Topic: Intel vs AMD - page 2. (Read 8988 times)

I turned on GPU usage in MSI afterburner and noticed its all over the place. It frequently drops to 50-70%. Any ideas why? My intel gets a stable 99% and never drops.

I just checked my mining rig. CPU usage is around 40%. Memory 70%. I did not see anything in bios that seems like it would affect my GPU's. Any other ideas? Im using MSI 890FXA-GD70.

Did you install the chipset drivers and the rest of the myriad of drivers bundled with your mobo?
I don't recommend you install manufacturer's utility programs but please make sure you have no missing drivers.


Yeah, Debian is a Linux distro. Ubuntu is based on Debian, in fact.

FWIW, the -mabm and -msse4a flags are covered by the -amdfam10 flag, as per the document you linked. I have used the following flags with gcc 4.5.3 and many apps, for example, cgminer. Whether these flags help, hurt, or do nothing is per case, sometimes these flags have no effect at all vs a minimal set. For example -mfpmath=both can often make floating point code faster on AMD, but it can also break the ATI video drivers if used for compiling the kernel.

Big code, sometimes faster, sometimes not, sometimes broken. Works with cgminer:
-O3 -march=amdfam10 -fomit-frame-pointer -minline-stringops-dynamically -mno-align-stringops -fgcse-sm -fgcse-las -fgcse-after-reload -fweb -frename-registers -fsched2-use-superblocks -mfpmath=both -ffast-math -funroll-loops

Works with most things, often better:
-O2 -march=amdfam10 -fomit-frame-pointer -minline-stringops-dynamically -mno-align-stringops -fgcse-sm -fgcse-las -fgcse-after-reload -fweb -frename-registers -fsched2-use-superblocks

The default flags I use, I'm running Gentoo linux so the system image I use is completely compiled from scratch. These work for compiling the linux kernel, glibc, and gcc 4.5.3 itself.
-O2 -march=amdfam10 -fomit-frame-pointer -minline-all-stringops -mno-align-stringops

We probably ought to take a couple of these subjects elsewhere.

If CPU is too heavily loaded then GPU utilization decreases. I use GPUShark to check GPU utilization, I raise intensity until GPU is loaded 98%+.

I had the same problem if I switched from 4core to single core and underclocked CPU to 600MHz. If you raise GPU utilization to 99% then the hashrate will recover

Hi!

 The following AMD doc say to use some gcc options to optimize the binaries:

 http://developer.amd.com/assets/AMDGCCQuickRef.pdf

 I'm using the following options to mine my Litecoins (using cpuminer from ArtForz):

 CFLAGS = -mtune=amdfam10 -O3 -ffast-math -mabm -msse4a -pipe

 I do NOT have any Intel CPUs/hardware, because Intel send money to Israel to kill Palestinians. So, BOYCOTE ISRAEL!

 http://www.inminds.com/boycott-intel.html

Best!
Thiago

I know most large scale mining rigs use cheap AMD equipment so thats why Im not sure what the problem is. I will take a look in the bios later today. I do not have CF enabled. Its not required and I hear it causes problems when mining. Im running windows 7. I have turned off all the flash visual features. I did notice a difference but the lack of performance remains. Im not sure what the cpu usage normally is I will check later. But I have noticed the system does lag. Just unzipping a zip folder shoots the cpu usage up to 100%. Im assuming dabian is a lunux based OS? I just tried ubuntu hoping for gains. The driver install is overly complicated. Theres no easy to click exe to install you have to write code just to install drivers. Same for poclbm script. When you click nothing happens gotta do more work around. I dont mind learning another OS if I will see noticeable gains but I dont want to read forums for hours just to install drivers either.

Obviously something's off as most dedicated bitcoin mining rigs are not only based on AMD processors but on the cheapest and weakest AMD cpus.

Please double-check your bios settings on that AMD mobo, mayhap some elusive power-saving option remains switched on?
You made sure Crossfire is turned off, right?

Is that a windows-based rig? Which version of Windows? Make sure Aero interface is turned off, ok?

What's the CPU usage? Idle and mining.


...or just make a clean Debian install...

I know intel has better processors but have you guys noticed any difference when mining? I recently switched from intel to AMD and my hash dropped significantly. I used to get a stable 350K per card and now Im getting around 320K. Ive also noticed my hash goes up and down alot more than before. It drops to 270K often and even 20K before jumping back up to 320K. Ive also noticed its takes longer to get my hash up to 320K. On intel as soon as I launch the script its as max performance in like 2 seconds. But on AMD it drags and takes longer to peak. Probably around 20 seconds. The intel rig is quad core with 4gb ram. The AMD is single core with 1 gb ram. I know mining is GPU intensive but will having cheap equipment effect my mining performance? Single core and 1 gb ram is well below what windows needs to run smoothly. Its either that or intel chips and boards are so much better it effects hash rate. What do you guys think the problem is? My first AMD rig. Im not very impressed so far.