RX 470/480 570/580 Alternatives

With the recent ethereum price going sky high ,it is very hard to find the rx470/480 cards.

Today we will give some alternatives,some of them are cheaper like the 460/560 cards ,some of them got a higher price like the geforce gtx 1070,the good

thing for the geforce gtx 1070 series is they also can mine zcash with a very nice speed.

RX460/560

Normal hashrate is around 11-12 mh these are at stock settings ,but if we start overclocking the card:

1750 timings -> 1875, 2000
max memory clock 2000 -> 2200

amd radeon settings:

gpu clock -> 1125 (underclock)
memory clock -> 2000
fan -> 100%

this give us around 14 mh so if you use 2 of them you got 1 rx 470.

 

GEFORCE GTX 1070

Normal hashrate is around 24-27 mh these are at stock settings ,but if we start overclocking the card we get around 31/32 mh.

This card is mouch more expensive then the rx460/560, but the good news is we can also use it to mine zcash because it has a very nice speed there.

 

Sapphire RX 470 Nitro+ OC 4GB Bios Flash / Mod Tutorial (Hynix, Elpida, Samsung, Micron) by 1stminingrig

In this tutorial i am going to show you how to modify and flash BIOS to your RX 470s, this will increase the GPU hashrate substantially. My RX 470s went from 22.xx Mh/s at stock settings to 24.xx with modded bios and 29.xx with overclock and undervolt. So i got a much higher hashrate and at the same time low watt consumption with better hashing speed, around 70w to 80w per card.

The thing is that not all cards are the same, for example there are 4 different types of memory #1 Hynix (31.xx Mh/s), #1 Elpida (31.xx Mh/s), #2 Samsung (28.xx Mh/s), #3 Micron (22-24.xx Mh/s), read more about the memory types and how to spot them here. I wasn’t that lucky to get a Hynix or Elpida but i got a Samsung instead, which is better than Micron :), after few days of struggling and testing i was able to get a nice and decent hashing speed of 29.xx Mh/s on Ethereum, most of miners are reporting 28.xx Mh/s maximum hashrate but for some reason i was able to push the cards a bit more.

Right now i am going to share with you my BIOS mod for Sapphire Nitro+ RX 470 4GB OC, specially with Samsung memory but i will include in the tutorial how to mod and flash the cards with Hynix, Elpida, Micron also two Reference models. Also ill show you what driver version, software and tools are needed to flash and modify bios.

To make the things even clear this is the exact card i am using in this tutorial:

 

1.Download and install/extract the following

2.Save original Default BIOS

  • Shut down your rig
  • Remove all the GPUs and leave only one plugged, my recommendation is to flash the cards one by one
  • Start the rig and Extract ATIFlash 2.74 to C: in a folder like “atiflash“
  • Run ATIWinflash.exe as administrator, click on “Save” button to save the default BIOS (make sure the RX 470 card is selected), give it a name like Sapphire470defaultBIOS.rom
  • Click “ok” and “continue“
  • Once the BIOS is saved close ATIFlash
atiflash saving sapphire rx 470 default bios

3.Silent BIOS Switch

  • Shutdown your rig again
  • Switch BIOS to silent mode (towards the HDMI cable side)
  • Start the rig
Sapphire_NITRO__RX_470_OC_BIOS_LED_Switch

4.Save original Silent BIOS

  • Open ATIWinflash.exe as administrator
  • Save the BIOS again, this time give it a name like Sapphire470silentBIOS.rom

5.Modifying / Modding the BIOS

  • Start GPU-Z to find out what type of memory does your GPU have, make sure you use the correct ROM to flash the card
  • Start Polaris Bios Editor
  • Open Sapphire470silentBIOS.rom
  • On TIMING (MHz) area copy 1750 timings to 1900 and 2000, or you can try to copy from 1625 to 1750, 1900 and 2000
  • Save the modded BIOS like Sapphire47modded.rom
  • Close Polaris Bios Editor

