Topic: HOW TO - LTC Mining - Overclocking Guide 7950,7850 (Read 20546 times)
Thank you to much for the information.
BIG Thank you for posting these .bin files -- confirmed increase in performance for my Powercolor dual-fan 7950 of ~20kH/s!
It looks the Powertune isnt part of catalyst anymore but you have to install AMD OverDrive as a independent software: http://sites.amd.com/us/game/downloads/amd-overdrive/Pages/overview.aspx
Edit: Scheint nicht zu stimmen. Das ist nur für Prozessoren. Muss morgen noch mal suchen.
The explainations are nice. So it looks like powertune is somewhat essential if one wont find a spot while overclocking where the power drain is so high that the speed breaks down. If thats set the core and mem should be set i think.
Im not sure what software i will take for overclocking. AMD Auto Tune looks interesting. Automatic finding of the highest clockrates. But there are many other softwares beyond that should do the same. I think with AMD its not needed to change the bios. I had to do this with my NVidia card some time ago.
@Vorksholk... yes, i know. When mining litecoins the temp is always at 84-86°C. I think it will try to undervolt the card if it brings something for the temperature. I undervolted and overclocked my last card and it went fine. I think this way the lifetime of the gpu should be increased. Higher power is the worst for the lifetime because "electron imigration"? So lowering the voltage it should work against this.
Edit: Scheint nicht zu stimmen. Das ist nur für Prozessoren. Muss morgen noch mal suchen.
The explainations are nice. So it looks like powertune is somewhat essential if one wont find a spot while overclocking where the power drain is so high that the speed breaks down. If thats set the core and mem should be set i think.
Im not sure what software i will take for overclocking. AMD Auto Tune looks interesting. Automatic finding of the highest clockrates. But there are many other softwares beyond that should do the same. I think with AMD its not needed to change the bios. I had to do this with my NVidia card some time ago.
@Vorksholk... yes, i know. When mining litecoins the temp is always at 84-86°C. I think it will try to undervolt the card if it brings something for the temperature. I undervolted and overclocked my last card and it went fine. I think this way the lifetime of the gpu should be increased. Higher power is the worst for the lifetime because "electron imigration"? So lowering the voltage it should work against this.
Thanks for the tip. I try to check out what my 7970M can do and i found that cgminer and bfgminer has a option to use powertune. My gpu should be able to use this too but when i open the catalyst center the option needed is missing. I dont know if powertune is better than normal overclocking but this video suggests it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bk0phCkZg_k because of a variable "Thermal design power" or something like this. So i wonder if powertune has an advantage against normal overclocking.
Do you know how it behaves and why i dont have such powertune-settings even though the specs claim the gpu has it: http://www.amd.com/us/products/notebook/graphics/7000m/7900m/Pages/radeon-7900m-series.aspx#2
Do you know how it behaves and why i dont have such powertune-settings even though the specs claim the gpu has it: http://www.amd.com/us/products/notebook/graphics/7000m/7900m/Pages/radeon-7900m-series.aspx#2
A word of caution . . . Keep your eyes on the 7970M temp. Mobile graphics cards, especially the very powerful ones like that, have some heat dissipation issues when ran at 100%.
Thanks for the tip. I try to check out what my 7970M can do and i found that cgminer and bfgminer has a option to use powertune. My gpu should be able to use this too but when i open the catalyst center the option needed is missing. I dont know if powertune is better than normal overclocking but this video suggests it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bk0phCkZg_k because of a variable "Thermal design power" or something like this. So i wonder if powertune has an advantage against normal overclocking.
Do you know how it behaves and why i dont have such powertune-settings even though the specs claim the gpu has it: http://www.amd.com/us/products/notebook/graphics/7000m/7900m/Pages/radeon-7900m-series.aspx#2
Do you know how it behaves and why i dont have such powertune-settings even though the specs claim the gpu has it: http://www.amd.com/us/products/notebook/graphics/7000m/7900m/Pages/radeon-7900m-series.aspx#2
I copied this from another forum as this person explains it pretty well:
Quote
It's quite different from voltage control. It's something more akin to 'wattage control'. Your card has some amount of 'juice' it's expected to run at, at a maximum. Let's say you have 2 x 6 -pin connectors on your card + the power from the motherboard. The max 'rated' wattage draw from each of these three connections is 75W, and you have 3, so the absolute max wattage draw that AMD is going to 'allow' your card to draw is 225W.
