4 R9 290X's and Mining Problems

[Doc_Gore]

Yes, I know I posted about this earlier. But I am going to make a much more organized post on this here. Any mods can feel free to remove the old one.

 

Here's the initial problem from the old post I posted:

 

 

Ok, so me and some friends built a mining rig. Specs are i5 4670K, MSI POWER Z87, 4 R9 290X's, 8GB Corsair Dominator 1600Mhz, 1600 LEPA Gold PSU, Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit. If you need to know any other specs let me know. So basically, we got the PC  up and running, but for some reason we can't get the cgminer (EDIT: Every other miner including GUIminer) to work with it. We have the latest drivers from AMD Catalyst and we have cgminer properly installed, but for some reason the miner only runs at 14 Kh per GPU. Even if we change the intensity higher it doesn't change the Kh, if anything, it makes it lower. We exhausted all of our ideas, from taking out some of the GPUs, changing RAM, trying to redownload everything, disabling AMD Catalyst, making sure the GPU's were cool enough. We tried everything. Any idea on what the problem could be? I've been messing with it for 3 hours (EDIT: Now for 1 week) and nothing changes, so I'm getting desperate enough to try everything.

 

So here is what we have tried:

 

Used a list of thread concurrencies and other settings recommended by people on this forum and other websites / forums ( none worked )

 

Tried using BAMT and other Linux mining distros (Linux doesn't support the Ethernet drivers for our motherboard. No internet = no mining)

 

Tried the GPU's on a different machine entirely (Had the same problem, tried the same machine with a 6870 and worked perfectly)

 

Tried every update of cgminer and GUIminer (most don't even work)

 

Upgraded RAM to 16Gb (Did nothing)

 

Checked to see if the GPU's were cool enough (GPU's running at 30C. No change)

 

Tried using only 1 GPU (no change, still doesn't work)

 

Followed every guide on the internet to fix this problem (none worked from what we have tried)

 

Anyone got any ideas. At this point I've been working on it for a long time and it's still not working.

 

PS. If anyone asks why we bought 4 R9 290X's, it's because we were familiar with cgminer and GUIminer beforehand, but this is the first time we had run into this problem. 

 

Alright, shoot.

[Shd0w2]

To mine, or not to mine.

[Vitalius]

@digitalnav had to set up a similar setup.

Hopefully he can help you. 

If he doesn't respond soon, I had a similar problem with my single 290X. It was because I was using -g 2 or 2 GPU threads. I tried setting that to 1 and it fixed it. 

Like, 100% fixed it. Maybe try that? 

Another problem I had with -g 2 was that using anything over Thread Concurrency 8192 didn't work at all either. But when I moved to -g 1, I could use Thread Concurrency as high as 31592. 

Look-up gap, Worksize, and Scan Time all matter for large setups like yours because you are doing huge shares (relative to single or weak GPU miners).

[Doc_Gore]

@digitalnav had to set up a similar setup.

Hopefully he can help you. 

If he doesn't respond soon, I had a similar problem with my single 290X. It was because I was using -g 2 or 2 GPU threads. I tried setting that to 1 and it fixed it. 

Like, 100% fixed it. Maybe try that? 

Another problem I had with -g 2 was that using anything over Thread Concurrency 8192 didn't work at all either. But when I moved to -g 1, I could use Thread Concurrency as high as 31592. 

We had it on 1 GPU thread, and thanks I'll message him.

[Vitalius]

We had it on 1 GPU thread, and thanks I'll message him.

You're welcome. 

I'm not sure. Hmm. Are the GPUs at stock clocks? Is the PSU strong enough and single rail with tons of Amperage (40+)?

Is Crossfire enabled in CCC? If so, disable it. 

Is there a .bin file in cgminer.exe's home folder? If so, delete it (them).

[Doc_Gore]

You're welcome. 

I'm not sure. Hmm. Are the GPUs at stock clocks? Is the PSU strong enough and single rail with tons of Amperage (40+)?

