5970 Hash Rate Drops Hours Into Mining...

[Vorksholk]

Hello

I recently bought a 5970, and was having a jolly time mining with it until something odd happened. I was mining as usual, checking my email or something, and the screen started artefacting. I rebooted the computer, and it's been fine since, but ever since then, after mining for an hour or so, the hash rate drops from say 300-350Mh/s (depending on current OC) to somewhere around 150-200, if not even lower. I have experienced this with Diablo Miner, BITMINTER, and GuiMiner.

Should I flash firmware? This is a Diamond 5970 and I am using the latest drivers from AMD's site. Thanks for the help!

[1714771391]

1714771391

[1714771391]

1714771391

[zvs]

my guess is that it's overheating and throttling itself

mine was going about 100mhash/s when the gpu was at 102oC

[Vorksholk]

Ahh thanks, I'll check on that and report back

[deepceleron]

Not throttling, but crashing. Screen garbage is the GPU saying OW OW OW, I'm not going to do math correctly for you any more. If the temps are under 80, you might need to back off the core clock even if it is stock.

[zvs]

my guess is that it's overheating and throttling itself

mine was going about 100mhash/s when the gpu was at 102oC

100mhash/s on a 5970?

yah, more like 60 actually, for gpu 0

gpu 1 was going around 150

[aqrulesms]

Those hashing rates are really low.  I'm surprised, but definitely keep your temperatures lower.  Make sure you have adequate cooling and also try undervolting the card, it really helps with power consumption and temperatures.

[Vorksholk]

So what's a good temperature here? Mine is currently running no higher than 90-91 C stable.

[deepceleron]

So what's a good temperature here? Mine is currently running no higher than 90-91 C stable.

The temperature might be stable, but the card isn't. You either keep it cooler, give the GPU more volts, or lower the core clock on the GPU. Apply the same thinking as if you had a CPU that you were overclocking - you either give it more voltage, keep it cooler, or back off how much you are overclocking. Bitcoin mining pushes a video card harder than any other GPU application out there so it is almost like overclocking.

The biggest concern is that you are doing something wrong to start with. A 5830 at 1/2 the price will make your original hashrate of 330 MHash. The newest driver won't give you the most efficient mining, but whether you use that or by go back to a Catalyst 11.11/2.5 or earlier (where you can underclock your memory to 300MHz and run cooler) you must configure your miner settings and memory clock correctly if you are going to get anywhere near the best hashrate.

See here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=56521

[MrTeal]

Download GPU-Z and check the VRM temperatures. They can cause the card to throttle even if the core temps look good.

[deepceleron]

It is also notable that the stock fan curve on these cards allows the card to get very hot without cranking up the fan. You should use software that lets you adjust the fan speed:

[yuhannl]

Did the problem only occur after you updated the drivers...?

[Vorksholk]

The problem has started occurring on and off, I tried cracking up the fan high enough to not allow the card to get above 82degC, and the throttling seemed to go away, but then magically it comes back.

I got the card only weeks ago, so installed the latest drivers...

[Aseras]

If the CORE is 82C the vrms are likely way over 120C and throttling. you are going to burn the card up.

My 5970s are at 900mhz core, 1.05V and temp is <70C  the vrms are <100C with fan at max 85%

Where'd you get this card?

you need to get gpuz and watch all the vddc temps, the core temp is insignificant.

[Vorksholk]

Thanks for the info I downloaded GPU-Z. My VDDC's appear to be staying stable at ~92C, surprisingly enough. Now I'm having another weird issue... I can mine with one card just fine and pull ~320MH/s. If I start mining with the other card, one drops down to somewhere around ~80MH/s to ~120MH/s and the other one keeps going fine. It's always the same card that gives... And that card's core temperature is a cool 60 with it's VCC around the mid 80's at PEAK. The GPU usage graph about flatlines once it hits 50% or so. :sigh:

[Aseras]

What kind of power supply do you have? I'd say you need over 800 watts for two of these cards. You also need a decent CPU to feed them. That sounds like some kind of contention for power or CPU.

Dump the newest amd drivers! they are crap for 5xxx cards.  Get 11.10 or 12.1 do a custom install and don't install the amd app/sdk.

After that install the 2.1 sdk alone. Use the phatk kernel it's the best on 5xxx cards. I suggest cgminer. You can specify phatk with guiminer. Diablo will hash well but takes forever to get going.

You should get well over 350 mhash per core.

[Vorksholk]

I have an intel core i5 and a 850W PSU

Thanks I'll look into downgrading drivers, sounds like a good idea

[zvs]

What kind of power supply do you have? I'd say you need over 800 watts for two of these cards. You also need a decent CPU to feed them. That sounds like some kind of contention for power or CPU.

Dump the newest amd drivers! they are crap for 5xxx cards.  Get 11.10 or 12.1 do a custom install and don't install the amd app/sdk.

After that install the 2.1 sdk alone. Use the phatk kernel it's the best on 5xxx cards. I suggest cgminer. You can specify phatk with guiminer. Diablo will hash well but takes forever to get going.

You should get well over 350 mhash per core.

i have some old dual core CPU running 3x5970, with one core disabled and the other one underclocked

it's not worth the <1% gain in mhash you'd get when you start reaching those aggression levels anyway (at least in phoenix)

i run them @ 9 in windows w/ 2.4sdk,   @ 11 in ubuntu with 2.1 sdk