2 BTC bounty - why can't I get lower Mem clocks?

[yochdog]

I am using CGminer on a dual 7970 mining rig. 

I have the config file adjusted to load these settings:

Engine:  1150
Mem:  300
Intensity: 9
fan: 70


Using Windows 7

Everything works great, and they hash away at 690 MH/s each, but the damn memory clocks refuse to go to anything lower that 1,000.  And they will only go that low after I manually set them within CGminer.  Am I missing something? 

2 BTC bounty to the first person who can help me out and successfully get my mem speeds to where I have seen them on other systems. 

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[chiropteran]

Have you tried clocktweak?  I don't have a 7000 series card, but it lets me lower my mem to 300mhz easily on my various 5830s, 5850s, and 6970.

[wachtwoord]

Why not just use Afterburner?

Edit the MSIAfterburner.cfg

[ATIADLHAL]
EnableUnofficialOverclocking   = 1
UnofficialOverclockingEULA   = I confirm that I am aware of unofficial overclocking limitations and fully understand that MSI will not provide me any support on it
UnofficialOverclockingMode   = 2
AccessibilityCheckingPeriod   = 0

And your good to go.

[yochdog]

Why not just use Afterburner?

Edit the MSIAfterburner.cfg

[ATIADLHAL]
EnableUnofficialOverclocking   = 1
UnofficialOverclockingEULA   = I confirm that I am aware of unofficial overclocking limitations and fully understand that MSI will not provide me any support on it
UnofficialOverclockingMode   = 2
AccessibilityCheckingPeriod   = 0

And your good to go.

I would prefer to do it within CGminer

[the joint]

Why not just use Afterburner?

Edit the MSIAfterburner.cfg

[ATIADLHAL]
EnableUnofficialOverclocking   = 1
UnofficialOverclockingEULA   = I confirm that I am aware of unofficial overclocking limitations and fully understand that MSI will not provide me any support on it
UnofficialOverclockingMode   = 2
AccessibilityCheckingPeriod   = 0

And your good to go.

I would prefer to do it within CGminer

If it's anything like my non-reference 6970s, then the best you can do is a 150 clock mem-diff unless you flash the BIOS.  Afterburner let me get my memory down to 685 on my 6970s and that was the best I could do without flashing the BIOS (which I won't do because I don't trust myself to do it).

[wachtwoord]

I have a 6850 and run at 925/250 (so 250 Mhz mem clock) with Afterburner and have not flashed my bios

[bulanula]

Yeah it would be interesting if you could test 300 memclock on the 7970 and if that is as effective as on the 5970s etc.

Try flashing BIOS and report back !

[the joint]

Yeah it would be interesting if you could test 300 memclock on the 7970 and if that is as effective as on the 5970s etc.

Try flashing BIOS and report back !

Without killing your card.

[TheHarbinger]

Yeah it would be interesting if you could test 300 memclock on the 7970 and if that is as effective as on the 5970s etc.

Try flashing BIOS and report back !

Without killing your card.

Reference 7xxx cards are like the reference 6xxx cards.  Without a change in the card firmware, they are locked to a minimum memclock related to the GPU clock.  I believe you can only go 150 down without it resetting to stock speeds.  And mucking about with the firmware this early in their release cycle could be risky.

[chiropteran]

Reference 7xxx cards are like the reference 6xxx cards.  Without a change in the card firmware, they are locked to a minimum memclock related to the GPU clock.  I believe you can only go 150 down without it resetting to stock speeds.  And mucking about with the firmware this early in their release cycle could be risky.

I can lower my mem clocks down to 300mhz or lower on my 6970 no problem.  I've never touched the firmware.  It is a reference design.

[yochdog]

Yeah it would be interesting if you could test 300 memclock on the 7970 and if that is as effective as on the 5970s etc.

Try flashing BIOS and report back !

Without killing your card.

