Archive for the ‘General Info’ Category

TechPowerUp GPU-Z 2.37.0 With Nvidia GDDR6X Memory Temperature Monitoring

9, Mar 2021

It seems that the HWiNFO tool is no longer the only software that allows you to check the GDDR6X video memory temperature on Nvidia RTX 3080 and RTX 3090 GPUs. The latest TechPowerUp GPU-Z 2.37.0 apparently also supports the display of the temperature of the hot GDDR6X memory chips and not only that, but also features support and reports the GPU Hot Spot temperature as well. It is interesting to note however that these two features apparently were left unannounced as getting added in the changelog of the latest version that has been released about two weeks ago. Frankly it was by luck that we found out that the GDDR6X Memory Operating Temperature and Hot Spot monitoring support has been introduced in the latest GPU-Z software.

GPU-Z v2.37.0 Changelog:
– Added memory vendor detection on Navi 1x and Navi 2x
– Added workaround for NVIDIA Ampere PCIe hardware bug
– Added filter to avoid misreadings on EVGA iCX
– Fixed fake detection for some GT218 variants
– Improved Russian translation
– Added preliminary support for Radeon RX 6700 and RX 6600 Series
– Added support for NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060, RTX 3080 Mobile, RTX 3070 Mobile, RTX 3060 Mobile, RTX A6000, A40, A100-SXM4-40GB, Drive PX2, P106M, Quadro K510M, modded Quadro K6000
– Added support for additional variants of NVIDIA GTX 1650 Max-Q, Quadro P1000, GTX 650, GT 430
– Added support for AMD Cezanne, Radeon Pro V520, R9 290X ES, Barco MXRT 2600
– Added support for Intel Comet Lake Graphics (Celeron 5205U and i7-10810U)
– Added vendor detection for Yeston

The comparison between the values reported by the two useful tools is inevitable and they report the values for GPU Temperature, GPU Hot Spot and Memory Temperature very close to each other. So, using either of the two programs will be fine in order to get you the needed information. Going for either GPU-Z or HWiNFO will provide you with the data you need to know how hot your GPU and video memory is on GeForce RTX 3080 and RTX 3090 video cards when used for mining. Ethereum mining on these particular GPUs is very popular due to the high mining hashrate they provide, but it also comes at the cost of high operating temperature for the memory chips especially. Keeping an eye on the GDDR6X memory temperatures and the GPU Hot Spots can be useful in detecting possible issues you might have with proper cooling of your mining video cards.

– To download and try the latest TechPowerUp GPU-Z 2.37.0 software…

Nvidia Announced the CMP HX Dedicated GPUs for Professional Crypto Mining

18, Feb 2021

 

For crypto users around the world, it is very important comparing Coinbase and Gemini because they will certainly make the difference when working.

The latest news from Nvidia are quite interesting for both crypto miners and gamers, as apparently the company is taking drastic measures to make gaming GPUs available to gamers. With the upcoming launch of the new GeForce RTX 3060 video cards on February 25th the company wants to make sure that the new graphics adapters will be available to gamers and will not be purchased in bulk by crypto miners. The video drivers for the RTX 3060 GPUs are designed to detect specific attributes of the Ethereum cryptocurrency mining algorithm, and will limit the hashrate, or cryptocurrency mining performance, by around 50 percent. So, essentially you will be getting half the hashrate you normally would if the card is running at full performance. For mining the expected hashrate for RTX 3060 was in the range of 40-45 MH/s for Ethereum stock and with overclocked memory, so with the drivers cutting that in half you will be getting only 20-22.5 MH/s making the high priced RTX 3060 GPUs unattractive for miners, or that is what Nvidia believes will happen with this active action hey are taking.

Here come the Nvidia CMP HX Dedicated Crypto Mining GPUs as a solution to the problem, or at least what the green company thinks they have figured out. Nvidia will try to offer separate products dedicated for crypto mining and more specifically for Ethereum (ETC) mining for the crypto miners. The NVIDIA CMP, or, Cryptocurrency Mining Processor, product line for professional mining which does not do graphics (no video outputs) and thus should not impact the availability of GeForce GPUs to gamers.

Nvidia has announced 4 products in their new CMP dedicated crypto mining GPUs with two available in Q1 this year and the other two scheduled for Q2 this year. The Nvidia CMP 30HX mining GPU should be capable of 26 MH/s at 125W power usage and will come with 6GB and the Nvidia CMP 40HX will provide 36 MH/s at 185W of power usage and will come with 8GB video memory. These are the first two models planned for the first quarter of the year, the second quarter is for Nvidia CMP 50HX with 45 MH/s at 250W and 10GB VRAM and Nvidia CMP 90HX with 86 MH/s at 320W and 10GB VRAM.

