Not all video cards are equally suitable for mining. In order for cryptocurrency mining to be profitable, it is necessary to strictly select the parameters of the video card to create the farm. One of the most successful series is the MSI Radeon RX 470. It has attracted a lot of attention, as evidenced by its huge demand in the market.
Despite the fact that it was recently replaced by a new family - the RX 500, the RX470 series continues to be sold even at inflated prices, thanks to its mining-friendly architecture - Polaris.
The card consumes electricity economically and has a fairly good hashing speed. A popular mining calculator included the RX 470 card in its list of recommended GPU devices. Let's review the characteristics of the models in this series and draw a conclusion about how profitable it is to mine cryptocurrency now.
It is worth noting right away that in 2022, cloud GPU mining has become the most profitable, which is much more profitable than buying your own equipment, more flexible in the amount of investment and does not require setting up/maintaining your farms. We made a detailed review about cloud cryptocurrency mining, within which we compiled a rating of the best services for 2022.
⇡#Preface
Having dealt with the shortage of Polaris 10 GPUs, AMD was finally able to provide its partners with chips, and the original versions of the Radeon RX 480 and Radeon RX 470 have been flooding the market for two months now. The choice of interesting models of these video cards is already quite wide, and we will gradually try to introduce you to most of them, especially since we will have to wait a long time for the next AMD GPUs in the middle class of video cards.
The first in line will be the ASUS ROG Strix RX 470 OC model, which was previously tested by us, but left more questions than answers.
And the most important of them: did ASUS and AMD programmers manage to correct the situation with the reduction in GPU frequencies in 3D mode? In addition, today we will test the video card on the penultimate drivers and in new games. Unfortunately, the direct competitor in the form of the GeForce GTX 1060 with 3 GB of memory is not yet available for testing, but the six-gigabyte version is already very close to the Radeon RX 470 4 GB in cost, and the RX 470 versions with 8 GB of memory are even a little more expensive .
⇡#Technical characteristics and recommended cost
The technical characteristics and cost of the ASUS ROG Strix RX 470 OC video card are shown in the table in comparison with the performance of the reference versions AMD Radeon RX 480 and AMD Radeon RX 470, where the key differences are highlighted in bold.
| Name of technical characteristics | AMD Radeon RX 480 | AMD Radeon RX 470 | ASUS ROG Strix RX 470 OC | |
| GPU | Polaris 10 XT Ellesmere (TSMC) | Polaris 10 XT Ellesmere (TSMC) | Polaris 10 XT Ellesmere (TSMC) | |
| Technical process, nm | 14 | 14 | 14 | |
| Crystal area, mm2 | 232 | 232 | 232 | |
| Number of transistors, million | 5700 | 5700 | 5700 | |
| GPU frequency, MHz | 3D | 1120 (1266 – boost) | 926 (1206 – boost) | 1250 (1270 – boost) |
| 2D | 367 | 300 | 300 | |
| Number of unified shader processors, pcs. | 2304 | 2048 | 2048 | |
| Number of texture blocks, pcs. | 144 | 128 | 128 | |
| Number of raster operations blocks (ROPs), pcs. | 32 | 32 | 32 | |
| Theoretical maximum fill rate, Gpix./s | 40,5 | 38,6 | 40,6 | |
| Theoretical maximum texture sampling rate, Gtex./s | 182,3 | 154,4 | 162,6 | |
| Supported memory type | GDDR5 | GDDR5 | GDDR5 | |
| Memory bus width, bits | 256 | 256 | 256 | |
| Effective video memory operating frequency, MHz | 3D | 7 000 / 8 000 | 6 600 | 6 600 |
| 2D | 1 200 | 1 200 | 1 200 | |
| Memory capacity, GB | 4 / 8 | 4 | 4 | |
| Video memory bandwidth, GB/s | 256,0 | 211,2 | 211,2 | |
| Peak power consumption in 3D operating mode, W | 3D | 150 | 120 | 120 |
| 2D | n/a | n/a | n/a | |
| Power supply power requirements, W | 500 | 500 | 500 | |
| Video card dimensions, mm (L × H × T) | 244 × 102 × 38 | 244 × 102 × 38 | 242 × 129 × 42 | |
| Weight, g | n/a | n/a | 648 | |
| Interface | PCI-Express x16 (v3.0) | PCI-Express x16 (v3.0) | PCI-Express x16 (v3.0) | |
| Exits | 1 HDMI v2.0b, 3 DisplayPort v1.4 | 1 HDMI v2.0b, 3 DisplayPort v1.4 | 2 DVI-D , 1 HDMI v2.0b, 1 DisplayPort v1.4 | |
| Minimum retail price*, rub. | 15100 / 17 850 | 12 900 | 14 450 | |
* According to Yandex.Market data as of December 23, 2016.
