AMD Radeon RX 400 / RX 500 Will Be no Longer Profitable for Ethereum Mining?

It is not rocket science that the longer a cryptocoin is being mined, the more is the mining difficulty and thus the less is the profitability. In the case with Ethereum, the mining performance decreases over time due to the increase of the DAG file size. More size puts more stress on the mining GPUs, which lowers their efficiency.

However, this is only part of the story. The real issue is that a great drop in Ethereum hashrate is expected for Radeon RX 400 / RX 500 series in the next couple of months. By ‘great’ I mean up to ~30% hashrate drop, which will increase gradually.

What Are the Causes?

According to statistics, users mine 30.000 blocks every 4-5 days. This amount of blocks is called a DAG Epoch. Every time we move to the next DAG epoch, the DAG file becomes larger. This means that weaker GPUS will have a harder time handling it. We are currently at DAG epoch #130. Once we hit DAG epoch #150 or so, the increased size of the DAG file will cause RX400 / RX500 GPUs to work with about 30% less efficiency. Since the file size growth is gradual, the performance decrease will be gradual too.

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Did this happen before?

Yes, indeed. If you remember, the AMD Radeon R9 280X GPUs suffered from the same kind of hashrate drop past year. Looks like the RX 400 / RX 500 are next in the list. Now, the newer and more powerful cards such as Nvidia Pascal GPUs, as well as the R9 290(x), / R9 390(x) that feature more video memory (6GB/8GB+) won’t be significantly affected.

I see the speed drop. I checked possible workarounds, at least for Polaris, they failed. So probably this hashrate drop cannot be fixed, at least on miner software level.Claymore

What Is the Takeaway from This?

First of all, you might want to consider newer GPUs for any future rigs you are going to build instead of the classic Radeon RX400 / RX500s. Or even if you are going to use them, it might be a good idea to include the 30% hashrate drop in your profitability calculations.

The second takeaway is that after all, video memory matters. GPUs with more video memory tend to stand the increase of DAG file size longer. Next time you’re getting a new GPU rig, you might consider the GPU memory amount; even though it might not affect the hashrate at first, it might add to the card lifespan.

GTX 1060 Series 17-22 Mh/sGTX 1070 Series 25-30 Mh/sGTX 1080ti Series 28-32 Mh/s Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1060 WINDFORCE OC 6GB Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1060 WINDFORCE OC 6G

Review with test: not yet (soon)

• GPU/memo clock:
• Hashrate: Ethereum 17-22mh/s, ZCash 300-350, Monero 400-425
• Power usage:

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1060 WINDFORCE OC 6G (GV-N1060WF2OC-6GD) List Price: $269.99 Price Disclaimer Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1060 G1 Gaming 6GB Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1060 G1 Gaming 6GB

Review with test: not yet (soon)

• GPU/memo clock:
• Hashrate: Ethereum 17-22mh/s, ZCash 300-350, Monero 400-425
• Power usage:

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1060 G1 Gaming GV-N1060G1GAMING-6GD Graphics Cards List Price: $289.99 Price Disclaimer MSI GAMING GeForce GTX 1060 6GB MSI GAMING GeForce GTX 1060 6GB

Review with test: not yet (soon)

• GPU/memo clock:
• Hashrate: Ethereum 17-22mh/s, ZCash 300-350, Monero 400-425
• Power usage:

MSI GAMING GeForce GTX 1060 6GB GDDR5 DirectX 12 VR Ready (GeForce GTX 1060 GAMING X 6G) List Price: $289.99 Price Disclaimer EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 FTW+ GAMING 6GB EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 FTW+ GAMING 6GB

Review with test: not yet (soon)

• GPU/memo clock:
• Hashrate: Ethereum 17-22mh/s, ZCash 300-350, Monero 400-425
• Power usage:

EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB FTW+ GAMING ACX 3.0, 6GB GDDR5, LED, DX12 OSD Support (PXOC) Graphics Card 06G-P4-6368-KR List Price: $299.99 Price Disclaimer Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1070 8GB Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1070 8GB

Review with test: not yet (soon)

• GPU/memo clock:
• Hashrate: Ethereum 25-30mh/s, ZCash 400-450, Monero 420-475
• Power usage:

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1070 8 GB GDDR5 256 bit PCI-E 3.0 x 16 Windforce OC (GV-N1070WF2OC-8GD) List Price: $399.99 Price Disclaimer MSI Gaming GeForce GTX 1070 8GB MSI Gaming GeForce GTX 1070 8GB

