Archive for the ‘Tests and Reviews’ Category

Using the Red BIOS Editor to Modify AMD Radeon Memory Timings

30, Jan 2021

Modifying the BIOS of your video card and more specifically the memory timings in order to increase the hashrate you get mining Ethereum is something that most people should do, especially when we are talking about AMD Radeon GPUs, though now a lot of miners also come with the option to optimize timings without you having to modify the BIOS. One very easy way to actually modify the video BIOS is with the help of the Red BIOS Editor (RBE) software that supports BIOS modifications of AMD Radeon GPUs with Polaris, Navi and Big Navi architecture. There are more ways to mod the BIOS for Polaris GPUs that have been available for a while, but for the newer Navi and Big Navi the RBE software is the solution, but here we are going to be modding the ADM Radeon RX 5700 / Radeon RX 5700 XT GPUs as an example. The goal is to be able to optimize the memory timings of these video cards so they can give you about 10% more hashrate for mining Ethereum (ETH), or with other word from about 50-52 MH/s you might get up to about 55-58 MH/s or even a bit more.

Before going out on a modding spree make sure you make a backup of the original video BIOS of the GPU you are about to modify, you will need this in case you mess something up and want to get back to the original settings. A good way to easy backup the original video BIOS is to use the free GPU-Z tool, though you might also find the original video BIOS in the TechPowerUp’s VGA BIOS Collection if somebody already submitted it (if not, you might want to upload it directly from GPZ-Z).

So, start up the RBE software, load the video BIOS you have saved on your computer and click on the VRAM Timings tab. You should see something similar to the image above with the memory timings RAW data and the respective frequency for which it is valid next to each video memory timing string. Since you probably don’t know what these numbers actually mean, what you need to do is just copy the timing string from a lower frequency to a higher one, then save the modified BIOS file (use a different name, do not overwrite the original backup). For RX 5700 XT you can copy the timing string from 1550 MHz and paste it over the higher frequency settings and see if the video card will be stable using these more aggressive timings on the higher frequencies, if it is not stable you can repeat the procedure with the timings from 1800 MHz and so on. You can try even lower, but the chances that it will still work with 1250 MHz are slim to note and you might need a spare GPU to reflash a working video BIOS back to the video card you are modifying.

Flashing the modified or the original video BIOS to the GPU will require the amdvbflash tool, there are different versions available and you need a special one that will work for modified video BIOSes as normally it will not allow you to flash a modded BIOS. The required flasher tools can be download below as a part of the RBE package with the ATI Flash Tool 2.93+ for the RX 5700 and RX 5700XT only, the ATI Flash Tool 3.04 for all AMD GPUs under Windows and also a Linux version should you need one. Flashing under Windows should be done with the command prompt running as Administrator and typing the following commands:

To save the original video BIOS before flashing:
amdvbflash.exe -s 0 original-bios.rom

To unlock the ROM for flashing:
amdvbflash -unlockrom 0

To flash the modified BIOS:
amdvbflash -p -f 0 biosmod.rom

* The number 0 above represents the GPU ID of the first video card, with 1 it will be the second GPU and so on for multiple cards in the same system. You can flash multiple GPUs listing their numbers separated by comas, for example 1,2,3,4,5,6 instead of just a single GPU ID number.

Do remember that after flashing a new video BIOS you need to reboot the computer in order to see the effect and be able to test the performance of the video card with the new settings. If you flash, but do not reboot, the video card will still be using the old BIOS data and nothing will change!

– To Download the latest Red BIOS Editor (RBE) 1.0.7 and the flashing tools…

HWInfo 6.42 Shows GDDR6X Memory Temperature on Nvidia RTX 30 Series GPUs

27, Jan 2021

One of the most problematic sides of using the latest Nvidia GeForce RTX 30 series GPUs for mining Ethereum is the fact that their video memory gets really hot and up until recently there was simply no tool to give you an idea how hot that is. Thanks to the latest HWiNFO version 6.42 you can now monitor the operating temperatures of the GDDR6X video memory of your RTX 3080 and RTX 3090 GPUs and take the appropriate measures to keep things cool for ensuring maximum performance and problem free operation on the long run. Have in mind that you might actually be quite surprised when you see the actual numbers being really high, but that is to be expected, considering the fact that even the surface of the backplate of the video card gets quite hot when we touch or measure it.

Just download and run the latest HWiNFO, you can even use the portable version, go to Monitoring and start Sensor status and then scroll down to the GPU data and see what you get reported as GPU Memory Junction Temperature data (right under the GPU Temperature). On the left image you can see the idle video memory temp we see on an ASUS EKWB GeForce RTX 3090 GPU and on the right the temperature of the video memory after we run PhoenixMiner with the tweaked RTX 3090 in order to give us 120 MHS hashrate for Ethereum mining. We get 36 degrees idle temperature, but when mining it bumps up to 92 degrees Celsius and this is a water-cooled GPU with the GPU temp going just about to 50 C under load.

A note regarding the new GDDR6X Memory Junction Temperature:
Just like in case of Navi, this is not the external (case) temperature, but internal junction temperature measured inside the silicon.
So don’t be scared to see higher values than other common temperatures, it’s expected. Also the limits are set respectively higher (throttling starts around 110 C).
EDIT: Adding that the value reported should be the current maximum temperature among all memory chips.