However, they likely 'expect' a card with this connector configuration to draw something like 175W. Lets call that wattage amount the card's TDP, for the sake of simplicity.
So, when your power limit is set at 100%, this means your card is 'limited' to it's TDP, and if whatEVER you're doing with the card is causes it to exceed a draw of 175W, the driver will start to downclock and downvolt the card in order to get it run within the expected power envelope designated by the power target slider and the TDP.
Raising the Power Target up simply allows for your card to draw more juice through it's three connectors without resorting to downclocking/volting. In the scenario I described, it's likely that whatever % value you have available over 100% is going to reflect the difference between TDP and 'max safe wattage draw', based on the connectors running to your card. If your card indeed had a TDP value of 175, it's likely that max power target would be 100% + (225-175)/175 * 100, or 128% maximum power target.
So, when you OC, and especially when you OV your card, you are obviously likely to increase the power draw of the card (depending of course on the intensity of the test, whether you have v-sync on, these types of things), and if you don't raise the power limit, it might well cause the card to downclock/downvolt when you don't want it to.
I've never heard that raising power target causes instability, and if it does, it's because something is 'broken' in terms of the driver or the application you're using to raise the target. If things were working correctly, the impact of raising the slider should only be as I described above, basically just allowing you to reach higher OC/OV w/o downclocking due to excessive power draw ... but all this of course assumes that your card is otherwise capable/stable at the OC/OV combination you're chosen ... raising the target shouldn't affect stability, just the point at which the card auto-downclocks to save energy
However, they likely 'expect' a card with this connector configuration to draw something like 175W. Lets call that wattage amount the card's TDP, for the sake of simplicity.
So, when your power limit is set at 100%, this means your card is 'limited' to it's TDP, and if whatEVER you're doing with the card is causes it to exceed a draw of 175W, the driver will start to downclock and downvolt the card in order to get it run within the expected power envelope designated by the power target slider and the TDP.
Raising the Power Target up simply allows for your card to draw more juice through it's three connectors without resorting to downclocking/volting. In the scenario I described, it's likely that whatever % value you have available over 100% is going to reflect the difference between TDP and 'max safe wattage draw', based on the connectors running to your card. If your card indeed had a TDP value of 175, it's likely that max power target would be 100% + (225-175)/175 * 100, or 128% maximum power target.
So, when you OC, and especially when you OV your card, you are obviously likely to increase the power draw of the card (depending of course on the intensity of the test, whether you have v-sync on, these types of things), and if you don't raise the power limit, it might well cause the card to downclock/downvolt when you don't want it to.
I've never heard that raising power target causes instability, and if it does, it's because something is 'broken' in terms of the driver or the application you're using to raise the target. If things were working correctly, the impact of raising the slider should only be as I described above, basically just allowing you to reach higher OC/OV w/o downclocking due to excessive power draw ... but all this of course assumes that your card is otherwise capable/stable at the OC/OV combination you're chosen ... raising the target shouldn't affect stability, just the point at which the card auto-downclocks to save energy
Here are two good reviews that might help you understand PowerTune.
http://www.geeks3d.com/20101224/tested-radeon-hd-6970-powertune-technology/
http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1488/4/
As far as the catalyst issue, I would not know why the powertune is not listed. Have you tried enabling AMD Overdrive? Or tried installing Sapphire Trixx, GPU Tweak or MSI Afterburner and see if you can adjust the PowerTune slider there? (In those programmes it is not called PowerTune, it has a slightly different name).
I also can not say wheter or not it will affect your hashing performance. I always set the slider up to 20% on all my cards, just to be sure.
PowerTune is something different then overclocking and therefore it can not be compared to and is not better or worse then "normal" overclocking.
Try to look for some more information on the internet, i'm sure you will figure it out, good luck!
