Will minning bitcoins kill your card?

gbw1196

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Quote from: jake262144 on February 01, 2012, 07:42:20 PM

What the frak?
You're suppposed to flash your GPU bios, not the one on your mobo...
Try the search button, this subject was discussed many a time.

Also, while I hate to discourage you, your having made this mistake tells me you should probably not flash anything until you have done your research.
RTFM first, understand it, then flash. You're risking your hardware otherwise.

I flashed my BIOS 3 months back because my processor didn't work. I'm sorry if that's not what he meant, and I'm not going to flash my GPUs BIOS anyways.

Edit: Wording

DeathAndTaxes

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Gerald Davis

Quote from: jake262144 on February 01, 2012, 07:42:20 PM

What the frak?
You're suppposed to flash your GPU bios, not the one on your mobo...
Try the search button, this subject was discussed many a time.

LOLZ.

D&T PSA:
Just to be clear. If you don't know what you are doing DON'T flash your GPU bios. It is a good way to end up with a $300 paperweight. It is possible to put a custom bios on the card to make it do whatever you want. That is the only way around the 150 Mhz mem limit on 6000 series. It is somewhat risky, very easy to kill your card if you do something stupid and is 100% not supported by any warranty.

End D&T PSA

BCMan

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Quote from: DeathAndTaxes on February 01, 2012, 06:02:06 PM

The ban news is without a bios flash (risky) 6000 series only allow mem clock that is 150 Mhz lower than core. So if you are running 900 Mhz core you can try 750 Mhz memclock.

Looks like the 7000 series don't have this "glitch". Only the 6000 series does.

Damn, that's sucks.

jake262144

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What the frak?
You're suppposed to flash your GPU bios, not the one on your mobo...
Try the search button, this subject was discussed many a time.

Also, while I hate to discourage you, your having made this mistake tells me you should probably not flash anything until you have done your research.
RTFM first, understand it, then flash. You're risking your hardware otherwise.

gbw1196

newbie

Activity: 10

Merit: 0

Quote from: DeathAndTaxes on February 01, 2012, 06:02:06 PM

Mining doesn't need a fast memory clock. I run 5970s at 150 Mhz. The ban news is without a bios flash (risky) 6000 series only allow mem clock that is 150 Mhz lower than core. So if you are running 900 Mhz core you can try 750 Mhz memclock. Remember if you later raise the core clock you need to raise the memclock. Nothing "bad" will happen if you try to set it too low. The card will simply ignore the request and run it at stock.

Looks like the 7000 series don't have this "glitch". Only the 6000 series does.

I have flashed my bios to the latest stable version already for my Phenom II X6 processor.
Does this mean I can go lower than 150MHz lower?

DeathAndTaxes

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Gerald Davis

Mining doesn't need a fast memory clock. I run 5970s at 150 Mhz. The ban news is without a bios flash (risky) 6000 series only allow mem clock that is 150 Mhz lower than core. So if you are running 900 Mhz core you can try 750 Mhz memclock. Remember if you later raise the core clock you need to raise the memclock. Nothing "bad" will happen if you try to set it too low. The card will simply ignore the request and run it at stock.

Looks like the 7000 series don't have this "glitch". Only the 6000 series does.

gbw1196

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Quote from: P4man on February 01, 2012, 03:36:40 AM

Quote from: gbw1196 on January 31, 2012, 10:24:24 PM

I've got a Radeon HD6870 (Powercolor) and It's only been running for about two weeks, I haven't noticed anything wrong with it at all, but it does get a bit hot for my liking, GPU-Z reports:
Temp 1: 68.5C
Temp 2: 79.5C
Temp 3: 77.0C
Voltage: 1.17V
Is this normal? No overclocking, I just want to know if anything will happen due to these temperatures, as I am an avid gamer on this PC.
GPU Core lock is at 900MHz and the Memory clock is at 1050mhz, getting 250-270MH/s

Underclock your memory, as much as you can. If wont hurt performance (on the contrary actually) and it will lower temps a little bit. Even so those temps are uncomfortably high IMO. Try to improve air flow in your case or speed up your fan. If your card supports it, you can also try reducing voltage.

How low would you recommend, stock is 1050MHz
Also, improving airflow is out of my range since I've only got one card and I've got a couple 1300RPM fans pointed right at it, 95 CFM each, they move a lot of air.
My fan has been spinning at 100%. Powercolor is very bad at cooling. I would buy a new heatsink for it, but it voids the warranty, and this card may be one of the defective ones they sent out this past couple months.
Edit: I downclocked the memory to 900Mhz and noticed a significant temperature drop. GPU-Z reports:
Temp 1: 61C
Temp 2: 71C
Temp 3: 68C
How much lower can I go without anything bad happening?

