Ethereum GPU mining?

[codyray10]

My 480 from newegg launch day finally arrived. I wont get a chance to play with it until later on tonight though

 

[Thala]

Successfully flashed both my 4GB cards to 8GB (I verified they are using Samsung 8Gb 25ns GDDR5 in my teardown thread).

Can you please elaborate why you did this? Adding 4GByte is like adding 15W of power for nothing.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Successfully flashed both my 4GB cards to 8GB (I verified they are using Samsung 8Gb 25ns GDDR5 in my teardown thread). As a bonus, I played around with undervolting some more and was able to achieve this:

What are you using to edit the BIOS files right now? Old-fashioned hex editing? And are you using ATIFlash/ATIWinFlash?

Congrats on the flash!
However, I'm pretty sure that the wattage numbers given in gpuz are usually not correct, for example on my 290s they are underestimating by by 50+ watts iirc.

My 290s all read ~75W too low in GPU-z.

GPU-Z measures the draw of the RX 480 chip, it does not account for memory power or board losses.

They were 110-115W stock, ~104W with a slight underclock/undervolt, and now 74-78W with optimized underclock/undervolt. So it is still a rather substantial savings, with an additional reduction in board losses for probably close to 50W savings over stock.

Yeah, sounds plausible. GPU-z and other software tools are off by a fairly-static delta, I've found. So what you have done is successfully lower power draw by ~26-30W. Which is good.

 

[MrTeal]

Can you please elaborate why you did this? Adding 4GByte is like adding 15W of power for nothing.

That isn't really true. You really pay for bandwidth with memory. Just having 8GB of GDDR5 on board but only talking to half of it doesn't save any power if they're run at the same speed.

 

[codyray10]

Can you please elaborate why you did this? Adding 4GByte is like adding 15W of power for nothing.

If im not mistaken, he undervolted and I believe underclocked his cards. Negating some of if not all of the additional power usage he may have gotten by unlocking. At the end of the day, there is no reason not to unlock a 4GB to 8GB if you have the know-how to do it. I dont know many that would say no to an extra 4GB of vram for free.

 

[Madpacket]

That isn't really true. You really pay for bandwidth with memory. Just having 8GB of GDDR5 on board but only talking to half of it doesn't save any power if they're run at the same speed.

I doubt it's more than a few watts but it would be good to measure. Us idiots who bought 8GB cards could even flash them to 4GB if there's enough savings.

 

[IEC]

What are you using to edit the BIOS files right now? Old-fashioned hex editing? And are you using ATIFlash/ATIWinFlash?

There is a Polaris BIOS editor in the works, but I just flashed the cards using ATI WinFlash using the TPU 8GB reference BIOS.

 

[Thala]

That isn't really true. You really pay for bandwidth with memory. Just having 8GB of GDDR5 on board but only talking to half of it doesn't save any power if they're run at the same speed.

That's not true either. You pay at least stand-by current and self-refresh current for the additional 4GByte compared to shut-down.
So again why enable 4GByte if the only effect is increased power usage? Do i miss something?

 

[MrTeal]

That's not true either. You pay at least stand-by current and self-refresh current for the additional 4GByte compared to shut-down.
So again why enable 4GByte if the only effect is increased power usage? Do i miss something?

Do you have any source that you can power down half the array on a GDDR5 chip and get a power savings?

 

[Thala]

Do you have any source that you can power down half the array on a GDDR5 chip and get a power savings?

Nope. You typically cannot power down half a GDDR5 chip. But i see your argument. You say that you only would get any savings if you have a real 4GByte card, because frankly the number of chips are the same? I did not think of this, so i agree.

 

[MrTeal]

Nope. You typically cannot power down half a GDDR5 chip. But i see your argument. You say that you only would get any savings if you have a real 4GByte card, because frankly the number of chips are the same? I did not think of this, so i agree.