Thanks for the tip. I try to check out what my 7970M can do and i found that cgminer and bfgminer has a option to use powertune. My gpu should be able to use this too but when i open the catalyst center the option needed is missing. I dont know if powertune is better than normal overclocking but this video suggests it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bk0phCkZg_k because of a variable "Thermal design power" or something like this. So i wonder if powertune has an advantage against normal overclocking.
Do you know how it behaves and why i dont have such powertune-settings even though the specs claim the gpu has it: http://www.amd.com/us/products/notebook/graphics/7000m/7900m/Pages/radeon-7900m-series.aspx#2
Do you know how it behaves and why i dont have such powertune-settings even though the specs claim the gpu has it: http://www.amd.com/us/products/notebook/graphics/7000m/7900m/Pages/radeon-7900m-series.aspx#2
Disclaimer: This guide is for miners who know how to overclock and understand the possible dangers. I will not take responsability if anything happens to you're mining rig while following the steps in this guide.
USE AT YOUR'E OWN RISK
What do you need to begin with:
Download and install the latest versions of:
GUIMiner-scrypt https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/guiminer-scrypt-a-guiminer-fork-for-mining-scrypt-chains-150331
AMD Drivers http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/index.aspx
Sapphire Trixx https://www.sapphireselectclub.com/ssc/trixx/trixx.aspx
GPU-z http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/2221/TechPowerUp_GPU-Z_v0.6.9.html
HD 7850:
To start:
- Launch GUIMiner-scrypt
- Launch GPU-z
- Launch Sapphire Trixx
GUIMiner-Scrypt
1. Start GUIMiner-Scrypt
2. Make sure you configure the GUIMiner-scrypt that it works with you're mining pool.
3. Select the standard GPU Defaults for 7850 (high usage)
- Worksize 256
- Intensity: 20
- thread concurrency: 12404
- Vectors 1
- GPU threads 1
4. Press start and look at the kH/s, write this down.
Sapphire-Trixx
1. Start Sapphire-Trixx
2. Go to Overclocking tab
GPU-z
1. Start GPU-z
2. Go to the Sensors tab
Tweaking
Step 1: Set you're memory clock speed
a) Open Sapphire Trixx and bump up to memory clock from the stock 1200 to 1250Mhz
b) Press start in GUIMiner-scrypt
c) Look at GPU-z Sensors tab and keep an eye on the temperatures (I keep them under 85°C, others say 80 °C)
d) After 2 minutes press stop in GUIMiner-scrypt
e) If the AMD driver did not crash, move on to step 2
h) If you're AMD driver crashed you need to reboot you're graphics card otherwise GUIMiner-scrypt will give you low hash rates.
Step 2: in Sapphire Trixx set you're VDDC at 1.21v and Board Power Limit to 20
Step 3 : Increase the GPU clock to the maximum stable value
a) Increase GPU Clock to 1000
b) Press start in GUIMiner-scrypt
c) Look at GPU-z Sensors tab and keep an eye on the temperatures (I keep them under 85°C, others say 80 °C)
d) After 2 minutes press stop in GUIMiner-scrypt
e) If the AMD driver did not crash, increase GPU clock with 25Mhz
f) Repeat b), c), d) and e) untill you're AMD driver crashes.
h) If you're AMD driver crashed you need to reboot you're graphics card otherwise GUIMiner-scrypt will give you low hash rates.
g) Downclock 25 Mhz from the amount you got when the AMD driver crashed
Step 4: Run the system for hours. If it crashes, lower the GPU clock settings by another 25 and repeat step 6
Step 5: (ONLY IF STABLE) Lower VDDC each time with steps off 0.010 volts to find minimum stable voltage settings untill the card crashes or won't start up in GUIMiner-Scrypt.