⇡#Packaging and accessories
ASUS ROG Strix RX 470 OC comes in a small cardboard box with an image of the video card on the front side, as well as the name of the model and series. Nearby there is a label mentioning the proprietary ASUS Aura backlight and a sticker with bonus premium access to the Diana cruiser in the World of Warships game.
The back of the box details all the features of the video card, its software and video outputs, as well as illumination options.
At one end of the box you can find a sticker marking the video card with the serial number, batch number and barcodes.
Inside the package, the video card is placed in the central compartment and is additionally sealed in an antistatic bag.
The package includes a CD with drivers and utilities, brief installation instructions, a coupon for the game mentioned above, stickers for the cooling system casing and cable ties.
Like most ASUS products, the graphics card is manufactured in China and comes with a three-year warranty. In Russian stores, the price for this model starts at 14,450 rubles, which is not higher than the price level of the original Radeon RX 470 from competing companies. But for the eight-gigabyte version of the ASUS ROG Strix RX 470 OC you will have to pay three thousand rubles more.
Which model to choose, the main nuances when buying a used one
Until the advent of the new Navi series graphics adapters, the 470/570 models were the most common workhorses on red GPU farms. But now these cards are morally outdated, and you can’t find them in stores during the day. They are sold only on the secondary market and most of the lots on display are mining video cards that have worked for several years in Riga.
If you purchased such cards, be sure to check, or better yet, immediately change the thermal interface and be prepared for problems with the fans. If Ether did not cost more than $1000 per coin, then purchasing such old cards for mining would not make any sense. But in the context of an upward trend in the virtual asset market, which certainly gives rise to a significant rise in prices for mining video cards, someone can buy themselves a couple of used RX 470s, hoping that they will quickly pay for themselves.
MSI RX 470
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.
Powercolor RX 470
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.
Gigabyte RX 470
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.
Model Specifications:
- Consumption – 120 W;
- Additional power – 8 pin;
- Memory 4GB, 7000 MHz;
- PSU power – 450 W.
Asus RX 470
For the Asus RX 470, mining comes naturally. 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.
Sapphire RX 470
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 RX 470 sapphire 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 RX 470 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.
⇡#PCB design and features
The design of ASUS ROG Strix RX 470 OC is made in the general style of the Strix series of video cards. Its entire front side is covered by a black plastic casing of the cooling system with two large fans, which slightly extends beyond the upper edge of the printed circuit board PCB.
There is no protection on the reverse side, so you need to be careful when installing the video card on the motherboard, especially if it is to be adjacent to large processor coolers. Wrong movement and you can easily lose several elements on the PCB.
The plastic cooler casing partially covers the video card at the top and bottom, but part of the radiator and heat pipes are still visible.
On the top of the casing there is a backlit ROG series logo. The dimensions of the video card are 242 × 129 × 42 mm, and it weighs 648 grams.
ASUS ROG Strix RX 470 OC is equipped with two DVI-D video outputs, one DisplayPort version 1.4 and one HDMI version 2.0b.
For additional power supply, the video card is equipped with one six-pin connector located in the upper part of the casing and conveniently oriented with a latch outward.
Note that the connector is equipped with two LEDs - white and red. White lights up when the power cable is connected, and red lights up when the cable is disconnected or there are some problems with the power supply. The declared power consumption level of the video card is 120 watts, and the power supply for a system with one such video card must be at least 500 watts.
