I think I´ve seen the question about a thousand times now and to be honest I haven´t seen a lot of noob friendly guides on how to find solid overclocks and I could bet the hidden number of People failing to find good overclocks is even lower. So for that reason, this is my Guide on how to find good overclocks on your personal windows rig without much hastle spend on GPUs crashing and not a boatload of testing for it to be stable after the first implementation. Yes there will be more perfect methods, I just don´t find them as friendly to newcomers, so that´s why I´ll explain it this way.
In this particular case I´ll be covering my procedure to overclock any Nvidia 10series and above for Kapow Algorithm mining Ravencoin.
Note! I´m just putting this in here, so I can share the Link for similar questions in different subreddits.
Yes the MHs is lower then on ETHash or Autolykos this is due to it being a different calculation. Differing from an ApplicationSpecificIntegratedCircuit (ASIC) which can only calculate one single Algorithm a GPU can calculate all kinds. So for simplicity we´re going to say, that Autolykos is just + and minus so even a human can do quite a few fast calculations, ETHash would be * or / which is already harder and Kapow would be Squareroots which most people tend to struggle with without a calculator.
So "Why does this matter?"
It explains, for example why cards tend to run hotter mining Raven then they do on other Algos.
For Example ETHash doesn´t put a lot of stress through the GPU Core, as the calculation is rather simple, therefore it stresses the memory a lot more, as the Core is constantly asking for more Questions to be asked.
In Kapow this is different. The calculation puts more strain on the GPU Core and the Memory controller which sits onboard the Core. This is the reason for Kapow yielding better results when given a little more CoreClock.
So "Why don´t just put in the Numbers in Watts and Coreclock?"
I think the standard newcomer doesn´t have a boatload of experience with overclocking, nor do they have multiple cards. Also a lot of people probably still want to play games and else on their cards. This allows them to get good overclocks for multiple Algorithms without a lot of instability as a result. Also it works great with mining software that switches depending on profitability.
So now, that we have gotten down the basic questions and I hope I don´t have to edit this 20 times over afterwards. Let´s get to the part you´ve come here for.
For this Tutorial we´ll be using the most current version of MSIAfterburner, which at the time of writing this is 4.6.4 Beta 3 and I´ll be running the most current Nvidia Driver which is 471.11.
Also I´ll be using Trex Miner which I downloaded from 2miners, but I´ll not be using their pool as seen in the pictures below. You should be able to use this method with any availible miner of your choice I just tend to use this one. Also I´ll advice you to get yourself HWinfo to monitor the graphicscards sensors.
So now, hows it done.
It´s actually quite simple. Go into Afterburner and unlock the voltage control for your graphics card. Depending on the vendor/bios on your card you´ll have to select which type of voltage controll afterburner has to use. After that you´ll need to restart afterburner.
With that done now max out voltage,power and temperature limit, also set the Fanspeed to 80%. With that done hit apply and then open up the voltage curve and Afterburners Auto OC tool. Let the programm run through. This should take somewhere from 15-30 minutes. These results will have a lot of variance so don´t worry if it tells you that your results are unstable. It will put in only the overclocks it knows to be stable which especially in the lower voltage curves are still higher then the standard curve.
When it´s done hit apply and then safe it into a profile I usually pick Nr.5 for this. This is going to be your gaming profile, for every time you don´t want to mine and play some TrippleA titles. For some easier titles this profile will not be necessary, we´ll be using a later profile for that.
Talking about that, we close the AutoOC tool now and go into the voltage curve.
There we click on one of the Points in the 750-800 mV Range. Depending on silicon lottery you might have spikes and different looking "curves" there. I´ll show some examples later. I´d try going on a high stairstep if there is one in that Range.
When you selected your point press Ctrl+L. This locks your voltage at that Point and also locks the coreclock with it. This is your power limiter, so you don´t need to put a limit on the actual power.
Depending on the temperature you measure while mining you can go even higher in the voltage curve, but I would start out here.
If temperature stays below 60°C you should definetly go up higher in my opinion as currently more MHs is plain more profit, though it will take more Wattage.
