Disabling Powerplay on 5870

[BanjoDubz]

Hi,

Im trying to disable powerplay on my 5870. I have tried changing the profile XML like some tutorials tell you but it just does not work. I used GPU-Z to log the core frequency while playing a game and it tells me it drops down to 400Mhz/600Mhz from 865Mhz at random times, effecting the frame rate. I don't give a rats about efficiency, it want this thing working its balls off.

Here are the details of my card:
- XFX 5870 Extreme
- CCC 10.2
- Driver Version 8.14.10.0728
- BIOS Version VER012.014.000.005.035264
- Windows 7

Any help apprecieted.

[Dave Baumann]

PowerPlay is entiely GPU activity based, so it only drops down to lower speeds if there isn't sufficient activity to require full clocks on the the GPU. A lowered GPU clock and a lowered frame rate tells me that the CPU isn't supplying enough data to the GPU, so it is clocking down because it is waiting for data from the CPU.

[spammeister]

It's not permanent, but using the "AMD GPU clock tool" and setting the clocks once manually will be good until you turn off your computer or change it again. Doing this will totally disable the powerplay and keep it at whatever numbers you want.

Say hi to Mark B for me Dave!

[ualdayan]

After you edit the profile go into profile manager, and select the overdrive profile you created. Then click 'Activate'. If you click 'Load profile' without going into the profile menu, or use a hotkey, or even hit 'Activate and close' then it won't stick. You absolutely have to use 'Activate' then manually close the profile window - at least in my experience.

I had to do the XML override in order to keep my GPU at 400Mhz. Without the XML override ATI Overdrive would drop my 5870 down to 157Mhz (which caused massive corruption due to my triple monitor setup) whenever it was enabled.

You'll also want to make sure all 3 Want states have the same memory clock. For me if it had to switch memory speeds too often my mouse cursor would become corrupted.

You can use AMD clock tool, but I'd recommend working at getting Overdrive to do what you want so you don't have to run a program every single time.

[ualdayan]

If you use MSI Afterburner, and then edit the config file where it says 'Unofficial overclocking' from 0 to 1 it disables powerplay entirely.

(unfortunately I kind of want the opposite, the overclocking ability of Afterburner, the powerplay of ATI Overdrive. Doesn't seem to be any way to have it both ways though.)

[BanjoDubz]

PowerPlay is entiely GPU activity based, so it only drops down to lower speeds if there isn't sufficient activity to require full clocks on the the GPU. A lowered GPU clock and a lowered frame rate tells me that the CPU isn't supplying enough data to the GPU, so it is clocking down because it is waiting for data from the CPU.

Ahhh very good, this is true as im only running a 2.66Ghz celeron D in the mean time while i wait for my new i7 setup. Wouldnt it be an advantage to disable it in this case so that there isnt any further loss in performance in the card having to run logic to determine the throttling?

If you use MSI Afterburner, and then edit the config file where it says 'Unofficial overclocking' from 0 to 1 it disables powerplay entirely.

(unfortunately I kind of want the opposite, the overclocking ability of Afterburner, the powerplay of ATI Overdrive. Doesn't seem to be any way to have it both ways though.)

Great! I will download it and see.

Thanks guys

[Dave Baumann]

Ahhh very good, this is true as im only running a 2.66Ghz celeron D in the mean time while i wait for my new i7 setup. Wouldnt it be an advantage to disable it in this case so that there isnt any further loss in performance in the card having to run logic to determine the throttling?

There shouldn't be any meaningful performance difference. The PowerPlay logic is designed to switch up a state instantaneously, but has a hysteresis of a few seconds before switching down states; so if you have instantaneous low activity then it won't switch back down, but if the activity is low continuously then it will.

If your CPU is throttling you, then the best way to keep the GPU active is to dial up the image quality settings, otherwise you'll just be wasting lots of lovely GPU cycles.... :)

[BanjoDubz]

Thanks for the feedback Dave!

[BanjoDubz]

I can report that after installing MSI Afterburner and changing the config file top enable unsupported overclocking, it has effectively disabled PowerPlay while afterburner is running.

Afterburner is a great piece of software and I highly recommend it.

[Truckchase!]

FYI, Afterburner can up your system power requirements massively for two reasons:

1. As stated here, it can disable powerplay. For that reason, I launch it and apply overclocking settings only when I'm going to play a game.

2. As outlined here: http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=315257 Afterburner lowers your platform timer resolution. This will prevent your processor from going into a "sleep" state, increasing power consumption marginally.

It's a decent app, but it's worth calling out that caveats. As Dave said earlier, all things being equal, (clockspeed wise) the powerplay features don't impact performance. I've personally proven this through exhaustive benchmarking. (I'm very anal about performance) I don't think Afterburner is a good "daily use" application, but for extreme overclocking it's definitely worth while. With a 2.66 celeron, even overclocking is bound to have a minimal impact since your're very heavily bottlenecked CPU wise.

[BanjoDubz]

It's a decent app, but it's worth calling out that caveats. As Dave said earlier, all things being equal, (clockspeed wise) the powerplay features don't impact performance. I've personally proven this through exhaustive benchmarking. (I'm very anal about performance) I don't think Afterburner is a good "daily use" application, but for extreme overclocking it's definitely worth while. With a 2.66 celeron, even overclocking is bound to have a minimal impact since your're very heavily bottlenecked CPU wise.

While you are 100% correct, I would like to say that sometimes changes that don't have much or any impact on performance on a fast system, have a bigger impact and more noticeable on a slower system like mine for example. I can say that disabling PowerPlay did not improve frame rates but it did lessen the swing in frame rates slightly that I experience with this system, which is what I was trying to achieve.

After all this I've ended up scoring a E8400 Core2Duo and EVGA 790i Ultra SLI for $50 off a mate of mine, so I will set all that up once my RAM arrives and hopefully no more crappy frame rates with or without PowerPlay :-D

[OzHuski]

Problem is this GPU scaling happens a lot and is terrible for HTPC users. Just dropped in a 5670 to replace my 2900XT I had in my old setup and video/sound crackling is terrible due to this effect from the GPU going up and down. Locking the GPU at one speed instantly resolves this crackling issue.

Im going to have to try the MSI afterburner, ive tried configuring the profiles to fix it and ive also used the AMD tool but upon a reboot it reverts back to normal..