Four screws around the perimeter of the GPU are used to secure the cooling system to the circuit board, so removing it was not difficult.
Next, you need to unscrew the stiffening rib from the upper edge of the PCB and the small aluminum radiator from the power supply circuit of the graphics processor. Now the ASUS ROG Strix RX 470 OC board is completely open for study.
The printed circuit board is produced using proprietary, fully automated ASUS Auto-Extreme technology with constant quality control and the most stringent environmental requirements, such as flux-free production. Minimizing the influence of the human factor in the production of printed circuit boards allows you to improve the level of product quality and increase production volumes.
As for the power part of the board, built using Super Alloy Power II technology, there are four phases allocated to power the graphics processor, which use high-quality Dr.MOS power transistors, economical POSCAP capacitors and silent chokes.
According to the manufacturer, thanks to this set of high-quality components, the temperatures of the power elements are reduced by a maximum of 20%, the service life is increased to 90 thousand hours, noise is halved and greater stability is achieved during overclocking.
To control the power of the GPU on the board, the Digi+ VRM controller (ASP1106 chip) is used.
One more power phase, consisting of the same components as the GPU, is allocated to video memory and power circuits.
The uP1540P chip is used as a video memory controller.
On the right side of the video card you can see the four-pin ASUS FanConnect connector, designed for connecting one case fan directly to the video card.
The speed of this fan will be controlled by the video card itself, depending on the temperature of the GPU. You can configure the dependence of its speed on the heating level of the chip using the ASUS GPU Tweak II utility.
The Polaris 10 GPU of our ASUS ROG Strix RX 470 OC video card was released using the 14 nm process technology in the 22nd week of 2016 (early June) and has a die area of 232 mm2.
Recall that it contains 2048 unified shader processors, 128 texture units and 32 raster operation units (ROP). As for the GPU frequency in 3D mode, it is stated at 1250 MHz and 1270 MHz (in OC mode) - this is almost 35% higher than the base frequency of the AMD Radeon RX 470. However, in fact, the video card did not work at such GPU frequencies . Details will come a little later.
Our version of the ASUS ROG Strix RX 470 OC is equipped with four gigabytes of GDDR5 video memory - this volume is comprised of eight chips soldered on the front side of the printed circuit board. The chips are produced by the SKhynix company, their marking is H5GC4H24AJR R0C.
Judging by the markings, the effective frequency of such chips is 6000 MHz, but the memory on the ASUS video card tested today operates at 6600 MHz, which, with a 256-bit bus, will provide a throughput of 211.2 GB/s.
The review of ASUS ROG Strix RX 470 OC hardware will be completed by the GPU-Z utility with the characteristics of the video card.
Let's move on to getting to know the video card cooling system.
⇡#Cooling system
The lightweight and relatively compact ASUS ROG Strix RX 470 OC is equipped with a DirectCU II cooling system.
It is based on an aluminum radiator, from the base of which two nickel-plated copper heat pipes with a diameter of 6 mm emerge, which then pass through the same radiator.
The base of the radiator is made using direct contact technology, that is, the tubes are part of it and are in direct contact with the GPU crystal. Despite the absence of a gap at the junction of the tubes, part of the GPU crystal is still in contact with the aluminum base of the radiator, which is unlikely to have a positive effect on heat transfer.
The radiator and printed circuit board are cooled by two fans with impellers with a diameter of 96 mm, mounted on stands in a plastic frame.
This version of ASUS DirectCU II uses fans with an optimized Wing-Blade blade profile, which has a wide end edge, thanks to which they are able to develop increased static pressure and pump an increased volume of air flow.
Judging by the markings on the stator, the manufacturer of these fans is Everflow (model T129215SM).
The fan rotation speed is automatically controlled by pulse-width modulation in the range from 0 to 2600 rpm. In 2D mode and with minimal 3D load, the fans do not rotate at all, starting only when the GPU temperature reaches 55 degrees Celsius.
