Undervolting RX 580 video card in Adrenalin 2022. Undervolting RX 580

Information about the material Published: 04/26/2017, 09:33
In this article, we decided to test the new Sapphire NITRO+ Radeon RX 580 Limited Edition in cryptocurrency mining using various algorithms. This video card is one of the top solutions from Sapphire on the AMD Radeon RX 580 GPU and comes with increased core frequencies compared to stock, as well as some additional components, such as spare fans.

Compared to last year's Sapphire RX 480 Nitro+, the new RX 580 has higher GPU clock speeds, better cooling, and a slightly higher price. New graphics cards from Sapphire, which are more similar to last year's Nitro+ models, are now released under the PULSE brand. In the near future we will try to get a PULSE video card from Sapphire and test it in mining. Now let's find out what the Sapphire NITRO+ Radeon RX 580 Limited Edition can offer us in mining.

What is undervolting and why is it needed?

From the video on overclocking the FX6300, you probably know that temperatures rise not because of increased performance by increasing frequencies, but because of the increase in voltage that is necessary to stabilize the increased frequencies.

And the higher the voltage, the greater the power consumption and, accordingly, the greater the heat release or heat package.

Power is the product of current and voltage. Those. It is power that produces heat.

If we manage to increase the frequencies on the processor or video card without raising the voltage, we get greater performance with the same thermal package.

Here we come to a very important thing. Manufacturers of chips for processors and video cards always provide a voltage reserve for stable operation of all chips under maximum load.

But the operating voltage is different for each chip. Some chips are more successful and work stably at lower voltages, others are less successful and require more voltage for stable operation.

This is where the difficulty lies.

A simple example (a little exaggerated, but still):

There is a batch of 1000 chips. 800 chips are stable at maximum frequencies with a voltage of 1000 mV, 100 higher quality chips are stable at 900 mV, and 100 lower quality chips are stable at 1130 mV.

In total, we have a spread from 900 to 1130 millivolts per batch.

Test rx 580 vs 1060 3gb in top games.

For this reason, manufacturers put a voltage reserve on the chips, and make it around 1150 mV to guarantee stable operation of all chips under maximum load.

Our task is to find the minimum voltage for your particular instance at which the chip will operate stably.

This is the first variant of undervolting, when we try to reduce the voltage at the same card performance. Thus, getting a quieter and less power-hungry card.

The first option for undervolting the RX 580. Lowering the voltage without lowering the frequencies. If you are interested in properly overclocking the RX 580, you can also find everything you need on our website and YouTube channel.

If you are interested in mining ether on the RX 580 at 8Gb and 4Gb, read on our website.

Undervolting RX 580 in Adrenaline 2022. Step-by-step instructions

Launch Adrenaline 2022, go to the “Performance” tab, “Settings” subsection.

Yes, when you first enter the settings section, Adrenaline 2020 will give you a warning box that you need to accept.

User License Agreement (EULA)

We manage settings manually.

We turn on advanced control and see 8 frequency modes in megahertz.

We also set the voltage manually and see for each frequency its own voltage scale in millivolts.

Adrenaline 2020 - Performance - Settings

How to select voltage?

We begin to reduce the voltage by 50 millivolts, and check it with a test in FurMark.

When you reach a critically low voltage, artifacts appear, or the FurMark test freezes, from that point on, raise the voltage by 10 millivolts and run the test again.

And so on at 10 millivolts until FurMark works stably.

For lower frequencies, leave the voltage the same for now, then lower it by 50-100 millivolts.

You can see my values ​​that work stably in the screenshot.

My undervolting results in Adrenaline 2020

I selected the voltage for the maximum frequency and simply reduced all the others by 50 and 100 millivolts.

I also limited the card's power consumption by 15%.

After stable work in FurMark for 2-3 minutes, we launch the game on ultra settings and test it in the game, if the game does not freeze and various artifacts do not appear, then you have found the minimum stable operating voltage.

Let's look at the result of the undervolting done:

Undervolting RX 580. Result:

Undervolting RX 580 video cards
Pay attention to the cooler speed, voltage consumption and voltage.

By reducing the fan speed by almost 400 rpm, we even got a cooler card.

We managed to reduce the speed of the turntables by 12%, reduce the voltage by about 30 watts, and reduce the temperature of the card to 10 degrees, taking into account the lower fan speed of 400 revolutions. I think this is an excellent result.

However, the performance of the card was not affected.

