Vega 64 mining income per day. Mining on an AMD Radeon Vega video card - performance, technical specifications

The AMD Radeon RX VEGA 64 video card has gone on official sale, and we already have something to tell you about it. There was a lot of information and rumors about the mining performance of this card, but we decided to test it ourselves. The new HBM2 memory, which is used in AMD VEGA video cards, is of the greatest interest, but, unfortunately, it cannot be said that with factory settings it is capable of skillfully working with memory-dependent algorithms. Of course, after the Polaris line from AMD, we are all familiar with the necessary modifications, which after some time will most likely become available to miners.

We assume that miners are most interested in the performance of the card when mining Ethereum (ETH), as well as other cryptocurrencies based on the Ethash algorithm. Unfortunately, the factory kit and settings in the Radeon RX VEGA 64 use the latest Claymore Dual Eth miner with official Vega support. And this gives approximately 31-32 MHS. There have been statements about better performance, and theoretically this is not excluded, but we personally cannot confirm these data. There is a high probability that the best performance was achieved with significantly higher power consumption, and this is not good, since in such conditions the card quickly heats up, and this is not very good for the factory VEGA 64 cooler.

When mining Zcash (ZEC) using Radeon RX VEGA 64, we managed to achieve 475-480 H/s. Not impressive performance, even with HBM2 memory. But what alarmed us most was the gluttony of the Radeon RX VEGA 64 and its fairly fast heating. Therefore, cooling the card 24/7 can cause certain problems, at least in the case of cards without water cooling. The power consumption numbers don't justify the performance we were able to get with the factory settings.

In general, we can say that the factory version of the Radeon RX VEGA 64 video card in terms of performance in mining ETH and ZEC is identical to the overclocked Nvidia GTX 1070. However, the card from AMD consumes significantly more electricity (about twice). As for games, the Radeon RX VEGA 64 is close to the GTX 1080 in performance, but, again, consumes more power.

All that remains is to assess the situation with the availability of the card and its cost. These factors will be decisive for miners, and most likely, demand will be small. On the other hand, Radeon RX VEGA 64 may well give good performance in mining GPU-dependent algorithms.

Despite rumors prophesying the Radeon RX Vega 64 from 70 to 100 Mh/s in Ethereum mining, in practice its power turned out to be much lower. Using the Claymore 9.8 miner, it turned out to be about 31Mh/s on Vega 56 and 34-35 Mh/s on Vega 64.

This is comparable to the typical performance of existing GPUs running the same software, such as:

1. 24 Mh/s - RX 570 4 GB,
2. 27 Mh/s - RX 580 8 GB,
3. 21 Mh/s – GTX 1060 6 GB and
4. 29 Mh/s on GTX 1070.

Let's now take a closer look at whether this video card is the best for Ethereum mining.

Characteristics.

1. Memory: 8 GB, HBM2;
2. Bus: 2048 bits;
3. GPU frequency 1247 MHz / overclocked 1546 MHz;
4. Memory frequency 1900 MHz;
5. Resolution: 7680x4320 pixels;
6. HDMI: 1 piece;
7. DisplayPort: 3 pcs.

Description.

When mining, not only the productivity of raw materials is taken into account, but also power requirements and the cost of equipment. Most farms work with six video cards to maximize profits, because in addition to the video cards, you will have to pay for the remaining parts of the PC and the cost of power supplies. By the way, energy consumption is also an important factor, since it requires the installation of either one larger (more expensive) power supply or at least several smaller power supplies. Running six 6GB 1060 cards in a rig with a good 800-1000W power supply is no problem, and six 1070 or RX 570/580 cards with a 1000-1200W power supply will also work. But to operate a farm with six Vega 64 (power 275 W), you will have to look for a 2000 W power supply or a pair of 1000 W power supplies.