Then run for hours, if it crashes, bump up the vCore by 0.010, repeat until fully stable
If this helped you, feel free to donate any small amount of LTC to:
LXgqRDwcJ9BqRZ4MLVeufoESqeuxCNX6q2
USE AT YOUR'E OWN RISK
What do you need to begin with:
Download and install the latest versions of:
GUIMiner-scrypt https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/guiminer-scrypt-a-guiminer-fork-for-mining-scrypt-chains-150331
AMD Drivers http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/index.aspx
Sapphire Trixx https://www.sapphireselectclub.com/ssc/trixx/trixx.aspx
GPU-z http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/2221/TechPowerUp_GPU-Z_v0.6.9.html
HD 7850:
To start:
- Launch GUIMiner-scrypt
- Launch GPU-z
- Launch Sapphire Trixx
GUIMiner-Scrypt
1. Start GUIMiner-Scrypt
2. Make sure you configure the GUIMiner-scrypt that it works with you're mining pool.
3. Select the standard GPU Defaults for 7850 (high usage)
- Worksize 256
- Intensity: 20
- thread concurrency: 12404
- Vectors 1
- GPU threads 1
4. Press start and look at the kH/s, write this down.
Sapphire-Trixx
1. Start Sapphire-Trixx
2. Go to Overclocking tab
GPU-z
1. Start GPU-z
2. Go to the Sensors tab
Tweaking
Step 1: Set you're memory clock speed
a) Open Sapphire Trixx and bump up to memory clock from the stock 1200 to 1250Mhz
b) Press start in GUIMiner-scrypt
c) Look at GPU-z Sensors tab and keep an eye on the temperatures (I keep them under 85°C, others say 80 °C)
d) After 2 minutes press stop in GUIMiner-scrypt
e) If the AMD driver did not crash, move on to step 2
h) If you're AMD driver crashed you need to reboot you're graphics card otherwise GUIMiner-scrypt will give you low hash rates.
Quote
Start --> Search programs and files --> Device Manager --> Display Adapters
Right click on AMD Radeon HD 7900 Series --> Disable
Wait 30 seconds
Right click on AMD Radeon HD 7900 Series --> Enable
Restart Sapphire Trixx
Restart GUIMiner-Scrypt
Restart GPU-z
Right click on AMD Radeon HD 7900 Series --> Disable
Wait 30 seconds
Right click on AMD Radeon HD 7900 Series --> Enable
Restart Sapphire Trixx
Restart GUIMiner-Scrypt
Restart GPU-z
Step 2: in Sapphire Trixx set you're VDDC at 1.21v and Board Power Limit to 20
Step 3 : Increase the GPU clock to the maximum stable value
a) Increase GPU Clock to 1000
b) Press start in GUIMiner-scrypt
c) Look at GPU-z Sensors tab and keep an eye on the temperatures (I keep them under 85°C, others say 80 °C)
d) After 2 minutes press stop in GUIMiner-scrypt
e) If the AMD driver did not crash, increase GPU clock with 25Mhz
f) Repeat b), c), d) and e) untill you're AMD driver crashes.
h) If you're AMD driver crashed you need to reboot you're graphics card otherwise GUIMiner-scrypt will give you low hash rates.
Quote
Start --> Search programs and files --> Device Manager --> Display Adapters
Right click on AMD Radeon HD 7900 Series --> Disable
Wait 30 seconds
Right click on AMD Radeon HD 7900 Series --> Enable
Restart Sapphire Trixx
Restart GUIMiner-Scrypt
Restart GPU-z
Right click on AMD Radeon HD 7900 Series --> Disable
Wait 30 seconds
Right click on AMD Radeon HD 7900 Series --> Enable
Restart Sapphire Trixx
Restart GUIMiner-Scrypt
Restart GPU-z
g) Downclock 25 Mhz from the amount you got when the AMD driver crashed
Step 4: Run the system for hours. If it crashes, lower the GPU clock settings by another 25 and repeat step 6
Step 5: (ONLY IF STABLE) Lower VDDC each time with steps off 0.010 volts to find minimum stable voltage settings untill the card crashes or won't start up in GUIMiner-Scrypt.
Then run for hours, if it crashes, bump up the vCore by 0.010, repeat until fully stable
If this helped you, feel free to donate any small amount of LTC to:
LXgqRDwcJ9BqRZ4MLVeufoESqeuxCNX6q2
Disclaimer: This guide is for miners who know how to overclock and understand the possible dangers. I will not take responsability if anything happens to you're mining rig while following the steps in this guide.