Video accelerator Sapphire Pulse RX 580 8GD5 (8 GB)

Content

1. Features of the device(s)
2. Test bench configuration, list of testing tools
3. Test results
4. conclusions

Reference materials

• Gaming Graphics Card Buyer's Guide
• AMD Radeon HD 7xxx/Rx Reference
• Guide to Nvidia GeForce GTX 6xx/7xx/9xx
• Capabilities for processing Full HD video streams
• Methodology for testing in 3D games and settings

Object of study

: Commercially available 3D graphics accelerator (graphics card) Sapphire Pulse RX 580 8GD5 8GB 256-bit GDDR5

Manufacturer information

: The Sapphire Technology company (Sapphire trademark) was founded in 2001 in Hong Kong as a subsidiary of the largest concern for the production of PC components - PC Partner. Focused on producing products based on ATI cores (graphics processors) (later part of AMD). Headquarters are in Hong Kong, production is in China. The largest manufacturer of Radeon series accelerators. It also produces system (motherboards) based on AMD chipsets, as well as mini-PCs and other products.

Device(s)

Search prices in the iXBT.com catalog

The PCB has been redesigned and differs from the reference design.

The power system has 4 phases for the GPU and 1 phase for memory chips, controlled by the NCP81022 digital controller from On Semiconductor. In the manufacture of the accelerator, a set of high-quality Black Diamond 4 chokes was used, which, according to the manufacturer, heat up 15% less compared to the previous generation.

The proprietary utility allows you to control the card’s operating frequencies and monitor the accelerator’s status.

In overclocking mode (by default), the frequencies of this accelerator are increased by 2% relative to the standard parameters of the reference card, which can provide a performance increase of 1.5%-2% depending on the resolution and operating mode (that is, it is impossible to notice).

Noise measurement technique

• The room is soundproofed and muffled, reverberations are reduced.
• The system unit in which the noise of video cards was studied does not have fans and is not a source of mechanical noise.
• The background level of 18 dBA is the noise level in the room and the noise level of the sound level meter itself.
• The measurements were taken at a distance of 50 cm from the video card at the level of the cooling system.
• Measurement modes:
  Idle mode in 2D: an Internet browser with the site iXBT.com, a Microsoft Word window, and a number of Internet communicators are loaded.
• 2D mode with movie viewing: SmoothVideo Project (SVP) is used - hardware decoding with insertion of intermediate frames.
• 3D mode with maximum load on the accelerator: the FurMark test is used.
• The assessment of noise level gradations is carried out according to the method described here: 28 dBA or less: noise is poorly distinguishable even at a distance of one meter from the source, even with a very low level of background noise. Rating: minimal noise.
• from 29 to 34 dBA: the noise is noticeable already from two meters from the source, but does not particularly attract attention. This level of noise can be tolerated even during long-term operation. Rating: low noise.
• from 35 to 39 dBA: the noise is reliably differentiated and noticeably attracts attention, especially in rooms with low noise levels. You can work with this level of noise, but it will be difficult to sleep. Rating: average noise.
• 40 dBA or more: such a constant level of noise begins to irritate, you quickly get tired of it, and you want to leave the room or turn off the device. Rating: high noise.

In 2D idle mode the temperature was 37°C and the fans were not running. The noise was equal to the background - 18.0 dBA.

When watching a movie with hardware decoding, the temperature rose to 46 °C, the fans did not work. The noise was equal to the background - 18.0 dBA.

At maximum load in 3D, the temperature reached 76 °C. At the same time, the fans spun up to 1274 rpm, the noise increased to 25.0 dBA. This CO can be classified as quiet (the noise level is minimal).

Thermal photograph

The greatest heating is on the back side in the GPU area.

Installation and drivers

Test bench configuration

• Computer based on AMD Ryzen 7 1800X processor (Socket AM4): AMD Ryzen 7 1800X processor (o/c 4 GHz);
• CO Antec Kuhler H2O 920;
• Asus ROG Crosshair VI Hero motherboard based on AMD X370 chipset;
• RAM 16 GB (2x8 GB) DDR4 AMD Radeon R9 UDIMM 3200 MHz (16-18-18-39);
• hard drive Seagate Barracuda 7200.14 3 TB SATA2;
• Seasonic Prime 1000 W Titanium power supply (1000 W);

List of testing tools

The testing methodology and all settings can be viewed here.

