Along with the start of sales of new AMD video cards - Radeon RX 6800, RX 6800XT, the first tests of these video cards in mining the Ethereun cryptocurrency (Dagger-Hashimoto mining algorithm) became available. As expected, RDNA2 video cards are not far from the previous generation of RDNA (RX5700) in terms of performance in ETH mining. the video memory subsystem has not undergone drastic changes. The 256bit memory bus and GDDR6 are still used, which has become a little faster. The mythical Infifnity Cash, on which many pin great hopes in these tests, did not show itself in any way.
On stock settings using the Pheonix 5.2c miner, both cards showed the same hash result, which is not surprising, but different power consumption levels.
Radeon RX 6800 - 59-60Mh/s 170W
Radeon RX 6800XT - 59-60Mh/s 240W
It is worth noting that the latest AMD drivers for video cards have a new function Memory Timings - FAST TIMINGS, which is obviously designed to increase the performance of video cards in mining cryptocurrencies and Ethereum in particular.
Enabling this option shifts the hashrate range by 2-3Mh/s upwards (59-63Mh/s)
Opportunities for overclocking video memory in the current beta drivers are very limited - it is not possible to raise the memory frequency by more than 150MHz.
Memory +150Mhz, Fast Timings -ON
Radeon RX 6800XT - 63-66Mh/s 250W
The next step is to reduce GPU power consumption
Memory +150MHZ, GPU - 550MHz (1450Mhz), Fast Timings -ON
Radeon RX 6800XT - 63-66Mh/s 170W
Conclusion: In the current realities, the AMD Radeon RX 6800 and RX 6800XT video cards turned out, as expected, 15% better than the previous generation in Ethereum mining, but this is on stock settings. If we take into account the rich experience of miners in fine tuning the RX 5700 (60MH/s 150W), then the advantage of the RX 6800 becomes even less obvious, especially if we take into account the difference in the price of video cards of different generations. In the near future, we may also see better mining settings for the RX 6800. First of all, this is the ability to increase the video memory frequency by more than 150MHZ and a more aggressive downvolt in the core. Do not forget about Infinty Cash, which has not yet been discounted, because mining is not limited to just one Dagger Hashimoto algorithm.
