Well, I've done it. I've seen a few posts running around about it, but no real info to date. So - in the name of science, of course - I picked up a few FirePro S10000 12 GB cards and I've started mining with one of them. Why only one? Because I'm still waiting for FedEx to bring me my beefier PSU that can handle all of them. For those of you who have wondered, here's what I'm running and what I've found so far:
ASUS M5A97, AMD chipset with FX-4350 CPU.
16GB RAM
120 GB SSD
GT 710 for a simple energy-efficient VGA output (no video output direct from the motherboard)
Windows 10 Professional, but I might get set up on Ubuntu. Then again, my already limited Linux skills are pretty rusty.
Currently running Claymore's Dual miner, since I'll be running both AMD and NVidia cards.
The motherboard recognizes the two Tahiti cores of each S10000 as individual GPU's. That's probably normal, but this is my first build, so how would I know? I'm just hoping my CPU can handle enough PCIe lanes, etc. to manage all five S10000's that I have awaiting installation and tuning, in addition to the five 1050 TI's that are also on the way. Not to mention, I've yet to test all of my risers, splitters, etc.
For now, I just have a couple 92mm fans that I salvaged from the case that my brother-in-law had for the motherboard directed right at the S10000 that I've installed... right on the itty-bitty motherboard while I await the rest of my components to finish my build. This thing is monstrous, both in size and power.
So, The max TDP of the S10000 is rated at 375w, though I'm finding mixed information on whether that's per core, or for the whole thing. I really, REALLY hope it's the whole thing. I'm currently running an EVGA 850BQ PSU that I got to fire up and check out the motherboard, since the motherboard was a random Christmas gift/hand-me-down from my brother-in-law. That said, I haven't really been able to push the card that far. It already set off the over-wattage protection on the PSU a couple times during benchmarking, among a couple of random display issues. I'm not sure if my motherboard is trying to switch the display output from the 710 to the S10000 as the latter starts pulling some power, or what. Still troubleshooting that. As for hashing... HOLY COW. Each core can pull about 20 MH/s, at least until it crashes the PSU. So far, I've managed one stable benchmark at ~50% intensity, and each core averages 11.4 MH/s at that intensity. I know, I know. The jump from 50% to 100% intensity isn't necessarily linear in terms of a jump from 22 MH/s to ~40 MH/s. However, AwesomeMiner approximates its configuration as "Dual 20.4 MH/s," so I'll have to see how that pans out given adequate power to the cards, and some fine tuning in AfterBurner.
Now to the rest of the build:
All of the above, quite obviously
5x FirePro S10000
5x GTX 1050 TI
Dual PSU's: The aforementioned 850BQ for the Motherboard, 3 1050 TI's, and the fans. Plus a 2350w (supposedly) monstrosity I came across on Wish for dirt cheap (likewise with the 1050 TI's. I hope to God they're the real deal)
10x 40mm fans in a custom open air frame I'll be constructing myself, and I might find a use yet for the 92mm fans I salvaged from the old tower case. I like the idea of each GPU having a fan to itself, but I'm expecting some diminishing returns on CFM airflow to cooling efficiency.
All in, given some tuning, etc. I should be looking at about 250 MH/s and around 2000w power draw. It'll take some trial and error to optimize the power draw to hashing power ratio, but I think I'm headed in the right direction so far.
And in case anyone was wondering how I ever afforded five S10000's, they're not $3500 anymore. You can find 'em on eBay for about $300. Far less expensive than the Vega and 1080 series cards in terms of upfront cost, but at nearly double the power draw. Theoretically, though, they should offer an extra 10ish MH/s over their gaming-oriented counterparts. Whether that's worth it, I've yet to see. Anyway, thanks for reading, and I'll keep you posted on build progress and final benchmarks as I finish up.
Cheers,
Cuddles
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Comments
This might be some help: https://anorak.tech/t/anoraks-amd-vbios-hex-modification-tutorial/126/4
Long version: So, I tried a full flash to the VBIOS's for various Tahiti core cards, only to run into several BSOD issues in Windows 10. Essentially, the driver didn't like the card's new BIOS. Ultimately, I ran into system-wide catastrophic failure of the OS through the many attempts at flashing, editing the registry, both manually and with the DDU cleanup feature as I tried to run the different VBIOS's and their corresponding drivers. In the end, I had to run a fresh install, AND I came to find out that it shouldn't be a huge deal, as the latest Wndows 10 Creators Update supposedly allows for support of more cards per single driver than previous builds, with or without AMD's fancy new compute workload. The S10000 passive (soon to be water-cooled), though, is still recognized as two separate Sky 900's at each PCIe slot, which may cause some problems later. Then again, it may not. I guess that will depend on whether each card gets its own instance of the driver, and whether this latest update will support as many as 10 cards on the single driver, plus the five 1050 TI's on their driver. Absolute worst case, I just run my rig off of two MOBO's. Second-to-worst case scenario, I'll just run Ubuntu, and use some Linux magic to run the executable GUI miners (I like the profit switching options in MinerGate -but I really don't care for their pools - and AwesomeMiner -better pool options). The good news is that I haven't totally bricked one of my S10000's, and even if I had, I have four more from which I can backup the BIOS and flash it to the broken one. Better news, the AMD Firepro Control Center will allow me to adjust voltages and clock speeds without the use of any other utilities, which keeps my OS environment nice and light, no bogged down RAM or storage space issues. The tradeoff, though, is that it seems I can only adjust those settings when I am outputting video from the card, which I expect to play a role in eating into computing power that would be better devoted to mining. I still have to check to see if the settings hold after I'm no longer using the card for my display output, as that will be the GT710's job. Initially, AMD's auto detect installed the classic Catalyst Control center, so the FirePro control center may allow me to adjust settings for cards that are not actively outputting the display. In the meantime, I'll look into that nifty tutorial you linked to. Thanks for the info.
