Rx 580 8gb and mining

[mdbusa]

Having a problem but not sure of root cause.--I was mining monero with 3 rx 580's with bios mod with no issues. Switched to mining Grin coin and if I mine with all 3 cards the pc will crash within hours and wont restart unless i pull the power plug from case and then reseat it. Mining with 2 cards no problem--goes for days. Im not sure what the problem is--and I don't know what settings I can try to adjust to solve the crashing issues with 3 cards.
My afterburner settings are core voltage +0, power limit -15%,temp limit 75,core clock 1380,core mem2000---these are the settings that work with 2 cards but crash with 3 cards.
Any insight or suggestions?

 

[DrMrLordX]

Have you tried observing power usage when mining XMR versus Grin?

 

[mdbusa]

Have you tried observing power usage when mining XMR versus Grin?

Am looking at that now--its really fluctuating--im using techpowerup gpuz gpu power draw range from 148 to 78 w just a a few seconds....have 850 watt power supply...

 

[DrMrLordX]

Am looking at that now--its really fluctuating--im using techpowerup gpuz gpu power draw range from 148 to 78 w just a a few seconds....have 850 watt power supply...

Main thing to look at is max power. See which one utilizes more max power on 2 cards. Not sure why you would have problems with that power supply, though. Unless you're getting the infamous Polaris "too much power from the PCIe slot" thing. I thought AMD had whipped that problem, though.

 

[mdbusa]

wa

Main thing to look at is max power. See which one utilizes more max power on 2 cards. Not sure why you would have problems with that power supply, though. Unless you're getting the infamous Polaris "too much power from the PCIe slot" thing. I thought AMD had whipped that problem, though.

was wrong--power supply is 700 watts--i will check the power meter later

 

[Feld]

Some mining algorithms cause a GPU to draw more power than others, and the number reported by GPUz is for the one selected GPU chip only, not including the memory or other components on the card, your other two GPUs, or other components in the system. I'm not familiar with the specifics of mining Grin, but it seems likely that when mining it you're having some spikes in total system power draw that are pushing your power supply harder than it can handle with your current configuration. Maybe try reducing the clock and voltages a bit on your GPUs and limit the power usage of any other components in the system that aren't necessary while mining. Or see about getting a beefier PSU.

 

[mdbusa]

Some mining algorithms cause a GPU to draw more power than others, and the number reported by GPUz is for the one selected GPU chip only, not including the memory or other components on the card, your other two GPUs, or other components in the system. I'm not familiar with the specifics of mining Grin, but it seems likely that when mining it you're having some spikes in total system power draw that are pushing your power supply harder than it can handle with your current configuration. Maybe try reducing the clock and voltages a bit on your GPUs and limit the power usage of any other components in the system that aren't necessary while mining. Or see about getting a beefier PSU.

That is what I am trying to understand--how to reduce the clock and voltages using afterburner-- current settings are core voltage +0, power limit -15%,temp limit 75,core clock 1380,core mem2000 --which of these should i change and at what increments?

 

[Feld]

That is what I am trying to understand--how to reduce the clock and voltages using afterburner-- current settings are core voltage +0, power limit -15%,temp limit 75,core clock 1380,core mem2000 --which of these should i change and at what increments?

Those look like stock settings except for power limit and temp limit. One simple thing you could try first is reducing the voltage, which could have a large impact without hurting mining performance at all. AMD is notorious for having their cards pull way more voltage than they need at stock settings, so reducing voltage is often an easy way to cut down on power consumption. Just reduce it in increments until you get instability (likely driver crashes), then turn the voltage back up a couple notches from wherever it became unstable. Repeat for the other cards in the system. Each one may have different levels where it's stable, but if you watch in GPUz you should see the wattage going down as you turn down the voltage.

Also note that stable settings for mining one coin may be different from stable settings for a different coin or for gaming.

 

[DrMrLordX]

@mdbusa one thing you can do to better measure power usage is to use a device like a Kill-a-watt to watch total system power drawn from the wall. Software tools may not measure things accurately.

 

[mdbusa]

@mdbusa one thing you can do to better measure power usage is to use a device like a Kill-a-watt to watch total system power drawn from the wall. Software tools may not measure things accurately.

Yes I have one of those and will test it later today

 

[mdbusa]

@mdbusa one thing you can do to better measure power usage is to use a device like a Kill-a-watt to watch total system power drawn from the wall. Software tools may not measure things accurately.

So mining monero with all cards shows max wattage 397 watts
Mining grin with 2 cards shows max wattage 481 watts

these are current settings mining grin

i need to know which of these sliders to play around with to try to limit wattage so i can mine grin with cards

 

[Feld]

So mining monero with all cards shows max wattage 397 watts
Mining grin with 2 cards shows max wattage 481 watts
View attachment 3466
these are current settings mining grin

i need to know which of these sliders to play around with to try to limit wattage so i can mine grin with cards

For the easiest power reduction without hurting your hashrate: Reduce the Core Voltage in small increments while mining until the miner or display driver crashes. Reboot if needed, then set Core Voltage about 20 mV higher than it was when it crashed.

For even more power reduction, before turning down Core Voltage try turning down the Core Clock some while mining. Watch how it affects your hashrate because this will make it hash slower. See if you can find a sweet spot before the hashrate falls off a cliff. Then do this again for the Memory Clock. Then after that, turn down the Core Voltage as described above. Like I said I'm not familiar with mining Grin, but I suspect you can probably shave off 100 watts without much change in hashrate.