The cooling system has an illuminated logo (where would we be without it?), the color of which can be adjusted using the Aura RGB application. There you can choose one of six lighting modes.
To check the temperature conditions of the video card as a load, we used nineteen cycles of the Fire Strike Extreme stress test from the 3DMark package.
To monitor temperatures and all other parameters, the MSI Afterburner version 4.3.0 program was used, as well as the GPU-Z utility version 1.16.0. The tests were carried out in a closed system unit case, the configuration of which you can see in the next section of the article, at room temperature 23.9~24.4 degrees Celsius.
First of all, we checked the temperature conditions of the video card with fully automatic fan speed adjustment.
Automatic mode (0~1740 rpm, x2)
We have no complaints about the GPU temperature, which reached a modest 68 degrees Celsius during testing, nor about the fan speed, which increased only to 1740 rpm. But the stability of the GPU frequency leaves much to be desired. At its peak it reaches 1208 MHz, but in practice it ranges from 1100 to 1130 MHz - this is far from the 1250/1270 MHz stated in the video card specifications.
We cannot say that the video card is overheating, but perhaps it does not have enough power limit? Let's test this assumption: increase the Power Limit to the maximum (50%) and at the same time increase the cooling efficiency by setting the maximum rotation speed of the cooler fans. This is what came out of it.
Maximum speed (~2460 rpm)
It only got worse, since the video card operated at 1250 MHz only for the first two or three cycles of the Fire Strike Extreme test, and then dropped the frequency and voltage, which led to obvious image jitters and a noticeable decrease in performance. Moreover, from time to time it did not even pass the 3DMark stability test.
Through trial and error, as well as using information found on forums, we edited the BIOS of the ASUS ROG Strix RX 470 OC video card, increasing its TDP limit from 95 to 175 watts, and using MSI Afterburner we increased the Power Limit by 22% and lowered the voltage on the core at 54 mV.
All this made it possible to achieve a more or less stable frequency of 1215 MHz from the GPU of the ASUS video card, and at the same time managed to keep its temperature normal.
Maximum speed (~2520 rpm)
Of course, with such oddities in the nominal operating mode, there is simply no need to talk about overclocking the ASUS ROG Strix RX 470 OC, so let’s immediately move on to the test configuration, methodology and tests themselves.
Dual mining, frequencies for normal operation of the video card
In new releases of PhoenixMiner, the developers have added support for the modified ETChash algorithm and combined ETH/ETC+Zill mining.
We set the core frequency to 1169 and the memory frequency to 2100, with these parameters the card consumes 95 W, Ethereum 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.
On the coins of the EquihashZero platform (Vidulum and Zclassic (ZCL)), according to the calculator, the hashrate for mining is not bad, but there are very few pools for work and exchanges.
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.
⇡#Test configuration, tools and testing methodology
Video card performance testing was carried out in a closed case on a system with the following configuration:
- motherboard: ASUS X99-A II (Intel X99 Express, LGA2011-v3, BIOS 1201 from 10/11/2016);
- CPU: Intel Core i7-6900K (14 nm, Broadwell-E, R0, 3.2 GHz, 1.1 V, 8 × 256 KB L2, 20 MB L3);
- CPU cooling system: Phanteks PH-TC14PE (2 Corsair AF140, ~900 rpm);
- thermal interface: ARCTIC MX-4 (thermal conductivity 8.5 W/(m K);
- RAM: DDR4 4 × 4 GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 2800 MHz (CMK16GX4M4A2800C16) (XMP 2800 MHz/16-18-18-36_2T/1.2 V or 3000 MHz/16-18-18-36_2T/1.35 V) ;
- video cards: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 Founders Edition 6 GB 1506-1709(1886)/8008 MHz;
- ASUS ROG Strix RX 470 OC 4 GB 1250-1270/6600 MHz (in normal mode and after software modification);
- MSI Radeon R9 280X Gaming 3 GB 1050/6000 MHz;
We will compare ASUS ROG Strix RX 470 OC with the reference version of NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 Founders Edition and the original MSI Radeon R9 280X Gaming at standard frequencies.
