The latest models of video cards are in high demand not only among gamers. GPU performance plays an important role in hash calculations during cryptocurrency mining. Therefore, after video adapters go on sale, they are primarily evaluated by miners. Mining on RX 570 cards, which appeared in early 2017. The excellent energy efficiency and high hashrate of these chips allowed them to gain a leading position in Ethereum mining on video processing chips. Asus , Sapphire and other video adapter manufacturers immediately paid attention to this model and tried to fill the shortage of powerful mining equipment with its help.
The 570 along with the 580 are AMD's premier RX series graphics cards that offer the best price to hashrate ratio.
Mining on Radeon RX 570: efficiency and cost-effectiveness
The start of sales of the AMD Radeon RX 570 card, which happened in April last year, gave miners an excellent tool for calculating cryptocurrency blocks. A fast core and memory with a high frequency and volume made it possible to obtain good hash rates in the mining of the most common coins. But time passes, new products appear, new technologies are developed. Let's see how the performance of devices of this family looks and whether mining using the RX 570 is relevant today and in the near future.
General overview of the device
At the time of release, AMD announced the following characteristics for the RX 570:
- Core frequency – 1168 MHz with the possibility of overclocking to 1244 MHz.
- The memory has a clock speed of 7 Gbps.
- Memory capacity – 4 Gb, manufacturer – Hynix.
- The memory bus is 256 bits wide.
These are decent figures compared to its predecessor, the RX 470. However, the increased performance had to be paid for by an increase in base power consumption. It amounted to 150W, which is already a noticeable value.
Among miners, the release of the card aroused increased interest, which was also supported by a relatively affordable price. The unavailability of the RX 470 and RX 480 cards, generated by high demand, also played a role. The first results obtained with these devices cooled the ardor somewhat - at stock frequencies the card provided a hashrate slightly higher than 21 MH/s, which is a good result for the stated price, but not outstanding. However, stock settings never guaranteed full performance from the card. In addition, it was worth waiting for the cards to be released by the largest manufacturers.
Characteristics
RX 570 video cards are available with 4Gb of memory. The older model RX 580 can have up to 8Gb of RAM on board. Both of them are continuations of the 470 model and have similar performance and power consumption characteristics. They can easily work together with the 470 series on the same farm.
An adapter with less RAM will cost buyers less, but at the same time demonstrates a slightly lower mining speed.
The chips, like the previous model, are made using a 14-nanometer process technology.
The new video card has the following characteristics:
- core frequency - 1255 MHz.
- memory frequency - 7000 MHz;
- texture blocks - 128 pcs;
- stream processors - 2048 pcs;
- memory capacity - 256 bits;
- power consumption - 150 W
- interface - PCI-E 3.0.
Memory chips for video cards from or “ Hunix ” are distinguished by high throughput, demonstrating the highest hashrate in their price category. However, for mining it is better to use video adapters with Samsung . The devices are equipped with two powerful coolers that provide effective heat dissipation during prolonged 100% load. This feature is important for stable operation of the farm.
Basic RX 570 models
Today, the RX 570 card is released by various companies. Different editions are characterized by different performance (due to changes in stock and overclocking frequencies), different cooling capabilities and other nuances in the architecture and operation of the device. Let's look at the most common options:
- MSI Radeon RX 570. The company produces several variants: MSI Radeon RX 570 Armor 4G and 8G are versions with reference frequencies and a simplified cooling system. The Gaming versions, Gaming X, are characterized by more powerful and advanced cooling, as well as increased frequencies (for the most powerful modification of Gaming X, these parameters are 1293/7100 MHz). The cards have high base frequencies and also have a convenient management utility.
- Gigabyte Aorus Radeon RX 570 4G. The card is available only in a version with 4 GB of memory. Its advantages are the Windforce 2X cooling system and compact dimensions. This is a quiet video card that performs well when overclocked (it is quite possible to reach 1400/8800 MHz). However, 4 GB of memory is not enough today. An interesting option is the Radeon RX 570 Gaming 8 gb MI model.
- PowerColor RX 570 8Gb Red Dragon is equipped with memory from Hynix. The stated frequencies are 1250/7000 MHz with a power consumption of no more than 200W.
- Asus ROG Strix RX 570 OC Edition 4GB. The card has a good cooling system. In Gaming mode it delivers 1300/7000 MHz. The card's properties are close to the optimal balance between workmanship, performance and cost.
- Sapphire Pulse ITX Radeon RX 570 4GD5. A compact video card with stated frequencies of 1244/7000 MHz. The card has a distinctive design with one large cooler for the cooling system and a strictly shaped casing. Perhaps the card is more suitable for operation in standard modes; for serious overclocking the performance of its cooling system will not be enough. For those who like to take everything from their equipment, the Sapphire Radeon RX 570 Nitro+ model with two 95 mm fans and a powerful passive cooling system is better suited. With a power consumption of 150 W, the card quite confidently produces 1340 MHz frequencies.
Of course, it is impossible to mention all variants of the RX 570 in one review. You can evaluate the performance of each specific modification using online calculators.
Overclocking RX 570 video cards
Before you decide to overclock your video card, keep in mind that after updating the firmware you will lose the product warranty. If the result is that the RX 570 Gaming does not start, you will have to bear the cost of repair or purchase.
For overclocking you will need:
- ATI Flash application, designed to save the current firmware and upload a new one;
- Polaris BIOS Editor, which can be used to edit BIOS timings;
- Atikmdag Patcher patch, which ensures stable operation of the video card after changing the timings.