Reference 7xxx cards are like the reference 6xxx cards.  Without a change in the card firmware, they are locked to a minimum memclock related to the GPU clock.  I believe you can only go 150 down without it resetting to stock speeds.  And mucking about with the firmware this early in their release cycle could be risky.

So why can I not get it to even go to 600 if 150 is the limit? 

[the joint]

Why not just use Afterburner?

Edit the MSIAfterburner.cfg

[ATIADLHAL]
EnableUnofficialOverclocking   = 1
UnofficialOverclockingEULA   = I confirm that I am aware of unofficial overclocking limitations and fully understand that MSI will not provide me any support on it
UnofficialOverclockingMode   = 2
AccessibilityCheckingPeriod   = 0

And your good to go.

I think you need to do this to the MSIAfterburner.cfg file.

On my 6970s, I wasn't able to go to 685 until I modified this file.

[yochdog]

Why not just use Afterburner?

Edit the MSIAfterburner.cfg

[ATIADLHAL]
EnableUnofficialOverclocking   = 1
UnofficialOverclockingEULA   = I confirm that I am aware of unofficial overclocking limitations and fully understand that MSI will not provide me any support on it
UnofficialOverclockingMode   = 2
AccessibilityCheckingPeriod   = 0

And your good to go.

I think you need to do this to the MSIAfterburner.cfg file.

On my 6970s, I wasn't able to go to 685 until I modified this file.

I am going to try the afterburner beta tonight and see if that works. 

[the joint]

Why not just use Afterburner?

Edit the MSIAfterburner.cfg

[ATIADLHAL]
EnableUnofficialOverclocking   = 1
UnofficialOverclockingEULA   = I confirm that I am aware of unofficial overclocking limitations and fully understand that MSI will not provide me any support on it
UnofficialOverclockingMode   = 2
AccessibilityCheckingPeriod   = 0

And your good to go.

I think you need to do this to the MSIAfterburner.cfg file.

On my 6970s, I wasn't able to go to 685 until I modified this file.

I am going to try the afterburner beta tonight and see if that works. 

Yes, make sure it's the Beta.  It didn't work for me with the other versions.

[Elmojo]

The current version (Beta 12) of afterburner does NOT work correctly with the 7970.
I'm fighting that battle right now.
I can set whatever I want in AB, but the card just mostly ignores it when I start mining.
The best I've been able to get so far is 1000 core/800 mem @ .893v
I'm hoping when Beta 14 is released (possibly today) it might fix this bug.
The author of AB says the issues are due to AMD jacking around with the drivers and causing stuff to break.

[sveetsnelda]

Make sure you're using 2.2.0 Beta 10.  It's one of the only versions currently working for setting voltages and memclocks on a 7970.  The other option is manually hex editing the BIOS and flashing.  Apparently the BIOS signature check is disabled in Windows in the current driver, but I haven't tested it (works on Linux though).

[Elmojo]

Make sure you're using 2.2.0 Beta 10.  It's one of the only versions currently working for setting voltages and memclocks on a 7970.  The other option is manually hex editing the BIOS and flashing.  Apparently the BIOS signature check is disabled in Windows in the current driver, but I haven't tested it (works on Linux though).

Beta 10 didn't work at all on my XFX 7970. I had to get Beta 11 to make it at least partially work.
Unwinder said that the latest AMD drivers (12.3) removed some dlls and broke the unofficial overclocking feature.
Hopefully AB Beta 14 will find a fix...

[sveetsnelda]

Oh...   interesting.  I haven't tried updating the drivers on the rig since I started mining.  I started using Linux shortly after.  Looks like BIOS flashing may end up being the solution for newer drivers unless ATI decides to leave the old RivaTuner stuff in the driver.

[yochdog]

Using the beta allowed me to lower the clock. 

So who deserves the bounty?  I will honor the wishes of the forum! 

[sveetsnelda]

Using the beta allowed me to lower the clock. 

So who deserves the bounty?  I will honor the wishes of the forum! 

The latest beta?  If so, it looks like you would have got it done regardless (you suggested "the beta" before anyone else did)