Ethereum GPU mining?

[thilanliyan]

Don't use Radeon Settings. You need to use a third party overclocking tool like msi afterburner, sapphire trixx etc. It really is as simple as setting the sliders where you want and applying. You may also need to tick the checkbox for constant voltage to keep from throttling.

For example, my current settings in afterburner are
-50mv core voltage
-20 power limit
1050 core clock
1225 memory clock

I am using Afterburner, but I can't go BELOW 947MHz. I am trying to underclock. Overclocking works fine but I can't get manual underclocks to stick.

 

[codyray10]

I am using Afterburner, but I can't go BELOW 947MHz. I am trying to underclock. Overclocking works fine but I can't get manual underclocks to stick.

I'm not sure I understand. Are you saying the minimum speed for the core clock slider is 947? As in you literally cannot move it to the left? Or you can set it below 947 and the clocks dont change? Post some screens of your afterburner settings if you can. You may also need to check the unofficial overclocking limits box if you havent already.

 

[Mercennarius]

Ok, another newb question. Other than Claymore/Ethminer and the Ethereum Wallet is there any other needed software to get started? Thanks.

 

[codyray10]

Ok, another newb question. Other than Claymore/Ethminer and the Ethereum Wallet is there any other needed software to get started? Thanks.

Nope. All thats left is to start mining!

 

[poofyhairguy]

Ok, another newb question. Other than Claymore/Ethminer and the Ethereum Wallet is there any other needed software to get started? Thanks.

No, but you need to chose what pool you are going to mine with.

 

[thilanliyan]

I'm not sure I understand. Are you saying the minimum speed for the core clock slider is 947? As in you literally cannot move it to the left? Or you can set it below 947 and the clocks dont change? Post some screens of your afterburner settings if you can. You may also need to check the unofficial overclocking limits box if you havent already.

Yep I can choose below 947 but the clocks won't stick.
I've tried extending the overclocking limits, using unofficial overclocking with and without powerplay, disabling ulps. Memory underclocking does work.

 

[codyray10]

Yep I can choose below 947 but the clocks won't stick.
I've tried extending the overclocking limits, using unofficial overclocking with and without powerplay, disabling ulps. Memory underclocking does work.

That's definitely strange behavior. Maybe try and uninstall/reinstall drivers?

 

[poofyhairguy]

Yep I can choose below 947 but the clocks won't stick.

I've tried extending the overclocking limits, using unofficial overclocking with and without powerplay, disabling ulps. Memory underclocking does work.

This is gonna sound crazy but have you tried rebooting? I had that situation once and a reboot fixed it.

 

[thilanliyan]

This is gonna sound crazy but have you tried rebooting? I had that situation once and a reboot fixed it.

Every time I made a change in Afterburner to the settings it made me reboot so yep I've tried that.

 

[DrMrLordX]

How are people underclocking their 290s? I can't seem to go below 947MHz on a manual underclock. I can however go above that value. Only way I can go below is to reduce the power limit, but then I don't have fine control over the clocks.
Using Afterburner.

Some 290s are stubborn and won't go below their stock clocks with Afterburner, TRIXX, etc. unless you hack the BIOS. I use HawaiiBIOSReader to edit all my cards to a base clockspeed of 900 MHz and then move the slider upwards as I see fit.

If you're in Linux running Catalyst 15.12, the included aticonfig utility will override whatever locks are in the BIOS and let you set the clockspeed to anything you want.

Does this work with Lunbuntu 16.04?

No. Lubuntu 16.04 is not compatible with the Linux version of Catalyst 15.12 due to X.org server 1.18, which is unsupported by that graphics driver. You'll be stuck with the old radeon drivers that have . . . less-than-desirable OpenCL support. You might be able to get it to work with one card, but multiGPU is, to the best of my knowledge, not supported by the radeon drivers.

You can't use 290s with the newer AMDGPU driver yet. Not sure if AMDGPU allows multiGPU.

Ok, another newb question. Other than Claymore/Ethminer and the Ethereum Wallet is there any other needed software to get started? Thanks.

