How can I set GPU power levels by watts instead of % under windows?

P

pclausen

Gawd
Joined
Jan 30, 2008
Messages
697
I have a rig with 9x 1070 GPUs in it. It's a mixed bag consisting of the following:

4x EVGA 1070 SC
1x EVGA 1070 SC2
2x EVGA 1070 FTW
1x Zotac 1070 AMP!
1x Nvidia FE

I used to run Ubuntu (nvOC) and had the power level set to 120W, which is where I like to keep my 1070 rigs at.

Since switching back to Windows and using MSI Afterburner, I'm finding that only being able to set power level as a percentage is less than ideal. So what I have in AF atm is:

miner01powerlevels-02.JPG


And the resulting power levels are:

miner01powerlevels.JPG


So all over the place since those different model 1070's all have different factory max power level specs. Some cards have a single 8-pin power connectors, some have 2.

Sure, I could unsync the cards in AF, but then I'm only able to control 8 of the 9 cards. By keeping the in sync, my settings are applied across all 9.

AFAIK, AF is just a pretty front end that issues nvidia-smi commands behind the scenes to set the GPUs, which in the case of power, is done by specifying the actual caps seen in the 2nd screenshot above.

So is there another utility/program I can use under windows that will allow me to just set the cap in watts directly, instead of this messy PL % that seems to be the only way to do it in AF?

This rig is not stable under windows, seven when running the clocks as low as seen in the top screen shot. In nvOC, with all the cards at 120W, I could run core at +120 and memory at +600 all day long with no issues.

Thanks
 
I use the nvidia-smi command

"C:\Program Files\NVIDIA Corporation\NVSMI\nvidia-smi.exe" -pl 152 would mean set all cards to 152 w

need to pull out a single card?

via vnidia-smi pick your card and than
"C:\Program Files\NVIDIA Corporation\NVSMI\nvidia-smi.exe" -I 3 -pl 152. where 3 is the card your controlling
 
Awesome! That did the trick. Now I just need to add a job to run that after each reboot.
 
I would like to recommend you set your power after setting your overlocks via MSI. MSI will re-write your power settings to be MAX every time. or that has been my XP as of late.

so launch MSI, set your settings
Launch admin CMD prompt and set your power
start mining

if you change settings in MSI, re-set your power via admin CMD prompt
 
Since nvidia-smi is in Windows (learn something new every day), it would almost make sense that we could set clock / memory the same way that it's done in nvoc with a script, pclausen. I may check that out tonight, to see if I can "convert" the bash script to something windows readable...
 
xrealm20 said:
Since nvidia-smi is in Windows (learn something new every day), it would almost make sense that we could set clock / memory the same way that it's done in nvoc with a script, pclausen. I may check that out tonight, to see if I can "convert" the bash script to something windows readable...
Click to expand...

please share your XP. I did not find a way to do it which is why I do what I outlined above
1 - set settings via SMI
2 - set power via CLI
3 - mine
4 - sexy time.

mostly in that order
 
My understanding is that only the power level can be set using nvidia-smi. For core and memory clocks, you have to use something like Afterburner. Sure would be nice if it was possible to set everything via a bat file that executed on startup.

There might be something called nvidia inspector that allows settings core, memory and power via command line, but I have not been able to locate that utility.
 
I found nvidia inspector, and it looks like it can apply clocks through command line. I'm going to dink with it some more... the only downside I can see is that I can't set an aggressive fan profile like I can with Afterburner.
 
xrealm20 said:
I found nvidia inspector, and it looks like it can apply clocks through command line. I'm going to dink with it some more... the only downside I can see is that I can't set an aggressive fan profile like I can with Afterburner.
Click to expand...

i just use 75% overall. depending what i mine and the type of card i go lower
 
yeah, I got spoiled with the fan control in NVoc. You set a max temp, and it auto ramps the fan to meet that temp.
 
Yes, fan control in NVoc is awesome.

Sure would be great if NH released a linux version of NHML. Best of both worlds so to speak.

Looking forward to an update on nvidia inspector!
 
would be cool if niceehash could control clocks and power without the need of afterburner. Since some algorithms favor core vs memory clock speeds, it could change for each algorithm. Would require a bit more dialing in but would be a nice option.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Parja
like this
Agreed. This is something else that nvOC does already. You can basically configure custom core and memory speeds profiles for each algo.

There is even a fork of nvOC that supposedly will dial in your GPU clocks for max hash rates automatically for you. I don't have 1st hand experience with that version, so I can't speak to how stable it is or how well it works.
 
pclausen said:
Agreed. This is something else that nvOC does already. You can basically configure custom core and memory speeds profiles for each algo.

There is even a fork of nvOC that supposedly will dial in your GPU clocks for max hash rates automatically for you. I don't have 1st hand experience with that version, so I can't speak to how stable it is or how well it works.
Click to expand...

do you have links?
 
xrealm20 said:
I found nvidia inspector, and it looks like it can apply clocks through command line. I'm going to dink with it some more... the only downside I can see is that I can't set an aggressive fan profile like I can with Afterburner.
Click to expand...

NVInspector is my chief tweaking tool - i prefer it over AB.
 
xrealm20 Me? Yes. I have a on-start NVinspector job to run for each card for core / ram / PL%. Fanspeed i keep to auto.

I am adding a new job to do that nvidia-smi command though. It is necessary, but not because AB or NVInspector aren't doing their jobs or the such.
 
atp1916 Yep, thanks. That's what I was curious about. I'm playing around with building a startup script that would set clock/mem through NVinspector and set powerlimit in watts through nvidia-smi, then start mining.
 
xrealm20 I am doing exactly that now.

You can command NVInspector to create the start-up task to lock in the current settings. Right-click "Create Clocks Shortcut" and the option is there, of the two. If you have a clock startup task in place, that option will turn into "Update Clock Startup Task." Note that you will need to do this for each card if you go this particular route. A script to do this for all cards in the system would be very handy.

EDIT: The particular command for an individual clock startup task that NVInspector made is:
'setBaseClockOffset:5,0,175 -setMemoryClockOffset:5,0,315 -setPowerTarget:5,67 -setTempTarget:5,0,83'

First digit is the GPU #, second is.. not sure (current clock), third is the setting val. I did not consider NVInspector to have those flags, or flags at all. Time to start exploring :D


For the NVidia-smi command, i am just going to do a startup job, have it delay for 15 minutes, then execute. I feel that should do the job.
 
Last edited:
Parja said:
Think I found it...

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2623054.0

Pretty friggin' cool if it does everything they say.
Click to expand...

Yep, that's the link to the fork version of nvOC. I ran the "official" one, which is this one:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1854250.0

Now fullzero kinda left the scene and others have taken over and maintaining the code. Here's a link the to latest maintained release (0019-20):

https://github.com/papampi/nvOC_by_fullzero_Community_Release
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top