Need feedback on my dual-7970 and single-6950 setup

[vindimy]

[Admins / Mods - I'm still a noob :|. If possible, please move this to Mining Support section].


Hello fellow miners

I'm excited to join the mining community and have been lurking on these forums for a few weeks. I've recently decided to join the mining and would like your feedback on my setup.

I will be sure to hand out some of my newly minted bitcoins to the most helpful posters!

My setup at the moment is as follows:

PC 1:
   OS: Win 7 Enterprise 64-bit
   MB: ASUS LGA 1155 - Z68 - PCIe 3.0 and UEFI BIOS Intel Z68 ATX DDR3 2200 LGA 1155
   PSU: Antec HCP-1200 ATX Energy Star Certified Power Supply
   CPU: Intel Core i5-2400S Processor 2.50 GHz 6 MB Cache Socket LGA1155
   RAM: Corsair 16 GB Vengeance Blue Low Profile 1600mhz PC3-12800 240-pin Dual Channel DDR3
   GPU 0: XFX HD 7970 Core Edition 3GB DDR5 925M 2xmDP HDMI DVI PCI-E
   GPU 1: XFX HD 7970 Black Edition 3 GB 1000MHZ GDDR5 Dual Mini DisplayPort HDMI DVI PCI-E

   Catalyst version 12.3.
   Both GPUs are overclocked to maximum allowed by CCC: 1125 MHz core, 1575 MHz memory, max power.

PC 2:
   OS: BAMT
   MB: AMD (?)
   PSU: ANTEC|BP550 PLUS RT
   CPU: AMD Phenom II X3 740
   RAM: 4 GB DDR2 (?)
   GPU 2: Sapphire Radeon 6950 1GB (shader unlocked to 6970)

   GPU is overclocked to maximum allowed by CCC (no BAMT overclocking is used): 800 MHz core, 1250 MHz memory, max power.


The miner used is cgminer 2.3.1. These two PCs don't do much other than mining and occasional web browsing.

p2pool and bitcoind are running on a dedicated Debian VPS stashed away somewhere in a datacenter nearby (20ms ping, 51 TTL).


What's troubling me is that the hash rates I'm seeing are below what other posters are reporting with their less powerful cards.


* GPU 0 (7970 Core Edition) averages 644 Mh/s at 82 degrees C.
* GPU 1 (7970 Black Edition) averages 645 Mh/s at 90 degrees C.
* GPU 2 (6950 unlocked to 6970) averages 306 Mh/s at 77 degrees C.


Could I be doing something wrong? I have seen comparable hash rates from older cards reported on this forum.


All screenshots are below. Any constructive criticism, feedback, and suggestions are highly appreciated and will be rewarded

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[kliffen]

Any reason you're OCing your memory clock?

I'm not sure about 7xxx series cards, but 6xxx and 5xxx series cards won't gain anything from high mem clocks while mining.

[vindimy]

Any reason you're OCing your memory clock?

Thanks, I wasn't aware that OC'ing memory doesn't improve mining... but I guess faster memory will help when I will be using the cards for other things, like gaming.

[TomatoCaqe]

Pretty nice rig you have there

[Shadow383]

90 degrees core temps 24/7...

Enjoy your dead GPUs in 8 weeks 

What I would do in your position is take everything back to stock clocks and undervolt, you can get 5Mh/J out of a 7970 if you're careful, and you'll make a lot more money than you do now, particularly when the cost of replacing cards and the cost of replacing your testicles when your significant other forcibly removes them over the sheer scale of deeply irritating fan noise is factored in.

[vindimy]

90 degrees core temps 24/7...

Enjoy your dead GPUs in 8 weeks 

Yeah, I am definitely concerned about high temps, especially as summer is approaching. I will be attempting to undervolt the cards, and perhaps I'll let cgminer manage GPU clock speed and fans with a target temperature of 75 or 80. Unfortunately I can't run the fans at 100% because it's all in my living room where I sleep (doh).

My question still stands, though: my 7970 at these high temps produce ~635 Mh/s each, while according to https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison people get 650-825 Mh/s (of course higher Mh/s are watercooled).

Similarly, my 6950 unlocked to 6970 produces ~307 Mh/s while according to https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison I should be seeing somewhere between 360-400 Mh/s.