Checking the backplate of the water-cooled RTX 3090 with a FLIR thermal camera showed that at stock settings when mining you get around 72.8 C (the hottest spot) and with overclocked memory the hottest spot on the backplate where the memory chips are is 75.8 C. No wonder we got such high temperatures measured considering that the actual operating temperature of the memory is 92 degrees under the backplate. So, adding extra cooing fans on top of the backplate is definitely a must if you plan on using RTX 3090 for mining Ethereum. The same also goes for RTX 3080 when used for mining, though with the RTX 3070 and 3060 Ti the situation could be better due to the lower power usage they have and the GDDR6 memory they use (not the faster and hotter GDDR6X), especially when optimized for mining. We need to further explore the memory temps with these two, meanwhile if you check what temperatures you are getting with HWiNFO on your GPUs feel free to share results in the comments below.

Update: The just released updated HWiNFO v6.43–4380 Beta version comes with added support for Monitoring GPU HotSpot Temperature for Nvidia GPUs, so you might want to also check out this new parameter when using Nvidia video cards for mining crypto currencies such as Ethereum (ETH). This feature can be helpful in detecting issues with problematic GPUs that otherwise do seem to be operating fine, but are not running stable when mining, because of potential problems with proper cooing of the whole graphics processor due to bad thermal paste, not good contact with the cooler for the whole chip surface etc.

– To download and try GDDR6X monitoring with the free HWInfo 6.42 diagnostic software…

Ethereum (ETH) Mining With ASUS EKWB GeForce RTX 3090 Water-Cooled GPU

26, Jan 2021

Recently we have built a 720 MHs Ethereum Mining Rig With 6x MSI GeForce RTX 3090 SUPRIM X 24G GPUs and shared our experience with it, and we just got our hands on a water- cooled RTX 3090 GPU form ASUS and had to give it a go for Ethereum mining as well. The ASUS EKWB GeForce RTX 3090 video card is the result of collaboration between ASUS and EK, it comes with EK full-coverage water block and takes up just a single slot.

Specifications wise the ASUS EKWB GeForce RTX 3090 is just like a standard RTX 3090 video card with 350W TDP rating and dual 8-pin PCI-E power connectors that are supplying the required power along with the PCI-E x16 slot (be careful with extender power draw for mining rigs). The EK full cover water block is a high-flow one that should efficiently cool not only the GPU, but also the memory chips and other hot components on the front of the video card and the aluminium backplate at the back should also help with not only keeping things together, but also with cooling. The EK water block is made from copper and is nickel plated for better looks and for improved durability, there is a transparent plexiglass top and an addressable RGB strip with support for ASUS Aura Sync.

Here are some specifications from GPU-Z: the base GPU clock is 1395 MHz, the boost clock is 1695 MHz and the memory clock is 1219 MHz (19.5 Gbps effective) with Micron GDDR6X chips and a 384-bit wide memory bus. That is your typical GA102 GPU specs and what you should expect from an Nvidia RTX 3090 video card that is not factory overclocked. The default TDP of the video card is 350W here (unlike some OC models that come with 420W TDP) even though the GPU is water cooled and you can change it in the range between 28.6% and 104.6%, so not a lot of headroom for overclock – just about 5% extra or 366W max. We are more interested in optimizing TDP for lower power consumption, not aiming for higher with mining though in order to maximize performance and power efficiency.

Running the PhoenixMiner in order to check what Ethereum hashrate can we get with stock settings (default GPU and VRAM clocks and 100% TDP) – no surprise here with the result of 106.8 MH/s with the water-cooled GPU running at 51 degrees Celsius with the power usage reported from the miner is 322W, so it is almost filling up the available 100% Power Limit level. Hashrate for Ethereum in the range of 105-106 MH/s is the normal result for Nvidia RTX 3090 GPUs at default settings. Here we have water cooling on the GPU and memory and that is nice as far as silent operation is required for use in your home computer for example, but that does not mean that things will most definitely be much better compared to good air-cooled RTX 3090 video card. A good air cooler on an Nvidia RTX 3090 can also do around 50 degrees Celsius for the GPU with fans at 100%, though the noise will be more than when using water-cooling.

The more important thing here is the operating temperature of the memory. We were eager to see if the water-cooling improves the situation with the hot video memory on RTX 3090 or not when mining Ethereum (ETH) and the memory is under high load constantly. Unfortunately, even with the water-cooling the temperature of the backplate is still in the 70 degrees Celsius range when mining which is similar to what we’ve already seen on other air-cooled RTX 3090 video cards. Checking the backplate with a thermal imaging camera shows that at stock settings when mining you get around 72.8 C (the hottest spot) and with overclocked memory the hottest spot on the backplate where the memory chips are is 75.8 C, because even though the GPU power consumption is reduced, the memory uses more power due to the higher operating frequency due to the overclock we have applied.

On the ASUS EKWB GeForce RTX 3090 we’ve managed to lower down the Power Limit level to 76% with the video card still capable of providing 106 MH/s hashrate for Ethereum mining with about 266W of power usage reported by the miner (the same hashrate as with 100% TDP). Overclocking the video memory with 1100 MHs over the stock settings in MSI Afterburner and increasing the Power Limit level at 86% allowed us to reach 120.4 MH/s hashrate and 301W of power usage for the video card as reported by the miner software.

Optimized ASUS RTX 3090 EKWB ETH Mining Settings:
– TDP: 86%
– GPU: -400 MHz
– VRAM: +1100 MHz

We got 14 MHS more with 14% less power usage, but we kind of hoped for better results from the water-cooling of the RTX 3090. You can continue pushing the memory clock higher than our sweet spot of +1100 MHz that ensures 120 MH/s hashrate for a few extra megahashes, but we are worried about the memory temperature and the possibility of it starting to throttle because of getting too high. That is why we would recommend to place a cooling fan on top of the GPU backplate to help keep things cooler even if mining Ethereum with stock settings, let alone after you overclock the video memory, so that it will help keep things running optimally and problem free on the long run!

– For more information about the ASUS GeForce RTX3090-24G-EK Water-Cooled GPU…


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