MSI R9 280x Undervolt Issue

[Hamz4h]

Hi Guys,

Apologies if something like this already exists - first and foremost, this is not about how to undervolt, but rather a strange problem I'm facing after undervolting.

I have 2 MSI R9 280x's (mining rig - who games with these things anyway ? - to successfully (well not really sucessful) undervolt it I had to load another bios - I went from 015.040.000.003.003435 to 015.040.000.000.003435 - from there I undervolted the card to 0.956v - everything seems stable (running for 24 hours on both cards). GPU-Z is showing the correct voltage however my problem is the wattage meter I have in the socket reads roughly the same watts before the change.

I was hitting around 650watts and its still around 650watts - what's going on?? My setup as follows:

MB: Gigabyte 990FXA-UD3 AMD 990FX (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard
Proc: AMD FX-8350 4GHz Socket AM3+ 8MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor
RAM: 4GB G.Skill DDR3 PC3-12800 1600MHz Ripjaw Series (9-9-9-24) Dual Channel kit for Intel P55
GFX: As described above x2
PSU: Corsair Professional Digital AX860i Fully Modular 80 PLUS Platinum 860W PSU
OS: Windows 7 64bit Ultimate

I would have thought I would be nearer the 500watt mark, even 550watts would be better ...

Anyhow, any help would be appreciated, I'm using Energenie Power Meter to check my power output. If I've missed any important details, let me know. Thank you for your help!

 

[plaxmanck]

Hi,I think I have a solution.

First of all, what production number etc. is your card...? (look at the sticker in your package...there is a series with xxSB in it...which numbers do you have before the __SB ?)

Anyway, your undervolting did not succeed, if the watt meter tells you so... watts don't lie.

1. TRY LOWERING YOUR CARD VOLTAGE WITH THE "VBE" METHOD TO 9,43 volts... (both slots in VBE) use this rom : http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/149729/msi-r9280x-3072-131011.html, if the undervolting to 9,43 doesn't work with your standard rom. (i used the above rom)
also, in cgminer you have to set the speed to less the 9,43, so something like gpu 925 and mem 1500 should work.

2. With my 38SB cards nothing works unless I lower the voltage to lesser the 9,44 volts.. it's strange, but that's how it works. Something to do with a powersaving and gaming mode....If you set the cards undervolting over 9,44v it will always boost back to normal 1.20 volts etc.

3. Good luck, tell us how you managed.

p.s. forget the gpu-z readings..I understood that they don't tell you the reality with this card...just trust your watt meter!

p.p.s the negative aspect is that you get only 640-650 khash,and the positive is that this card now sucks around 200 watts electricity, so you watts should be something like 480 w after this method.

 

[Hamz4h]

Hey,

Thanks for the reply - so I am using VBE7 to undervolt and then using atiwinflash (via command line) to flash the bios for the cards. No issues there. Also I am using the bios you linked (that was the only way I was able to undervolt since I believe .003. is voltage locked..).

I was able to use the likes of TriXX and MSI Afterburner but the results were nothing to write home about - as you said, hash rate became horrid and the reduction in wattage was minimal.

The card's prod number is 28SB (from what the package says).

I have attached my Bios - if there are any other bios's out there that I can perhaps try, please let me know. In the mean time, I'll try some other configs.