Rx 480 Sapphire nitro+OC 4gb modded to 8gb (31 mh - 1225/2200 mhz )

tedytedy Member Posts: 26
edited January 2017 in Mining
Hello,
I am relatively new to mining and for the moment I only have one GPU to experiment with and that is Rx 480 sapphire nitro+ OC.
After reading lots of forums and after lots of tries, I've come to understand how to mod my bios, flash it,unlock 8gb on my card,timestrap memories.

I will make this both a guide for newcomers explaining every step to make and a discussion on the settings I've come to so far since I'd be happy to know if they are safe or efficient.

GUIDE
First i'd like to mention that Rx 480 sapphire nitro has a dual bios with a switch to "silent" bios mode near the led button . The position closer to the HDMI ports is for the silent bios. So if you accidently break it you still have a chance to revert the mistake.
What you need
Polaris bios editor (PBE) http://www.overclock.net/t/1604567/polaris-bios-editing-rx480-rx470-rx460
Ati flash 2.74 https://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/2728/atiflash-2-74
Amd catalyst center version 16.9 or 16.11 other versions need to be patched to work with modded bioses as they check for the bios signature and will deactivate the card http://www.sapphiretech.com/download.asp?lang=eng .


How to do it


From what I read every Rx 480 sapphire nitro 4gb is in fact 8gb, but let's say that information is false, if you see this black sticker on your box it's safe to say it has in fact 8 gb.


To unlock the 8gb all you have to do is install ati flash, open it as administrator, save your current bioses ( you will need them later, you can change the position of the bios switch even when the PC is working)
Now that you have the original bioses saved make sure you do not lose it as only with them (or with modded versions of them your GPU) will work, so in order to test my bios or one from the internet you have to copy in PBE every setting to your own bios file.
Open PBE and modify the memory size from 4096 to 8192.
I'm sorry but I currently do not know if you have to modify the density as well, so I'll say leave it as it is.
Now save it and flash it with ATI Flash on your "silent" bios. If you break it, you have to switch the bios, boot in windows, switch the bios on the broken one, start ATI Flash, and flash a good copy of bios.

That was unlocking the 8gb. I do not promise you will have greater hashrates or you will notice any improvement at all. For me it was the opposite, I noticed a decrease in my hashrates and in performance overall. And here comes timestrapping.
Timestrapping in short is modifing the times of the ram cycles. At lower frequencies there is a lower time for the cycle and at higher frequencies there is a higher time for a cycle. In PBE you can copy the times from lower frequencies to higher frequencies so you have tighter times between cycles. From what I read some copy the timing from 1600 mhz to those above. For me personally that didn't work so great.

I hope I was clear and this helps anyone. Now let's talk about settings.

SETTINGS
As I am part gamer too and as I do not have the best power supply yet my safe settings are 1225/2150 for 30MH. If I am running any game while mining I notice small framedrops from time to time while I get 26-28MH.

For mining only I can push the limit to 1225/2200 where I get 31MH.





I mention that the bios I use is still under testing. For now it is the best I have. I have tested other bioses from this forum and not all of them work for me(the console reported 30 MH but after hours of mining the shares found were the same as if i had 16-20 MH) but they have inspired and helped me. The bios that helped me the most was v4 from Jukebox, you can find it here https://forum.ethereum.org/discussion/9650/sapphire-rx-480-nitro-oc-8gb-11260-01-20g-modded-bios-29-mh-downvolt/p5 .

Density of memory is the original one 0x53.
I have timestrapped all the frequencies.
Downvolted to 900.
The GPU runs on 85W.
Post edited by tedy on

Comments

  • lummujajlummujaj Member Posts: 34
    what brand of memory , elpida hynix samsung ?
  • tedytedy Member Posts: 26
    edited January 2017
    lummujaj said:

    what brand of memory , elpida hynix samsung ?

    sorry i forgot to mention , samsung memory
    Post edited by tedy on
  • mine_ethmine_eth Member Posts: 45
    Nice post you have over here :)

    I have the same cards (with 4gb sticker on the box), and modified with the anoraks bios I am getting about 27.7 h/s with 1050/1875/-90mV.

    I tried taking the mem clock to about 2000 but got some dead pixels on screen, and the pc would crash. Should I maybe try different gpu clock settings aswell, or 2000mhz might be the max for my cards?

