Best efficiency settings for Radeon RX 480

[virasisog]

I see,if at stock then it can be explaing but stock voltage is 1.13+ vddc,undervolting to 0.9 will decrease power consumption dramatically so u should not have more problems when undervolted...

Another problem is sometimes on a reboot wattman settings will reset to default if youre in a hurry or you have the miner set to auto start on reboot you cant always be guaranteed your settings will persist.

We really need a solid bios mod for these cards like the R9 Nanos.  I have six nano rigs that run for weeks with zero issues heavily undervolted , the Rx 480 needs this since the software is so flaky atm.

The problem with 480 is that it has just one BIOS, if there is anything wrong, you might brick the GPU.

[Marvell1]

I've been testing a lot lately with different wattman settings and so far, this is the best I can get. My main goal was to lower the power use as most as I can without impacting the hashrate too much and also lowering the heat and noise. So I just want to share what I have been using now to help others.

I have 6x XFX 480 4gb models. At first, I flashed them all to 8gb, but I flashed them all back to 4gb, due to the 4gb having 1750 memory clock instead of 2000 memory clock, which will lower power usage without impacting hashrate that much (probably due to better memory timing straps).



I just change state 7 to 900, voltage for gpu and memory to 800, power limit -30%, and change the fan speed and target temperature to my liking's.



Here is my GPU-Z showing my settings stuck even after flashing from a 4gb to 8gb and back to 4gb.



Here is me running Claymore 4.7 with ETH mining only and showing a stable hashrate of almost 24 mhs per card with GPU-Z graph.



Here is my whole rig power usage with 6x RX 480.


So far, I'm pretty happy with the results with the whole rig only needing about 670 watts at the wall.


If anyone else can figure out a way to lower power usage even further and still stay close to 24 mhs per card, please share. Thanks.

These are close to the best settings on all of bitcointalk (and I've tried the all, along with many variations).  Admittedly, I slightly tweaked this, and am doing 2100 on memory, with a bit more voltage and getting 25.5 per card in my farm.  I brought power consumption down 40% doing this - and my fans speeds are 50% less.

40% ?! im skeptical at this

All my cards were pulling 190w before, and they are +/-3 watts over/under 100w now - albeit they were running at 28Mh/s, but to take a 10% hit on hash rate was well worth the power savings.

See below:

I'll try this when i get home

[kahir]

i think there is something with this card .. why after market coolers taking so long is the power issue is the problem ? companies are afraid cards will fail or what 

[willi9974]

How can i flash my cards from 8 to 4 GB to reduce the power and can i flash it back to 8 GB?

[pikachuy]

How can i flash my cards from 8 to 4 GB to reduce the power and can i flash it back to 8 GB?

Yes you can, I've flashed my card from a 4gb to 8gb for testing, then back to a 4gb for more testing, and found out a 4gb bios is better.

Here's a youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJLvwFs9dws

[virasisog]

How can i flash my cards from 8 to 4 GB to reduce the power and can i flash it back to 8 GB?

Yes you can, I've flashed my card from a 4gb to 8gb for testing, then back to a 4gb for more testing, and found out a 4gb bios is better.

Here's a youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJLvwFs9dws

Did you find the 4GB setting use less energy than the 8 GB setting. If so, there is no need to buy the 8GB cards.

[pikachuy]

How can i flash my cards from 8 to 4 GB to reduce the power and can i flash it back to 8 GB?

Yes you can, I've flashed my card from a 4gb to 8gb for testing, then back to a 4gb for more testing, and found out a 4gb bios is better.

Here's a youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJLvwFs9dws

Did you find the 4GB setting use less energy than the 8 GB setting. If so, there is no need to buy the 8GB cards.

Yes, because with the 4gb bios, the lowest memory clock it lets you go is 1750mhz. While the lowest memory clock on the 8gb bios is 2000mhz. I tried to go to 1750mhz on the memory clock on the 8gb bios but wattman won't let me. But if you are running linux, that is a different story, since you can underclock on the bios directly. I'm running windows 7 x64 so no custom clocked bios is currently working due to driver signatures.

So since I don't need the 2000mhz, and wanted the 1750mhz for more power saving, i had to flash to a 4gb bios to achieve it because a 4gb bios factory memory clock is 1750mhz and a 8gb bios factory memory clock is 2000mhz.

Hope this makes sense.

[nhando]

Very nice work you're doing here Pikachuy.  Do you think this will be similar results for all the RX480 4GB or does the XFX variant have anything unique for it?  You and Phil are doing excellent work on the RX480 front, keep up the good work!

[Eyedol-X]

How can i flash my cards from 8 to 4 GB to reduce the power and can i flash it back to 8 GB?

Yes you can, I've flashed my card from a 4gb to 8gb for testing, then back to a 4gb for more testing, and found out a 4gb bios is better.

Here's a youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJLvwFs9dws

Did you find the 4GB setting use less energy than the 8 GB setting. If so, there is no need to buy the 8GB cards.

