AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 video card: Ether hashrate and card performance in mining other cryptocurrencies

Radeon RX Vega 56 was announced in August 2022, along with RX Vega 64 and RX Vega 64 Liquid. According to benchmarks, it rivals the GTX 1070 and 1070 Ti in performance, while being more affordable. For example, on the same Ethash mining algorithm, the model is one and a half times ahead of the RX 570 and RX 580.

Owners of RX Vega 56 note a high level of power consumption. In addition, sometimes there are complaints about the case heating up too much. Otherwise, it’s difficult to find fault with the model: its characteristics are still decent.

Miners are especially interested in what Vega 56 hashrate on ether, since this is one of the fairly profitable cryptocurrencies for mining at the moment. In the article we will look at the parameters and characteristics of the card, how much Vega 56 megahash produces on ether and what the card’s performance is on other algorithms.

AMD Radeon RX Vega 56: how many megahashes the GPU produces and card characteristics in mining

What is different about Vega 56, how many megahashes does it produce? To do this, it’s worth taking a closer look at the card’s characteristics.

• Architecture - GCN 1.4.
• Microchip manufacturing technology - 14 Hm.
• The graphics core area is 486 mm².
• Number of transistors - 12500 million.
• The number of TMUs is 224.
• The number of ROPs is 64.
• The number of shrader blocks is 3584.
• The core frequency is 1156 MHz.
• Core frequency (TURBO) - 1471 MHz.
• Memory frequency - 953 MHz.
• Video memory type - HBM 2.
• Video memory capacity - 8GB.
• Bus bandwidth is 2048 bits.
• Additional power supply – 8+8 pin.
• Energy consumption - 210 Watt.

The card has 2 phase power supply 2×8 Pin connectors. Out of the box, the card consumes 210 Watts, but with maximum overclocking you can achieve a consumption of 300 Watts.

Of course, everyone is interested in the hashrate of the RX Vega 56 video card on air. The card is capable of delivering 41 - 42 Mh/s using the Ethash algorithm in stock. When overclocked, the RX Vega 56 hashrate rises to 49 MH/s.

Which manufacturer's card is better to choose?

In first place is the Gigabyte Vega 56. The exclusive WindForce 2x cooler, with powerful fans, copper heat pipes and a 2-section radiator, protects against overheating under heavy loads. A low-noise, cool and relatively inexpensive video card is an excellent option for assembling a mining farm.

On Msi AIR Boosts Vega 56, mining is also highly productive. The manufacturer overclocks the GPUs at the factory. Setting the Boost mode accelerates the core to 1450 MHz. Hot air is removed by a two-slot cooling system with a powerful turbine.

The PowerColor Vega 56 video card is available in several versions:

• PowerColor Radeon RX Vega 56 Nano Edition is a compact card with one fan and no BIOS switch.
• PowerColor Radeon RX Vega 56 Red Devil is made in the original style. The main feature of this model is 3 options for switching BIOS: standard, quiet and OC BIOS. The function allows you to adjust power consumption and fan temperature with one click of a toggle switch.
• PowerColor Radeon RX Vega 56 Red Dragon resembles the Red Devil in appearance, but has a shortened printed circuit board, only two BIOS versions and a 6+8 pin additional power connector, instead of the usual 8+8 on other rx vega 56 models.

On video accelerators of the PowerColor series, mining is quite complicated in settings, but with proper overclocking, the card demonstrates good hashrate, and three fans reliably protect against overheating.

The Asus ROG Strix RX Vega 56 OC 8 GB video accelerator is equipped with the proprietary Asus GPU Tweak II utility, with the function of automatically adjusting to the maximum allowable frequencies. LED backlight allows you to visually monitor the degree of heating of the video card during cryptocurrency mining.

The Double Edition Vega RX 56 graphics processor from the American company XFX has 20% reduced dimensions compared to the reference version. The card does not have factory acceleration, so the core frequency remains at standard values.

⇡#Clock speeds, power consumption, temperature, overclocking

Review and test of amd radeon rx 480 8gb video card

The WattMan section in the Radeon RX Vega driver settings contains three preset power profiles - Power Save, Balanced and Turbo, with which you can either reduce power consumption or increase it relative to the nominal 100%. For Vega 64 we have specific profile data: Power Save reduces the power limit by 25%, and Turbo increases it by 15%. Plus there is a BIOS backup where each profile is trimmed by 7-10W. In the case of Vega 56, the effect of this option will have to be determined experimentally.

In Turbo mode, which we chose for the main performance tests of the Vega 56, the power consumption of the card is indeed much less than that of the Vega 64 (as can be seen from measurements in FurMark), but in terms of average system power in gaming applications, both Vegas compete with the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti. And even the most stringent restrictions imposed by the Power Save mode cannot bring the Vega 56 closer to its main competitor, the GeForce GTX 1070.