These initially announced specifications for the mining GPUs are probably not going to be as interesting as Nvidia expects them to be, unless they do come at a significantly lower price compared to what the GeForce RTX GPUs currently cost. For reference an RTX 3060 Ti or RTX 3070 currently does 60 MH/s with 120-140W of power usage when optimized and at stock 200-220W they do 50+ MH/s. This essentially makes 30HX, 40HX and 50HX not really attractive unless they come much cheaper, so only the 90HX seems more interesting out of the four cards that should be based on the RTX 3080 and should be with GDDR6X memory unlike the rest of the CMP line. RTX 3080 is really hard to find currently, but it is no wonder considering the fact that it does about 95 MH/s with 240W of power usage when properly optimized, so again much better than the listed official specs of 90HX. Nvidia RTX 3090 optimized can manage to deliver about 120 MH/s with about 300W of power usage.

We’ll have to wait and see what comes on the market and what will be the prices and availability of the new CPM product line from Nvidia in order to get a better idea if the company made a good decision or something half-though and late like they did with the mining series back in 2017. It is quite possible that they did not thing everything well enough this time either, but let us not get ahead of the things and wait to see what the actual products will be and if Nvidia just set them at conservative settings and they will be capable of further optimizations or their performance will not be as attractive as desktop GPUs and people will continue to prefer them instead of dedicated mining products. The warranty period is also an important factor here, so the idea is to see normal warranty, not just 3- or 6-months warranty like the last time…

– More on the official page of the NVIDIA CMP HX Dedicated GPU for Professional Mining…

Monitoring GPU HotSpot Temperature for Nvidia GPUs With HWiNFO v6.43-4380 Beta

18, Feb 2021

The latest HWiNFO v6.43-4380 Beta version is available now with a number of improvements and new features, but the most interesting new addition is the added monitoring of GPU HotSpot temperature for NVIDIA GPUs. Recently this free tool added the ability for users of the new Nvidia RTX 3080 and RTX 3090 GPUs from Nvidia to monitor the operating temperature of their GDDR6X memory chips, giving access to the hottest operating temperature. The GDDR6X memory chips apparently start to throttle at around 110 degrees and they do run pretty hot under high loads such as Ethereum (ETH) mining for instance. The new feature is not focused on the memory, but the GPU and its operating temperature and more specifically what is the hottest spot based on the sensors inside the graphics processor.

HWiNFO v6.43-4380 Beta Changelog:
– Enhanced sensor monitoring on MSI H510 series mainboards.
– Fixed monitoring of +12V on some ASUS Z590 series mainboards.
– Improved support of LPDDR3/LPDDR4/LPDDR4X memories.
– Fixed a possible WHEA error/system crash during long-term monitoring of AMD RX 6000 series GPUs.
– Enhanced sensor monitoring on ASRock Z590 Taichi and Z590 PG Velocita.
– Consolidated AMD Navi monitoring, added Effective Clock and TGP Power for Navi21.
– Added sensor tool tips to provide more details about sensors and their values.
– Improved sensor UI responsiveness during some operations.
– Improved handling of disappearing/reappearing sensors in custom order.
– Fixed a possible hang when logging sensors with large sets of disabled items.
– Added monitoring of GPU HotSpot temperature for NVIDIA GPUs.

Tools such as MSI Afterburner report the operating GPU temperature in the form of value taken from a number of sensors inside the GPU and passed through a special averaging algorithm. The graphics processor is a large crystal with a lot of transistors inside and different parts of it can be under load while others may be idle at times during its normal operation. This results in temperature variation across the crystal and there are a number of sensors inside that are tracking this difference in temperatures and a special algorithm that averages the data into a single numerical value that you get as “the real” GPU operating temperature.

The HotSpot temperature measurement that HWiNFO does now report in the latest beta version is showing the hottest point as measured on the GPU by the sensors, this value is higher than the normal average temperature you get from other programs such as MSI Afterburner. Do note that it is normal to have a big delta between the hotspot and the regular average temperature reported (10-15 degrees is fine), this however may be very helpful in finding potential problems with the GPU or the cooler of the video card while mining (if more than 15 you should probably look into it). Especially if you are having problems with a GPU being unstable while mining, but otherwise seeming to operate normal and with low regular reported temperature. If there is a hotspot with a very big different there could be an issue with the thermal grease in some point of the GPU, or the cooler not properly seated or something else causing the problem.

A new tool to help diagnose possible problems with Nvidia GPUs that do not behave as expected while mining. We did a quick test on an ASUS RTX 3080 TUF Gaming where MSI Afterburner reports 43 degrees Celsius as average operating temperature for the GPU, while HWiNFO reports a hotspot with 56.8 degrees Celsius with the card at 100% load with about 230W power used and the fans at 100% while mining Ethereum (ETH). This measured is a delta of 13.8 degrees between the average and the hottest spot, the coldest spot is probably with even higher difference, so maybe it will be a good idea to also report the coldest spot as well and not only the hottest one… maybe in another update of HWiNFO.

– To Download and Try the Latest HWiNFO v6.43-4380 Beta HotSpot monitoring feature…


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