Archive for the ‘Tests and Reviews’ Category

Optimized Ethereum Mining Settings for Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti, RTX 3070, RTX 3080 and RTX 3090 GPUs

24, Feb 2021

We’ve tested and played around with a couple of Nvidia GeForce RTX 30 series of GPUs already, so that we can compile a list with the optimized mining settings for mining Ethereum with RTX 3060 Ti, RTX 3070, RTX 3080 and RTX 3090 GPUs. There could of course be some variation from card to card due to manufacturers making different versions with higher TDP levels and higher default clocks, but generally the settings below should work pretty good on any make and model from the above mentioned ones.

Some further tweaking could help in maximizing performance or optimizing power usage for a specific card, but the settings we give here should be a very good starting point for achieving optimal performance at reduced power usage when suing them for mining Ethereum (ETH). Do note that the settings below are intended for Ethereum mining and/or other memory intensive crypto algorithms such as VertHash for example, the settings are most likely not optimal for mining use where a GPU-intensive algorithm is in play!

Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti Optimized Mining Settings:
– TDP: 60% / 140W
– GPU: -500 MHz
– VRAM: +1100 MHz
– ETH Hashrate: 60 MH/s
– More on Gigabyte AORUS GeForce RTX 3060 Ti MASTER…

Nvidia RTX 3070 Optimized Mining Settings:
– TDP: 50% / 140W
– GPU: -500 MHz
– VRAM: +1100 MHz
– ETH Hashrate: 60 MH/s
– More on Palit GeForce RTX 3070 GameRock GPUs…

Nvidia RTX 3080 Optimized Mining Settings:
– TDP: 71% / 230W
– GPU: -300 MHz
– VRAM: +1000 MHz
– FANS: 100%
– ETH Hashrate: 97 MH/s
– More on ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 3080 Video Cards…

Nvidia RTX 3090 Optimized Mining Settings:
– TDP: 73% / 300W
– GPU: -400 MHz
– VRAM: +1000 MHz
– FANS: 100%
– ETH Hashrate: 120 MH/s
– More on MSI GeForce RTX 3090 SUPRIM X 24G GPUs…

* The clocks cited above are for use with a tool such as MSI Afterburner, overclocking the video memory in other tools might require the use of a different number for the same amount of clock increase +2000 MHz for the memory instead of +1000! The TDP level can also be set in Watts instead of percent level from the default one, so we also cited an estimated power usage in Watts as well.

An important tip especially for Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 and RTX 3090 GPUs is to always run their cooling fans on 100% while mining Ethereum, even though the GPU temperature may be low. The reason for that is to help keep the memory chips cooler, because the GDDR6X memory these GPUs use get pretty hot while mining Ethereum specifically and you need to keep it as cool as possible. If it gets too hot you may experience drop in mining performance, resulting in lower hashrate and, so make sure you monitor the operating temperatures of GDDR6X memory you can do so with the useful free tool HWiNFO. With that software tool and more specifically the latest beta version it has you can also monitor the GPU HotSpot Temperature for Nvidia GPUs as a useful tool to diagnose possible cooling issues on GPUs that are unstable when mining.

If you manage to keep the memory temperature lower you might even push the video memory on RTX 3080 and RTX 3080 GPUs to +1100 MHs for some extra performance boost, though in our experience high operating temperatures and high memory frequency does not do well together. The GDDR6 memory used on RTX 3060 Ti and RTX 3070 GPUs does not get so hot and can easily handle +1100 MHz for the video memory in order to reach 60 MH/s hashrate mining Ethereum. It is best to try and see what your particular RTX GPUs can handle and not to end them running at the absolute maximum possible operating frequency as this may cause instability with a slight change in the ambient temperature.

Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 is Indeed Limited for Crypto Mining

22, Feb 2021

It seems that Nvidia did manage to keep their promise to make the new GeForce RTX 3060 GPU limited for crypto mining and thus widely available for gamers as with reduced performance it will not be attractive for miners. We got some sound information regarding the actual performance for mining use for the new GeForce RTX 3060 that is expected to be available starting February 25th or in just a few days. According to Nvidia the new 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 to half of what they will normally do. Essentially you will be getting half the hashrate you normally would if the card is running at full performance meaning that instead of the expected hashrate for RTX 3060 in the range of 40-45 MH/s for Ethereum with stock settings and optimized, so with the drivers cutting that in half we were expecting only 20-22.5 MH/s.

