Sapphire 6950 v2 non-reference performance

Fuzzy

hero member

Activity: 560

Merit: 500

Quote from: zamarok on June 06, 2011, 01:45:20 PM

Sure. Here's the exact line from my NewEgg email invoice:

14-102-914 VGA SAPPHIRE|100312SR HD6950 2GB R

And I bought it February 12th. I bought it for gaming, and only discovered bitcoin mining in the last few days. Glad I bought this model!

I'm at work, and it's at home mining 430 MHash/s for me. I only have the stock heatsink/fan, but I keep a regular table fan angled at it.. temps staying steady at 73C @ 1270 mV core voltage. I will keep tweaking it to see if I can get more Mhash/s without heating it up too much.

Using the latest poclbm with GUIminer, CCC 11.5, -v 2 -w 128, 1,000 Mhz core clock and 400 Mhz VRM clock, and most importantly +20% OverDrive from CCC. When I first turned up OverDrive, my MHash/s went from about 335 to 390. Oh, and of course I patched my BIOS to unlock the extra shaders. Overclocking the core and underclocking the memory took me the rest of the way to 430.

What OS are you using XP, Win 7, 32 or 64 bit?

bitcoinminer

sr. member

Activity: 322

Merit: 252

Quote from: Waltibaba on June 11, 2011, 05:08:30 AM

Ok as these guys said the key is to put power control at +20. I was able to do that when I used CCC, but now I got a 5830 alongside it and CCC had too low limits. So I have to use MSI AB, and I only get 355MH/s on my reference Sapphire 6950 (unlocked) rather than the 405MH/s before. My problem is that with afterburner on, the power control slider resets itself every time you press apply... so anyone have a solution? A proper solution would be worth some bit dimes to me.

MSIAfterburner.cfg:

Set it like this:

[ATIADLHAL]
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 = 1

Then you set the settings, close it, reopen it, and it lets you adjust more.

I had to do this a few times to get 300 MHz on the memory clock.

Waltibaba

newbie

Activity: 38

Merit: 0

Ok as these guys said the key is to put power control at +20. I was able to do that when I used CCC, but now I got a 5830 alongside it and CCC had too low limits. So I have to use MSI AB, and I only get 355MH/s on my reference Sapphire 6950 (unlocked) rather than the 405MH/s before. My problem is that with afterburner on, the power control slider resets itself every time you press apply... so anyone have a solution? A proper solution would be worth some bit dimes to me.

bitcoinminer

sr. member

Activity: 322

Merit: 252

Quote from: zamarok on June 07, 2011, 08:23:41 AM

Quote from: xioros on June 07, 2011, 12:12:53 AM

The solution:

Enable power management to +20 in CCC....
I'm running unlocked @ 900 core: 380-400 Mhash/s

Donate if this fixed your problem:

1L3GxCRZwXEh8VwpPAociZQdTkhSHKGMoY

Grtz

Dude, I'm the one who posted the solution in the post directly above your post >_> How are you going to accept donations for posting my same answer right under my post?

LOL cuz he was smart enough to take credit and demand payment? Seriously though, dick move. How about "Send me an email saying thanks if you appreciated it".

zamarok

newbie

Activity: 15

Merit: 0

Quote from: xioros on June 07, 2011, 12:12:53 AM

The solution:

Enable power management to +20 in CCC....
I'm running unlocked @ 900 core: 380-400 Mhash/s

Donate if this fixed your problem:

1L3GxCRZwXEh8VwpPAociZQdTkhSHKGMoY

Grtz

Dude, I'm the one who posted the solution in the post directly above your post >_> How are you going to accept donations for posting my same answer right under my post?

xioros

newbie

Activity: 56

Merit: 0

The solution:

Enable power management to +20 in CCC....
I'm running unlocked @ 900 core: 380-400 Mhash/s

Donate if this fixed your problem:

1L3GxCRZwXEh8VwpPAociZQdTkhSHKGMoY

Grtz

zamarok

newbie

Activity: 15

Merit: 0

Quote from: randomdude on June 06, 2011, 08:45:04 AM

Quote from: zamarok on June 05, 2011, 12:29:52 PM

430 Mhash/s
Temps: 75 C, fan speed: 80%, core voltage: 1.275 mV
1,000Mhz, unlocked shaders, underclocked RAM.

How does one know if it's a 'reference card' or not?

zamarok, could you please post the exact model and manufacturer of your card? I am highly interested.

Sure. Here's the exact line from my NewEgg email invoice:

14-102-914 VGA SAPPHIRE|100312SR HD6950 2GB R

And I bought it February 12th. I bought it for gaming, and only discovered bitcoin mining in the last few days. Glad I bought this model!

I'm at work, and it's at home mining 430 MHash/s for me. I only have the stock heatsink/fan, but I keep a regular table fan angled at it.. temps staying steady at 73C @ 1270 mV core voltage. I will keep tweaking it to see if I can get more Mhash/s without heating it up too much.

Using the latest poclbm with GUIminer, CCC 11.5, -v 2 -w 128, 1,000 Mhz core clock and 400 Mhz VRM clock, and most importantly +20% OverDrive from CCC. When I first turned up OverDrive, my MHash/s went from about 335 to 390. Oh, and of course I patched my BIOS to unlock the extra shaders. Overclocking the core and underclocking the memory took me the rest of the way to 430.

MisterX

newbie

Activity: 8

Merit: 0

weird.....

