Key facts:
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AMD drivers improve the performance of Ether mining rigs.
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Since this is a beta version, details in this software may cause some instability in the platform
Cryptocurrency mining is an activity whose boom will not stop in the short term. This is a fundamental part of the engine that powers the blockchain and validates its transactions. The increase in the appearance of crypto-assets and their demand in the market, in addition to how lucrative the business can be, has made this practice an investment plan for many people around the world.
There are many ways to mine cryptocurrencies, but one of the most popular is mining using graphics cards. Among the cryptocurrencies mined with this equipment, Ether (ETH), the native currency of the Ethereum blockchain, is the most common due to the high profit margin it leaves compared to its peers.
Unfortunately for many ETH miners, this crypto asset and its parent blockchain are undergoing changes deemed necessary to improve its performance and scalability. Increasing the size of DAG files, along with the so-called Difficulty Bomb launched on the Ethereum blockchain caused the algorithm solution for graphics cards to become much more complicated. This causes a lower performance in its processing speed, and therefore a decrease in the realized profit.
AMD, one of the giant manufacturers of graphics card chips, has released a Beta version of its Crimson ReLive mining drivers. That’s mostly what he’s looking for improve graphics card performance and restore processing efficiency that they lost for the already mentioned reasons. The move was somewhat unexpected by the company, as just days before its CEO had announced that cryptocurrency mining was not seen as a long-term line of business for AMD.
Below you will get a series of necessary steps to install the latest AMD driver release and thus improve the performance of your ether mining rig. It should be noted that since this is a beta version, there are details in this software that may cause some instability in the performance of the equipment. However, this guide will present some recommendations to help your team work more efficiently and stably, enjoying a 5 to 10% processing speed improvement..
What apps do we need and where can we download them?
For those who are taking their first steps in cryptocurrency mining, we recommend following this guide prepared by him CryptoNoticiaswhere you will find information about the equipment and software needed to perform this activity.
Those who have been mining for a while may think that all we need is a new driver version to see an improvement in the performance of our device, but in reality we will need 3 or 4 applications (depending on whether the BIOS is on or the graphics cards in the device are modified or no) in order to effectively carry out this improvement.
Radeon Crimson ReLive Beta Release for Blockchain Computing 17.30.1029
This is the driver software released by AMD for their graphics cards used for mining which we have discussed before. It can be downloaded from the official website support and drivers from its manufacturer, and is only available for 32- and 64-bit versions of Windows 7 and 10.
DDU Display Driver Uninstaller
DDU is software specialized for uninstalling graphics card drivers. This is responsible for removing both AMD and NVIDIA drivers without leaving any residue, allowing for optimal installation and operation of new versions of said drivers. Undoubtedly, this application promises better results for the procedure we will carry out compared to the traditional Windows program uninstaller, and it can be downloaded for free from here.
MSI Afterburner 4.4.0 Beta 16
This tool will allow us to perform a modification called ‘overclock’, which consists of changing certain values in the performance of the graphics card in order to improve it and make it more optimal. Although we already have previous versions, only the latest version offers effective interaction with the new AMD mining drivers. It can be downloaded here.
AMD/ATI Pixel Clock Patcher 1.4.5
This patch will only be necessary if the equipment includes graphics cards whose BIOS has been modified, as the new drivers can also identify if this procedure has been performed. If a change is detected, the controller stops recognizing the equipment. The task of this application is to block the function of the driver that checks the BIOS, thus allowing it to recognize the card and work properly. To download it, you can follow the following relationship.
Installation and configuration process
1-Uninstalling previous drivers with DDU
The first thing we must do after downloading each application is to uninstall the version of the driver we are going to replace. To do this, we will perform a DDU, which It is preferable to do it in Safe Mode, or Safe Mode. This will allow the application to create a starting point in case something goes wrong during the installation process.
When you select this mode, you must restart your computer by selecting this option in the same application window. After the reboot process is complete, we can proceed with the uninstallation.
DDU Safe Mode DDU Execution – Select: Clean and reboot
2-Installation of Radeon Crimson ReLive Beta Edition for Blockchain Computing 17.30.1029
After completely uninstalling the version of Crimson we used previously, we proceed to install the new Crimson ReLive mining drivers.
It is recommended to select the option “Custom Install” which will give us the ability to select only what is needed for mining, thus saving installation time and space on your hard drive. In this case it is not necessary to have audio drivers for the rig, so we will not install it.
We must remember that at the end of the installation process it is important to select the option “Close” because if the BIOS of one of our graphics cards has been modified, we will have to take a crucial step before restarting the computer.
3-Running Pixel Clock Patcher 1.4.5
When you start it, it will show us a list of software functions in a window, where you will notice that at the end it mentions “BIOS signature check”. It’s a simple matter of selecting the option «Yes» so these functions are blocked. Then we will see a window telling us that the process was successfully completed and then we will restart the rig.
4-Uninstall previous versions of MSI Afterburner
If you have a different version of MSI Afterburner than the one we will be using, we recommend that you uninstall it. This can be done without any problems through the Windows Control Panel in the section “Uninstall the program“.
Although we have the option to save our settings in this app before we uninstall it; As a preventive measure we could consider ‘overclock’ settings which we used on each of the graphics cards. Especially those of the processor clock (Core Clock) and their memory (Memory Clock). This will prevent us from having to start from scratch to test configurations to rediscover the optimal stability/performance balance on each card.
5-Installation MSI Afterburner 4.4.0 Beta 16
This process is also quite intuitive thanks to the installation software. As a small suggestion, when choosing what to install, choose only MSI Afterburner, ignoring RivaTuner.
It is not necessary to reboot the rig immediately after the installation is complete as it would require it after we make certain application configurations. Although, if we save the previous configurations before uninstalling the previous version of Afterburner, no necessary changes should be made.
Running and comparing results
Finally, we are ready to run our mining software and compare the current performance results with the previously obtained ones.
This update offers an improvement 10% in the processing speed of mining equipment, in addition to the reduction in 20% in the electricity consumption of the same i 8% in the temperature of graphics cards.
Average Processing Speed - Crimson 16.9.1 Average Processing Speed - Crimson Mining Beta
It is important to emphasize what we mentioned above about the instability that can be experienced with this Beta version of the driver, because not every computer will necessarily react in the same way. In the event of irregularities in the operation of the equipment, It is recommended to experiment a bit with the Afterburner values and check that there are no other applications that might conflict with them..
