R9 290(x) mining tweaks!

Digital Viper-X-

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https://litecointalk.org/index.php?topic=12830.0

New bios made to give mining a boost in performance, if you have a card with Elpidia memory on it def worth looking at, otherwise it will provide you with higher hashrate @ lower speeds and lower memory consumption.

Keep in mind there is an impact on gaming performance as it will reduce the ROPs from 64 to 32,

Read page 27 i believe for links, made sure to get the right bios for your card

Happy hashing! Donate to TheStilt if you appreciate the work he provided, he did this all for free and put a lot of time and effort into it!

My results: 290x from 880->1000+kh
 
Not quite all for free, several of us donated BTC/LTC to a fund so he could buy a 290 with Elpida memory to test, but yeah donate for his awesome contribution. :)
 
Not quite all for free, several of us donated BTC/LTC to a fund so he could buy a 290 with Elpida memory to test, but yeah donate for his awesome contribution. :)

Yes. I meant he's not really getting paid for his time. He has an extra 290 though =p
 
Using his 290 BIOS I can't overclock my core speed. I adjust it in afterburner but if I go past 940 the core clock speed starts bumping around and never reaches the higher clocks. Anyone have experience with this?

I had this problem with the stock BIOS as well but the PT1T BIOS fixed it.

I have these cards under water so temperature is not an issue.
 
Using his 290 BIOS I can't overclock my core speed. I adjust it in afterburner but if I go past 940 the core clock speed starts bumping around and never reaches the higher clocks. Anyone have experience with this?

I had this problem with the stock BIOS as well but the PT1T BIOS fixed it.

I have these cards under water so temperature is not an issue.

Disable overdrive :p I had an issue where it would keep bouncing back and forth because afterburner set one value, and OD set another. if not it's probably some driver issue that might need a clean driver install.
 
Disable overdrive :p I had an issue where it would keep bouncing back and forth because afterburner set one value, and OD set another. if not it's probably some driver issue that might need a clean driver install.

Ugh, I thought it worked but it didn't. The MSI clock speeds stay there until I start cgminer then they all dip back down to around 940.
 
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Do you have any of these settings set in cgminer.conf ?

auto-gpu
engine speed
memory speed

?

I fixed it bro. Driver reinstall. thanks!!! With this BIOS my hash is proportional to my core and the sky is the limit.

I'm getting over 1020 hash at 1050 core.
 
I fixed it bro. Driver reinstall. thanks!!! With this BIOS my hash is proportional to my core and the sky is the limit.

I'm getting over 1020 hash at 1050 core.

Good stuff, Right now my basement is about 14-15 degrees c, so I'm good on temps :D water for summer mining is in my future. (if mining is worth it still then, otherwise 290x crossfire!)
 
Out of curiousity what version of the bios are you guys flashing? I tried the middle on 2 290x's and 2 290s and only one of each would not crash the driver. I was wondering if I should move up to the highest voltage ones would potentially cause any damage?
 
Out of curiousity what version of the bios are you guys flashing? I tried the middle on 2 290x's and 2 290s and only one of each would not crash the driver. I was wondering if I should move up to the highest voltage ones would potentially cause any damage?

I take it you didn't read the instructions :p

Set all your card settings to default.
Use GPU-Z render test to see your voltage, pick the correct bios.
Start tuning from 1000/1375 clocks, don't go above 1500, @ 1375 memory, there is enough bandwidth to keep a 290x @ 1000 core happy, and about 1100 core on a 290(non-x)

all of my 290(x) are all running at below 1400mhz memory and getting 920 on my 290, and 1000kh on my 290x.
 
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I just flashed with the highest voltage BIOS. From the user comments it sounds like the highest voltage one is lower than stock voltage.

I'm getting random hard locks at 1100 core on 4 cards. I'm turning it down to 1000 core to see if they run without hard locking/freezing.

1400 memory was what I found to not bottleneck the system.
 
My hynix cards benefitted too. The difference is lower power usage, and increasing core above 1110 yields benefits. Before I was at 970 hash, now I can go to 1020 although I'm not going to because of power usage.
 
Hm the cards are making windows freeze when I boot into it. This happens in safe mode too. Doing a fresh install of AMD 13.12 didn't fix things. Any ideas?
 
I never tried mining, so approx, how much money in dollars can you make with one 290X per day?
 
Also if you are using SGMINER 4.1.0 try zuikkis kernel, I get about 15KH more on my 7970s, but even more so I Get about 100-150 more WU, same goes for my 290s using this kernel.
 
My computer continues to have random freezing, including when logging in from start. Turning off the IGP helped.... but this is really annoying.
 
My computer continues to have random freezing, including when logging in from start. Turning off the IGP helped.... but this is really annoying.