To optimize your Radeon RX 570 for mining, you need to follow these steps:
- update video card drivers;
- download ATI Flash and unpack it to your hard drive;
- run the file atiwinflash.exe as administrator;
- select a video card;
- save the BIOS to your hard drive by clicking the Save button;
- copy the saved BIOS to another folder (one will remain as a backup copy, the second can be edited for firmware);
- download and install Polaris BIOS Editor;
- open the saved BIOS in the editor and change the Timing Strap values.
Important: the new version of the editor can independently select optimal timing values depending on the memory manufacturer. If the program does this incorrectly, you have to select it manually. For example, try flashing with timings from 1500.
- press the One click timing patch button;
- save BIOS to HDD;
- flash the video card with the modified BIOS using ATI Flash Tools, selecting the desired card and firmware file.
the error 43 problem appears , the computer does not see the card or the drivers fail, you need to install the Atikmdag . With the correct timings, no other problems appear on the RADEON RX 570 card.
You can increase the memory bus frequency using the MSI Afterburner program. If necessary, it can be “ downvolted ”, reducing power consumption while maintaining the hashrate when mining ETH. You will have to find the optimal frequency and power consumption values experimentally.
Mining with Radeon RX 570
Among the many options for the RX 570 card presented by different manufacturers, you can find excellent options that show good results in mining cryptocurrencies. The largest number of positive reviews are noted for cards with 8 Gb memory from Samsung, but cards with Hynix or Micron memory can also show decent results (although their performance is usually 1-2 MH/s lower).
According to the calculation of various map algorithms (on average), the following results are produced:
- DaggerHashimoto – 23.7 MH/s;
- Decred – 1.24 GH/s;
- X11Gost – 7.3 MH/s;
- Pascal – 0.72 GH/s.
Such values are typical for cards overclocked at the factory (Boost mode), but without flashing the BIOS.
The map looks promising in Ethereum mining. Stock settings provide about 24 MH/s, overclocking raises this figure to 30 MH/s. For Equihash (ZCash), stock settings allow you to achieve an indicator of 285 Sol/s, CryptoNote (Monero) produces about 580 H/s.
How to improve efficiency?
You can increase production efficiency if:
- apply special drivers for mining Radeon Software Crimson ReLive Edition Beta for Blockchain.
- Flash the BIOS and set the appropriate timings. This is a rather labor-intensive operation; you will have to perform the selection 5-10 times before the optimal values are found. But for Radeon cards you can’t do without it.
- Overclock and reduce power consumption using MSI Afterburner software.
It is also important to ensure that the temperature of the device does not go beyond 70-75°C, otherwise there may be a drop in frequencies or loss of stability.
Should you buy more: RX 570 vs RX 580
The older model has slightly higher memory bandwidth (256 Gbit/s versus 224). It is also capable of showing slightly better acceleration. However, higher power consumption (185W versus 150W) reduces the gain to almost nothing, and the high price further reduces profitability. Therefore, it is impossible to say unequivocally which card is better - RX 570 or RX 580. You have to base it on market availability, price and personal preference.
Thus, the RX 570 card is an excellent solution for mining. And if you manage to purchase such a device at an affordable price, there is no need to doubt it. In another year or two, such devices (especially with 8 GB of memory) will be leaders in their class. Its only drawback is the soaring price and relative inaccessibility on the market.
Issued hashrate
The RX 570's performance outperforms Nvidia's competitors, which can be had for about the same price.
Without flashing or changing operating parameters, the chip demonstrates the following hashrate using various algorithms:
This allows you to successfully use the cards for mining ether, monero and many other cryptocurrencies.
It makes no sense to use RX series video cards, like other video adapters, for mining bitcoins. Their price and power consumption are much higher, and their performance is lower than that of specialized ASICs.
Ethereum mining
After installing the new drivers, Ethereum mining on the RX 570 Nitro runs at a speed of 24 MH/s . After reflashing the timings and changing the speed of the memory bus, you can squeeze over 30 MH/s , depending on the model. We will tell you how to do this below.
If we consider cards from different manufacturers, the best prospects for overclocking are those based on the RX 570 Nitro, which after overclocking produces 31 MH/s when mining Ethereum.
This performance provides an income of $45 per month at the current ETH exchange rate. At a price of about $500 and taking into account electricity costs, such a hashrate ensures a GPU payback of more than 12 months . This is very good for the downturn observed in the crypto market at the time of writing.
Mining altcoin Zcash
Another coin that is relatively profitable to mine on the RX 570 is Zcash. The price of this currency is lower than that of Ethereum. A hashrate of 310 Sol/s when working on the Equihash algorithm allows you to get “net” approximately $23 per month. This is almost three times less than when mining Ethereum. Therefore, spending resources on this currency is currently unprofitable. Mining other coins available on the Coinotron website or another pool will bring even less income.
Dual ETH+DCR
The most profitable solution is mining two currencies simultaneously on the RX 570. When mining Ethereum, you can mine decret without reducing the hashrate of the main currency.
After overclocking the chip, it is possible to achieve 30 MH/s for ETH and 800 MH/s for DCR.
In this case, the income will be approximately the same $45 as with “pure” ether production at a maximum speed of 31 MH/s . The difference is a few cents and, depending on the cryptocurrency rate, alternates in favor of mining one or two coins.