Then depending on the graphics card you´ll be able to overclock the memory for newer cards up to +2000 for older ones up to +1000. I usually start at +1000 and work my way from there. If there is instability, you´ll be able to see it pretty quickly now. So start on +1000 and start your miner.
When you first start up the miner make sure the temperatures are in check. My guidelines for mining Ravencoin is to keep the core temps below 70°C at all time! Usually I´d keep it around 60°C. I´m not talking about the junction Temperatures here, these usually go higher, but shouldn´t be a lot higher then 85-90°C depending on the Card. If these vary to far from the other you should consider reapplying the thermal paste.
For memory temps, if the sensors are shown, try to keep it below 90°C for the Junction temps. That is at least my guideline, if you are comfortable you can go up to 105°C which is the spec for these, though it is pretty much proven to be to hot for the long run.
This temperature should rise every time you increase the Memory clocks so always keep an eye on it, as we don´t want to damage anything.
That should be about it. You should be able to mine profitably with these settings and I´ll be interested in seeing the results.
To start that of, here are mine for a GTX 1060 6GB Asus Dual model running an EVGA Bios and a RTX 3080 Strix. These results also show the Development on my 1060 going through the different voltages, showing temps, powerdraw and hashrates on Kapow.
GTX 1060 6GB Maxed Out Stock settings
As it´s pretty obvious this is getting to hot to be safe for running long time, I didn´t even want to run it for too long.
GTX 1060 with AutoOC curve locked at 750mV
This is about the thought that is put into it. Wattage is looking pretty sweet and the hashrate is also mighty fine.
GTX 1060 with AutoOC curve locked at 800mV
There still was temperature headroom, so I´ll keep going up, and so does the hashrate. Though Wattage and efficiency is already starting to drop.
GTX 1060 with AutoOC curve locked at 831mV
More speed! Almost got another MHs out of it, though we´re starting to use more power as expected.
Also this is one of the so said stairsteps I could see in the curve. It smooths out once you hit apply, so it did looks even sharper before.
GTX 1060 with AutoOC curve locked at 850mV
Going strong!
GTX 1060 with AutoOC curve locked at 900mV
Starting to get toasty, but look at those hashes <3. Don´t look at the Wattage though.
I think these results are pretty nice and the best thing is, running these profiles, the system is dead stable and if I drop the memory speed by 100 mHz I´m able to play games while still having the miner run without any issues, so some League or Counterstrike can be played without switching of the miner at all.
Now to the RTX 3080.
RTX 3080 no limits stock curve mining.
Please get me off the HEAT!
RTX 3080 no limits AutoOC curve
Still super hot, but the memory OC already gives a better hashrate.
As you see this voltage curve had the beforementioned stairstep in the curve, so I ended up locking the voltage at 750mV.
RTX 3080 locked voltage with AutoOC curve
Now this looks more like it. As you can see these stairsteps are in the curve which comes from my AutoOC being unstable. This still doesn´t matter as the clocks are higher then they are stock and the card remains nice and cool, even at 80% Fanspeed.
Also this Profile can easily be used to play games while letting the miner run and also improved my results from other algorythims.
I did use this card on the Nicehash extreme Preset and had about 100MHs flat when the PC wasn´t in use, when in use it dropped significantly to around 75 MHs all while taking 240W. Now with my Afterburner AutoOC I´m getting 105MHs while it is running idle and still 95-100MHs while using the Pc for example for watching videos, all while it takes 250W. It is more stable and the results are better, so there is no reason for me not to advice this to anyone who doesn´t have a lot of experience with overclocking.
I hope this was helpful for you fellow ravens and I´ll be happy to hear from your results.
As a last memo there is always silicon lottery involved and I think if the cards have the potential we should always try to get the most out of them, if we are lucky enough to get them into our hands. Stay strong and boost up this coin for our benefit. It will be a while for you to get your perfect overclocks it won´t be done in a day. Have a great time overclocking it is half the fun.
Let´s see how often I´ll have to edit this text from me being big DumDum. Current Count: (0)