Review with test: not yet (soon)

• GPU/memo clock:
• Hashrate: Ethereum 25-30mh/s, ZCash 400-450, Monero 420-475
• Power usage:

MSI Gaming GeForce GTX 1070 8GB GDDR5 SLI DirectX 12 VR Ready Graphics Card (GTX 1070 GAMING X 8G) List Price: $449.99 Price Disclaimer MSI Armor GeForce GTX 1070 8GB OC MSI Armor GeForce GTX 1070 8GB OC

Review with test: not yet (soon)

• GPU/memo clock:
• Hashrate: Ethereum 25-30mh/s, ZCash 400-450, Monero 420-475
• Power usage:

MSI Gaming GeForce GTX 1070 8GB GDDR5 SLI DirectX 12 VR Ready Graphics Card (GTX 1070 ARMOR 8G OC) List Price: $399.99 Price Disclaimer ASUS GeForce GTX 1070 8GB ASUS GeForce GTX 1070 8GB

Review with test: not yet (soon)

• GPU/memo clock:
• Hashrate: Ethereum 25-30mh/s, ZCash 400-450, Monero 420-475
• Power usage:

ASUS GeForce GTX 1070 8GB ROG STRIX OC Edition Graphic Card STRIX-GTX1070-O8G-GAMING List Price: $456.77 Price Disclaimer EVGA GeForce GTX 1070 SC GAMING ACX 3.0 Black Edition 8GB EVGA GeForce GTX 1070 SC GAMING ACX 3.0 Black Edition 8GB

Review with test: not yet (soon)

• GPU/memo clock:
• Hashrate: Ethereum 25-30mh/s, ZCash 400-450, Monero 420-475
• Power usage:

EVGA GeForce GTX 1070 SC GAMING ACX 3.0 Black Edition, 8GB GDDR5, LED, DX12 OSD Support (PXOC) 08G-P4-5173-KR List Price: $429.99 Price Disclaimer Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080 Ti GAMING OC 11GB Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080 Ti GAMING OC 11GB

Review with test: not yet (soon)

• GPU/memo clock:
• Hashrate: Ethereum 25-30mh/s, ZCash 640-70, Monero 480-530
• Power usage:

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080 Ti GAMING OC 11GB Graphic Cards N108TGAMINGOC-11GD List Price: $699.99 Price Disclaimer MSI GTX 1080 TI GAMING X 11GB MSI GTX 1080 TI GAMING X 11GB

Review with test: not yet (soon)

• GPU/memo clock:
• Hashrate: Ethereum 25-30mh/s, ZCash 640-70, Monero 480-530
• Power usage:

MSI GTX 1080 TI GAMING X Video Graphic Cards Price: $819.99 Price Disclaimer MSI GTX 1080 TI ARMOR 11GB MSI GTX 1080 TI ARMOR 11GB

Review with test: not yet (soon)

• GPU/memo clock:
• Hashrate: Ethereum 25-30mh/s, ZCash 640-70, Monero 480-530
• Power usage:

MSI GTX 1080 TI ARMOR 11G OC Video Graphic Cards List Price: $769.00 Price Disclaimer ASUS ROG STRIX GTX 1080TI GAMING 11GB ASUS ROG STRIX GTX 1080TI GAMING 11GB

Review with test: not yet (soon)

• GPU/memo clock:
• Hashrate: Ethereum 25-30mh/s, ZCash 640-70, Monero 480-530
• Power usage:

MSI GTX 1080 TI ARMOR 11G OC Video Graphic Cards List Price: $769.00 Price Disclaimer

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Finally, if you want to test your rig and check how it will be affected by the DAG epoch changes, you might want to do this:

Go to the Claymore ETH miner and add this option: –benchmark 130

Then, change the number to 140, 150 or 160 and see how this affects the hashrate.

Here is my test with 5x Sapphire Nitro+ RX 470 4GB OC

ethereum mining dag epoch 130 ethereum mining dag epoch 140 ethereum mining dag epoch 150 ethereum mining dag epoch 160 ethereum mining dag epoch 170 ethereum mining dag epoch 180 ethereum mining dag epoch 190 ethereum mining dag epoch 199

sorry for the bad news

Hopefully there is Ethereum Classic, UBIQ, Expanse, ZCash, Monero and many more profitable altcoins waiting to be mined so.. heads up!

Let me know what are your results while testing your rigs.

Thank you for reading. As always, your comments, suggestions and questions are welcome.

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