Mining on RX 470 - video card overclocking, hashrate indicators, drivers

The rx 470 video card has long been known to the mining community; radeon products are in demand among “miners.”

The card consumes energy sparingly and has a high hashing rate. A popular mining calculator included the rx470 card in its list of recommended GPU devices.

Mining on rx 470, characteristics

Graphics accelerator characteristics:

• Processor – Polaris 10 Pro;
• Microchip manufacturing technology - 14 Hm;
• Architecture - GCN 1.3;
• Graphics core area - 232 mm²;
• Number of transistors — 2048;
• DirectX support - DirectX 12;
• Video memory - 4 GB/8 GB;
• Effective memory frequency - 1650 MHz (4GB), 2000 MHz (8GB);
• The clock frequency of the video processor is 920/1206 MHz;
• Connections : DisplayPort, HDMI, DVI-D;
• Additional power supply - 8-pin.

Additional power to the video card ensures stable operation during overclocking. The Polaris structure is very practical for mining, which is why the rx470 remains in demand despite the release of newer series.

For example, if you compare the rx 470 and rx 480 in mining, the first one is ahead in terms of energy efficiency. Not to mention the video cards that were produced earlier (r9 380, r9 390, etc.)

In addition, graphic adapters of this line can be converted into Rx 570 with simple manipulations. You need cards from the same manufacturer and with the same memory. Link to video instructions:

. After reflashing, production efficiency improves. Please note that in case of an error, the Rx 470 will not turn into a 570, but into a brick. You perform all actions at your own peril and risk.

Video card performance in mining

The productivity of the rx 470 mining farm is directly related to the hash algorithm. The mining calculator helps you choose the most profitable coins. The optimal coin option for the Ethereum blockchain network (Ethash).

The cryptocurrency market is volatile, so the owner of a mining farm must constantly keep his finger on the pulse of events. New promising projects appear periodically. Mining on the Dagger Hashimoto (Ethash) algorithm in dual with (DCR, MAX, SMART, XVG) worked well, but in 2020 , this topic is no longer relevant.

Specifications

Some parameters, primarily the memory size, will change depending on the modification of the GPU device. Also, certain differences appear during overclocking. Technical characteristics of the AMD RX 470 video card:

• Graphics memory capacity – from 4 GB to 8 GB;
• type of RAM chips – GDDR5;
• graphics memory frequency – 6700 MHz;
• core bus frequency – 256 MHz.

To connect the Gigabyte GV RX 470 wf2 4 GB you will need a power adapter with a power of about 450 W. If we compare the card with newer analogues, for example, the RX 560, then it surpasses it in graphics memory frequency. However, it consumes much more electricity - 110 W versus 60 W. Naturally, this will be reflected in your electricity bills.

The card is equipped with a PCI Express 3.0 x16 connector, as well as several additional interfaces: HDMI, HDCP, Display Port. There is an additional power supply – 1x8pin.

A farm consisting of 5-6 video cards of this model is a practical solution. GPU devices are very compact (276x140x37 mm). The active cooling system of the RX 470 miner 8 GB consists of efficient fans. The user will be able to independently regulate the intensity of the rotations.

Which model to choose, the main nuances when buying a used one

Several companies are involved in the production of 470 line graphics accelerators. Which one should you choose for cryptocurrency computing?

The best rx 470 for mining should be high-speed and reliable in operation. It is possible to equip the rig with video cards of the same series from different manufacturers.

Brief overview of models:

The low noise MSI rx 470 mining version was first released in Japan in 2022. Standard MSI GPUs are also well adapted for mining, thanks to dual-chamber air-cooling radiators. The video card is available in two versions with 4 GB and 8 GB of video memory.

Model Specifications:

• Consumption – 130 W;
• Memory – 4 GB, 7000 MHz;
• Additional power – 8 pin;
• PSU power – 500 W.

On the Powercolor rx 470 , mining is convenient, thanks to dual BIOS/UEFI and an overclocking mode switch. A special profile of the cooler blades and a nickel radiator grille with heat-dissipating pipes guarantee protection against overheating under high loads.

Model Specifications:

• Consumption – 120 W;
• Memory – 4 GB, 6600 MHz;
• Additional power – 8 pin;
• PSU power – 450 W.

On the gaming Gigabyte rx 470, mining is no worse than complex computer games. XTREME Engine utility makes it easy to overclock the device to the desired parameters. WINDFORCE 2X coolers will provide effective heat dissipation, and color LED backlighting allows you to visually monitor the operation of the video card.

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Model Specifications:

• Consumption – 120 W;
• Additional power – 8 pin;
• Memory 4GB, 7000 MHz;
• PSU power – 450 W.