 

[Feld]

What brand is your PSU? A 700W rated unit shouldn't be struggling so much under a load of less than 500W, but it could just be that the 12V rail is being overstressed. Most 700W PSUs aren't really designed for running more than 2 GPUs. Cutting back on their power draw should help unless the PSU itself is faulty.

 

[mdbusa]

What brand is your PSU? A 700W rated unit shouldn't be struggling so much under a load of less than 500W, but it could just be that the 12V rail is being overstressed. Most 700W PSUs aren't really designed for running more than 2 GPUs. Cutting back on their power draw should help unless the PSU itself is faulty.

480 watts is for running 2 cards with no problems--its when i add the third card that the problem starts.
its a cooler master lite 80plus white

 

[DrMrLordX]

So mining monero with all cards shows max wattage 397 watts
Mining grin with 2 cards shows max wattage 481 watts

I think you found your culprit. That's a huge difference. What's your idle power consumption with three cards? Two cards?

Also, I agree with @Feld that you should try scaling back clockspeed a little and voltage a little to see if you can get 3 cards running mining Grin. I had a situation some time ago with an Ethereum mining rig of mine that was . . . problematic. I had a 1250W Seasonic power supply, but for whatever bizarre reason, I could never get 4 Hawaii cards (290s, 390s) to run on it. Best I could do was 3 Hawaii cards and a Pitcairn (270), and everything but the Pitcairn had to be severely underclocked. I had to run my Hawaii cards at like 800 MHz. Then it would work. Why? I have no idea. I had another rig with a 1300W power supply that could handle 4 undervolted/overclocked Hawaii cards in any combination I wanted. I think the PSU was just being a PITA. Makes me wish I had just gotten two identical units instead of trying to get a Seasonic on sale, grr. Whatever.

If you ever get "serious" about mining, I recommend a 1300W EVGA G2. They are simply amazing.

 

[mdbusa]

I think you found your culprit. That's a huge difference. What's your idle power consumption with three cards? Two cards?

Also, I agree with @Feld that you should try scaling back clockspeed a little and voltage a little to see if you can get 3 cards running mining Grin. I had a situation some time ago with an Ethereum mining rig of mine that was . . . problematic. I had a 1250W Seasonic power supply, but for whatever bizarre reason, I could never get 4 Hawaii cards (290s, 390s) to run on it. Best I could do was 3 Hawaii cards and a Pitcairn (270), and everything but the Pitcairn had to be severely underclocked. I had to run my Hawaii cards at like 800 MHz. Then it would work. Why? I have no idea. I had another rig with a 1300W power supply that could handle 4 undervolted/overclocked Hawaii cards in any combination I wanted. I think the PSU was just being a PITA. Makes me wish I had just gotten two identical units instead of trying to get a Seasonic on sale, grr. Whatever.

If you ever get "serious" about mining, I recommend a 1300W EVGA G2. They are simply amazing.

thx for the advice--i tried the adjustments etc..hash rate dropped off dramatically---i think i will just mine with 2 cards for now.--grin is a new coin and the mining software is geared toward nvidea cards--i expect better software to come out that will work well with amd cards...or if the price of monero goes back up i will mine monero...i qalso mined ethereum for a while--too many problems with stability.... i have another 7 card rig sitting idle now as it only has 4gb cards--not suitable for grin

 

[Feld]

thx for the advice--i tried the adjustments etc..hash rate dropped off dramatically---i think i will just mine with 2 cards for now.--grin is a new coin and the mining software is geared toward nvidea cards--i expect better software to come out that will work well with amd cards...or if the price of monero goes back up i will mine monero...i qalso mined ethereum for a while--too many problems with stability.... i have another 7 card rig sitting idle now as it only has 4gb cards--not suitable for grin

Did you see if only reducing voltage will drop power consumption enough to make all 3 cards work? That shouldn't hurt your hashrate.

 

[Feld]

I think you found your culprit. That's a huge difference. What's your idle power consumption with three cards? Two cards?

Also, I agree with @Feld that you should try scaling back clockspeed a little and voltage a little to see if you can get 3 cards running mining Grin. I had a situation some time ago with an Ethereum mining rig of mine that was . . . problematic. I had a 1250W Seasonic power supply, but for whatever bizarre reason, I could never get 4 Hawaii cards (290s, 390s) to run on it. Best I could do was 3 Hawaii cards and a Pitcairn (270), and everything but the Pitcairn had to be severely underclocked. I had to run my Hawaii cards at like 800 MHz. Then it would work. Why? I have no idea. I had another rig with a 1300W power supply that could handle 4 undervolted/overclocked Hawaii cards in any combination I wanted. I think the PSU was just being a PITA. Makes me wish I had just gotten two identical units instead of trying to get a Seasonic on sale, grr. Whatever.

If you ever get "serious" about mining, I recommend a 1300W EVGA G2. They are simply amazing.

Agreed on the high end EVGA power supplies. I have a 1600W EVGA that ran 5 Hawaii cards like a champ. Personally, I will only use EVGA or Corsair power supplies for mining; they've always handled anything I threw at them without a blip.

 

[mdbusa]

Did you see if only reducing voltage will drop power consumption enough to make all 3 cards work? That shouldn't hurt your hashrate.

yes--reducing voltage to -10 gave me about 20% drop in hashrate--2nd time i tried it the pc crashed--power consumption dropped about 10%

 

[Feld]

yes--reducing voltage to -10 gave me about 20% drop in hashrate--2nd time i tried it the pc crashed--power consumption dropped about 10%

Wow, that's unexpected. I guess Grin mining consumes a lot of GPU resources.