Yeah, exactly. The chips are all on and powered, the BIOS just changes how much memory per chip is addressed. I don't even know how much you'd save with real 4Gb chips vs 8Gb chips, as you still need to power the same number of them and you'd be writing to them at the same speed. Self-refresh power of the larger array might be a little higher, but that seems like it might be pretty marginal.

 

[IEC]

You still need 8x chips for the full 256bit memory bus (8x 32bit each). So like MrTeal says, any power gains will be marginal (and at 0.09/kWh I don't care)

 

[Madpacket]

So anyone have any idea when more stock will arrive?

I really want to order some "4GB" models ASAP.

 

[Shmee]

Well, I got my new GTX 1070 installed. Any tips/guides for mining eth with it in linux?

 

[Madpacket]

Well, I got my new GTX 1070 installed. Any tips/guides for mining eth with it in linux?

This is all I could find.

https://forum.ethereum.org/discussi...ng-clue-goodbye-amd-welcome-nvidia-for-miners

I impulse bought a 1070 but will be sending it back. Not worth it IMHO. Heliox is doing some good work and should release his BIOS soon.

https://forum.ethereum.org/discussion/8094/heliox-roms-for-480

"So okay, got a modified rom ready.

Changed timings, increased memory limit to 2350, decreased core voltage for all dpm states by -100.

Been running for half an hour mining Ethereum at 28.9Mh "

 

[thilanliyan]

I impulse bought a 1070 but will be sending it back. Not worth it IMHO. Heliox is doing some good work and should release his BIOS soon.

https://forum.ethereum.org/discussion/8094/heliox-roms-for-480

"So okay, got a modified rom ready.

Changed timings, increased memory limit to 2350, decreased core voltage for all dpm states by -100.

Been running for half an hour mining Ethereum at 28.9Mh "

That's more like it!! Good to see it getting close to 30MHs.

I ALMOST impluse bought a 1070 several times lol, but I think I'll wait it out for a 490 maybe. I need to be able to use my universal waterblock on whatever card I get, and the 480 with its rotated die is a no-go unfortunately. Of course, if the windows mining gets sorted on the 10XX series, I may have to get one, assuming speeds can get well over 30MHs.

 

[DrMrLordX]

There is a Polaris BIOS editor in the works, but I just flashed the cards using ATI WinFlash using the TPU 8GB reference BIOS.

Oh okay, cool! Thanks.

 

[codyray10]

FYI, Radeon 16.7.1 drivers have been released. This should take care of any power usage issues on the RX 480

 

[codyray10]

No issues dual mining with my 290 and RX 480. About 58 Mh/s between the two. 480 on average has been doing 27 Mh/s, with a slight undervolt + overclock @ 1325/2200. No voltage issues here.

Im impressed with the performance on these references cards. It's pretty quiet, and stays cool. While mining, my temps are 76-77C with 60% fan speed.

 

[techie81]

Just curious, is anyone considering taking a break from mining while the price dips?

 

[Madpacket]

Just curious, is anyone considering taking a break from mining while the price dips?

I've undervolted all miners to mine in the sweet spot (performance per watt) which has reduced a good 500 - 600W but with around a 40Mh deficit. However I'm not stopping unless my AC breaks

 

[MrTeal]

I grabbing some historical data, and whipped up a quick chart showing the network hashrate and income from a MH/s.

The pummelling Eth took relative to BTC after the DAO vulnerability hit was pretty bad, but because of the big run up in BTC price in June we're not actually looking that bad relative to the last 3 months. Current income rate is about 7.5¢ per MH/s a day. Costs for 1MH/s if you're running 10W per MH/s and 10¢/kWh is about 2.5¢/day, so with those figures mining is still a pretty profitable venture though it's becoming progressively harder to pay off new hardware.

 

[Madpacket]

I grabbing some historical data, and whipped up a quick chart showing the network hashrate and income from a MH/s.

The pummelling Eth took relative to BTC after the DAO vulnerability hit was pretty bad, but because of the big run up in BTC price in June we're not actually looking that bad relative to the last 3 months. Current income rate is about 7.5¢ per MH/s a day. Costs for 1MH/s if you're running 10W per MH/s and 10¢/kWh is about 2.5¢/day, so with those figures mining is still a pretty profitable venture though it's becoming progressively harder to pay off new hardware.