For Asus rx 470, mining is a native element. A video card with a Samsung memory chip, produced specifically for cryptocurrency mining. The video card quickly fails due to a poor cooling system; after 1 year of use, the killers stop spinning. We do not recommend buying such video cards for mining 24/7

Model Specifications:

• Consumption – 120 W;
• Memory – 4GB, 7000 MHz;
• Additional power – 8 pin;
• PSU power – 450 W.

On the Sapphire rx 470 , mining will be as productive as possible. The graphics processor is not inferior in power to the 480 model. Even with standard parameters, the sapphire rx 470 demonstrates a high hashrate in mining.

Model Specifications:

• Consumption – 175 W;
• Memory – 8 GB , 8000 MHz;
• Additional power – 8 pin;
• PSU power – 500 W.

The power supply for the rx 470 mining farm is selected by power based on the amount of consumption of the nodes (GPU, riser, motherboard, processor) with the addition of 20% to protect against overload.

Before purchasing a used video card, you should carefully inspect the product. First of all, pay attention to such criteria.

• Date of sale.
• Factory seals and stickers.
• The presence of swollen and chipped parts.
• PCB color. After repairs, the silk-screen printing darkens and the shade of the textolite changes.
• Degree of cooler wear. The blades should turn easily by hand, without any extraneous sounds or play.

After an external examination, performance tests are carried out using special programs ( GPU-Z , FurMark etc.).

Factory defects appear in the first months. If the rx470 worked in mining for a year without breakdowns, then, subject to careful operation, it will serve the new owner for a long time. But no one is immune from troubles, so it is better for a mining farm to purchase new GPUs.

Comparison with competitors

The RX 470 can be compared with its competitors based on the mining efficiency parameter, which is determined by the ratio of performance to energy consumption.

RX 470 comparison:

The efficiency indicators of the RX 470 are higher than the older models, and according to Ethash they have the maximum values.

What to mine, choice of algorithm

The most profitable mining on an rx 470 video card for coins on the Ethash platform (Etherum, Ethereum Classic, QuarkChain, Ether-1, Ubiq, Expanse, Pir). Even with standard parameters, productivity is 24 Mh/s, and after flashing the BIOS and overclocking, the mining speed will increase to 27 Mh/s. The calculation speed depends on the installed video driver and software.

What is better to mine on rx 470 besides Ethereum (ether)? After the departure of Monero, there were almost no profitable tokens left on cryptonet. It is more or less profitable to mine BitTube , but you will earn more Ethash An alternative could be the ProgPowZ and KawPow (RVN) , but they heat up the cards very much and switching to them in the hot season is not advisable. Moreover, the profit on ETH/ETC is still higher.

It is not profitable to work on coins of the Equihash platform hashrate. By mining Zclassic on EquihashZero, you will get mere pennies, and on other altcoins, Zikesh will generally remain in the red.

Experts constantly analyze the most profitable coins that the services they use ( Whattomine, Coincalculator ). Current and latest news is published on the global Bitcointalk . There you can find out the newest projects that no one knows about yet.

Video card payback

The payback period depends on the following factors:

• cost of nodes;
• farm configuration (number of video cards);
• consumption and cost of resources;
• performance;
• algorithm and computational complexity.

The cost of AMD Radeon RX 470 8 GB is about 26,000 rubles. ($400 at an exchange rate of 65 rubles). The electricity consumption of a mining farm with 6 GPUs will be 1–1.1 kW/hour. The power supply is suitable for 1300 W (with Gold Plus or Platinum certification).

Example of farm equipment on RX 470 (as of October 6, 2018):

The total cost of the farm will be $2979, the cost of video cards will be $2400 (80%). With an average monthly income of $30 per video card, the payback will be approximately 16 months.

Dual mining, frequencies for normal operation of the video card

In the new releases of Claymore's Dual Ethereum AMD+NVIDIA GPU Miner, the developers have retained the dual mining option, but there are no profitable coins, so this topic is presented for purely informational purposes. However, the situation may change when new blockchain projects appear.

We set the core frequency to 1169 and the memory frequency to 2100, with these parameters the card consumes 95 W, Ether mining on the video card reaches 26 Mh/s and 450 per decred. Frequencies of 1070/2100 reduce power consumption in mining to 70 W, with a hashrate of 25/430, this is the optimal option for setting up the GPU of a crypto farm.

Often, video cards during dual mining can melt the 8 pin wires on the power supply. This happens due to the fact that the voltage on the core is colossally high. To avoid problems, set Core Voltage to -100. Detailed settings for dual mining.