USE AT YOUR'E OWN RISK
Introduction:
I just entered the game of LTC Mining and when all my cards where up and running I tried to find the maximum speed on both my HD 7850 and HD 7950 cards.
Because I could not find any systematic guide to help me reach that goal, and had to browse various forums and scrape together information, I decided to make my own guide.
THERE ARE TONS OF WAYS TO OVERCLOCK YOU'RE GRAPHICS CARD, these are just the methods I used to get the maximum out of my cards.
The HD 7850 guide is in the second post and takes a different approach then the HD 7950 guide.
What do you need to begin with:
Download and install the latest versions of:
GUIMiner-scrypt https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/guiminer-scrypt-a-guiminer-fork-for-mining-scrypt-chains-150331
AMD Drivers http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/index.aspx
Sapphire Trixx https://www.sapphireselectclub.com/ssc/trixx/trixx.aspx
GPU-z http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/2221/TechPowerUp_GPU-Z_v0.6.9.html
HD 7950:
To start:
- Launch GUIMiner-scrypt
- Launch GPU-z
- Launch Sapphire Trixx
GUIMiner-Scrypt
1. Start GUIMiner-Scrypt
2. Make sure you configure the GUIMiner-scrypt that it works with you're mining pool.
3. Select the standard GPU Defaults for 7950 (high usage)
- Worksize 256
- Intensity: 20
- thread concurrency: 21712
- Vectors 1
- GPU threads 1
4. Press start and look at the kH/s, write this down.
Sapphire-Trixx
1. Start Sapphire-Trixx
2. Go to Overclocking tab
GPU-z
1. Start GPU-z
2. Go to the Sensors tab
Tweaking
Step 1: Find your maximum stable memory clock speed at stock memory voltage.
a) Open Sapphire Trixx and bump up to memory clock from the stock 1250 Mhz to 1400 Mhz and press Apply.
b) Press start in GUIMiner-scrypt
c) Look at GPU-z Sensors tab and keep an eye on the temperatures (I keep them under 85°C, others say 80 °C)
d) After 2 minutes press stop in GUIMiner-scrypt
e) If the AMD driver did not crash, move the memory clock up by 50Mhz
f) Repeat b), c), d) and e) untill you're AMD driver crashes.
h) If you're AMD driver crashed you need to reboot you're graphics card otherwise GUIMiner-scrypt will give you low hash rates.
g) Then downclock 50 Mhz from the amount you got when the AMD driver crashed
Step 2 : Calculate the desired GPU clock speed with this simple formula:
core clock/maximum stable memory clock = 0.65
Step 3: In Sapphire Trixx set you're VDDC at 1.25v and Board Power Limit to 20
Step 4: Enter the value calculated in step 2 for the core clock in Sapphire Trixx and press start in GUIMiner-Scrypt.
Step 5: Fine tune the core clock by increasing/decreasing the core clock with 1mhz steps untill you see the highest value of kH/s in GUIMiner-Scrypt.
Step 6: Run the system for hours. If it crashes, lower the memory clock settings by another 25 or 50 Mhz and repeat steps 2 to 5.
Step 7: (ONLY IF STABLE) Lower VDDC each time with steps off 0.010 volts to find minimum stable voltage settings untill the card crashes or won't start up in GUIMiner-Scrypt.
Then run for hours, if it crashes, bump up the vCore by 0.010, repeat until fully stable
If this helped you, feel free to donate any small amount of LTC to:
LXgqRDwcJ9BqRZ4MLVeufoESqeuxCNX6q2
USE AT YOUR'E OWN RISK
Introduction:
I just entered the game of LTC Mining and when all my cards where up and running I tried to find the maximum speed on both my HD 7850 and HD 7950 cards.
Because I could not find any systematic guide to help me reach that goal, and had to browse various forums and scrape together information, I decided to make my own guide.
THERE ARE TONS OF WAYS TO OVERCLOCK YOU'RE GRAPHICS CARD, these are just the methods I used to get the maximum out of my cards.
The HD 7850 guide is in the second post and takes a different approach then the HD 7950 guide.