Yes, because with the 4gb bios, the lowest memory clock it lets you go is 1750mhz. While the lowest memory clock on the 8gb bios is 2000mhz. I tried to go to 1750mhz on the memory clock on the 8gb bios but wattman won't let me. But if you are running linux, that is a different story, since you can underclock on the bios directly. I'm running windows 7 x64 so no custom clocked bios is currently working due to driver signatures.

So since I don't need the 2000mhz, and wanted the 1750mhz for more power saving, i had to flash to a 4gb bios to achieve it because a 4gb bios factory memory clock is 1750mhz and a 8gb bios factory memory clock is 2000mhz.

Hope this makes sense.

Do you have any results with ETH + SIA? I've found my best ETH underclocks/volts don't work when I add SIA into the equation.

[Tmdz]

Nice work here!

At those settings I would be consuming 1/2 the watts that my 290s do and for a similar hashrate.  Eventually I will be building a 480 rig with the 4gb cards if all remains good for mining on ether, and it looks like mining will still be pretty decent game for at least a couple more months.

Although hash rate could resume the upwards trend as cards become more available.

[flikflak]

I've set the settings to 900MHz @950mV for the Chip and 975mV for the memory @2100MHz as well. That works really good, thanks for that. But it's quite strange that lowering the mV for the Chip might hang the system, because the factory default at "State 2" is 910MHz @ 825mV.

Well, maybe there are not all Chip-features enabled in this state 2 and the default 825mV will be stable enough.

[philipma1957]

Very nice work you're doing here Pikachuy.  Do you think this will be similar results for all the RX480 4GB or does the XFX variant have anything unique for it?  You and Phil are doing excellent work on the RX480 front, keep up the good work!

hey I am doing mixed card rigs

I figured out how to get around the issue of  to much under clock and crashing the rx 480 then not being able to get back in and change settings

It is easy.

Use 1 r9 390 and multiple rx 480s.

the r9 390 uses a different part of wattman .

make sure it is your  display gpu and play it a bit safer with clocks.
then clock the rx 480's very aggressive   if you crash and burn on the reboot the r9 390 will come up and you can access all the rx 480's


my mix and match thread
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1561775.0

a photo shows the r390 and rx 480

this brings up the r9 390 and the rx 480

[pikachuy]

Very nice work you're doing here Pikachuy.  Do you think this will be similar results for all the RX480 4GB or does the XFX variant have anything unique for it?  You and Phil are doing excellent work on the RX480 front, keep up the good work!

Hey nhando, from my understanding, all of the reference models are about the same (4gb can turn into 8gb by bios flashing and 8gb can turn into 4gb by bios flashing), just a sticker difference on the fan, and a specific bios for that manufacturer (some manufacturer set different clock rates on the bios). I tried flashing a 4gb sapphire model bios onto my XFX model, but it didn't let me, so I had to find an XFX 4gb bios to flash onto an XFX model. Other than needing a specific bios matching the manufactures when flashing from a 4gb to 8gb or 8gb to 4gb, I don't see anything else unique.

Once someone figures out a way for custom bios for 480 to work in windows or if AMD stops enforcing the driver signature checks, I will be able to test different bios tweaks without wattman, so everyone can just flash a custom bios and instantly have the best efficiency settings for the 480.

I know you can do this right now for linux, but I was never a linux fan.



Edit:

Do you have any results with ETH + SIA? I've found my best ETH underclocks/volts don't work when I add SIA into the equation.

Sorry, I only mine ETH because the increase heat in dual mining is too much for my set up (multiple rigs in enclosed garage). You might need to increase your power limit even though you underclock/undervolt them, because ETH is memory intensive algorithm, and SIA is gpu clock intensive algorithm. So since you are dual mining, it will put 100% load intensely on the memory and gpu clock simultaneously, so you might need more power to the cards. Give that a try, and let me know.

[gorgamin]

Anyways back on toppic i have a rx 480 rig all 8gb , everytime i change the settings in wattman i notice they revert back
and sometimes crash even, another thing i found is turning the power limits below neg 15 reduced my hashrate by alot so i cant do that.

Check your other apps. MSI Afterburner and the ASUS overclocking apps both interfere with Wattman. I closed those apps and everything is fine

[gorgamin]

consider also that the 480 is bad at both lyra2v2 and neoscrypt until someone optimize it, and those algo are more profitable than eth

you have 2 good algo missed, basically the 480 is only good on one algo, which is very bad

so i see really no reason to purchase one

Please stop shilling for Nvidia. Lyra2v2 and neoscrypt more profitable than eth? Care to show any proof? From my calculations Ethereum and Ethereum classic show the best profitability.

Also have you looked at the OpenCL implementation for Nvidia card in Windows? It sucks. I have a GTX1080 for gaming only and it honestly sucks for mining. I use RX480s for mining eth as they have the best Ethereum hashrate per watt and Hashrate to Dollar.

And resell value. For one the AMD cards are near impossible to find whereas there are more than enough GTX cards available. The RX480 had a reference stock 25 times the GTX1080 and GTX1070 combined and it all sold out.

The GTX1070 is a great card for gaming, but the RX480 is far better at mining. It uses less power, you can run 4x RX480s on a single quality 80PLUS Gold 750W PSU if you optimize the power usage settings. The GTX 1070 uses far more power to reach the same hashrate.