You might want eth-proxy if you are planning on using ethminer. Technically you can replicate the functionality of eth-proxy within Claymore and the Genoil fork of ethminer, so it is unnecessary if you are using those miners.

Oh, on that note, I highly recommend the Genoil fork of ethminer since it also supports on-card DAG generation as a part of its 110 branch. Easy to build in Linux. Sadly, there are no binaries released for Windows from that branch. You'll have to build it using something like Visual Studio following the instructions from the Github page that hosts Genoil's software.

 

[Eric1987]

Ok, another newb question. Other than Claymore/Ethminer and the Ethereum Wallet is there any other needed software to get started? Thanks.

I suggest using Jaxx as your wallet. I like the UI much better.

 

[boozzer]

how long does it take for u guys to make back the money you spent on buying the cards?

 

[Feld]

how long does it take for u guys to make back the money you spent on buying the cards?

It takes a new card roughly 4 months to pay for itself. Of course that varies by the card, price, ether price, and electricity cost, but it's going to be in that vicinity as long as prices aren't way out of whack.

 

[VeryCharBroiled]

No. Lubuntu 16.04 is not compatible with the Linux version of Catalyst 15.12 due to X.org server 1.18, which is unsupported by that graphics driver. You'll be stuck with the old radeon drivers that have . . . less-than-desirable OpenCL support. You might be able to get it to work with one card, but multiGPU is, to the best of my knowledge, not supported by the radeon drivers.

^^^^

yup.

use ubuntu 14.4 lts or 15.10 (using 15.10 here, 390/380)

 

[Madpacket]

Here's my reasoning Madpacket.

1. There's only 12.5% core clock + compute unit compute performance difference between the two
2. Difference between 1266MHz core and 950MHz "optimal" core is 33%
3. Meaning if the same thing applies to the 470, 470 @ 1266MHz is essentially a 1125MHz RX 480

If 950MHz is an optimal clock for RX 480, then even RX 470 is entirely bound by memory bandwidth.

1125/950 = 18%

Potentially 18% higher hash rate than RX 480 @ stock assuming you can clock the memory 18% higher than RX 480 8GB's memory. That's 9.47GHz. Inversely, maintaining RX 480's stock performance means an RX 470 with memory @ 8GHz(up from 7GHz) can run its core at 1069MHz.

The other option is buying a RX 480 4GB. That's viable if the top OC memory clock is same as RX 480 8GB. It's very possible that its not. Perhaps 4GB version is a 7GHz binned one. In that case, save money get the RX 470 to OC memory.

Also, personally I got no choice. eBay USB PCI Express riser is still not delivered. Canada Post strike isn't helping things I bet. No RX-whatever is available to buy in Canada either. All out of stock. Minimum until Monday I can get my hands on it, if not a week from now.

I think I'm just tired today (stayed up and built another milk crate miner last night) but I'm not quite following the logic of a 18% higher hashrate. No worries we're both guessing anyways.


Hopefully the 470's will be available in mass quantities unlike the 480's.

For your riser issues I noticed you mentioned Canada Post and eBay. I don't recommend eBay for buying risers unless you know the exact ones to get and guaranteed shipping times. Too many times risers are sent from China never to show up. Not worth waiting to save $5.00 when you could be mining instead.

I'm not trying to plug this place but I've been buying all my mining supplies lately from them and have had good luck. They don't use Canada Post for shipping either.

http://bitcoinware.net/collections/frontpage/products/pci-e-express-1x-to-16x-riser-card-with-extended-length-usb-3-0-flex-cable

These are the risers I've been using with good success.

Free shipping at $50.00 and on checkout I found the code 10percent gives you 10% off your oder. Plus they're based out of Toronto and shipping has been really fast.

 

[Madpacket]

Every time I made a change in Afterburner to the settings it made me reboot so yep I've tried that.

Anytime I have strange issues with Afterburner I've had to DDU the AMD drivers and remove afterburner and all remnants in the registry and start over.

