The Best BIOS ROM for Sapphire NITRO+ RX 470 4Gb Mining Edition and how to get 27-30MH/s.

Hello guys and welcome to H4M = Hardware4Mining.com blog.

Recently we have got Sapphire RX 470 NITRO+ 4Gb Mining Edition on stock and make several
tests to get maximum performance of them.

It is our first card with GPU designed especially for mining with no display outputs.

Let’s see how Sapphire manage to create a new branch of GPUs NITRO+ RX470 series aimed for
crypto mining.

Sapphire NITRO+ RX470 Mining Edition Series

As we know Sapphire has announced 4 types of Mining GPU’s:
 1. Sapphire NITRO+ RX 470 Mining 4GB
SKU code: 11256-35-10G
Power: 122W
ETH Hashrate (base/overclocked): 23-26MH/s

2. Sapphire NITRO+ RX 470 Mining 4GB (Samsung) – our cards

SKU code: 11256-36-10G
Power: 122W
ETH Hashrate (base/overclocked): 23-29MH/s

3. Sapphire NITRO+ RX 470 Mining 8GB

SKU code: 11256-37-10G
Power: 128W
ETH Hashrate (base/overclocked): 24-27MH/s

4. Sapphire NITRO+ RX 470 Mining 8GB (Samsung)

SKU code: 11256-38-10G
Power: 128W
ETH Hashrate (base/overclocked): 23-29MH/s

Features that highlights Mining Series from the usual gaming cards:

Cooling system designed specifically for full-time work 24/7.

11256-36-10G has Dual-X fans with Two ball bearing.

Initially it’s based on the NITRO+ series – 11256-01(06), not on the cheaper gaming 11256-10
(11-17-26) simple NITRO.

That provides you the confidence that the cards will last a long time and fans will fall off after 3
months as on gaming series.

Mining Edition have two high-diameter fans with dual-bearing mechanism and designed for
24/7 non-stop going. More durable and silent compared to simple RX470 gaming series. That
cause 6 month to 1 year limited warranty.

 No Display ports. All those Series are designed for crypto mining only and has no displays
output to save you money and power. (Actually, they do have one however it’s hidden under
the frame and not in use).
 Intellectual Fan Control synchronize fan’s speed and rotation timing to reduce
power surges and noise levels.

 They are significantly smaller compared to traditional Sapphire series. That save the space for
rig displacement.

 Officially announced Power Consumption is 122W instead of 175W at gaming and one 8pin
connector;
  Two BIOS switches that provides 4 preinstalled BIOS versions.

First impression: Sapphire did a great job to meet the needs of crypto miners.

We’ve got 11256-36-10G – Sapphire NITRO+ RX 470 Mining 4GB with Samsung memory.
Let’s turn on the cards and have a look what we can get from them.

BIOS versions
Two BIOS switches give you 4 stock BIOS variants.

When the card is installed into PCI-16 slot SW1 – lower switch, is located closer to the motherboard
and SW2 – upper switch is closer to the top plastic cover.

All cards arrive from the factory with switches in Hi-Hi position (default setting).

BIOS SW 2 (upper) SW1 (lower)

BIOS 1 (default) Hi Hi

BIOS 2 Hi Low

BIOS 3 Low Low

BIOS 4 Low Hi
RX 470 NITRO+ 4Gb Mining Edition check – GPU-Z

(Here card memory is running on 2050Mhz and GPU is down clocked to 1167Mhz already.)

Stock BIOS Hash rate

Normal clock rate for those RX470 are
GPU clock: 1266Mhz
Memory clock: 1750Mhz
It provides you with 23-26Mh/s.
We have checked more that 20 cards from difference series.

All of them have SAMSUNG memory – K4G41325FC or K4G41325FE.

However, we’ve met that the default BIOS versions can be different.

We’ve found out two main versions of default BIOS.

First are used on most of the cards and can provide 23-24 at 1750 and 25-26 at 2050Mhz.

Next default BIOS is much better – it gives 24-25 at 1750 and 27-28 at 2050Mhz.
Both BIOS types work good on both types of memory.
How to setup RX 470 4Gb ME
All stock BIOS provides ETH 23 to 27MH/s.

Memory works perfect with memory clock up to 2100Mhz and GPU clock can hold down voltage to
1167Mhz with average power consumptions about 50-60W per card.

Please read a Disclaimer at the bottom of this post before you start!

Our cards have Samsung memory and all below refer to them only!

Elpida, Hynix or Micron memory should use another BIOS setting and timing!

We have special tutorial on how to understand BIOS timing and will post it a bit later. Please follow
us.

We used Claymore 10 and prefer to setup clocks in Claymore’s config.txt file instead of using
MSIafterburner.

Our settings:

-epool eu1.ethermine.org:14444

-ewal /wallet/

-epsw x

-mode 1

-di 0

-tt 78

-fanmin 50

-fanmax 80

-cclock 1167

-mclock 2050
As the cards are not usual and don’t have display output we spend a lot of time to setup them
properly for mining.

We did a lot of trials and here are our steps to get our cards hash properly.

SOFTWARE we’ve used

 Official AMD Mining Drivers

 Atiflash
 Claymore Miner, check the latest version available
 ATImdag Patcher
 Display Driver Uninstaller
 MSIAfterburner

Universal Steps to get maximum performance of your card

1. Uninstall current drivers with DDU Uninstaller, reboot the system;

2. Install AMD block chain drivers, reboot;
3. Check in Device Manage that cards “This device is working properly”, if not patch with
ATImdag Patcher;
4. Setup config.txt file for Claymore
5. Check your card maximum memory clocks at stock BIOS:
1. Start Claymore miner at standard speed and check card hash rate;
2. Increase memory clock by about 50Mhz to see the performance rate, find the maximum
where the card stops respond;
3. Set up default frequencies;
6. Run GPU-Z – check your Memory brand;
7. Run ATIwinflash as administrator, save card’s default BIOS;
1. If you’ve got the right BIOS for your card – Load it and Program the card. Reboot than, patch
with ATImdagPatch if needed.
2. If you don’t have the right driver – you can try to customize current BIOS with
PolarisBiosEditor or SRB BIOS Editor and load back with ATIwinflash. Please additional
post on how to do that.

Sapphire NITRO+ RX 470 4Gb Mining Edition – Samsung memory – 11256-36-10G –

28.98MH/s with about 60-70W