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…

New GMiner 2.43 With Focus on Ethash Mining Improvements and Stability

27 Jan
2021

The latest GMiner 2.43 Nvidia and AMD GPU miner continues improving on Ethash support including compatibility with pools as well as new kernels for Nvidia. The latest update adds two new kernels for Ethash, so that now the miner support 5 kernels for Nvidia GPUs in order to ensure optimal performance depending on your GPU. Gminer automatically selects the optimal kernel by default, but you can also select specific kernel by the --oc command line parameter. The latest version also brings improved handling of device freezing as well as improved auto-tuning.

GMiner 2.43 Nvidia and AMD GPU miner changelog:
– improved compatibility with Ethash pools (shardpool.io)
– improved handling of device freezing
– improved auto-tuning
– added two kernels for Ethash, miner support 5 kernels for Nvidia GPUs, miner automatically select optimal kernel, also you can select specific kernel by --oc parameter

The GMiner miner software was originally only an Nvidia GPU miner, although some algorithms are already supported on AMD GPUs as well. Do note that GMiner is a closed source miner for Nvidia and AMD GPUs with binaries available for both Windows and Linux, there is standard 2% developer fee built-in the software, though Ethash fee is 0.65% and KAWPOW fee is 1%, but there are some fees that go higher than 2% as well!

– To download and try the latest release of the Gminer v2.43 Nvidia and AMD GPU miner…

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