• Fallout 4
  (Bethesda Games Studios/Bethesda Softworks, DirectX 11)
• Rise Of The Tomb Raider
  (Nixxes Software/Square Enix, DirectX 12)
• Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands
  (Ubisoft/Ubisoft, DirectX 11)
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
  (CD Projekt RED, DirectX 11)
• BattleField 1
  (EA Digital Illusions CE/Electronic Arts, DirectX 12)
• Tom Clancy's The Division
  (Ubisoft Massive/Ubisoft, DirectX 11)
• Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
  (Eidos Montreal/Square Enix, DirectX 12)
• Far Cry Primal
  (Ubisoft/Ubisoft, DirectX 11)
• Hitman (2016)
  (IO Interactive/Square Enix, DirectX 12)
• Ashes Of The Singularity
  (Oxide Games,Stardock Entertainment/Stardock Entertainment, DirectX 12)

Test results: performance comparison

• Fallout 4 All resolutions on one page
  Resolution 1680×1050
• Resolution 1920×1200
• Resolution 2560×1600
• Resolution 3840x2160

conclusions

Commentary on iXBT.com Ratings

The RX 580 is a direct competitor to the GTX 1060 6GB and looks great in this comparison. The rest of the competitors who are close in level are also slower.

Commentary on Usefulness Ratings

Due to the massive craze for mining, high-end and mid-range video cards were massively sold out, creating a severe shortage, so prices skyrocketed.
Now prices are gradually returning to an adequate state, and we even managed to find the RX 580 on sale at a more or less normal price (though we’re not sure that this wasn’t a one-time occurrence). And given normal prices, the RX 580 has an advantage in its group in our rating. Sapphire Pulse RX 580 8GD5 (8 GB)

- an excellent variant of the Radeon RX 580, demonstrating performance slightly higher than the reference card, and having a very efficient and quiet cooling system. The presence of 8 gigabytes of memory provides good potential for modern powerful games. The accelerator also demonstrates an excellent price-to-feature ratio (subject to reasonable prices).

The final decision traditionally remains with our readers (look at the current prices below!).

In the “Original Design” category (for August 2022), the award was given to the following card:

• Sapphire Pulse RX 580 8GD5 8GB 256-bit GDDR5

We thank Sapphire Russia

and personally
Elena Zarubina
for providing the video card for testing

Second undervolting option for RX 580

The second option is to lower the voltage along with the card frequencies. Thus making the card less productive, less power hungry and quieter and cooler.

Step-by-step algorithm:

If you have an RX 580 Nitro+ 8Gb from Sapphire with maximum frequencies, you can take the frequencies from the RX580 Pulse, the same vendor but with a weaker design, or take the frequencies of the RX570 card, or RX480 here at your discretion.

How to find the frequencies of another card?

On the website https://www.techpowerup.com/ we are looking for a card to which frequencies we will switch.

For example, I took the Sapphire RX 580 Pulse.

Next, enter bios and the name of the card in the search line.

Search for BIOS for video card

We are interested in the GPU Clocks line, which contains all the factory frequencies of this card with the latest BIOS version.

Card frequencies specified in its bios

There will be 8 of them like ours.

We copy these frequencies and register them in Adrenaline 2022.

Frequencies of another card

We select the voltage in the same way as we did at the beginning of the video.

If the card's performance is too much for you, this is a great option.

As a result, you will get a less productive and power-hungry card, but one that is quieter and more energy efficient.

Test results in popular mining algorithms:

• Ethash: 22.5 MHS/s.
• Equihash: 296 H/s.
• Decred: 1220 GHS/s.
• CryptoNight: 600 H/s.
• LBRY: 0.165 GHS/s.
• Pascal: 0.830 GHS/s.
• X11Ghost: 8.2 MHS.

As for the low results, testing was carried out at the stock frequencies of the video card and without flashing the BIOS. You can experiment with memory timings and GPU frequencies yourself and achieve better results. It is also worth noting that some users report that the new Sapphire NITRO+ Radeon RX 580 Limited Edition can work normally with only one 8-pin additional power connector connected.

As a result, we can say that the new Sapphire NITRO+ Radeon RX 580 Limited Edition is more suitable for gamers and not for miners. Miners can enjoy an improved cooling system thanks to new larger fans and spare fans as standard. From our point of view, miners will be more interested in the new cheaper PULSE model from Sapphire.

Sapphire NITRO+ Radeon RX 580 Limited Edition in the ComputerUniverse store with a 5 Euro discount

• Mining equipment