    Oh and one more thing. Those cards basically have 8gb ram, that is just locked with the bios, right?
  • CryptoGiraffeCryptoGiraffe Member Posts: 34
    Hmm I just got a 480 4GB but the box looks slightly different. It does have a black 4GB sticker but instead of the red background mine is black like this

    http://www.klgadgetguy.com/static/media/uploads/blog/sapphire-rx460-1.jpg


    It does have the SKU of 11260-02-20G. I guess I'm gunna have to open the box and see what memory it has. Maybe this is a new batch?
  • tedytedy Member Posts: 26
    mine_eth said:

    Nice post you have over here :)

    I have the same cards (with 4gb sticker on the box), and modified with the anoraks bios I am getting about 27.7 h/s with 1050/1875/-90mV.

    I tried taking the mem clock to about 2000 but got some dead pixels on screen, and the pc would crash. Should I maybe try different gpu clock settings aswell, or 2000mhz might be the max for my cards?

    Thanks you very much.
    From my experience the maximum mhz for a card is different for each card. It depends on your luck to be sincere. But since I experimented with bioses I've seen that the settings are a big variable in this equation.
    with some memory timings you can't achieve such mhz(again it depends on the card).
    For example I used some bioses that at 2100 MHZ crushed the sistem. The stock bios which was locked at 4gb ram could get to 2250 MHZ without a problem. Now with my modified bios I can go to 2200 easily ( with deadpixels from time to time , but that doesn't affect mining speed)
    what I advise you is to try another bios or to modify one yourself suited to be suited for your card.
    mine_eth said:


    Oh and one more thing. Those cards basically have 8gb ram, that is just locked with the bios, right?

    Yes they basically have 8GB ram that are locked from the bios, they did that because the production was overcame at release by the demand of the cheaper model, so in order to not lose money they did this. in the future there will be no more 4gb cards that have 8.
  • tedytedy Member Posts: 26

    Hmm I just got a 480 4GB but the box looks slightly different. It does have a black 4GB sticker but instead of the red background mine is black like this

    http://www.klgadgetguy.com/static/media/uploads/blog/sapphire-rx460-1.jpg


    It does have the SKU of 11260-02-20G. I guess I'm gunna have to open the box and see what memory it has. Maybe this is a new batch?

    I didn't see a box like that yet.
    From the computer you will see 4GB whatever you will try.
    And do not try to open/disassemble the GPU to see how many chips it has since that will break some seals and the warranty will be void.
    From my perspective trying a bios with 8GB is the safest way. But that is only because you have 2 bioses. otherwise I wouldn't advise that.
    Before trying a bios be sure that is a sticker. Try to pull one of it's corners out(but don't take it out for warranty reasons again. The original box is required if you have to send back the GPU)
  • AbcedarianAbcedarian Member Posts: 76 ✭✭
    edited January 2017
    @tedy
    It seems their are an awful lot sku's. On a different thread http://www.ebay.com/itm/SAPPHIRE-NITRO-Radeon-RX-480-DirectX-12-100406NT-4GOCL-4GB-256-Bit-GDDR5-PCI-Ex-/291862043580?hash=item43f4555bbc:g:A0UAAOSwknJXyCp5 it is speculated that the different sku's relate to original clock speeds ...

    What about this one currently on ebay(and newegg)? Do you think v4 bios will work? Is there going to be 8gb on there?
    http://www.ebay.com/itm/SAPPHIRE-NITRO-Radeon-RX-480-DirectX-12-100406NT-4GOCL-4GB-256-Bit-GDDR5-PCI-Ex-/291862043580?hash=item43f4555bbc:g:A0UAAOSwknJXyCp5

    Here you go, what is the difference? Are they the same thing with different bios?
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?CompareItemList=-1|14-202-223^14-202-223,14-202-225^14-202-225

    (I am a bit gunshy after bricking an msi 470 on the first try)

    Thanks as always
    Post edited by Abcedarian on
  • tedytedy Member Posts: 26

    @tedy
    It seems their are an awful lot sku's. On a different thread http://www.ebay.com/itm/SAPPHIRE-NITRO-Radeon-RX-480-DirectX-12-100406NT-4GOCL-4GB-256-Bit-GDDR5-PCI-Ex-/291862043580?hash=item43f4555bbc:g:A0UAAOSwknJXyCp5 it is speculated that the different sku's relate to original clock speeds ...