What do you need to begin with:
Download and install the latest versions of:
GUIMiner-scrypt https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/guiminer-scrypt-a-guiminer-fork-for-mining-scrypt-chains-150331
AMD Drivers http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/index.aspx
Sapphire Trixx https://www.sapphireselectclub.com/ssc/trixx/trixx.aspx
GPU-z http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/2221/TechPowerUp_GPU-Z_v0.6.9.html
HD 7950:
To start:
- Launch GUIMiner-scrypt
- Launch GPU-z
- Launch Sapphire Trixx
GUIMiner-Scrypt
1. Start GUIMiner-Scrypt
2. Make sure you configure the GUIMiner-scrypt that it works with you're mining pool.
3. Select the standard GPU Defaults for 7950 (high usage)
- Worksize 256
- Intensity: 20
- thread concurrency: 21712
- Vectors 1
- GPU threads 1
4. Press start and look at the kH/s, write this down.
Sapphire-Trixx
1. Start Sapphire-Trixx
2. Go to Overclocking tab
GPU-z
1. Start GPU-z
2. Go to the Sensors tab
Tweaking
Step 1: Find your maximum stable memory clock speed at stock memory voltage.
a) Open Sapphire Trixx and bump up to memory clock from the stock 1250 Mhz to 1400 Mhz and press Apply.
b) Press start in GUIMiner-scrypt
c) Look at GPU-z Sensors tab and keep an eye on the temperatures (I keep them under 85°C, others say 80 °C)
d) After 2 minutes press stop in GUIMiner-scrypt
e) If the AMD driver did not crash, move the memory clock up by 50Mhz
f) Repeat b), c), d) and e) untill you're AMD driver crashes.
h) If you're AMD driver crashed you need to reboot you're graphics card otherwise GUIMiner-scrypt will give you low hash rates.
Quote
Start --> Search programs and files --> Device Manager --> Display Adapters
Right click on AMD Radeon HD 7900 Series --> Disable
Wait 30 seconds
Right click on AMD Radeon HD 7900 Series --> Enable
Restart Sapphire Trixx
Restart GUIMiner-Scrypt
Restart GPU-z
Right click on AMD Radeon HD 7900 Series --> Disable
Wait 30 seconds
Right click on AMD Radeon HD 7900 Series --> Enable
Restart Sapphire Trixx
Restart GUIMiner-Scrypt
Restart GPU-z
g) Then downclock 50 Mhz from the amount you got when the AMD driver crashed
Quote
Example: Driver crashes at 1650 Mhz --> 1650 Mhz - 50 Mhz = 1600 Mhz
Quote
Example: Maximum stable memory clock at stock voltage = 1600 mhz
Step 2 : Calculate the desired GPU clock speed with this simple formula:
core clock/maximum stable memory clock = 0.65
Quote
Example: core clock/1600 = 0.65 --> core clock = 0.65 * 1600 --> core clock = 1040
Step 3: In Sapphire Trixx set you're VDDC at 1.25v and Board Power Limit to 20
Step 4: Enter the value calculated in step 2 for the core clock in Sapphire Trixx and press start in GUIMiner-Scrypt.
Step 5: Fine tune the core clock by increasing/decreasing the core clock with 1mhz steps untill you see the highest value of kH/s in GUIMiner-Scrypt.
Quote
Example:
1039/1600 --> 601 kH/s
1040/1600 --> 605 kH/s
1041/1600 --> 603 kH/s
1039/1600 --> 601 kH/s
1040/1600 --> 605 kH/s
1041/1600 --> 603 kH/s
Step 6: Run the system for hours. If it crashes, lower the memory clock settings by another 25 or 50 Mhz and repeat steps 2 to 5.
Step 7: (ONLY IF STABLE) Lower VDDC each time with steps off 0.010 volts to find minimum stable voltage settings untill the card crashes or won't start up in GUIMiner-Scrypt.
Then run for hours, if it crashes, bump up the vCore by 0.010, repeat until fully stable
If this helped you, feel free to donate any small amount of LTC to:
LXgqRDwcJ9BqRZ4MLVeufoESqeuxCNX6q2
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