Ethereum DAG Hashrate Drop FIX – AMD Official Mining Drivers Are Now Out

AMD Official Mining Drivers

Apparently AMD wants to avoid shortages of their new Vega cards at any cost. Consequently, the company is doing their best to help miners to keep their older GPUs functional for mining. In order to do that, AMD issued an official driver release aimed to improve GPU mining hashrate.

AMD has been working on this driver for a while now. In fact, it became available for download about two weeks ago, though it was an unofficial beta release. Today, AMD posted the same driver on their official webpage.

Radeon Software Crimson ReLive Edition Beta for Blockchain Compute

I have tested this new driver on my rigs and I can confirm that they it does improve hashrate, no more hashrate drop, everything is back to normal. I suspect that the driver reverse the DAG epoch issue, rather than making GPUs mine faster.

I have tried the driver on RX 400 and RX 500 cards, though according to AMD webpage, the Crimson ReLive Edition Beta is compatible with a wide variety of GPUs, starting from the Radeon HD 7×00 series and up to the Vega edition.

Sapphire Also to Release AMD-based Crypto Mining GPUs(cryptomining)

Not a lot of details about the upcoming AMD-based Crypto Mining GPUs from Sapphire Yet, though they have been already listed for pre-order over at Overclockers UK. There are four Sapphire Mining Edition video cards listed that are based on AMD’s Radeon RX 470 GPU with different video memory configurations, all of which are without external video connectors. There is also a single AMD Radeon RX 560 GPU also labeled as Mining Edition, though it is a bit different with a single DVI connector on the back, so it can be used for other things than just crypto mining. It is interesting to note that the Sapphire Mining Edition cards do come with 1 year warranty instead of the regular two or even 3 years warranty that Sapphire cards targeted at gamers usually have (depending on the market).

Sapphire Mining Editions cards:
– Sapphire Radeon RX 470 MINING Edition 8192MB GDDR5 Samsung 7 Gbps (11256-38-10G) – 25-28MH/s ETH
– Sapphire Radeon RX 470 MINING Edition 8192MB GDDR5 7 Gbps (11256-37-10G) – 24-27MH/s ETH
– Sapphire Radeon RX 470 MINING Edition 4096MB GDDR5 Samsung 7 Gbps (11256-36-10G) – 24-27 MH/s ETH
– Sapphire Radeon RX 470 MINING Edition 4096MB GDDR5 7 Gbps (11256-35-10G) – 23-26 MH/s ETH
– Sapphire Radeon RX 560 Pulse MINING Edition 4096MB (11267-11-10G) – 12-15 MH/s ETH

It is interesting to note that the store lists the type of memory on different models and what mining performance they will be able to offer for mining Ethereum (ETH). There are two values that apparently represent the stock and the modified BIOS result, though it is not yet clear if the dual BIOS comes with modified settings, or Sapphire has just left that part to the miners. Unfortunately the prices listed for pre-order are not making these very attractive alternative compared to the regular models, though with the current shortage miners may not care that much as long as there is stock of these new Mining Edition cards from Sapphire available.

Something that is important regarding the warranty of regular Sapphire GPUs that are not originally intended for mining, the website of the company has some additional terms listed about mining usage, here is a quote below.

Warranty may vary from Country/Region, the customer must verify directly with the SAPPHIRE Authorized Dealer/Reseller from where the product was purchased as to the specifics of Warranty provided.

Warranty also varies for products used in Industrial , Block chain and crypto currency mining applications and the customer must verify with the SAPPHIRE Authorized Dealer/Reseller from where the product was purchased for more information.

So make sure you check the warranty information of the seller whether you are buying regular gaming GPUs or any of the Mining Edition cards to make sure about the warranty period you get with each. We have already received reports form users that some retailers are selling GPUs without any mention about warranty getting void on their websites if they are being used for crypto mining and you get that told to you after you purchase the cards and have them shipped to you.

ASUS Mining P106 is a GPU for Crypto Currency Mining(cryptomining)

VGA card manufacturers seem to have finally started taking care for the crypto mining market that has been growing significantly lately due to the high profitability for crypto mining. ASUS, one of the top brands not only for VGA, but for other PC components as well has announced their Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060-based mining video card and the product is called ASUS Mining P106. We have already talked about Nvidia’s plans to release a crypto mining oriented GPU for miners based on their GTX 1060 GPU. Originally the plan was to have this product on limited markets and not available in the retail chain, but it seems that this plan can change with ASUS and other VGA brands joining with products that can become available through the usual distribution channels as well.

The ASUS Mining P106 is based on the NVIDIA P106-100 GPU and comes with 6GB GDDR5 that has probably been modified with custom timings in order to increase the hashrate for more memory intensive mining algorithm such as Dagger-Hashimoto (Ethash) used by Ethereum. The GPU Base Clock is 1506 MHz and the Boost Clock is 1708 MHz, the video memory is 8008 MHz GDDR5. The initial information was that the NVIDIA P106-100 GPU should be based on the 9 Gbps version of the GTX 1060, though this might still be true with the memory is apparently at 8 Gbps with more aggressive timings. As expected the ASUS Mining P106 GPU does not feature any kind of video outputs so it is essentially limited to only computing tasks such as mining and will not be an interesting product for gamers that might also want to mine, but still be able to play games.

Other interesting features on the ASUS Mining P106 include the dual ball-bearing fans that are IP5X-certified to be dust resistant and thus offer a longer fan lifespan and this is really important as far as crypto mining goes. ASUS also claims that they have used components that enhance efficiency, reduce power loss, decrease component buzzing under load, and lower thermal temperatures for unsurpassed quality and reliability. There is no mention about warranty period as initially Nvidia had plans to offer their mining GPUs with just 3 months of warranty, though we are hearing that other brands such as ASUS might actually be with 1 year warranty. No word about pricing either, though the mining GPUs should be cheaper than the consumer version of GTX 1060 in order to be more attractive to miners and we are probably going to be seeing them starting to appear on the some markets sometime next month.

ASUS has also announced a second GPU targeted at miners, but that one is really not that interesting like the NVIDIA P106-100 GPU is. The ASUS Mining RX 470 is essentially a standard AMD Radeon RX 470-based video card with 4GB video memory at 7000 MHz, there is no word about improved timings for mining that will result in better performance. The design of the AMD mining GPU is very similar to the Nvidia mining model, though here you have video output connectors and cans till use the card for gaming if you want to. The fans are the same and ASUS claims that the same improved components are being used to offer better reliability for longer term mining usage.

– To get more details about the ASUS Mining P106 GPU on the official website…

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.