P4man

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Quote from: gbw1196 on January 31, 2012, 10:24:24 PM

I've got a Radeon HD6870 (Powercolor) and It's only been running for about two weeks, I haven't noticed anything wrong with it at all, but it does get a bit hot for my liking, GPU-Z reports:
Temp 1: 68.5C
Temp 2: 79.5C
Temp 3: 77.0C
Voltage: 1.17V
Is this normal? No overclocking, I just want to know if anything will happen due to these temperatures, as I am an avid gamer on this PC.
GPU Core lock is at 900MHz and the Memory clock is at 1050mhz, getting 250-270MH/s

Underclock your memory, as much as you can. If wont hurt performance (on the contrary actually) and it will lower temps a little bit. Even so those temps are uncomfortably high IMO. Try to improve air flow in your case or speed up your fan. If your card supports it, you can also try reducing voltage.

gbw1196

newbie

Activity: 10

Merit: 0

I've got a Radeon HD6870 (Powercolor) and It's only been running for about two weeks, I haven't noticed anything wrong with it at all, but it does get a bit hot for my liking, GPU-Z reports:
Temp 1: 68.5C
Temp 2: 79.5C
Temp 3: 77.0C
Voltage: 1.17V
Is this normal? No overclocking, I just want to know if anything will happen due to these temperatures, as I am an avid gamer on this PC.
GPU Core lock is at 900MHz and the Memory clock is at 1050mhz, getting 250-270MH/s

P4man

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Quote from: ssateneth on January 28, 2012, 06:59:33 AM

I found that artifacting happens around the time I start changing clocks and applying a load to the cards. It mines fine, and it is NOT a clock I would normally set for gaming. If I reboot and use stock or "gamer" type overclocks and run furmark, it runs fine no artifacts.

This.

ssateneth

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I found that artifacting happens around the time I start changing clocks and applying a load to the cards. It mines fine, and it is NOT a clock I would normally set for gaming. If I reboot and use stock or "gamer" type overclocks and run furmark, it runs fine no artifacts.

yjacket

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Quote from: ensign_lee on January 24, 2012, 09:30:48 AM

Been running the 5870's at 900 Mhz, underclocking the memory to 1000. The 5970 I left at stock because I wanted it to last awhile (lasted all of 2.5 months until 1 GPU just outright failed lol). Stock voltages.

Most of my cards live at around 80 celcius, with some of them getting to be in their own cases living at 70-75 celcius instead.

Two of them have the weirdest problem: they will be fine under load, but when you let them idle, then they display erratic screens. lol.

For those of you above who said that you have had 0 fail, have you tested them as display monitors? Where you hook them up to 2 screens? I ask because for some of the cards, they are fine on 1 screen but if you ask them to display two then they start artifacting, which to me is still a failure.

Definitely have this issue.

cuz0882

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I ruined a 5970's by setting it to start mining on system startup. When the pc starts all the fans go to 100% and the pc is very unstable for a few seconds. Topped with mining seemed to screw up one of the gpus. I finally got it mining again, but it can't be used for anything else now. Luckily that is the only thing I bought it for.

ensign_lee

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Quote from: ?? on ??

Quote from: ensign_lee on January 18, 2012, 12:06:17 AM

I've been mining since June with with about 10 GPUs. Most of them 5870s, with some assorted 5850s, 5770s and a 5970 thrown in themix.

EVERY. SINGLE. ONE of them now has problems. Some of them have outright failed, others just artifact and are still good for mining, but not really as a display card anymore. I can't discount 10/10 cards as mere coincidence. So yes, they definitely do kill your cards.

Wow. This is crazy. I've been mining longer than you, non-stop, with more cards and I haven't had a single failure yet. I have healthy overclocks (although not overvolts) on each card.

I have to imagine there is a reason for your terrible luck. What brand power supplies have you been using? I use seasonic or pcpower&cooling, what I consider to be two of the best. I think clean power has a lot to do with hardware life expectancy.

Also what were your average temps? I'm unsatisfied if I'm running at anything over 66 degrees. I like to use big 120mm fans to push a lot of fresh air towards my cards, hoping to reduce the amount the small built in fans have to work.

Seasonic and Corsair PSUs. I also don't run them at > 65% of their full advertised capacity, so it shouldn't be PSUs. Temps might be it, but I noticed that with air flowing on them vs air not flowing on them from 120 mm fans, the temp only dropped about 1-2 degrees celcius, so *shrug*. Don't know how I could have made them any cooler without running caseless.

