Testing Radeon VII in mining: comparison, setup, launch

In previous reviews, Nvidia’s RTX series graphics cards were presented, let’s see how the AMD team responded. Does the Red have a worthy alternative or do they expect to stay in the market due to lower prices for their products, leaving the top segment at the mercy of competitors. It turns out, no, AMD engineers had something to answer. In February 2019, the new Red Queen Radeon VII mining was released, which is more powerful than any other model.

The Radeon VII graphics card is based on the second generation Radeon RX Vega architecture. It got its name thanks to the implementation of a 7-nm technical processor. In fact, this GPU is analogous to the Radeon Instinct MI50 / MI60 compute accelerators released in November 2018.

The combined structure of the location of the graphics chip and memory on a single substrate was first used on the Radeon R9 Fury X, and the Reds continue to work in this direction, improving these GPU devices. Let’s take a closer look at the parameters of the new video card, and compare the Radeon VII and 2080 in mining.

Mining on the Radeon VII, specifications

The main parameters of the video card

Thanks to the transition to a new technical process, it turned out to reduce the area of ​​the graphics core in order to accommodate four memory blocks instead of two. Of course, 16GB is not yet needed for crypto mining, nevertheless, new projects may appear that are even more demanding on the amount of video memory than GRIN.

In terms of structure, the video card differs little from the old vega models. But the Radeon VII has 60 CUs and 3,840 stream processors, and thanks to this, it managed to achieve higher frequencies with reasonable power consumption. The new GPU also has an impressive 1 TB / s memory bandwidth.

Radeon VII is considered a competitor GeForce RTX 2080, and this means that the top model NVIDIA 2080Ti is left without a competitor again. But if you go to WhatToMine and see what data the Radeon VII mining calculator demonstrates, then we will see that on algorithms traditionally profitable for AMD Ethash and Cryptonight, the greens are far behind.

What are the indicators of a video card in mining

Let’s see what the mining speed of the Radeon Vii is compared to its competitors.

AMD’s new model beats RTX 2080Ti by Dagger Hashimoto and Currency, but about the same lags behind GRIN, BEAM, BTG and RVN… The reds and greens have retained traditional spheres of influence in the crypto industry.

Which model to choose, the main nuances when buying

And again the question is, which manufacturer has released the best Radeon VII for mining? Will there be a measurable difference in productivity between different brands? Of course not, on MSI Radeon VII, PowerColor Radeon VII, Gigabyte Radeon VII mining will go with approximately the same productivity.

Important!!! Another thing is that in retail outlets there are new video cards Radeon VII, with a one-year warranty from the manufacturer. This is no longer good for anything, the payback period should be less than the term of warranty service, especially for gpu devices at such a price.

What to mine on Radeon VII, the choice of algorithm

Mining on a Radeon VII video card is more profitable on algorithms that require memory overclocking and are not sensitive to the acceleration of the graphics core. First of all, this is of course Ethash. Let’s compile a table of profitable cryptocurrencies, and for clarity, let’s compare what income Radeon VII mining ether brings and how much an analog from Nvidia can earn on the most profitable coin for it, per day, without deducting electricity.

Radeon VII Profit

• EthereumClassic — 1.85 $/24h
• Ethereum — 1.81 $/24h
• Metaverse (ETP) — 1.72 $/24h
• Callisto (CLO) — 1.59 $/24h
• Currency (XMR) – $ 1.48 / 24h
• Sumokoin (SUMO) – 1.47 $/24h
• Dubaicoin (DBIX) — 1.39 $/24h
• Expanse (EXP) — 1.38 $/24h
• Lethean (LTHN) – $ 1.33 / 24h

RTX 2080 Profit

• Beam (BEAM) — 1.46 $/24h
• Aeternity (AE) – 1.46 $ / 24h
• BitCash (BITC) — 1.35 $/24h
• Zcoin (XZC) — 1.34 $/24h
• BitcoinZ (BTCZ) – 1.30 $ / 24h
• Grin-CR29 (GRIN) — 1.28 $/24h

RTX 2080Ti Profit

• Beam (BEAM) — 1.77 $/24h
• Aeternity (AE) – 1.75 $ / 24h
• BitCash (BITC) — 1.65 $/24h
• Zcoin (XZC) — 1.64 $/24h
• BitcoinZ (BTCZ) – $ 1.56 / 24h
• Grin-CR29 (GRIN) — 1.55 $/24h

It’s clear that radeon 7 is better than mining with Nvidia’s RTX series GPUs. A hundred times I have heard and read publications that green cards are better suited for crypto mining, but the numbers show the opposite. Having approximately the same consumption in mining, VII brings more income than any of the green video cards of the 20th line. At the same time, it is much cheaper than the top model RTX 2080Ti, equal in cost to the less profitable RTX 2080.

Yes, Nvidia graphics adapters work better on some algorithms, but this is not expressed in monetary terms. The Reds are not only not inferior, but even slightly surpass the Greens in terms of net profit, and the calculations of the profitability of production have clearly demonstrated this. Radeon VII is a better option for mining than similar models from Nvidia, if in doubt, do the math.

Someone will say that no suitable software has yet been written for RTX that fully reveals the capabilities of this line. But for Radeon VII, mining is also done using outdated software. The GPU drivers are still very raw, but we will now tell you how to flash a Radeon VII video card for mining.

BIOS firmware

This spring, the AMD Mem Tweak program appeared on the Bitcointalk forum, using this tool you can change the Radeon VII timings in the graphical interface of the program. At the same time, mining does not need to be stopped so that the result is immediately visible. All AMD cards are supported, including the Radeon VII.

Now you no longer need to search the network for long combinations of numbers and letters to change the BIOS of a video card, risking losing the right to warranty service. Launch AMD Mem Tweak, adjust Radeon VII timings while mining, and click Apply.

For AMD VEGA GPUs, this is, in general, the only way to change the timings, until now it was only possible to change vegu 56 v 64th, which gave a slight increase in hash rate. And with the help of this program, you can perform an undervolting of a GPU device.

Link to developer page https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5123724.0, repository on github – https://github.com/Eliovp/amdmemorytweak/releases.

Overclocking

Now let’s look at how to overclock VII. Ethereum mining on this card, judging by the tests, is effective at a frequency 1200 MHz, set the core and memory frequencies directly in the driver. Open Games / General Settings / WatMan and you will have access to adjusting VII overclocking parameters for efficient mining of cryptocurrencies.

Unlike AMD Mem Tweak, you must stop the process to enter WatMan. Latest beta version MSI Afterburner must also be compatible with Radeon VII.

How to reduce energy consumption

To reduce VII consumption in mining, adjust the Power Limit, setting the minimum values ​​at which the Radeon VII GPU will mine without losing hashrate. It helps to reduce VII consumption in mining by setting a lower core voltage and video card memory.

You can adjust the voltage in WatMan or using AMD Mem Tweak. It is necessary to lower the voltage gradually by carrying out each test run to select the optimal values.

Conclusion

The Radeon VII video card in mining showed good results, but it is unlikely that people will queue up for it. For 55,000 rubles, you can buy 5 Radeon Rx 570 video cards, which will bring more income to their owner.

There is no need to expect a drop in the price of the top AMD model in the near future, so we continue to work on the equipment that has already proven itself well in mining. It should be admitted that ASIC miners the change of generations occurs much faster, but you should not worry too much about this. Cryptocurrency mining on video cards is still relevant. Happy mining!

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