We currently do not have a version of the GeForce GTX 1060 with 3 GB of memory, which is a direct competitor to the Radeon RX 470, but in the following articles we hope to correct this omission. Let's add that the GeForce drivers prioritized maximum performance, and for the MSI video card they increased the power and temperature limits to the maximum possible.
To reduce the dependence of video card performance on the speed of the platform, the 14-nm eight-core processor with a multiplier of 40, a reference frequency of 100 MHz and the Load-Line Calibration function activated to the third level was overclocked to 4.0 GHz while the voltage in the motherboard BIOS was increased to 1.2095 V .
At the same time, 16 gigabytes of RAM operated at a frequency of 3.2 GHz with timings of 16 -16-16-28 CR 1 at a voltage of 1.35 V. Testing, which began on December 17, 2016, was carried out under the Microsoft Windows 10 Professional operating system with all updates as of the specified date and with the installation of the following drivers:
- motherboard chipset Intel Chipset Drivers – 10.1.1.38 WHQL from 12/10/2016;
- Intel Management Engine Interface (MEI) – 11.6.0.1039 WHQL dated 12/14/2016;
- video card drivers for NVIDIA GPUs – GeForce 376.33 WHQL from 12/14/2016;
- Video card drivers for AMD GPU – AMD Radeon Crimson 16.11.5 dated 11/28/2016.
We did not use the AMD Radeon Crimson ReLive drivers version 16.12.1, which were already available at the time of writing this article, since there were much more negative reviews on them than positive ones, and no performance gain was detected in practice. It is not surprising that the ReLive 16.12.2 version, released after the tests were completed, contained a fairly extensive list of fixes and improvements, but it will be used in the next article.
Due to the low performance of the video cards tested today, they were tested in only one resolution - 1920 × 1080 pixels. For the tests, two graphics quality modes were used: Quality + AF16x – texture quality in the drivers by default with 16x level anisotropic filtering enabled, and Quality + AF16x + MSAA 4x with 16x level anisotropic filtering enabled and 4x full-screen anti-aliasing, in cases where the average number of frames per second remained high enough for comfortable play. In some games, due to the specifics of their game engines, other anti-aliasing algorithms were used, which will be indicated further in the methodology and in the diagrams. Anisotropic filtering and full-screen anti-aliasing were enabled directly in the game settings. If these settings were not available in games, then the parameters were changed in the control panel of the GeForce or Crimson drivers. Vertical synchronization (V-Sync) was also forcibly disabled there. Apart from the above, no additional changes were made to the driver settings.
The video cards were tested in one graphics test, one VR benchmark and fourteen games, updated to the latest versions as of the start date of the material. Compared to my previous test of video cards, the list of test applications has undergone noticeable changes. The rather outdated and not very resource-intensive Battlefield 4, Thief and Sniper Elite III were excluded from it, but three new games with DirectX 12 support were included: Total War: WARHAMMER, Gears of War 4 and Sid Meier's Civilization VI. So now the list looks like this (the games and their test results are arranged in the order of their official release):
- 3 DMark (DirectX 11/12) – version 2.2.3509, tested in the Fire Strike, Fire Strike Extreme, Fire Strike Ultra and Time Spy scenes (the charts now show the graphics score, not the overall score);
- Crysis 3 (DirectX 11) – version 1.3.0.0, all graphics quality settings to maximum, blur level to medium, glare on, modes with FXAA and MSAA 4x, double sequential pass of a scripted scene from the beginning of the Swamp mission lasting 105 seconds;
- Metro : Last Light (DirectX 11) – version 1.0.0.15, used the test built into the game, graphics quality settings and tessellation at the Very High level, Advanced PhysX technology disabled, tests with SSAA and without anti-aliasing, double sequential run of the D6 scene;
- Grand Theft Auto V (DirectX 11) – build 877, quality settings at Very High, ignore suggested restrictions enabled, V-Sync disabled, FXAA activated, NVIDIA TXAA disabled, MSAA for reflections disabled, NVIDIA soft shadows;