It seems that the reality is not that far off from what we were expecting with an MSI GeForce RTX 3060 GAMING X video card apparently starting up with a hashrarte of about 41 MH/s for Ethereum mining with stock settings with 100% TDP. With fans running at automatic settings the MSI GPU runs at around 58% fans and 51 degrees Celsius temperature for the GPU with 117W of power usage. When the miner starts the hashrate quickly drops from 41 to about 21 MH/s, so pretty much in half and even if you close the miner and start it again it starts with the lower hashrate. You need to reboot the PC and then when you run the miner for Ethereum for the first time it will start at 41 MH/s again, but quickly drop that in half again.

With reduced TDP and GPU frequency and overclocked video memory to +1000 MHz in MSI Afterburner the hashrate starts at 45-46 MH/s, but then again very shortly it drops down to about 25 MH/s or once more it is cut in half. So, pretty much what we expected even before we got a confirmation on the actual hashrate that the RTX 3060 GPUs are capable of, though cut in half by the Nvidia driver as a means to drive away crypto miners from that particular video card and also for Nvidia to sell their new line of professional crypto mining products to miners – the Nvidia CMP HX Dedicated Crypto Mining GPUs.

The good news is that already released Nvidia RTX 30 Series GPUs are not affected by this limitation, so only the new RTX 3060 will be limited in half in terms of mining performance. Or to be more specific limited to half Ethereum mining performance by the drivers as apparently other mining algorithms are not affected like ETH is. This means that although the RTX 3060 may not be a popular option for Ethereum mining it could still be a good option for mining other crypto currencies such as Ravencоin (RVN) or VertCoin (VTC).

A quick update regarding the situation with VertCoin (VTC) mining on the new RTX 3060 GPUs… it seems that the VertHash algorithm is also affected from the half hashrate drop that Ethash is experiencing, probably other memory0intensive crypto mining algorithms will be affected as well. Ravencoin’s (RVN) use of KAWPOW and probably ProgPOW as well do not seem to be suffering from reduced hashrate like Ethash and VertHash though, you should be getting 21 MH/s or more for RVN mining. So, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 is not fully limited for mining use, but some of the most profitable mining algorithms at the moment are apparently affected from this! Although the above information was initially verified to be true for Windows mining, it seems that under Linux with an OS like SimpleMining (SMOS) the situation with the limited hashrate on the RTX 3060 is also the same and you get half the hashrate mining Ethereum.

Mining Ethereum with ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 3080 Video Card

19, Feb 2021

We’ve managed to get a Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 GPU to play around with mining Ethereum and other cyrpto coins, though here we are going to be focusing on ETH mining. The RTX 3080 is really hard to find on the market at the moment and if you manage to find stock somewhere the price will be so high that you probably would consider buying a RTX 3090 instead. We managed to somehow get our hands on a single ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 3080 (ASUS TUF-RTX3080-10G-GAMING) video card to play around with it for crypto mining and below you can read what we have found out using this GPU.

This TUF Gaming RTX 3080 from ASUS is definitely not the greatest model you can find and definitely not as impressive as some other cards, but still, at the moment it is what you can find and you cannot be too choosy. The TUF RTX 3080 works and performs really well and the cooling manages to keep the card cool while mining even with stock out of the box settings. The ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 3080 comes with dual 8-pin PCI-E power connectors, 2.7-slot cooling solution that works surprisingly well with the three fans on top of the radiator. The default specifications of the ASUS TUF Gamin RTX 3080 are the ones that the reference design Nvidia RTX 3080 uses and although that may not be that great for gamers or PC enthusiasts it is perfectly fine as far as Ethereum mining is concerned.