In other words, it is more economical to use less powerful (in terms of power consumption) GPUs to run. Even if the Vega 64 were available right now for $500, that would add up to a total of $3000, plus another $400-$600 for other parts, for a rig that would output 210Mbps and consume 1650W. Performance is better than six 1070s (170 Mh/s), but a farm with 1070 will only consume 900 W. In terms of profit, the first farm with Vega will produce $10 per day, while the second will produce $9.30 per day. Thus, given the current situation, this farm with Radeon RX Vega 64 will pay for itself in at least a year.

They will require a less powerful 750 W power supply. You can earn about $8.20 gross and $6.90 net. As a result, we get that for the amount of purchasing Vega you can buy two farms with 1060 whose hashrate will be 40 Mh/s higher.

Hashrate on other algorithms.

• DaggerHashimoto – 34-35 Mh/s;
• Lbry - 0.322 Mh/s;
• Cryptonight – 900 H/s;
• Equihash – 481.9 H/s;
• x11gost - 13.9 Mh/s;
• Pascal - 1.6 Gh/s;
• Decred - 4.1 Gh/s;
• Sia - 1.3 Gh/s;
• Skunk – 43.5 Mh/s.

The RX Vega 64 video card was released relatively recently, its main properties and indicators were revealed a month after the announcement. The performance of the video card when mining Monero broke all records, and within a week the price of the video card jumped one and a half times.

On the one hand, this is a very, very good device for mining, on the other hand, many consider it unreasonably expensive, and the payback period is extremely long and generally makes the purchase unprofitable. Therefore, in this article we will figure out what is true of this, whether it is worth taking this device to earn cryptocurrencies, and also how much profit the video card brings.

RX Vega 64 entered the market on August 14, 2017, when cryptocurrency mining was already in full swing, which is why the characteristics of this device were initially envisaged not only as gaming, one of the decisive aspects as the scope of application of the device was mining, on which no small emphasis was placed when creating .

This video card was originally intended by Radeon as a competitor to the top one at that time GTX 1080Ti.

One of the features of this device, which is definitely a disadvantage of the Sapphire Nitro + model, is the need for three 8-pin connectors, which further tips the scales in the confrontation between radeon RX Vega 64 vs 1080 Ti mining.

Standardcharacteristics of RX Vega 64 mining compared to other cards:

The overclocking profile of a given video card for mining will definitely be different from the overclocking profile for, say, toys. Also, it is worth taking into account the cooling system, which performs excellently on all versions of the video card, with the exception of the device from Gygabyte; it receives a large number of negative reviews. When assembling the truss, 20% of the stock is selected to avoid critical overloads when working 24/7.

When mining Ethereum, the option with lower core frequencies, about 1150 MHz, is more suitable, this is explained by the fact that memory frequency is more important for ETH. Please note that this device has a very high power consumption, around 250 W when overclocked.

Which model is better to choose for mining?

As a mining device, the RX Vega 64 already has its own, time-tested top models from various manufacturers. Paying attention to the price/quality ratio, the list of devices will be distributed as follows:

1. Sapphire Nitro+ Vega 64.
2. Powercolor Vega 64 Red Devil.
3. Gigabyte Vega 64.
4. Asus ROG-Strix Vega 64.
5. MSI Armor vega 64.

First place, in this list does not even require explanation, is video cards Sapphire Nitro+ are the best option for this video card for mining. For a good price of 49 thousand rubles, you get high power for efficient mining, as well as excellent overclocking potential and equally excellent cooling. A significant drawback is the power supply system; the card has 3 8-pin connectors.

The second place in our top is taken by the model Powercolor Vega 64 Red Devil, which may well count on the former. The special features of this video card are the highest factory overclocking rates among other devices and also very attractive price 45 thousand rubles.

The third place is taken Gigabyte Vega 64, which has a very affordable price of 48 thousand rubles, but its technical characteristics are very limited Compared to other models in this top, accordingly, in quality it is also much inferior to the first two models.

In turn, the video card from ASUS It has excellent performance, high overclocking performance and excellent cooling. This model could be in first place, however, the price of 53 thousand rubles is too high and this is its only disadvantage relative to its competitors.