BCMan

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Quote from: P4man on January 25, 2012, 04:13:44 AM

Quote from: BCMan on January 25, 2012, 04:07:05 AM

Temp1-3 are different sensors, no? I don't see any others with gpu-z.

INdeed, you posted all 3. Still its worth pointing out that your 850/300 temps are unsurprisingly lower than your 960/300 temps despite lower fan speeds, so my point stands. Its also a fair point to make that gaming cards are not designed to run what AMD would consider a thermal virus 24/7. Professional compute cards from AMD and nVidia (firepro and quadro) are mostly based on the chips as the gaming cards, but they generally run at lower clocks and voltages. These cards are designed to run 24/7 at max load.

Well, but temp of 960/300/1.005v is lower than 850/300/1.125v. Wink

P4man

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Quote from: BCMan on January 25, 2012, 04:07:05 AM

Temp1-3 are different sensors, no? I don't see any others with gpu-z.

INdeed, you posted all 3. Still its worth pointing out that your 850/300 temps are unsurprisingly lower than your 960/300 temps despite lower fan speeds, so my point stands. Its also a fair point to make that gaming cards are not designed to run what AMD would consider a thermal virus 24/7. Professional compute cards from AMD and nVidia (firepro and quadro) are mostly based on the chips as the gaming cards, but they generally run at lower clocks and voltages. These cards are designed to run 24/7 at max load.

BCMan

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Quote from: P4man on January 25, 2012, 03:47:34 AM

Quote from: BCMan on January 24, 2012, 10:35:57 PM

I know. I mean it should work at least 2-3 years with 24/7 mode and with temp <70C. Overclocking + undervolting will kill a card faster if temp is in safe spot (<70C), than stock freq/volt with >80C?

Obviously not. Both current and temperature are key exacerbating factors of electromigration. Clockspeed afaik, is not. But its a false dilemma, because a higher clockspeed will result in higher temperature and require higher voltage, regardless of what your testing shows (hint: there are several temperature sensors in the GPU, you are measuring only one, quite possibly GpuIO which is the memory controller. Try checking the shader sensor).

Temp1-3 are different sensors, no? I don't see any others with gpu-z.

P4man

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Quote from: BCMan on January 24, 2012, 10:35:57 PM

I know. I mean it should work at least 2-3 years with 24/7 mode and with temp <70C. Overclocking + undervolting will kill a card faster if temp is in safe spot (<70C), than stock freq/volt with >80C?

Obviously not. Both current and temperature are key exacerbating factors of electromigration. Clockspeed afaik, is not. But its a false dilemma, because a higher clockspeed will result in higher temperature and require higher voltage, regardless of what your testing shows (hint: there are several temperature sensors in the GPU, you are measuring only one, quite possibly GpuIO which is the memory controller. Try checking the shader sensor).

grue

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Quote from: BCMan on January 24, 2012, 10:35:57 PM

Quote from: P4man on January 24, 2012, 11:50:30 AM

Quote from: BCMan on January 18, 2012, 11:29:23 PM

I don't think videocard can die if everything tuned properly, otherwise it can die even from playing games with high AA @ stock frequencies!

And its not like videocards that are not used for mining ever die Huh

Its really simple, any silicon chip thats used will eventually die. Its a given. The only question is how long it will take. It could be centuries, it could be days. But stressing these chips will reduce their lifespan, particularly when overvolting and overheating. If you are lucky, you may never notice, but it doesnt change the facts.

I know. I mean it should work at least 2-3 years with 24/7 mode and with temp <70C. Overclocking + undervolting will kill a card faster if temp is in safe spot (<70C), than stock freq/volt with >80C?

undervolting should make the card last longer, because lower voltage = smaller electromigration

BCMan

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Quote from: P4man on January 24, 2012, 11:50:30 AM

Quote from: BCMan on January 18, 2012, 11:29:23 PM

I don't think videocard can die if everything tuned properly, otherwise it can die even from playing games with high AA @ stock frequencies!

And its not like videocards that are not used for mining ever die Huh

Its really simple, any silicon chip thats used will eventually die. Its a given. The only question is how long it will take. It could be centuries, it could be days. But stressing these chips will reduce their lifespan, particularly when overvolting and overheating. If you are lucky, you may never notice, but it doesnt change the facts.

I know. I mean it should work at least 2-3 years with 24/7 mode and with temp <70C. Overclocking + undervolting will kill a card faster if temp is in safe spot (<70C), than stock freq/volt with >80C?

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