- DiRT Rally (DirectX 11) – version 1.22, used the built-in game test on the Okutama track, graphics quality settings to the maximum level for all points, Advanced Blending – On; tests with MSAA 8x and without anti-aliasing;
- Batman : Arkham Knight (DirectX 11) – version 1.6.2.0, quality settings at High, Texture Resolutioin normal, Anti-Aliasing on, V-Sync disabled, tests in two modes – with and without the activation of the last two NVIDIA GameWorks options, double sequential run of the test built into the game;
- Tom Clancy 's Rainbow Six : Siege Filtering – Anisotropic 16X and other maximum quality settings, tests with MSAA 4x and without anti-aliasing, double sequential run of the test built into the game ;
- Rise of the Tomb Raider (DirectX 12) – version 1.0 build 753.2_64, all parameters at the Very High level, Dynamic Foliage – High, Ambient Occlusion – HBAO+, tessellation and other quality improvement techniques are activated, two cycles of the built-in benchmark test (Geothermal scene Valley) without anti-aliasing and with SSAA 4.0 activated;
- Far Cry Primal (DirectX 11) – version 1.3.3, maximum quality level, high-resolution textures, volumetric fog and shadows to the maximum, built-in performance test without anti-aliasing and with SMAA activated;
- Tom Clancy 's The Division FRAPS results are recorded;
- Hitman (DirectX 12) – version 1.8.0, built-in test with graphics quality settings at “Ultra”, SSAO enabled, shadow quality “Ultra”, memory protection disabled;
- Deus Ex : Mankind Divided (DirectX 12) – version 1.12 build 667.0, all quality settings are manually set to the maximum level, tessellation and depth of field are activated, at least two consecutive runs of the benchmark built into the game;
- Total War : WARHAMMER (DirectX 12) – version 1.5.0 build 12745.988912, all graphics quality settings at the maximum level, reflections enabled, unlimited video memory and SSAO activated, double sequential run of the benchmark built into the game;
- Gears of War 4 (DirectX 12) – version 9.4.0.2, quality settings at Ultra level, V-Sync disabled, all effects activated, double sequential run of the benchmark built into the game;
- Sid Meier 's Civilization VI textures activated, dynamic lighting, shadows 8192 × 8192, double sequential run of the benchmark built into the game.
If games implemented the ability to record a minimum number of frames per second, then this was also reflected in the diagrams. Each test was carried out twice; the best of the two values obtained was taken as the final result, but only if the difference between them did not exceed 1%. If the deviations of the test runs exceeded 1%, then the testing was repeated at least one more time to obtain a reliable result.
Performance test results
In the diagrams, the results of testing a video card on an NVIDIA GPU are highlighted in green , and on AMD GPUs they are reflected in the red gamma characteristic of this manufacturer. To highlight the performance of the software-modified ASUS ROG Strix RX 470 OC, we chose a purple fill color. Let's add that in the diagrams in each quality mode, the test results are sorted from top to bottom in descending order of the cost of video cards.
- 3DMark
- SteamVR
- Crysis 3
- Metro : Last Light
- Grand Theft Auto V
- DiRT Rally
- Batman : Arkham Knight
- Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Siege
- Rise of the Tomb Raider
- Far Cry Primal
- Tom Clancy's The Division
- Hitman
- Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
- Total War : WARHAMMER
- Gears of War 4
- Sid Meier's Civilization VI
Let's supplement the constructed diagrams with a final table with test results showing the average and minimum number of frames per second for each video card.
We will analyze the results using summary diagrams in the next section of the article.
Test bench configuration
- Processor: Intel Core i7-4770K (4000 MHz);
- Motherboard: MSI Z97 Gaming 5, BIOS version 1.11;
- Cooler: Thermalright Macho Le Grand;
- Thermal interface: Arctic Cooling MX-2;
- Memory: 2 x 4 GB DDR3 2133, Kingston HyperX Genesis (KHX18C10/4);
- Video card: ASUS Radeon RX 470 Strix4Gb;
- SSD drive: SanDisk X110 256 GB;
- Power supply: ChieftecAPS-1000C 1000W;
- Case: Cooler Master HAF 922;
- Monitor: BenQ GW2460HM;
- Operating system: Windows 7 64-bit Service Pack 1;
- Drivers: AMD Catalyst 16.8.1 Beta.