The maximum core frequency of the Vega 56 is 1590 MHz - much higher than the 1471 MHz indicated in the table. Let us recall that the “upper” frequency in the Vega specifications, unlike previous AMD accelerators, means the maximum that the GPU is guaranteed to be able to handle under a standard load, but not the maximum and, on the other hand, not a guaranteed stable frequency. Judging by measurements in Crysis 3, even in Turbo mode, the GPU frequency in Vega 56 fluctuates around 1431 MHz, although Vega 64 produces a hundred more in the same conditions. In power saving modes, the Vega 56 is forced to reset frequencies to 1341 and 1295 MHz, respectively, but the performance per watt increases: Power Save mode reduces frequencies by 10% and the overall system power by 14%.

The upper steps of the clock frequency at standard settings correspond to the maximum GPU supply voltage - 1.2 V, but considering that Vega 64 is enough to stably maintain a frequency of 1630 MHz, one could expect comparable results in overclocking from the younger Vega. However, even with the greatest power reserve (standard firmware allows you to increase it by 50%), the stable frequency of the Vega 56 GPU is locked in the range of 1513–1515 MHz, and any manipulations with the peak frequency in the WattMan settings do not make sense.

One way to correct the situation is to flash the BIOS from Vega 64. This way, GPU computing units blocked at production cannot be returned to operation, but at least the power limit will no longer affect the frequencies. Satisfactory results can be achieved by simply reducing the supply voltage to the GPU. Our sample, at a voltage as low as 1.05 V, allowed us to set the maximum frequency to 1612 MHz. At the same time, in the Crysis 3 test, the frequency reached 1591 MHz and stabilized at around 1575 MHz.

By the way, undervolting Vega 64, in our experience, only makes sense in order to calm the card's energy appetite and reduce the load on the cooling system. Even at a nominal voltage of 1.2 V, the Vega 64 core practically does not overclock above the default frequency of 1630 MHz. The road to higher frequencies will only be opened by a BIOS modification or future boards of original design, which will allow higher voltages to be supplied to the GPU.

There is a reason why the HBM2 memory in Vega 56 operates at lower frequencies relative to Vega 64. Apparently, our sample uses chips from a different manufacturer (AMD orders them simultaneously from SK hynix and Samsung) or simply lower-quality assemblies. If in Vega 64 the memory was easily overclocked from the standard 900 to 1095 MHz, then in Vega 56 stable operation is impossible at frequencies above 950 MHz.

As a result of overclocking, the system's gaming power increased by 52 W compared to Turbo mode, but as we learned with the Vega 64 example, without reducing the voltage, everything would be even worse. Now, at least, we see a standard picture, when a fan operating at maximum speed (4647 rpm) reduced the temperature of the overclocked GPU by 17 °C compared to the temperature at standard settings, which means that a compromise can be found in everyday use between heat and CO noise without sacrificing clock speeds.

Note: here and below in the diagrams and tables for overclocked Vega cards the maximum GPU frequency is indicated, for non-overclocked cards the Boost Clock frequency is indicated according to the specifications.

AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 hashrate using different algorithms

On such productive GPUs you can mine not only ether. We have compiled a table that displays the RX Vega 56 hashrate for popular algorithms based on data from whattomine.com. The numbers may be lower than those stated in the reviews, since GPU performance directly depends on the manufacturer and the mining card settings.

What to mine, profitable algorithm

How productive is Ether mining on Vega 56?
AMD GPUs are traditionally focused on mining coins using the Ethash algorithm. The hashing speed of a vega 56 video card in Ethereum mining depends on the overclocking potential of a particular model. On the Ezil.me and Rustpool.xyz servers you can set up Merged mining of ETH+ZIL cryptocoins. Merged mining differs from traditional dual mining, which was previously widely practiced on red maps when mining Ethereum. You mine ETH by connecting through one of the specified services to another pool (for example, Ethermine), and at the same time, the system periodically switches you to the ZIL mining round (every 1.5 hours). Once the round is completed, you will be returned back to ETH mining. Essentially, each merged mining implementation has a subchain and a parent blockchain. A prerequisite for collaboration is the use of the same hashing algorithm. Money is also paid in two coins. As a result, you will receive an additional 10-12% profit.

According to information from mining forums, to increase productivity, vega rx56 cards are loaded with BIOS from the flagship vega rx 64 model. But each owner does this at his own peril and risk, and no one guarantees the success of such experiments.