Video card MSI armor Vega 64, which occupies the last line of the rating, is completely uncompetitive compared to the rest of the list, it is an ordinary air-cooled video card from MSI, which does not have any advantages over other models, its cost is 48 thousand, which is too much for a model from MSI with reference cooling.

What to mine, profitable algorithm

The next question that is worth considering is which coin to mine in order to achieve the greatest profit, because the consumption of vega 64 in mining is very high? At the moment, one of the most suitable options would be a coin Monero (XMR)). The coin is based on the CryptoNightV8 algorithm and is traded on all major exchanges. Mining Monero on Vega 64 is considered the most profitable.

Provided that you have assembled a farm of six video cards, Vega 64 in mining will reach the coin mining hashrate of 6 cards — 10800 kh/s, which will bring you about $2 per day. However, given the exchange rate of this coin, it is better not to sell the coin now, but to take it into storage in order to sell it at a higher price, this way you can achieve several times more profit.

When mining Monero, a program is used Cast XMR - Highspeed CryptoNight.

To calculate and select the most profitable coin, use special mining calculators, which you can find on the Internet. Enthusiasts look for new projects on forums, and collect coins for future use, hoping to sell them at a higher price over time.

Most use the service Nicehash, to configure you just need download and install the program on the official website. Then register on the website and enter the data in the program along with your BTC wallet. After that all you have to do is click Startand the program itself will select the most profitable algorithm for mining. Payments are made in Bitcoin to your address.

Hashrate on different algorithms

AMD Vega 64 shows the following results when mining other, less profitable algorithms:

Algorithm	Hashrate	Consumption
Ethash	40 Mh/s	230 W
Zhash	38 H/s	250 W
CNSaber	1500 H/s	220 W
CNHeavy	1500 H/s	220 W
CNHaven	1500 H/s	220 W
CryptoNightV8	1800 H/s	270 W
Aion	145 H/s	220 W
NeoScrypt	2000 Kh/s	250 W
BCD	18 Mh/s	250 W
TimeTravel10	16.5 Mh/s	230 W
X16R	13 Mh/s	230 W
Lyra2Z	1.05 Mh/s	200 W
ProgPow	17.00 Mh/s	270 W
X22i	8.3 Mh/s	250 W

Ether mining is not the best option, but the potential of the coin is huge and the situation can change at any moment. It is worth mentioning that mining Monero on Vega 64 will be one of the best algorithms after what we have already described.

Overclocking AMD Radeon RX Vega 64

Most users use the program when overclocking video cards MSI Afterburner because it is intuitive and easy to use. The program can be downloaded from the official MSI website. After installation, the parameters are adjusted:

• Core frequencies(Core Clock).
• Memory frequencies(Memory Clock).
• Power limit(Power Limit).
• Core voltage(Core Voltage).
• Cooler speed modes(Fan Speed).

Each algorithm uses its own overclocking. For mining monera, the Core Voltage parameter is increased, the video card is overclocked gradually by +30 MHz. An important point is not to overclock the video card.

For maximum efficiency in mining, it is possible to flash the video card. , will void the factory warranty. Well, directly for flashing the firmware you will need the following utilities:

• ATI flash
• Polaris BIOS editor
• ATIkmdag Patcher

How to reduce energy consumption

Power consumption is a very important point for this video card. The chipset is very powerful and consumes a lot of energy; when installing a video card in a farm, use it with a 6-pin connector. Such risers are more resistant to surges and have strong overload protection.

Energy consumption is regulated in the program MSI Afterburner. Set Power Limit to 80%, not all video cards can handle lower power. Each card has its own minimum voltage threshold, so each card is individual, and the settings do not occur in a common format.

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For “neutrals”, purchasing this video card hardly makes sense, since extremely high power consumption under load turns into a big problem. But since Vega 64, due to its very high OpenCL performance, is ideal for cryptocurrency mining, we expect the already modest availability of these cards on the market.