Yeah, they are at stock, and the PSU is this one.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817494006&clickid=3Twx8P03x2Gfx5CX04VJu1C7UkT36x0RuQkH280&iradid=97618&ircid=2106&irpid=79301&nm_mc=AFC-IR&cm_mmc=AFC-IR-_-na-_-na-_-na

 

It's pretty beefy at 1600 Watts. Not sure about the Amps for sure though.

 

EDIT: I know, I know, a Newegg link. I'm shunned for not using NCIX. lol

[Vitalius]

Yeah, they are at stock, and the PSU is this one.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817494006&clickid=3Twx8P03x2Gfx5CX04VJu1C7UkT36x0RuQkH280&iradid=97618&ircid=2106&irpid=79301&nm_mc=AFC-IR&cm_mmc=AFC-IR-_-na-_-na-_-na

 

It's pretty beefy at 1600 Watts. Not sure about the Amps for sure though.

 

EDIT: I know, I know, a Newegg link. I'm shunned for not using NCIX. lol

It's fine. I don't use NCIX either.

From that web page:

Six powerful +12V rails with high maximum loads offer great compatibility with heavy-duty graphics cards

 

I don't like that. I don't like that one bit. Not that it can't run 4 290X's, but if you have too many plugged onto the same rail, they may not work.

[Doc_Gore]

It's fine. I don't use NCIX either.

From that web page:

I don't like that. I don't like that one bit.

Yeah, you just made me question why I got that PSU in the first place. If the problem is with the PSU that would be such a relief. But I'm not entirely sure it is because we couldn't get it working on the second computer as well (and with only 1 GPU plugged in)

[Vitalius]

Yeah, you just made me question why I got that PSU in the first place. If the problem is with the PSU that would be such a relief. But I'm not entirely sure it is because we couldn't get it working on the second computer as well (and with only 1 GPU plugged in)

Admittedly, that's true. If it were that PSU, that wouldn't have happened. 

Hmm, this is a bit confusing. Re-read that post you quoted. I edit things in sometimes (all the time).

[Doc_Gore]

Admittedly, that's true. If it were that PSU, that wouldn't have happened. 

Hmm, this is a bit confusing. Re-read that post you quoted. I edit things in sometimes (all the time).

Yeah, this has been baffling me for a week now. Gotten to the point I just wanna get it over with

[Vitalius]

Yeah, this has been baffling me for a week now. Gotten to the point I just wanna get it over with

If you want to get it over with, I still need another 290X to complete my build. /joke

But seriously, I have no clue. Unless there' s something deep that is broken in cgminer or something, I just don't know what's wrong. 

Have you tried sgminer? It's a fork of cgminer with optimizations in the scrypt for the new GPUs (i.e. 290X/290). It can get anywhere from 0-10% gains and it might fix your problem. Who knows.

It uses the same config stuff as cgminer since it's a fork, but it disabled SHA256 mining so you don't need the --scrypt flag anymore. It's forced.

[Doc_Gore]

If you want to get it over with, I still need another 290X to complete my build. /joke

But seriously, I have no clue. Unless there' s something deep that is broken in cgminer or something, I just don't know what's wrong. 

Have you tried sgminer? It's a fork of cgminer with optimizations in the scrypt for the new GPUs (i.e. 290X/290). It can get anywhere from 0-10% gains and it might fix your problem. Who knows.

It uses the same config stuff as cgminer since it's a fork, but it disabled SHA256 mining so you don't need the --scrypt flag anymore. It's forced.

Ok, awesome, I'll have to try that. 

 

And lol 

[Vitalius]

Ok, awesome, I'll have to try that. 

 

And lol 

Yeah, it auto-sets some settings like Worksize and Vectors and stuff. If somethings a problem, that could very well fix it. 

It will have a .bin file in the folder you extract. It needs that. Don't delete it.