    What about this one currently on ebay(and newegg)? Do you think v4 bios will work? Is there going to be 8gb on there?
    http://www.ebay.com/itm/SAPPHIRE-NITRO-Radeon-RX-480-DirectX-12-100406NT-4GOCL-4GB-256-Bit-GDDR5-PCI-Ex-/291862043580?hash=item43f4555bbc:g:A0UAAOSwknJXyCp5

    Here you go, what is the difference? Are they the same thing with different bios?
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?CompareItemList=-1|14-202-223^14-202-223,14-202-225^14-202-225

    (I am a bit gunshy after bricking an msi 470 on the first try)

    Thanks as always

    Those do not seem to be different
    But again, we can see only the outside.If those are still some of the first stock then yes those are the same
    If those are newer then no. The ones with 4 GB have 4Gb memory chips and the ones with 8 have 8gb. The problem is that you can't be sure which is which when you buy them.

    As you can see in my printscreen from gpu-z the release date is jun 29, 2016. I think that is one of the first apparitions on market of that GPU series so I got luck buying it in november. If your is the same then you have pretty good odds to unlock it.
    And yes the v4 bios is good, lots of people said that, for me was ok but I had to modify the ram frequency back to 2250 from 2300.
  • mine_ethmine_eth Member Posts: 45
    tedy said:

    @tedy
    It seems their are an awful lot sku's. On a different thread http://www.ebay.com/itm/SAPPHIRE-NITRO-Radeon-RX-480-DirectX-12-100406NT-4GOCL-4GB-256-Bit-GDDR5-PCI-Ex-/291862043580?hash=item43f4555bbc:g:A0UAAOSwknJXyCp5 it is speculated that the different sku's relate to original clock speeds ...

    What about this one currently on ebay(and newegg)? Do you think v4 bios will work? Is there going to be 8gb on there?
    http://www.ebay.com/itm/SAPPHIRE-NITRO-Radeon-RX-480-DirectX-12-100406NT-4GOCL-4GB-256-Bit-GDDR5-PCI-Ex-/291862043580?hash=item43f4555bbc:g:A0UAAOSwknJXyCp5

    Here you go, what is the difference? Are they the same thing with different bios?
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?CompareItemList=-1|14-202-223^14-202-223,14-202-225^14-202-225

    (I am a bit gunshy after bricking an msi 470 on the first try)

    Thanks as always

    Those do not seem to be different
    But again, we can see only the outside.If those are still some of the first stock then yes those are the same
    If those are newer then no. The ones with 4 GB have 4Gb memory chips and the ones with 8 have 8gb. The problem is that you can't be sure which is which when you buy them.

    As you can see in my printscreen from gpu-z the release date is jun 29, 2016. I think that is one of the first apparitions on market of that GPU series so I got luck buying it in november. If your is the same then you have pretty good odds to unlock it.
    And yes the v4 bios is good, lots of people said that, for me was ok but I had to modify the ram frequency back to 2250 from 2300.

    Just checked my cards. They have the same release date as yours :)

    I'm kind a busy the next few days, but will mod the cards and post the results over here. Hope to achieve results like yours. Either way, I am really happy with the speed/power consumption right now. 50C, fans at 30%, 27.7 h/s and 650W from the wall!
  • tedytedy Member Posts: 26
    edited January 2017
    mine_eth said:


    Just checked my cards. They have the same release date as yours :)

    I'm kind a busy the next few days, but will mod the cards and post the results over here. Hope to achieve results like yours. Either way, I am really happy with the speed/power consumption right now. 50C, fans at 30%, 27.7 h/s and 650W from the wall!

    Good to hear that :smile:
    I'll wait for your reply then, hope it will work just fine
    and sorry for asking but what is your rig made of and how many cards do you have ?
  • mine_ethmine_eth Member Posts: 45
    tedy said:

    mine_eth said:


    Just checked my cards. They have the same release date as yours :)

    I'm kind a busy the next few days, but will mod the cards and post the results over here. Hope to achieve results like yours. Either way, I am really happy with the speed/power consumption right now. 50C, fans at 30%, 27.7 h/s and 650W from the wall!

    Good to hear that :smile:
    I'll wait for your reply then, hope it will work just fine
    and sorry for asking but what is your rig made of and how many cards do you have ?
    I thought I mentioned that.