Nice chart. Thanks.

Did you end up getting your 480 yet?

Mine was delayed until next Wednesday now. Unbelievable considering ordered day 1.

 

[MrTeal]

Nice chart. Thanks.

Did you end up getting your 480 yet?

Mine was delayed until next Wednesday now. Unbelievable considering ordered day 1.

Yeah, I got mine on Thursday I believe. I just have it tucked in a system now for some basic testing, but the thing hashes remarkably well at low clocks. I'm probably going to try the 4GB BIOS since it allows lower memory clocks, but I'm getting 23.2MH/s at 900MHz (850mV) and 2GHz mem clock. No power measurements until tomorrow probably, but it must be sipping power; it's running at 1450RPM and 68C in a case with that load.

 

[SK10H]

Received my 2 Sapphire 4GB yesterday, flashed both to 8GB right away. Notice 16.7.1 WattMan undervolt is buggy, especially if RX480 is not on the first slot. I can't get it to undervolt. Both card seem to be stable at 2250MHz max memory so far. Afterburner 4.30 beta 4 does not support any adjustment yet.

Open bench Z87-plus + g3220, EVGA 850GQ, measure using Kill-a-Watt
Using iGPU Idle, no RX480: 27W
1 x RX480 Idle: 58W in Windows before driver installation
1 x RX480 idle: 45W in Windows after driver 16.7.1
1 x RX480 Claymore: 950/2250, 900mv, 165W , 25MH/s
1 x RX480 Ethminer + Ethproxy: 950/2250, 900mv, 20MH/s.

On this board, if iGPU Multi-Monitor is enabled, it *may* be possible to boot in headless mode but most of the time it does not work. So I put a non-ref 7950 as the main boot device so I can boot without connected to a monitor.

The RX480 does work on a non-UEFI mainboard, Asus P6T SE. This one always boot fine in headless mode.

7970 on 16.7.1 (tried 15.12, 16.2.1 same result), Claymore: 18.3MH/s sent rate, Ethminer + Proxy sent rate 20.3MH/s. 7950 on Claymore: 17MH/s. It seems Claymore is slower than Ethminer on Tahiti and I have to mix it with RX480. I am not dual mining on Claymore.


WattMan undervolt bug:
With just 1 GPU installed, RX480, test on both the Z87 and X99 board, undervolt setting seem to be wiped out after restart (By wiped out, I mean it shows 900mv but it's at 1.15v.). I tried to set the setting in only Global setting, as well as Global + 3DMark profile + Claymore exe profile, same result.
In order for setting to stick by verifying the VCore using GPU-Z, I have to set Global profile to my preferred setting like 1075mv for example, check in GPU-z and it's running at 1.15v, go back to set voltage back to Auto in Wattman, start 3DMark, then go back to set voltage to 1075mv, verifiy in GPU-z that's it really running 1075mv vcore. Then start Claymore and got this.



When Claymore is running, Frequency/Voltage control seem to all show N/A but it's fine if it's 3DMark. The reason why it's running at 1266MHz is because I can't set the Claymore to run at 950MHz individually as I want Global profile to be 1266MHz. Also, if I adjust the frequency of the Global profile after the 1075mv vcore is finally sticking, I seem to lose the undervolt right away, and I have to repeat the long procedure again. :sneaky:



The above is 7950 non ref in slot 1, RX480 in slot 5 for now, voltage adjustment by Afterburner for 7950, Wattman on RX480. I absolutely can't seem to find any trick to undervolt in this case, so hopefully Afterburner come to the rescue soon or Wattman get fixed.


The ref RX480 at 2200-2500RPM is very quiet compare to the non-ref 7950/7970 fan at 60%, the MSI 390 Gaming at 50% is noiser than this. Although the ref fan really doesn't have any headroom the moment I try to increase the power limit slider.