Pros:

• high gaming power
• even higher OpenCL performance
• relatively compact form factor
• Adequate price for the quality of the card

Minuses:

• extremely high energy consumption
• Quite loud cooling system
• the card gets hot under load

AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 - theory

At launch, AMD is introducing its new top-tier GPU series in three variants. We tested the RX Vega 64 with classic air cooling. The cost of the card is around 35,000 rubles.

In addition, a version overclocked by approximately 10 percent with a liquid cooling system will also be available. The RX Vega 56, which is almost 7,000 rubles more affordable and has simplified specifications, complements the starting lineup of the Vega series.

The sample we tested came straight from the AMD factory and serves as a so-called “reference design” that partners such as Sapphire, Gigabyte or Asus can focus on. The GPU, internally called Vega 10 by AMD and based on the GCN 5 architecture, contains more than 4096 shader units, which must be assembled into a total of 64 CUs (Compute Units).

In addition, there will be 256 texture units (TMU) and 64 render units (ROP). The card also offers 8 GB of very fast HBM2 memory, which will be connected to the graphics chip with a 2048-bit wide interface.

Clock speeds match expected performance. The base clock frequency is 1247 MHz; in Boost mode, if necessary, the card raises this figure to a maximum of 1546 MHz - this is without manual overclocking.

The water-cooled RX Vega 64 variant is designed for even higher frequencies. The so-called “Typical Board Power”, a parameter that describes the typical level of power consumption for gaming mode, is at 295 W. For comparison: the TDP, that is, the maximum consumption, of the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 is 180 W.

We have already run the air-cooled AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 reference model through an obstacle course in the form of benchmarks. However, during testing, our standard motherboard for such procedures “decided to live a long time,” and we were forced to quickly look for a replacement.

Because of this, all results cannot be called 100% comparable with others, so we decided not to include the new AMD card in our corresponding rating for now. But since the replacement motherboard is very close in its characteristics to the “original” one, in this article we will still present the results of a comparison with the GTX 1080.

Radeon RX Vega 64: top specification at launch

Of course, we will repeat the tests with our standard motherboard as soon as possible, and after that we will be sure to rank the new AMD graphics card accordingly.

AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 - practice

As you'd expect, the RX Vega 64 delivers strong performance. For comparison, we took the MSI GeForce GTX 1080, which in the Founders Edition version is closest to the reference design.

In synthetic benchmarks, the cards are almost equivalent to each other. Thus, the AMD representative in 3DMark Cloud Gate receives 34967 points (GTX 1080: 34265 points) and 5267 points in Fire Strike Ultra (GTX 1080: 5029 points). To summarize, we can say that Radeon is a little better than GeForce.

In practice, we observe a similar picture, and - depending on the benchmark - one card or another has a slight advantage. In GTA V, Vega 64 runs at 101.70 fps in Full-HD resolution and 46.49 fps in 4K. GeForce performs much better: 142.1 fps (Full HD) and 55.4 fps (4K).

The opposite picture is observed in “Metro Last Light”: while the Radeon produces as much as 150.46 fps (Full-HD) and 57.12 Fps (4K), the GTX 1080 results are worse by 5-10 percent. Thus, it becomes obvious: Radeon RX Vega 64 and Geforce GTX 1080 are approximately at the same level in terms of performance.

Only if the game is optimized for a specific GPU manufacturer does the difference become more noticeable. Interesting fact: in the LuxMark OpenCL benchmark, the Radeon card gets 5275 points and thereby knocks out the GTX 1080 (2805 points).

Since many cryptocurrency mining utilities use the OpenCL programming interface, the RX Vega 64 may become an object of desire for miners, and because of this, the price of the new product may skyrocket.

Radeon RX Vega 64: extreme power consumption

So in the end, are GeForce and Radeon equal to each other in the top segment? Unfortunately not, as AMD suffers one major flaw that our testers were surprised to discover, reopening a dark chapter in the GPU maker's history that we thought had been closed since the days of Polaris.

Under full load, our test system with the Vega card consumed, depending on the operating scenario, from 100 to 200 W more than with the GeForce GTX 1080. It is completely incomprehensible to us why AMD released such a “glutton” that does not compensate for this disadvantage with any special advantages.