I've a non-reference Sapphire 6950 1GB unlocked and I get about ~340Mhash/s @
800/1250 with command lines -v -f30 -w128

when I overclock it to 900/1250 with command lines -v -f30 -w128 I get about ~385Mhash/s

That's with running 11.5 Cat and SDK 2.4 in Windows 7 ultimate using guiminer/poclbm 05-21-11

spyjai

newbie

Activity: 19

Merit: 0

I bios flashed mine to 6970, and run it overclocked at 950Mhz, but only get roughly 350M/s. What drivers and miners / command lines do you guys use?

Yanz

full member

Activity: 133

Merit: 100

I get 410 MH at 940 core and 1.2volts. It's a reference model by MSI though all reference models are built at the same factory.

randomdude

newbie

Activity: 37

Merit: 0

Quote from: zamarok on June 05, 2011, 12:29:52 PM

430 Mhash/s
Temps: 75 C, fan speed: 80%, core voltage: 1.275 mV
1,000Mhz, unlocked shaders, underclocked RAM.

How does one know if it's a 'reference card' or not?

zamarok, could you please post the exact model and manufacturer of your card? I am highly interested.

itsagas

newbie

Activity: 59

Merit: 0

I am getting about 360mhash out of a single powercolor 6950 1GB with mem at 1250 and GPU @ 890. Under linux and Diablo with -f 1 and -v 3 -w 128.

Sounds great, but can't get 4 of them in one rig to come even close to that. Cards are spaced wide, tons of powerful fans and can't get them to do even 300mhash each (<1.2Ghash for all four).

Any suggestions? Build a windows machine and try to flash bios, change voltage and mess with memory settings?

Shades

newbie

Activity: 28

Merit: 0

I use a non-reference 6950 on my home PC. It was not intended for mining because I have separate mining rigs, but I told myself "Why not?!". It's currently mining along with a reference 5850 on the second PCI-E slot. 355 is the most I could get from it for a 24/7 work. Not great considering the 5850 does exactly the same.

Il tetini

newbie

Activity: 12

Merit: 0

With MSI Afterburner (the one i use), or Sapphire trixx wich is more easy to use.

frontsidebus

newbie

Activity: 9

Merit: 0

How do you overclock the non-reference board.

Il tetini

newbie

Activity: 12

Merit: 0

Quote from: zamarok on June 05, 2011, 07:51:33 PM

Thanks! I guess I have a reference model. Is this something special? Is this why I can get 430 Mhash/s with it? I hear that that's a lot for a 6950.

Reference model can be unlocked (shaders unlock) but non-reference can´t. You are lucky Wink

mattpker

newbie

Activity: 28

Merit: 0

That is a lot because I can't get my core clock above 950Mhz. When I have both cards in the machine it is even more unstable and I cant get them above 900Mhz without crashing.

zamarok

newbie

Activity: 15

Merit: 0

Thanks! I guess I have a reference model. Is this something special? Is this why I can get 430 Mhash/s with it? I hear that that's a lot for a 6950.

Il tetini

newbie

Activity: 12

Merit: 0

Reference model:

http://www.jmsinfo.com/images/Sapphire_HD_6950.jpg

Non-reference model:

http://www.wmcomputer.com.co/sitio_nuevo/admin/image/HD6950.jpg

zamarok

newbie

Activity: 15

Merit: 0

430 Mhash/s
Temps: 75 C, fan speed: 80%, core voltage: 1.275 mV
1,000Mhz, unlocked shaders, underclocked RAM.

How does one know if it's a 'reference card' or not?

Il tetini

newbie

Activity: 12

Merit: 0

Np, good luck with that. And thanks for your info too.

mattpker

newbie

Activity: 28

Merit: 0

I will look for this when I get home. Thanks for the info!

Il tetini

newbie

Activity: 12

Merit: 0

Yes, i changed the VGA priority on BIOS, depends on your mobo, but many times is on Advanced tab.

mattpker

newbie

Activity: 28

Merit: 0

I can't get the on-board video to work if I have a video card plugged in. Did you have to change something in the BIOS?

Il tetini

newbie

Activity: 12

Merit: 0

Ty for the info, i have seen that before. I tryed diferent clocks and that seems the best combination for me, but maybe someone else have a better one.
I have the cards in my main computer too, but i use the IGP for windows general use and dummy plugs to make them work 100% without losing performance.

mattpker

newbie

Activity: 28

Merit: 0

Wow, that is some decent speeds without the unlock. As you can see here you are around what the unlocked ones are doing:

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison

My two 6950's are unlocked and do about 370 Mhash/s each with a small overclock. I am not overclocking them to much yet as it is my main computer and the drivers are currently unstable.

Il tetini

newbie

Activity: 12

Merit: 0

Oh good point, srry. Its each. Tongue

mattpker

newbie

Activity: 28

Merit: 0

Is that 355 Mhash/s each or together?

Il tetini

newbie

Activity: 12

Merit: 0

Hi, i just want to know how much Mhash/s and what configuration you have, to know what´s the limit of this cards i have (2 atm).

My numbers are:
-355 Mhash/s with 900/300 frequencies. Temp 74º and 78º with fan 66% (i have them on 1 mobo, like crossfire but without the bridge)
-330 mhash/s with stock frequencies. I never use them on this config.

Sorry if this have been posted, but im not talking about normal 6950´s, this ones cant be unlocked.
And also sorry for my bad English. Tongue

Topic: Sapphire 6950 v2 non-reference performance (Read 6385 times)