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Easy undervolting guide for 79xx and R9 280X cards

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ivanlabrie

ivanlabrie

Member
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Joined
Jul 29, 2011
Location
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Easy procedure, specially if using Winblows and atiwinflash.
No need to make a DOS boot disk (which can be a pain atm), and works just as good :D

  1. Download and run GPU-Z
  2. Extract the gpu bios using the button with a bios chip.
  3. Create an atiwinflash folder and extract its files there.
  4. Download and run VBE7 and open the extracted bios file.
  5. Go to the powerplay tab, and change the voltage you see in the last power state (one with highest clocks) to match the previous one.
  6. Save the bios with an easy to remember name and copy it to the atiwinflash folder.
  7. Open CMD as an admin.
  8. Go to atiwinflash's folder (you guys know DOS right? cd.. cd.. cd atiwinflash)
  9. Run the following command: atiwinflash -p 0 moddedbios.rom
  10. After that change the -p number to 1,2,3 or whatever, to flash your cards one by one. (it's safer to do it that way, but you can also try -pa which flashes all amd cards at once)
  11. Try mining at your usual settings, if it doesn't hang you can let it be or try lower. I just leave my R9 280X XFX cards at 1143mv and they mine happily at 738kh/s using 210w from the psu vs 250w.

Links:

VBE7
GPU-Z
Atiwinflash
 
I used VBE7 tonight to fix a modified bios for my 7950. It was Stilt-modified to fix memory timings, but it had the gpu voltage set at 1.25V for some strange reason.
It was easy to turn that down to 1.093v in VBE7, save the updated bios file, then flash the card with atiflash (dos-version on a bootable thumb drive).
 
ivanlabrie said:
Easy procedure, specially if using Winblows and atiwinflash.
No need to make a DOS boot disk (which can be a pain atm), and works just as good :D

  1. Download and run GPU-Z
  2. Extract the gpu bios using the button with a bios chip.
  3. Create an atiwinflash folder and extract its files there.
  4. Download and run VBE7 and open the extracted bios file.
  5. Go to the powerplay tab, and change the voltage you see in the last power state (one with highest clocks) to match the previous one.
  6. Save the bios with an easy to remember name and copy it to the atiwinflash folder.
  7. Open CMD as an admin.
  8. Go to atiwinflash's folder (you guys know DOS right? cd.. cd.. cd atiwinflash)
  9. Run the following command: atiwinflash -p 0 moddedbios.rom
  10. After that change the -p number to 1,2,3 or whatever, to flash your cards one by one. (it's safer to do it that way, but you can also try -pa which flashes all amd cards at once)
  11. Try mining at your usual settings, if it doesn't hang you can let it be or try lower. I just leave my R9 280X XFX cards at 1143mv and they mine happily at 738kh/s using 210w from the psu vs 250w.

Links:

VBE7
GPU-Z
Atiwinflash
Click to expand...

very high on the to do list. have you tried lower then 1.143v? i'd LOVE to be only using 210w per card instead of 300w. anyone got this to work on MSI twin frozr 280x?
 
do you have to flash 280s ? cant just software set lower ?
 
An easier option for those running 7000 series cards (don't have a 280X to test with) is MSI Afterburner or Sapphire Trixx, they let you lower the core voltage.

Have both of mine running at 1.087v and 1075mhz core
 
Luis_GT said:
An easier option for those running 7000 series cards (don't have a 280X to test with) is MSI Afterburner or Sapphire Trixx, they let you lower the core voltage.

Have both of mine running at 1.087v and 1075mhz core
Click to expand...

tis what i do and id recommend same, unless the 280x are locked ? are they ?
 
Has anyone used The Stilt's tool for memory on tahiti? Perhaps tried his bioses?

I am going to try. These seem to fix low production on 7950, 7970,280 and 280x.

I haven't looked yet, but I suspect this will be the answer to the 1500 memory cap on 290Xs as well. I don't know if he is working on 290 or 290x yet. I am still reading into it.

https://litecointalk.org/index.php?topic=12369.0
 
xsuperbgx said:
Has anyone used The Stilt's tool for memory on tahiti? Perhaps tried his bioses?

I am going to try. These seem to fix low production on 7950, 7970,280 and 280x.

I haven't looked yet, but I suspect this will be the answer to the 1500 memory cap on 290Xs as well. I don't know if he is working on 290 or 290x yet. I am still reading into it.

https://litecointalk.org/index.php?topic=12369.0
Click to expand...

do keep us posted on that, id be curious to know if the "cursed" 280x can be fixed, though i fear if vram is bad, there isnt that much to do about them
 
I'm happily using Stilt-modified bios in my 7970 and 7950. They let a card perform to its' full potential.
The 7970 was a big improvement and the 7950 was a slight improvement.

I'm also working on lowering the gpu voltage of the 7970. Temps are running 3C lower so far.
 
Last edited:
My 7950's have always been duds. Does anyone have an acct at ltctalk that want to post this bios up for him to mod? This visiontek is not in the thread anywhere.

Edit:
I found one that should work. will post results soon.
 
Last edited:
My xfx cards aren't voltage locked, technically, but without a bios flash I change voltages in AB and it doesn't change power draw (or voltage displayed in hwinfo).
Bios flash works 100% of the time and I don't have time to fiddle with 7 gpus, individually with software as buggy as cgminer and afterburner.
It's not a gaming machine, it's a mining rig, should work right out of the box and be easy and fast to deploy.
 
how are you checking power draw ? at the wall ?
i look at temps, if temps drop, the voltage has been changed and so should the draw, if it didnt the temps wouldnt change
 
I have been flashing bioses and messing with settings off and on, all day. So far no improved results from the stilt's bioses. I haven't found one that seem compatible with the visiontek 7950. Now I guess I will try to get it back to where was before I started...
 
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