Cards of this line have a high hashrate based on the Cryptonight algorithm. Before Monero switched to the RandomX algorithm, mining this altcoin was profitable, but this is already in the past. As of June 22, 2020, the first place in mining profitability for vega 56 is the HavenProtocol coin (XHV) using the CryptoNightHaven algorithm. Conceal (CCX), the CryptoNightConceal algorithm, brings in slightly less income. Forks of the cryptonite algorithm do not heat graphics adapters to too high temperatures, so it is recommended to switch the rig to mining these tokens during the hot season. Moreover, they occupy the top lines of the rating in online services for calculating mining profitability.

AMD Vega series video cards also performed well when working with the new MimbleWimble POW protocol. Altcoins MWC-CT31 (Cuckatoo31 algorithm) and Grin-CT32 (Cuckatoo32 algorithm) are almost as profitable as the digital coins kryptonite and Ethash.

To assess the market situation as quickly as possible, experts use a mining calculator. Of course, the results they produce are very approximate.

The actual hashrate and income may differ by 10-15%, both positive and negative, but it’s still worth paying attention to the data from these sites

Mining calculators:

• Wattomine.
• Coincalculator.

Most users use the simple Nicehash service, where after installation and a little configuration, the smart program itself finds a profitable algorithm. It is recommended to visit the service https://minerstat.com, here you will find hashrate indicators and a list of profitable crypto coins for most models of video cards and ASICs.

Hashrate on different algorithms

Hashrate figures may vary depending on the video card manufacturer, overclocking settings, operating system and mining software installed on a particular PC. New profitable projects periodically appear on the blockchain platform.

AMD Radeon Vega 56 hashrate table:

The owner of an rx vega 56 mining farm must constantly monitor the market in search of the most profitable developments. Unless, of course, he wants to quickly recoup his investment.

Mining profitability on AMD Radeon RX Vega 56

We figured out what the hashrate of the RX Vega 56 is, but what about the profitability? In the table below you can see how much profit one card will bring per day. Data is presented as of August 2022. Current information can be calculated at whattomine.com.

⇡#Performance: 3DMark

3DMark shows AMD processors at their best. Just as the Radeon RX Vega 64 is confidently ahead of the GeForce GTX 1080 in “synthetics,” the Vega 56 turned out to be 14% faster than the GTX 1070. The advantage of the new product over the flagships of the previous generation (Radeon R9 Fury X and GeForce GTX TITAN X) was 23 and 19 % respectively.

Even at 1080p and 1440p screen resolutions, where the AMD GPU's potential is not fully realized, the Radeon RX Vega 56 outperforms the GeForce GTX 1070 in terms of average frame rates. Moreover, the AMD accelerator holds a confident lead in most tests, and only in two games (Crysis 3 and GTA V) does the GTX 1070 unconditionally dominate. As we remember from previous reviews, there were more games that were inconvenient for the Vega 64 in the fight against the GTX 1080. Vega 64 itself provides 7–9% higher frame rates compared to the younger model.

Vega 56 outshone the previous generation flagship cards (GeForce GTX TITAN X and Radeon R9 Fury X) with an advantage of 10–11% and 16–18%, respectively.

How to increase Vega 56 hashrate using overclocking

The Vega 64 hashrate may be much higher than stated. It is better to overclock the GPU for mining using MSI Afterburner. The utility interface is very simple. To overclock the video card, we need two sliders:

• Core Clock – core overclocking, increases the core frequency;
• Memory Clock – memory overclocking, increases the memory frequency.

You need to change the frequency values ​​little by little. Then test stability. If all is well, then you can increase the frequency further. If the video card starts to fail or the drivers crash, then simply reduce the frequency and that’s it. There will be no harm.

Optimal overclocking parameters:

⇡#Conclusions

The Radeon RX Vega 64 was unable to unconditionally beat its main rival, the GeForce GTX 1080, and only at the cost of incomparably higher power consumption did AMD achieve the level of gaming performance that NVIDIA conquered more than a year ago. But Vega 56 hit the target. The younger model in terms of gaming performance won a difficult victory over the GeForce GTX 1070 in the key resolutions for this category of accelerators 1080p and 1440p, and is confidently in the lead at 2160p.

Another advantage of Vega 56 over its main rival is its overclocking potential. The GTX 1070, as a rule, cannot be overclocked to the level of the GTX 1080. NVIDIA has separated the two models both by the type of RAM and by selecting the most promising GPU crystals for the GTX 1080. At the same time, the Vega 56 can easily reach the level of overclocking Vega 64 is getting menacingly close to the GeForce GTX 1080. All this partly justifies the actual prices of the new product, which significantly exceed the amount recommended by the manufacturer due to the general shortage of Vega cards. If the Vega 56 weren't so overpriced right now, we wouldn't hesitate to give it our Best Buy award.