The card comes with a 1440 MHz Base clock, 1710 MHz Boost Clock, 1188 MHz Memory clock (19 Gbps effective) and a 320W TDP. The RTX 3080 video card comes equipped with 10GB of GDDR6X video memory that has a 320-bit wide memory bus. There are 8704 CUDA cores, 272 TMUs and 96 ROPs in the large graphics processor that consists of over 28 million transistors. One hell of a graphics monster that is only bested by the even faster and better in terms of performance Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090, including the crypto mining performance as well.

Using the ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 3080 with its default out of the box settings for mining Ethereum (100% TDP, no clocks and fans at 100%) got us at 87 MH/s Ethash mining hashrate. This is a great result in terms of performance, though with default settings the GPU uses around 320W of power and that can be reduces with some optimizations for sure. With the cooling fans running at 100% even the 320W of power usage while mining is not much of an issue with the average GPU temperature at around 52 degrees Celsius. With a bit of tweaking however we can optimize performance and reduce power quite well making the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 even better for mining Ethereum for sure…

Reducing the power usage from the default TDP level of 320W to just 71% TDP got us to 230W of power usage for the RTX 3080 with even higher hashrate. We’ve set the GPU clock at -300 MHz and the memory at +1000 MHz in MSI Afterburner resulting in 97.5 MH/s hashtrate mining Ethereum. The RTX 3080 can handle a bit higher overclock at +1100 for an extra megahash of performance, so you might want to try that as well, though we are fine with the lower clock as the cooling solution on this particular RTX 3080 form ASUS is not the best you can find on 3080 GPUs. And we like our GPUs not pushed to the absolute maximum when mining, but at a bit more conservative settings, but running rock solid for a very long time and you should probably adopt the same philosophy as well.

Optimized RTX 3080 Mining Settings:
– TDP: 71%
– GPU: -300 MHz
– VRAM: +1000 MHz
– FANs: 100%

Since now we can measure the operating temperature of the GDDR6X memory chips with the HWiNFO tool we are going to be monitoring that as well as it is important to keep the video memory at the lowest possible temperature due to these new fast chips getting quite hot under load. We would not only want to avoid getting the memory up to a level when it begins to throttle (around 110 degrees Celsius) and starts dropping the hashrate, but also to have it running as cooler as possible. This is one of the reasons why we use 100% for the cooling fans, even though the GPU is not getting that hot at 52 C and can handle lower fan speed without increasing its operating temperature much.

Another interesting feature that was more recently introduced in the HWiNFO tool is the ability to HotSpots on Nvidia GPUs, so that besides the average working temperature that all monitoring tools report for the GPU you can now know what is the hottest spot. This is especially useful for diagnosing potential issues with GPUs that have been mining for a while and are showing some instabilities due to things such as bad thermal grease or bad cooler contact. Here we see that the hottest spot of the RTX 3080 GPU is around 13-14 C hotter than the average operating temperature reported for the GPU and this is kind of normal, but then again this is a brand-new GPU.

The GPU Memory Junction temperature that we are measuring during Ethereum mining with overclocked VRAM with +1000 MHz in Afterburner is at 88 degrees Celsius with the fans at 100%, without the clock for the memory it runs at around 82 C, so the extra clock does not make things much hotter. For instance, on RTX 3090 we are seeing operating temperatures that are around 10 degrees higher than the ones measured here under similar conditions. This is due the fact that the RTX 3090 had memory chips on both sides due to the larger memory config, so the RTX 3080 is doing better, but the temperature is still pretty high in our opinion for 24/7 operation. Still, if you manage to get things running at under 100 C for RTX 3080/RTX 3090 it should be fine, but you should try to reduce the temperature of the hottest memory chip to around 90 at least with a better airflow for instance.

Getting 97-98 MH/s hashrate for mining Ethereum (ETH) using the Ethash crypto algorithm is easily achievable on Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 GPU with around 230W of power usage. This should be possible on pretty much all reference designs (specs wise) like the ASUS TUF that follows the base specifications set with the Nvidia Founders Edition GPUs. Some models with further increased operating clocks and voltages may require extra tweaking or different settings in order to achieve similar performance at the same power usage level, though they should still be able to get you the same hashrate if you manage to keep things running cool.

– For More Information about the ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 3080 GPU…
– What Hashrate to Expect from an ASUS EKWB GeForcce RTX 3090 Do Mining Ethereum…


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