We also must not forget that the GeForce GTX 1080 has been on the market for a whole year, and this fact also does not give the new product any advantages when comparing performance levels. And since Nvidia also has the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti in its lineup, the crown of the kingdom of graphics cards still remains on the heads of the “greens”.

Alternative options:

For AMD fans:
Sapphire Radeon RX 580 Pulse 8GB (11265-05-20G)

is an excellent mid-range graphics card for gamers who want to play in Full-HD or QHD resolution.

Of course, Ethereum miners caught wind of the good Compute performance and completely devastated the market.

Initially, the cost of the RX 580 was about 18,000 rubles, but now you will have to pay from 25,000 to 28,000 rubles for it. However, we hope those sky-high prices come down again soon, as the RX 580 is a top-end alternative for budget-conscious gamers.

Palit GeForce GTX 1080 Dual OC 8GB GDDR5X DVI/HDMI/3xDP

Geforce GTX 1080, which is comparable to the new product we tested, also costs approximately 35,000 rubles.

This card was also affected by the extreme demand for mining cards and increased in price by 10-20 percent, which was caused by the hype around Ethereum.

But if we look at it purely from a performance perspective, the GTX 1080 remains a good choice for anyone who wants to enjoy their games at 4K resolution.

We tested a similar card "".

You can select a suitable video card in our.

Photo: manufacturing companies

Many people expected excellent results in games from the Radeon RX Vega 64 card. And the model really lived up to expectations in this aspect. But what about vega in the context of cryptocurrency mining? There were rumors that mining on the Radeon RX Vega 64 would allow achieving results of 100 Mh/s in the case of Ethereum. But everything turned out to be not so simple.

Real indicators

If you use a miner called Claymore 9.8, you can achieve a figure of 34-35 Mh/s. This is almost 3 times less than many expected. So we can confidently say: this card is not the best option for mining. Moreover, on forums you can often find information about overheating of the model and frequent software glitches.

In order to understand the insufficiency of these figures, it is enough to simply look at the results of possible competitors who have long managed to establish themselves from the best side in the mining niche.

As you can see, the results are not much less than those announced earlier in the case of AMD Vega. With AMD RX Vega 56 the situation is even worse. Yes, the products can offer excellent multimedia capabilities. There is 8 GB of memory, resolution up to 7680x4320 pixels is supported, frequency is 7680x4320 pixels, 3 DisplayPorts at once. But don’t let these characteristics mislead you, because real tests prove its ineffectiveness.

What else should you consider when mining cryptocurrencies?

You don’t need to think that for mining you only need to purchase video cards and calculate the payback. Here you also need to take into account not only the cost of electricity, but also the full price of the farm. In order to minimize costs, farms are often assembled using 6 video cards. All of them must be powered by a power supply. Their cost directly depends on the power. If you assemble a farm from a 6 GB GTX 1060, then a unit up to 800 W will be enough for you, but it’s better to play it safe and take a 1000 W model. In the case of the GTX 1070, 1200 W is definitely enough.

But mining with Vega 64 is much more complicated. Each card requires 275 watts of power. That is why you will have to look for a 2000 W unit at once or purchase a pair of 1000 W each. Naturally, the cost of such components will be much higher. As a result, the payback period will be completely different.

But it is enough to simply compare the total amount. Let's say you manage to purchase a Vega 64 for $500. You will have to spend about $3,500 for a farm of 6 cards (500 will be spent on additional equipment). Yes, the mining speed will be higher than in the case of the GTX 1060. But you also need to take into account energy costs and initial investments. Having carried out simple calculations, we can conclude that for $3,500 it is much more profitable to buy 2 farms equipped with a GTX 1060.

And the final word...

Now you know which cards are best to use for mining today. When choosing, you need to start from basic calculations. Preliminarily evaluate the test results of all competitors. Yes, you can get the Vega 64 right now for gaming, it's a great card that delivers on its multimedia duties. But purchasing for cryptocurrency mining is unprofitable.