[vindimy]

My question still stands, though: my 7970 at these high temps produce ~635 Mh/s each, while according to https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison people get 650-825 Mh/s (of course higher Mh/s are watercooled).

Similarly, my 6950 unlocked to 6970 produces ~307 Mh/s while according to https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison I should be seeing somewhere between 360-400 Mh/s.

After perusing through people's reports on 7970s it seems like my results are actually quite typical. I'll experiment more with various miners and clock speeds.

As for miner configuration, I will continue to use cgminer. My current cgminer options are:

Code:

--auto-gpu --auto-fan --temp-target 80 -k diakgcn -v 2 -w 256

I'm using DiaKCGN kernel shipped with cgminer (see https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=61406).

[Kush]

Wow dude that's pretty nice

[Aberrix]

90C? dang... here I get antsy when my GPU is in the high 60's...

[vindimy]

Well, I have stopped running the cards at 90 C after being concerned for their longetivity

Currently I'm stable at 81 C both cards, with case fans at max speed and card fans at 71% and 48%, respectively. I get 618-622 Mh/s out of each card.

The cgminer command I use to obtain that is:

Code:

cgminer.exe -O u:p -o lax1.thedimi.net:9332 --submit-stale -g 1 -k diakgcn -v 2 -w 256,256 -I 7 --gpu-powertune 10 --gpu-memclock 550 --gpu-engine 1100 --auto-fan --temp-target 83

However, the cards are seemingly ignoring cgminer's gpu settings. They are both running at 1100 MHz core clock and 1375 MHz memory clock.

[airnesst]

i dont see any point in mounting 7970 ? its too expensive just for mining

[vindimy]

i dont see any point in mounting 7970 ? its too expensive just for mining

Yes, it doesn't have the best $/Mh/s compared to older dual-core cards, however:

* It's way more power-efficient compared to 69xx and 59xx series, so you can put more of them in the same case with less money spent on other components (especially PSUs) and energy bills
* Single-core 7970 at 625 Mh/s approaches 700 Mh/s that you can get with dual-core 69xx and 59xx series... and it can be overclocked further with proper cooling (XFX brand is a bad example as their cooling sucks! Buy dual- or triple- fan models)
* There are potential increases in 7xxx performance as ATI releases new drivers and SDKs

So, all-in-all, not too shabby! Of course, I can't wait to see the numbers from 7990

[tossil]

Just wondering why you are saying that about the XFX's 7970.  Where are you getting that info from?  Not trying to call you out, just wanting to learn.

[vindimy]

Just wondering why you are saying that about the XFX's 7970.  Where are you getting that info from?  Not trying to call you out, just wanting to learn.

Good point! I compared the numbers from https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison, and I own two XFX 7970s and one Sapphire 6950

About the cooling: I have a pretty decent airflow in my case, and whether XFX 7970s fans are managed by the driver or cgminer, the cards stay pretty warm - 80-85 C warm, without overclocking. The reviews for the card (for example, MSI R7970 Lightning) show much lower operating temperatures (perhaps because there are more/better fans on the card).

[philips]

Well, I have stopped running the cards at 90 C after being concerned for their longetivity

Currently I'm stable at 81 C both cards, with case fans at max speed and card fans at 71% and 48%, respectively. I get 618-622 Mh/s out of each card.

The cgminer command I use to obtain that is:

Code:

cgminer.exe -O u:p -o lax1.thedimi.net:9332 --submit-stale -g 1 -k diakgcn -v 2 -w 256,256 -I 7 --gpu-powertune 10 --gpu-memclock 550 --gpu-engine 1100 --auto-fan --temp-target 83

However, the cards are seemingly ignoring cgminer's gpu settings. They are both running at 1100 MHz core clock and 1375 MHz memory clock.

-Subtract 150 from your core clock and set you mem clock at the result. Ex: 1100 core/950 mem. Beyond this 150 difference the mem clock will revert to default.
- Set powertune to 5, beyond 5 (according to ckolivas) there is no gain.
- Use the latest cgminer 2.4.1 and discard the --submit stale option (not needed anymore).
- Try also the poclbm kernel.
- Set a higher intensity (max 11).

I get with 7970 (XFX double fan) around 705Mh/s at 69.0C with latest cgminer and default poclbm kernel (1180/1030).