What card (brand / model) do you have?

 

[Madpacket]

So I haven't been following the 480 powergate issue that closely. Is it still a problem? NewEgg sent me shipping confirmation yesterday.

 

[Erithan13]

So I haven't been following the 480 powergate issue that closely. Is it still a problem? NewEgg sent me shipping confirmation yesterday.

AMD have acknowledged the problem and are suggesting it will be fixed via a driver update. It really looks like there's been some screwup with the power management/voltages on the card, at least there's no evidence of it being a hardware issue yet.

The advice I've been seeing is to undervolt the card manually to drop the power consumption and not to risk any sort of overclock until this is sorted. There have been scattered reports of physical damage to PCIE ports from the 480 although they come with the usual baggage of not knowing the full story behind them, whether the cards were being overclocked on a weak mobo or whatever. I haven't seen any indications that a stock 480 on a decent mobo and PSU is at risk.

 

[DrMrLordX]

It does look like the 480s are overvolted from the factory. The usual undervolting tricks will help. If we had better tools for BIOS editing on Polaris, you could probably edit TDC limit to lower maximum current draw as well, which is a great tool for reigning in undesirable behavior from cards leaking current.

 

[Madpacket]

Great thanks for the replies. It's very typical of AMD to overvolt their hardware (CPU's / GPU's) so a BIOS update or limiting TDP through software makes sense and will probably make this a non issue. They really should have used an 8 pin power socket but given the target market I can understand why they went with a 6 pin. I guess for us miners it won't matter a lot as memory makes the biggest difference but I do plan to occasionally game on this thing 😉

It doesn't seem to be hurting sales though!

 

[R0H1T]

Great thanks for the replies. It's very typical of AMD to overvolt their hardware (CPU's / GPU's) so a BIOS update or limiting TDP through software makes sense and will probably make this a non issue. They really should have used an 8 pin power socket but given the target market I can understand why they went with a 6 pin. I guess for us miners it won't matter a lot as memory makes the biggest difference but I do plan to occasionally game on this thing 😉

It doesn't seem to be hurting sales though!

Thank you miners, bet that's what AMD bosses would be thinking right now 😀

 

[EightySix Four]

It does look like the 480s are overvolted from the factory. The usual undervolting tricks will help. If we had better tools for BIOS editing on Polaris, you could probably edit TDC limit to lower maximum current draw as well, which is a great tool for reigning in undesirable behavior from cards leaking current.

The WattMan tool did a pretty good job of lowering the voltages for me. Tons of control in that regard. Fortunately, despite running three of them on an ASRock board, I haven't had any issues yet with power off of the slot.

Would really like a better hold on the memory voltages though, I'm not sure what they are at default but even adding 25mhz is the end of the world for temp management.

 

[Madpacket]

The WattMan tool did a pretty good job of lowering the voltages for me. Tons of control in that regard. Fortunately, despite running three of them on an ASRock board, I haven't had any issues yet with power off of the slot.

Would really like a better hold on the memory voltages though, I'm not sure what they are at default but even adding 25mhz is the end of the world for temp management.

Based off your tests there appears to be a huge and likely unnecessary voltage bump when overclocking the memory. Hopefully the memory voltage can be software controlled or at least set manually via a BIOS flash.

Some 480 owners are seeing significant savings in power and still able to overclock. This looks like a good balance for gamers anyway.


https://m.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/4qtuu5/rx_480_undervolt_oc_1340mhz/

 

[Madpacket]

Thank you miners, bet that's what AMD bosses would be thinking right now 😀

Yeah no kidding. It'll be interesting to see how well aftermarket cards do. I expect 1400Mhz will be pretty common. Useless for ether mining but it may put the card closer to 390X / 980 speeds for gaming.

 

[Accord99]

I am using Afterburner, but I can't go BELOW 947MHz. I am trying to underclock. Overclocking works fine but I can't get manual underclocks to stick.

Try setting "Unofficial overclocking mode" to "without PowerPlay support".