

I guess what I really want to know is this:  What steps did you take from the moment you downloaded the flash utility to when you were able to successfully lower your mem clock to below a -125 differential?

The reason I'm asking is because it's a very expensive computer and I want to make sure I don't jack something up through trial and error.

hey joint; you and i are in the same boat.  i haven't done it yet cuz like you the links aren't quite clear.  luckily i'm getting that 400 Mh/s w/o the flash.

That's right where I'm at...400 Mh/s a card at 890/765 with +3 powertune, 95% fan with the hottest card sitting at right around 79C.  I' feel much better if my hottest card was at 70C, or if I could at least drop my fan below 70%.  Sucks not being able to adjust the voltage either.

hmmm.  i use 950/850,  powertune +20 for both my machines.  the one with 3 Sapphires (2 very close) in a case turned on its side with cards vertical with the side panel off and an external fan keeps the temps @70C.  the other machine has 2 Powercolors with good separation with the side panel off with temps @79.5 and 73.5C

[the joint]

NP Cypherdoc.
Remember that the flashing utility will require admin rights and be sure to start with creating a backup of your old bios.
Best of luck.

thanks to you guys i'm now pulling 400 Mh/s per card

Hey cyperdoc, may seem like a dumb question, but how did you back-up you old bios?  In what folder are they located?

Also, after downloading the flash utility, what exactly happens?

I guess what I really want to know is this:  What steps did you take from the moment you downloaded the flash utility to when you were able to successfully lower your mem clock to below a -125 differential?

The reason I'm asking is because it's a very expensive computer and I want to make sure I don't jack something up through trial and error.

hey joint; you and i are in the same boat.  i haven't done it yet cuz like you the links aren't quite clear.  luckily i'm getting that 400 Mh/s w/o the flash.

That's right where I'm at...400 Mh/s a card at 890/765 with +3 powertune, 95% fan with the hottest card sitting at right around 79C.  I' feel much better if my hottest card was at 70C, or if I could at least drop my fan below 70%.  Sucks not being able to adjust the voltage either.

hmmm.  i use 950/850,  powertune +20 for both my machines.  the one with 3 Sapphires (2 very close) in a case turned on its side with cards vertical with the side panel off and an external fan keeps the temps @70C.  the other machine has 2 Powercolors with good separation with the side panel off with temps @79.5 and 73.5C

Damn, by your numbers I would think you'd be getting way more m/hash than I am.  +20 powertune?  Is that OK for a card?

[cypherdoc]

NP Cypherdoc.
Remember that the flashing utility will require admin rights and be sure to start with creating a backup of your old bios.
Best of luck.

thanks to you guys i'm now pulling 400 Mh/s per card

Hey cyperdoc, may seem like a dumb question, but how did you back-up you old bios?  In what folder are they located?

Also, after downloading the flash utility, what exactly happens?

I guess what I really want to know is this:  What steps did you take from the moment you downloaded the flash utility to when you were able to successfully lower your mem clock to below a -125 differential?

The reason I'm asking is because it's a very expensive computer and I want to make sure I don't jack something up through trial and error.

hey joint; you and i are in the same boat.  i haven't done it yet cuz like you the links aren't quite clear.  luckily i'm getting that 400 Mh/s w/o the flash.

That's right where I'm at...400 Mh/s a card at 890/765 with +3 powertune, 95% fan with the hottest card sitting at right around 79C.  I' feel much better if my hottest card was at 70C, or if I could at least drop my fan below 70%.  Sucks not being able to adjust the voltage either.

hmmm.  i use 950/850,  powertune +20 for both my machines.  the one with 3 Sapphires (2 very close) in a case turned on its side with cards vertical with the side panel off and an external fan keeps the temps @70C.  the other machine has 2 Powercolors with good separation with the side panel off with temps @79.5 and 73.5C

Damn, by your numbers I would think you'd be getting way more m/hash than I am.  +20 powertune?  Is that OK for a card?

so i've been told.

[jake262144]

Cypherdoc, you got a kill-a-watt there?
Did the hash rate budge an inch when you went from 0 powertune to +20%? Did the temps rise?
The reason I'm asking is, some cards will just lie about powertune status. My asus reports success with every powertune value but clearly ignores it.