Further, saying that someone steals power is very rude. I'm in a situation at the moment where I can get industrial power for free with my rent. Many other people have the same arrangements where they live.

[Mzie]

seems like a good card , but power consumption

[Amph]

consider also that the 480 is bad at both lyra2v2 and neoscrypt until someone optimize it, and those algo are more profitable than eth

you have 2 good algo missed, basically the 480 is only good on one algo, which is very bad

so i see really no reason to purchase one

Please stop shilling for Nvidia. Lyra2v2 and neoscrypt more profitable than eth? Care to show any proof? From my calculations Ethereum and Ethereum classic show the best profitability.

Also have you looked at the OpenCL implementation for Nvidia card in Windows? It sucks. I have a GTX1080 for gaming only and it honestly sucks for mining. I use RX480s for mining eth as they have the best Ethereum hashrate per watt and Hashrate to Dollar.

And resell value. For one the AMD cards are near impossible to find whereas there are more than enough GTX cards available. The RX480 had a reference stock 25 times the GTX1080 and GTX1070 combined and it all sold out.

The GTX1070 is a great card for gaming, but the RX480 is far better at mining. It uses less power, you can run 4x RX480s on a single quality 80PLUS Gold 750W PSU if you optimize the power usage settings. The GTX 1070 uses far more power to reach the same hashrate.

Further, saying that someone steals power is very rude. I'm in a situation at the moment where I can get industrial power for free with my rent. Many other people have the same arrangements where they live.

hey nice one gravedding my post from july 9, and responding to it after those coins ET and ETC have become more profitable, it was not the case back then

right now 480 user are lucky that ethc is very profitbale but it will not last, meanwhile i can mine lbry which is still far ahead of ethc at present

you are still stuck with only one good algo, while neos and lyra are shit on amd card, because they are not optimized, and it's always good to have back up algo, not just one good algo

p.s. it's not for free if you pay a rent for it, it's simply included, there is NO free energy unles you still it, i think poeple don't know what free mean...

2°p.s. no the 480 does not use less energy than a 1070 i have a rig of six 1070 consuming only 900w, running with a rm1000i

[gorgamin]

My rig of 6x RX480s with optimized power runs under 700W. That's 140MH/s+ if I'm conservative.

I'll reach ROI before you.

Building another 4x rigs as soon as the rest of the RX480s and risers arrive.

I've looked at the GTX1070 thoroughly before settling on the RX480.

But yes I do agree that we need a fallback plan in case Eth doesn't work out. (But it should)

In either case the RX480 just has far better compute capability per watt.
The amount of the Compute Units(AMD)/ShaderMultiprocessors(Nvidia) are just superior on the RX480 compared to the GTX1070.

36x CUs on the RX480 compared to 15x SMs on the GTX1070

4x SEs (Shader Engines) RX480
3x GPCs (Graphics Processing Clusters) GTX1070
Verdict = same

9x CU (Compute Units) per Shader Engine RX480
5x TPCs (Texture Processing Cluster) per GPC GTX1070 (Each TPC Contains 1x SM)   
Verdict = RX480 wins




My power is free as I can use as much as I need at the moment. Even if that means 10kWh. Included in your rent usually means a small amount for household use.

[pikachuy]

My rig of 6x RX480s with optimized power runs under 700W. That's 140MH/s+ if I'm conservative.

I'll reach ROI before you.

Building another 4x rigs as soon as the rest of the RX480s and risers arrive.

I've looked at the GTX1070 thoroughly before settling on the RX480.

But yes I do agree that we need a fallback plan in case Eth doesn't work out. (But it should)

In either case the RX480 just has far better compute capability per watt.
The amount of the Compute Units(AMD)/ShaderMultiprocessors(Nvidia) are just superior on the RX480 compared to the GTX1070.

36x CUs on the RX480 compared to 15x SMs on the GTX1070

4x SEs (Shader Engines) RX480
3x GPCs (Graphics Processing Clusters) GTX1070
Verdict = same

9x CU (Compute Units) per Shader Engine RX480
5x TPCs (Texture Processing Cluster) per GPC GTX1070 (Each TPC Contains 1x SM)   
Verdict = RX480 wins




My power is free as I can use as much as I need at the moment. Even if that means 10kWh. Included in your rent usually means a small amount for household use.

Yea, i'm pretty happy with my 6x RX480 rigs too and running under 700w at the wall. Still waiting on AMD to stop enforcing their driver signatures in windows so I can do some bios mod tweaks to hopefully make it more efficient. Until then, the original post I had is still the best settings I have found so far and is running rock solid since I first posted.

[FlexiN]

Great thread pikachuy, can't wait to try your settings when my lasts RX480s come to my house, and finally build my first rig..., with 6x of them but (Saphirre 8GB not 4GB models), hopefully i will reach a low power consumption, with nice settings like yours, because the price of Kw is 0,15€ cts here

Thanks 

PS : I think for be right back the ROI of the rig faster the dual mining for exemple "ETH - SIA", should be a great idea, did you try to find some good settings for dual mining with a nice ratio of undervolting aswell ?