Best cards to mine ethereum 2018

1. Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070

Low power draw, high hash rate

Core Clock: 1,506MHz | Memory: 8GB GDDR5 | Memory Clock: 8Gbps | Power Connectors: 1 x 6-pin | Power Draw: 150W | Outputs: 3 x DisplayPort 1.4, 1 x HDMI 2.0, DL-DVI


+Good balance of power and hash rate
+High amount of memory
–Expensive

Nvidia’s GTX 1070 isn’t just a great graphics card for gaming, it’s also an excellent mining GPU. This is because it manages a high hash rate of around 30 mh/s without needed too much power. Remember, the more power a GPU requires, the more expensive it is to run, which will eat into your cryptocurrency profits. As with many recent Nvidia GPUs, the 1070 is on the pricey side, so you will have to take an initial hit when starting up, but if you’re into cryptocurrency mining for the long run, the 1070 is easily the best mining GPU currently available.

 

2. AMD Radeon RX 580

AMD’s GPU is a mining winner

Core Clock: 1,257MHz | Memory: 8GB GDDR5 | Memory Clock: 8Gbps | Power Connectors: 1x 8-pin, 1 x 6-pin | Power Draw: 185W | Outputs: 1 DisplayPort 1.4, 1 x HDMI 2.0


+Very good cooling
–Often sold out due to its popularity for mining

The AMD Radeon RX 580 is one of the very best GPUs for mining, and in fact is a bit of a victim of its own success, as it can sometimes be difficult to find. However, its popularity is warranted, as it offers an excellent hash rate of 29 mh/s, while also keeping the electricity consumption low as well. It’s also cheaper than the GTX 1070, and if you don’t mind tweaking a few settings, you’ll be very pleased with this card’s mining performance.

 

3. AMD RX 480

An older GPU, but still great at mining

 

Core Clock: 1,120MHz | Memory: 8GB GDDR5 | Memory Clock: 8Gbps | Power Connectors: 1x 8-pin, 1 x 6-pin | Power Draw: 150W | Outputs: 1 DisplayPort 1.4, 1 x HDMI 2.0

+Cheap
+Good mining performance
–Can be hard to find

If you want a low cost of entry into the world of mining, then the AMD RX 480 is an excellent choice. This is because it is a bit older than the AMD Radeon RX 580, so prices are lower – when you can find one in stock. Yep, this is another AMD card that can be difficult to track down thanks to its mining ability. However with 8GB of GDDR5 RAM, it achieves a decent hash rate of 28mh/s, and again doesn’t require too much power. There are also versions available with 4GB of GDDR5 RAM, if you’re looking for an even lower cost mining GPU.

 

4. AMD Radeon RX Vega 56

Punchy graphics performance above its weight

Core Clock: 1,156MHz | Memory: 8GB HBM2 | Memory Clock: 800MHz | Power Connectors: 2 x 8-pin | Power Draw: 210W | Outputs: 3 x DisplayPort 1.4, 1 x HDMI 2.0


+Very good mining performance
–High energy consumption
–Runs a tad hot

The AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 is one of the best value-packed graphics card on the market right now. Benchmarks prove it runs faster than the Nvidia GTX 1070 and, thanks to the Bitcoin mining craze, it’s also cheaper to boot. Again, it can be a tricky GPU to track down, and it’s power consumption means it can end up being a pricey GPU to run 24/7 in a mining rig, but it performs very well at mining, so if you can find one, it’s definitely worth considering.

 

5. Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti

A brilliant, yet expensive, GPU for mining

Core Clock: 1,480MHz | Memory: 11GB GDDR5X | Memory Clock: 11GHz | Power Connectors: 1 x 6-pin; 1 x 8-pin | Power Draw: 250W | Outputs: 3 x DisplayPort 1.4, 1 x HDMI 2.0


+Incredibly powerful
+Excellent hash rates
–Expensive to buy and to run

The Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti remains one of the most powerful graphics cards in the world, and is our recommendation as the best graphics card for 4K gaming. However, as a mining GPU, it is also an excellent choice, but there are a few considerations that prevent it being higher up this list. First of all, it’s still an expensive GPU, and the power consumption is high compared to other cards. This means the return on your investment is less, and will take longer to cover your costs. If you don’t mind splashing out on this GPU (or you’re going to also use it to play games with), then you’ll be very happy with the results, especially as with a bit of tweaking you can get a hash rate of 32 mh/s.

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.

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.