I have a problem with one of my 290s, if It's connected to a display device and displaying something(ie actively outputting a signal) overclocking the memory at all will crash it, even happens with the uber bios. Try connecting your monitor to another card(hynix if you have one)
 
It seems like every other time I restart, the computer freezes on login. However, if I wait a long time to login and let it sit at login screen sometimes it goes through. Very weird. Yeah, I thought about not flashing my Hynix and running everything off of that, and I tried it earlier but it didn't help. However, I may try it again.
 
I posted this already over on that forum but my XFX 290 was bumped from 840 to 885 hash with 1025/1400 clocks using the highest voltage bios. It needs more volts for anything higher. Testing each of my 3 cards individually for at least 24 hours to ensure stability, then on to the next. Assuming the XFX is still running when I get off work, it's on to the Asus 290. I plan to just go directly to the V34 bios (highest voltage for 290) as it's still under stock voltage. Any OCing I get from upping it to stock volts is icing.
 
Hm. is anyone trying this on non reference cards? I have one of the Asus 290x OCs...
 
Shouldn't void the warranty unless your card dies completely and you can't flash the bios back before sending it in.

Some people have tried it on non-reference designs with some success. I think it worked for a Windforce and DCII.
 
Shouldn't void the warranty unless your card dies completely and you can't flash the bios back before sending it in.

Some people have tried it on non-reference designs with some success. I think it worked for a Windforce and DCII.

So...yes. I've already had to RMA one card that was killed by mining. System would not even turn on with the card installed.
 
This BIOS works but it cause problems with my system. My computer would randomly shut off even though the power draw was low. Also, I would get random freezing. I went back to the PT1T BIOS even though this has amazing performance improvements. I just can't afford for my computer to die on me right now. Have to get ready for a big test.
 
Okay, so I went with the highest voltage bios's on the 290x's with elpdia ram. Got windows stable and sgminer up and running rock solid. I will say that the gpus heat up a bit more as the extra shaders are now able to work with the tweaks.

As far as a comparison
stock bios i20, tc 32768, 920 clock/ 1500 memory was getting max of 860-880 khash
The slit max volt bios, i20, tc 32768 1000/1375 getting 940-975 khash

Not to shabby for an extra 80-100 khash per card

Also I have not tweaked sgminer to much yet as I want to try out some different clock combos and the likes and stability.

Also ran at i22 for a bit and the khash was well over 1mhash but system was very unstable.
 
This BIOS works but it cause problems with my system. My computer would randomly shut off even though the power draw was low. Also, I would get random freezing. I went back to the PT1T BIOS even though this has amazing performance improvements. I just can't afford for my computer to die on me right now. Have to get ready for a big test.

I found that on my system I had to boost the voltage +50 MV @ stock to stabilize mining, since these bioses are so undervolted, it's still far below my original voltage while mining :)

what brand cards do you have?


Okay, so I went with the highest voltage bios's on the 290x's with elpdia ram. Got windows stable and sgminer up and running rock solid. I will say that the gpus heat up a bit more as the extra shaders are now able to work with the tweaks.

As far as a comparison
stock bios i20, tc 32768, 920 clock/ 1500 memory was getting max of 860-880 khash
The slit max volt bios, i20, tc 32768 1000/1375 getting 940-975 khash

Not to shabby for an extra 80-100 khash per card

Also I have not tweaked sgminer to much yet as I want to try out some different clock combos and the likes and stability.

Also ran at i22 for a bit and the khash was well over 1mhash but system was very unstable.

Look into xIntensity, I actually run mine at around 19.1 - 19.2 intensity equiv to reduce stale / rejects.
 
both my Sapphire and XFX 290x do 990 khash with a setting of 1040 / 1500. Powertune at 20.
 
My Sapphire 290 Tri-X has been chugging along nicely on the PT1T bios. Stock voltage, +50PT, 1070 core/1500 mem and gets 950hash.
 
My Sapphire 290 Tri-X has been chugging along nicely on the PT1T bios. Stock voltage, +50PT, 1070 core/1500 mem and gets 950hash.

what fan speed and temps do you run? my 290x i run at 800/1000 44% fan speed and get 713kh. I don't want my cubicle to sound like a 747....
 
what fan speed and temps do you run? my 290x i run at 800/1000 44% fan speed and get 713kh. I don't want my cubicle to sound like a 747....

I have it on a custom ramp but I get 68-70C on the core 24/7 and it's pretty quiet.
 
Is there a tutorial on how to flash the bios? I have 2x Asus R9 290x and 2x Sapphire 290x. Also is it possible to flash the old bios back on it? I plan to move two of these to my daily rig in the future.
 
Yep, just get the 290X version of the tweaked BIOS, and if you've got an unlockable, it's unlocked. :)

Sweet. Now I just need to find one of those cards. Radeon 290X isn't in short supply over in Southeast Asia, but XFX is no longer in the local market and PowerColor has stopped selling reference 290 cards... any other brands have good odds of unlocking?
 
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