Hashrate for different algorithms

Changing the mining speed depending on the hashing algorithm:

• Equihash – 280 Sol/s.
• Pascal – 0.65 GH/s.
• Ethash – 25 MH/s.
• Cryptonight – 0.65 KH/s.
• X1Gost – 6.2 MH/s.

The most profitable will be the mining of the Ethereum cryptocurrency. An alternative option is mining using the Equihash algorithm - ZEC coin. Zcash hashrate on RX 4 GB – 261 Sol/s. For detailed calculations, use the mining calculator.

BIOS firmware

How to flash an rx 470 video card for mining? To modify the BIOS, the following programs are required:

• ATIWinflash - saves settings and flashes the card.
• SRBPolaris V3-Int - edits BIOS.
• Atikmdag-patcher - adapts the re-flashed GPU to Windows and drivers.

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Sequencing

1. Open Atiwinflash with administrator rights, if there are several cards, select the one you need and press the right Save to save the original BIOS. It is necessary to make at least two copies, one for editing, the other for returning to the previous settings in case the card does not work correctly after reprogramming.
2. Open the BIOS in the SRBPolaris utility to change the timings (time delay scheme for correct execution of operations). We look at the device memory manufacturer. We select values ​​that correspond to the RAM of the video card.
3. We edit the timings and save the modified BIOS. Instead of SRBPolaris , you can use PolarisBiosEditor-master with auto-timing selection function . But best of all, get the timings from here: https://forum.bits.media/index.php?/topic/38510-eth-xmrtimingsrx470480570580-optimized-timings-and-configs/
4. Click Load image in the Atiwinflash , select the new BIOS modification and give the Program command. After flashing the firmware, the utility will prompt you to restart the PC. Before rebooting, you must run Atikmdag-patcher , otherwise the system may not detect the video card.

Optimized timings of 470 will speed up mining by 25-30% , which is important considering the cost of electricity.

When submitting flashed video cards for warranty repair, the store has the right to refuse repairs. Be careful if you decide to change your video card settings.

Claymore's 15 and Phoenix 4.9 miners can modify timings on the fly. In claymore you need to select the values ​​–strap and –rxboost , and in phoenix add the option – mt 1 , or – mt 2 . You will get the same hashrate as with the modified BIOS and will not risk the warranty.

Overclocking Radeon RX 470 4 and 8 GB

In addition to modifying the BIOS, it is necessary to speed up the operation. In this section you will learn: “How to overclock a video card for mining.” You need to install MSI Afterburner to adjust:

• Core frequencies (Core Clock).
• Memory frequencies (Memory Clock).
• Limit .
• Voltage .
• Cooler speed modes (Fan Speed).

Exceeding the optimal permissible frequencies leads to malfunctions. To determine the correct overclocking parameters for a video card.

We recommend overclocking the video card by gradually adding +30 MHz. When mining ETH, the core frequency is practically not used, so the optimal value is 1169 MHz. , but for the memory frequency you need to set the maximum effective values ​​to about 2100 MHz .

You can also overclock cards using mining programs. Write the necessary parameters –cclock and –mclock and the miner will do everything himself. But these options do not always work correctly, so watch the miner window when starting.

How to reduce energy consumption

The graphics accelerator is a power-hungry device. The consumption of rx 470 in mining is higher than in gaming mode. To save energy, lower the core voltage using Afterburner . In the utility settings, you need to open access to voltage regulation , which allows you to change parameters within 100 mV . To save on electricity bills and not lose hashrate, you need to increase the Power Limit of video cards when overclocking the rx 470 mining rig.

When flashing the card, you can lower the memory and core voltage. To do this, open the BIOS in the SRBPolarisV 3 program, go to the Voltages section and enter the parameters manually. Then you need to save the BIOS and flash the card with it. Typically, gpus of this line work stably at 875 Mv. If the rig reboots or the hashrate decreases, you need to increase the voltage to 900 Mv or even 925 Mv. In Claymore's 15 and Phoenix 4.9 miners, you can perform undervolting directly in the executive file. Just add –cvddc 900, -mvddc 900 to the batch file and you will reduce the consumption of the card in mining.

Attention! At low voltage, the –powlim value should be increased (to about +40). You will not lose energy efficiency at all, you will ensure stability of operation and a normal number of shares sent to the pool.

As a result, the card is flashed, overclocked and ready for cryptocurrency mining. Of course, one rx470 is not enough for mining; it is advisable to assemble a rig of at least 4 – 6 video cards. During a period of recession in prices for virtual money, not everyone will decide to make such expenses. But when the next rise begins, equipment may again become scarce and one can only regret the wasted opportunities.

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