Download 1625 timings https://mega.nz/#!E84W3YDb!rPxXD-m__3ISunSU6WvgiXw6xNhYgy3hZ1Oj40YCg6s

Download 1750 timings

2017-03-01 (3)_LI
polaris bios editor sappphire nitro rx 470 mod
polaris bios editor sappphire nitro rx 470 mod timings 2
polaris bios editor sappphire nitro rx 470 mod timings
polaris bios editor sappphire nitro rx 470 mod saving modded bios
Hynix Memory
  • Start Polaris Bios Editor
  • Open Sapphire470silentBIOS.rom
  • On TIMING (MHz) area copy 1500 to 1625, 1750 and 2000
  • Save the modded BIOS like Sapphire47moddedHynix.rom
  • Close Polaris Bios Editor

Download https://mega.nz/#!c0p1XTba!_dBFUk2vdDTfqFRvKaAR0W-i_qzytQdzulY3vtD-kr0

Elpida Memory
Reference: Hynix Memory
Reference: Micron Memory

6.Flash the BIOS with ATIFlash 2.74

  • Start ATIFlash 2.74
  • Load the image Sapphire470modded.rom
  • Click on “Program” button
  • Wait about 30-60 seconds till you get the message “Your VBIOS was programmed successfully“, click OK
  • Restart the rig and test
atiflash starting as administratoratiflash starting as administrator
atiflash load bios imageatiflash load bios image
atiflash your vbios was programmed succsessfullyatiflash your vbios was programmed succsessfully
atiflash restart for modificationsatiflash restart for modifications

Pretty much this is it, repeat the same steps with each GPU.

Here is the same GPU before and after bios mod

sapphire nitro+ rx 470 4gb oc ethereum hashrate at stock settingssapphire nitro+ rx 470 4gb oc ethereum hashrate at stock settings
sapphire rx 470 4gb modded biossapphire rx 470 4gb modded bios

6 Overclock and Undervolt for low watt usage

  • Start Sapphire Trixx
  • GPU Clock: 1150
  • Memory Clock: 2050 (you can start from 2000 and increase, i can go up to 2050, 2070. The 2100 is not that stable)
  • mV: -100
  • Apply modifications

My results:

sapphire trixx gpu, memory and mVsapphire trixx gpu, memory and mV
sapphire strixx settingssapphire strixx settings
sapphire strixx gpu-z watt consumptionsapphire strixx gpu-z watt consumption
sapphire nitro+ rx 470 4gb oc dual mining 29 mhs ethereumsapphire nitro+ rx 470 4gb oc dual mining 29 mhs ethereum
rx 470 4gb claymore dual miner 29 Mhsrx 470 4gb claymore dual miner 29 Mhs

Flashing RX470/RX480 Cards

This is just a quick guide for how to flash you RX470/RX480 cards. I hope it helps.

Download these.
https://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/2728/atiflash-2-74
https://github.com/caa82437/PolarisBiosEditor
https://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/

Use GPU-Z to see what kind of memory your card has

1, open atiflash, MUST RUN AS ADMINISTRATOR
2, click on save to save the original bios, save it as RX470ogBIOS.ROM or RX480ogBIOS.ROM (for convenience)
3, open polaris bios editor
4, click open at the top left and open the OG bios you just saved
5, edit the timings according to your cards memory
6, click save, save it as RX470modBIOS.ROM or RX480modBIOS.ROM
7, open atiflash again, MUST RUN AS ADMINISTRATOR
8, at the top select the card you want to flash
9, click load image at the bottom left
10, search for the modded bios you just saved and open it
11, click program
12…wait a minute to finish, when its done it’ll say to restart…if you’re done click yes, if you have more cards to flash click no and repeat steps 8-12 until you’re done.

Also, when selecting cards to flash, it will only show 3 cards, so if you want to flash more than 3 cards, only have 3 cards connected to the motherboard at a time, flash the cards, restart, make sure it worked, shutdown, switch cards and repeat. And then make sure you have the right driver installed.

This is what works for me. I hope it works for you too.