    5x480 Nitro +
    H81 pro btc
    Evga g2 1300W
  • btcbinebtcbine Member Posts: 4
    hi, thanks for sharing info,
    i have same sapphire nitro cards, samsung and hynix memory,
    moded with anorex bios,
    I'll try to change size of memory and post the result.

    But now I'm interesting if you check with HWInfo for gpu memory errors?

    I have problem with 480 8gb, also sapphire nitro, everything above 2100Mhz gives a lot of memory errors. I change bios by my own, just copy mem strap from 1750 to 2000.
    2000MHz gives 28Mhz eth
    2100 gives 29.4MHz
    2150 gives 29.9 with lot of memory errors
    2200 gives 30.6 with lot of memory errors

    I'm interesting what is your experience about them,
    I didn't try to test a card, let it to mining whole day to see hashrate,
    just hate to see a lot of them, not willing to try...
    anyone have experience with it?
  • yodiyodi Member Posts: 265 ✭✭
    interesting , i thought rx480 4gb sapphire was with only Hynix or Elpida memory
  • mine_ethmine_eth Member Posts: 45
    edited February 2017
    A late update from my side.

    Modded the cards to 8gb and modified the strap settings in the bios aswell. Did copy the 1750 value to 1900 and 2000.

    With that bios flashed, 3 out of 5 cards get 29.7 mh/s at 1125 and 2150 with power draw in cpuz at 84.

    When I tried the 1250mhz clock with 2200 on memory, I get similar results with increased power draw.

    The other two cards, get 26.5 mh/s no matter what I do with the settings... Any tips on that?

    EDIT: Back to basics... I tested each card separately. Those two could not go higher than 1950mhz. With those settings I got 28.8 Mh/s.

    Than I connected everything, and MSI afterburner got crazy. Could not adjust the settings correctly, so I am now running them at 27.7 and 650W off the wall
    Post edited by mine_eth on
  • CryptomaCryptoma Member Posts: 12
    Hey i just recieved an rx nitro 480 and the memory module is a hynix, it has the same prod. Date as yours so figured your 8gb mod would work, i flashed it but im kinda new to this whole process so if you can guide me to somewhere to understand more about memory timings and underclocking/overclocking and undervolting i would appreciate it
  • mine_ethmine_eth Member Posts: 45
    Cryptoma said:

    Hey i just recieved an rx nitro 480 and the memory module is a hynix, it has the same prod. Date as yours so figured your 8gb mod would work, i flashed it but im kinda new to this whole process so if you can guide me to somewhere to understand more about memory timings and underclocking/overclocking and undervolting i would appreciate it

    Mostly everything you need can be found on this forum. If you have any specific questions, let me know and I might be able to help you out
  • CryptomaCryptoma Member Posts: 12
    Yes, so i recieved two cards and i flashed them with a modded bios, im using msi afterburner to modify the undervolt and overclock, im using the same settings for both cards but one of ther cards gets hotter and uses more power, weird thing is is that one has more asic quality, any idea what could cause that?
  • mine_ethmine_eth Member Posts: 45
    Cryptoma said:

    Yes, so i recieved two cards and i flashed them with a modded bios, im using msi afterburner to modify the undervolt and overclock, im using the same settings for both cards but one of ther cards gets hotter and uses more power, weird thing is is that one has more asic quality, any idea what could cause that?

    Try flashing them again... Have had similar issues. Also, if you overclock, you can expect higher power draw. After days of experimenting, what I found best is to copy the 1500 mem strap all the way to the 2000mhz strap, and flash that bios. As for the settings, 1875, 1050, -90mV. This way I get 27.6 MH/s with 70W in CPUz.

    I can go as high as 30-31 MH/s, but it is not worth it, since the power draw and the temp increases, for the cost of 5 cents per day per card. Plus, you are putting too much stress on the cards. With those settings, I am running the fans at 35% and the temp is 47-50 C
  • NeutronkaNeutronka Member Posts: 2
    Sapphire RX480 4GB Samsung Memory flashed with bios above (first post in this topic), I get 20W more consumption than @tedy


  • mine_ethmine_eth Member Posts: 45
    Neutronka said:

    Sapphire RX480 4GB Samsung Memory flashed with bios above (first post in this topic), I get 20W more consumption than @tedy


    Can you post results after 24hrs? How stable is it? Any incorrect shares?
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