Any wisdom on optimizing 6970's?

[-ck]

I had an absolutely massive rise in hashrate going from 0 to 5% (more than 5%). Going from 5 to 20, on the other hand, would make hashrates fluctuate wildly, but ultimately be the same average as 5%. So it seemed to be more of transient turbo boost  at levels above 5%, but since mining goes 24/7, it ended up being the same. There is no documentation about what powertune really does. Nevertheless, if you're well within good heat ranges, and powertune is available, it is *well* worth trying. To me it appears to increase hashrate proportional to the amount of power it it uses which is perfectly valid as far as I'm concerned. No, I don't have hard at-the-wall numbers to prove this.

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[chiropteran]

Powertune simply sets a limit to power usage.  It was added because different applications stress the card differently, for example gaming running the card a full stock speed doesn't actually use as much power as running furmark at stock speed.  Default powertune tends to give enough power to mine at stock speeds (at least in my experience, on my one 6970), but if you are overclocking you might need a little more power budget.  I suspect that is why you saw the increase going from 0 to 5.  But once you have "enough" power, adding more potential power isn't going to give you any more performance, which is why the 6-20 range didn't show you any real improvement.

[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?

hey joint, made some progress.

downloaded MSI Afterburner beta and adjusted to 967/685 and it boosted me to 403-405 Mh/s.  left voltage at 1174 but could change it if i wanted.  any suggestions as to what level might help?

i modified the .cfg file for more underclocking but it didn't allow me to drop to 340 

slowly but surely.

[cypherdoc]

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.

sorry no kill a watt meter.  i wonder if i should buy one...

[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?

hey joint, made some progress.

downloaded MSI Afterburner beta and adjusted to 967/685 and it boosted me to 403-405 Mh/s.  left voltage at 1174 but could change it if i wanted.  any suggestions as to what level might help?

i modified the .cfg file for more underclocking but it didn't allow me to drop to 340 

slowly but surely.

Cypherdoc, I did a little more tweaking.  Bumped my clocks up to 920/795 with 5% powertune and I'm pulling around 405 mh/s also.  I must not have the right MSI Afterburner version because it won't allow me to voltage tweak and it won't let me bypass the -125 mem-diff.  What is the link to the Afterburner version you used?

Also, I tried messing with the intensity briefly but I didn't leave the adjustments on long enough to average it out -- I currently have intensity set at 9.  When I crank the intensity to 14 on cgminer, It shows around 410-415 m/hash, but I'm not sure if my efficiency is dropping.  I'll try leaving a single card at 14 overnight and see what happens.

[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?

hey joint, made some progress.

downloaded MSI Afterburner beta and adjusted to 967/685 and it boosted me to 403-405 Mh/s.  left voltage at 1174 but could change it if i wanted.  any suggestions as to what level might help?

i modified the .cfg file for more underclocking but it didn't allow me to drop to 340 

slowly but surely.

Cypherdoc, I did a little more tweaking.  Bumped my clocks up to 920/795 with 5% powertune and I'm pulling around 405 mh/s also.  I must not have the right MSI Afterburner version because it won't allow me to voltage tweak and it won't let me bypass the -125 mem-diff.  What is the link to the Afterburner version you used?

Also, I tried messing with the intensity briefly but I didn't leave the adjustments on long enough to average it out -- I currently have intensity set at 9.  When I crank the intensity to 14 on cgminer, It shows around 410-415 m/hash, but I'm not sure if my efficiency is dropping.  I'll try leaving a single card at 14 overnight and see what happens.

you have to modify the msiafterburner.cfg file:  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=37271.0

if it doesn't let you save the mods you have to go into properties and give yourself full edit privileges.

i just downloaded the beta version and it worked fine. 

[the joint]

Cypher, I read the thread you linked, but how do I modify it?  It's .cfg and doesn't open like notepad.

[cypherdoc]

Cypher, I read the thread you linked, but how do I modify it?  It's .cfg and doesn't open like notepad.

right click on it, choose edit in Notepad, enter mods, then save.

[the joint]

Cypher, I read the thread you linked, but how do I modify it?  It's .cfg and doesn't open like notepad.

right click on it, choose edit in Notepad, enter mods, then save.

I right clicked, went properties --> open with notepad --> adjusted "unofficialoverclockingmode =   2"  (was previously zero) -->  save (I have 'hide file extensions' unchecked)  and then opened MSI Afterburner.

It didn't work.  Where'd I go wrong?

Edit:  By "didn't work,"  I mean MSI Afterburner works but underclocking the memory does not.

Edit 2:  I might not have the Beta version.  When I downloaded to begin with, I clicked the top link on the left on this page:  http://event.msi.com/vga/afterburner/download.htm  and not the link below it (i.e. I clicked on 'Download MSI Afterburner" and not "Download the Latest Afterburner Beta." 

[cypherdoc]

Cypher, I read the thread you linked, but how do I modify it?  It's .cfg and doesn't open like notepad.

right click on it, choose edit in Notepad, enter mods, then save.

I right clicked, went properties --> open with notepad --> adjusted "unofficialoverclockingmode =   2"  (was previously zero) -->  save (I have 'hide file extensions' unchecked)  and then opened MSI Afterburner.