An Intel Core i7-4770K was used as the central processor, the frequency of which was increased to 4000 MHz. The memory frequency was fixed at 1600 MHz with timings of 9-9-9-27. The role of the platform was performed by the MSI Z97 Gaming 5 motherboard.
The video card has an ASUS Radeon RX 470 Strix 4Gb factory overclocked core from the recommended 1206 MHz to 1270 MHz, the memory operates at the reference 1650 MHz. When idle, the accelerator stops the fans, making the cooling system completely silent. The temperature remains at 38°C.
In the ASUS Tweak II utility, you can select one of three profiles that affect both performance and acoustic comfort.
In games and benchmarks, the cooler operates at 1700 rpm, preventing the GPU from warming up above 65°C.
⇡#Pivot charts and their analysis
First of all, we propose to analyze what kind of performance increase the software optimization of the ASUS ROG Strix RX 470 OC GPU brings: by manipulating the BIOS, we were able to stabilize the frequency in 3D mode at approximately 1215 MHz versus the previous 1110-1130 MHz. This is still below the level declared by ASUS, but at least it’s something.
On average, for all gaming tests, the performance increase was 5.9-6.6%, which, albeit small, is actually free. However, in our opinion, the most important effect of such an upgrade is a reduction in the number of performance dips when the GPU frequency decreases very much, which immediately affects the minimum FPS and gaming comfort. It is almost impossible to reflect this in numerical values (this is clearly visible only in The Division and Rainbow Six), but in terms of real sensations in games, it is simply impossible not to notice.
Now let's compare the software-optimized ASUS ROG Strix RX 470 OC with the reference NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 at nominal frequencies. Let us remind you: this is not overclocking, this is an attempt to get from the video card what the manufacturer promised.
ASUS ROG Strix RX 470 OC managed to win in Rainbow Six: Siege and Hitman, in individual modes of Rise of the Tomb Raider and Total War: WARHAMMER, and also did not lose in Batman: Arkham Knight. In other games, the reference NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB is faster, and the original models of this video card with increased frequencies will be another 6-8% faster. To be fair, let us remind you that the market average price of the GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB is slightly higher than the price of the Radeon RX 470 4 GB.
The third and final summary chart we will have is a comparison of the performance of ASUS ROG Strix RX 470 OC and MSI Radeon R9 280X Gaming. Of course, now these are products of different price categories, but three years ago the AMD Radeon R9 280X, the successor to the even more ancient AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition, came out at a price of $299, and the AMD Radeon RX 470 presented in the summer of this year is recommended for sale for just $179 (with 4GB storage). Therefore, this summary chart is interesting from the point of view of assessing progress in mid-class video cards.
Frankly, for the three-year difference between video cards, the increase is not very convincing, although in the newest games that require video memory, the ASUS ROG Strix RX 470 OC is almost twice as fast as the original Radeon R9 280X.
⇡#Energy consumption
The energy consumption level was measured using a Corsair AX1500i power supply via the Corsair Link interface and the monitoring program of the same name version 4.3.0.154. The energy consumption of the entire system as a whole was measured, excluding the monitor. The measurement was carried out in 2D mode during normal work in Microsoft Word or Internet surfing, as well as in 3D mode. In the latter case, the load was created using four consecutive cycles of the introductory scene of the Swamp level from the game Crysis 3 in a resolution of 2560 × 1440 pixels with maximum graphics quality settings and using MSAA 4X.
Let's compare the energy consumption level of systems with video cards tested today using the diagram.
Configurations with AMD video cards are still far from reaching the level of efficiency of a system with a reference GeForce GTX 1060, but it is pleasant to note that our software modification of the ASUS video card made it possible not only to increase performance, but also to make the video card more economical. In addition, there is higher energy efficiency of video cards with the Polaris 10 core compared to video cards with GPUs of previous generations.
Overclocking Radeon RX 470 by 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.