I'd be curious to see these cards used in a virtualized environment -- which could potentially eliminate that bottleneck of having a certain amount of cards (in theory), be enabling GPU pass-through to VM's. Not sure if that would kill performance -- but it is indeed worth a shot, considering these cards are VDI compliant and used heavily in environments that utilize GPU assignment to virtual machines.
This link has the instructions for the process, seems pretty easy: https://www.monitortests.com/forum/Thread-AMD-ATI-Pixel-Clock-Patcher
Linux fglrx driver have no problem with modded bios on tahiti cards, just saying.
They are passive and require at least 20 CFM airflow, if you ran them just as they were then no wonder they shutdown. Cooling will be an ordeal.
They are GCN 1.0 and will be crippled for Ethash (eth mining). The amount of memory does not matter, the memory controller itself is the issue with these GCN 1.0 cards and you will never see 20 MHs per GPU now. That 11 figure you quoted seems right per GPU. And I dont have to tell you that a card that cost more than a GTX 1060(25 Mhs) and hashes less(22) while using over 4 times the power is a terrible deal.
These S10000 6GB = 2 X 3GB Radeon 7950 GPUs. When's the last time you heard of anyone mining Eth with a Radeon 7950? Years ago.
Back in June 2017, 11 Mhs was the norm for a 7950. they have not been viable for eth mining for a LONG time. Even the RX cards were feeling it, but AMD released mining drivers to fix the RX cards. GCN 1.0 cards could not be helped. So you are getting the correct speed (11 mhs per GPU).
https://www.reddit.com/r/EtherMining/comments/6inw91/low_hashrate_on_hd_7950_112_mhs/
Thats an OK Equihash benchmark, nearly GTX 1080 power but again, its using more than double the power with all the added BS of cooling it (and the cost associated with such). If I had to mine with these, this I what I would do. But you won't ROI any faster than someone buying a 3GB GTX 1060 so what's the point really..... And come summer time you will have some seriously hot cards putting out tons of heat. A GTX 1070 Ti for $500 is a better buy in the long run I believe.
I cant believe you didn't know GCN 1.0 cards were crippled before you bought these. Now you've got to figure out a cooling solution, buy MASSIVE power supplies that WILL cost an arm and a leg. Not ot mention all the BS you've been through software wise.
Why didn't you just buy passive S9150's??????? They would have been so much better off and they are not going to be crippled for eth mining as these will be. Well, very slightly impacted (512 bit bus saves them) but not much before PoS. with proper cooling you could see nearly 30 mhs on an S9150 and they recently were $200-$250 each on eBay.
If you didnt know, S9150 = R9 290X (GCN 2.0). R9 290X are still good for eth mining, even if they are a bit power hungry. Much better value than a one trick pony (GCN 1.0).
My friend almost bought these, as I already have enough cards but you could have got them for $1000 (they were taking best offers):
https://www.ebay.com/itm/263408440073?ul_noapp=true
No one here should EVER and I mean EVER be buying S10000's for mining. But hey man, I was always curious if someone would ever actually mine with these, so thanks for taking one for the team.
Im telling you people that these are fucking crippled. What's wrong with you???!!!!
Simply put, nothing about the S10000 makes it acceptable for mining Eth.
I promise you are in a for a rough ride. No one is getting 20 fucking MHs on a 7950 now..... Not on our current DAG. Load up claymore miner OP and actually start a real mining run. When it loads up the current DAG you'll see what im talking about.
If you benchmarked at the initial DAG then yes, it would show 20. But that is simply not the case anymore.
You need to return/cancel whatever you bought. im not fucking trolling, I don't want to you lose money man.
Lookup S10000 and look at the cores and their architecture. Now look at a 7950. They're the same damn thing. Now, look up Ethereum mining for 7000 series cards. You'll notice that results from the last year show the DAG has rendered the cards crippled and only good for Zcash mining at this point.
OP is clearly a novice, knows just enough to be dangerous to himself (and others). there is some seriously bad info here and it's already affected YOU.
In 2017, I found a seller (on eBay) selling a 10 pack of Sky 900 cards for $1000. What a deal right? Even now, mining Zcash with that would be great. Ultimately. the seller backed out and claimed they were "out of stock". they turned around listed them for 3 X the cost.
Before I made the commitment to buy I did a lot of research, and thats how ive some to know about these cards.
In my opinion, if you want to buy things like this, the S9150's were a better deal but im sure they are jacked up in price as well now.
If you bought these from China over Aliexpress or something I would not count on them taking a return, even if they do im sure they'll have you pay the shipping back. I just bought some CPU's (under $100 each) from an Alibaba seller in Shenzhen that should mine $3 a day. Well, that was before the crash but it will rebound. But the way I see it, you get what you get from the chinese without much protection.
http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/releases/14.04.2/ubuntu-14.04.2-server-amd64.iso