It didn't work.  Where'd I go wrong?

Edit:  By "didn't work,"  I mean MSI Afterburner works but underclocking the memory does not.

Edit 2:  I might not have the Beta version.  When I downloaded to begin with, I clicked the top link on the left on this page:  http://event.msi.com/vga/afterburner/download.htm  and not the link below it (i.e. I clicked on 'Download MSI Afterburner" and not "Download the Latest Afterburner Beta." 

did you put this part in?:

UnofficialOverclockingEULA   = I confirm that I am aware of unofficial overclocking limitations and fully understand that MSI will not provide me any support on it

[the joint]

Cypher, I read the thread you linked, but how do I modify it?  It's .cfg and doesn't open like notepad.

right click on it, choose edit in Notepad, enter mods, then save.

I right clicked, went properties --> open with notepad --> adjusted "unofficialoverclockingmode =   2"  (was previously zero) -->  save (I have 'hide file extensions' unchecked)  and then opened MSI Afterburner.

It didn't work.  Where'd I go wrong?

Edit:  By "didn't work,"  I mean MSI Afterburner works but underclocking the memory does not.

Edit 2:  I might not have the Beta version.  When I downloaded to begin with, I clicked the top link on the left on this page:  http://event.msi.com/vga/afterburner/download.htm  and not the link below it (i.e. I clicked on 'Download MSI Afterburner" and not "Download the Latest Afterburner Beta."  

did you put this part in?:

UnofficialOverclockingEULA   = I confirm that I am aware of unofficial overclocking limitations and fully understand that MSI will not provide me any support on it

No, I didn't, but I fixed it

I just downloaded the Beta version and switched "unofficialoverclockingmode" to =2.   Fired it up and now I got 685 mem clock

Now I'm averaging 410 413 m/hash on all 3 cards with 920/685, powertune +10, fan 90% on all 3 cards, intensity = 9, hottest card at 77C, coolest card at 67C

Thanks!
Not bad

[cypherdoc]

Cypher, I read the thread you linked, but how do I modify it?  It's .cfg and doesn't open like notepad.

right click on it, choose edit in Notepad, enter mods, then save.

I right clicked, went properties --> open with notepad --> adjusted "unofficialoverclockingmode =   2"  (was previously zero) -->  save (I have 'hide file extensions' unchecked)  and then opened MSI Afterburner.

It didn't work.  Where'd I go wrong?

Edit:  By "didn't work,"  I mean MSI Afterburner works but underclocking the memory does not.

Edit 2:  I might not have the Beta version.  When I downloaded to begin with, I clicked the top link on the left on this page:  http://event.msi.com/vga/afterburner/download.htm  and not the link below it (i.e. I clicked on 'Download MSI Afterburner" and not "Download the Latest Afterburner Beta."  

did you put this part in?:

UnofficialOverclockingEULA   = I confirm that I am aware of unofficial overclocking limitations and fully understand that MSI will not provide me any support on it

No, I didn't, but I fixed it

I just downloaded the Beta version and switched "unofficialoverclockingmode" to =2.   Fired it up and now I got 685 mem clock

Now I'm averaging 410 413 m/hash on all 3 cards with 920/685, powertune +10, fan 90% on all 3 cards, intensity = 9, hottest card at 77C, coolest card at 67C

Thanks!
Not bad

413?  grrrrrr.

what voltage do you have it set at and what exact 6970's do u have?

[the joint]

Cypher, I read the thread you linked, but how do I modify it?  It's .cfg and doesn't open like notepad.

right click on it, choose edit in Notepad, enter mods, then save.

I right clicked, went properties --> open with notepad --> adjusted "unofficialoverclockingmode =   2"  (was previously zero) -->  save (I have 'hide file extensions' unchecked)  and then opened MSI Afterburner.

It didn't work.  Where'd I go wrong?

Edit:  By "didn't work,"  I mean MSI Afterburner works but underclocking the memory does not.

Edit 2:  I might not have the Beta version.  When I downloaded to begin with, I clicked the top link on the left on this page:  http://event.msi.com/vga/afterburner/download.htm  and not the link below it (i.e. I clicked on 'Download MSI Afterburner" and not "Download the Latest Afterburner Beta."  

did you put this part in?:

UnofficialOverclockingEULA   = I confirm that I am aware of unofficial overclocking limitations and fully understand that MSI will not provide me any support on it

No, I didn't, but I fixed it

I just downloaded the Beta version and switched "unofficialoverclockingmode" to =2.   Fired it up and now I got 685 mem clock

Now I'm averaging 410 413 m/hash on all 3 cards with 920/685, powertune +10, fan 90% on all 3 cards, intensity = 9, hottest card at 77C, coolest card at 67C

Thanks!
Not bad

413?  grrrrrr.

what voltage do you have it set at and what exact 6970's do u have?

The voltage is weird.  On card 0, the voltage is locked at 1.150, but on cards 1 and 2 the voltage is at 1.175.  I can't adjust the voltage on any of them still, even with Afterburner Beta.

They are all HIS Radeon 6970s