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One free scan finds every outdated or missing driver and matches the right update for your exact hardware.Free scan · exact hardware matchAMD’s August 2017 beta blockchain driver helped Radeon RX Vega cards deliver stronger Ethereum mining results in the tests reported at the time, but the exact gains depended on the card, settings and benchmark. HotHardware measured 36.48 MH/s from a memory-overclocked RX Vega 56; that is a historical result, not a current Ethereum mining option. Ethereum mainnet mining ended with its September 2022 transition to proof of stake.
What the 2017 HotHardware test found
HotHardware published its test on August 15, 2017, comparing AMD’s Radeon Software Crimson ReLive Edition Beta for Blockchain Compute with its previous RX Vega Ethereum setup. It reported gains at stock speeds, but the stock-rate values in its chart are embedded in an image and are not available in the article text. The exact stock-rate increase should therefore not be inferred from the published written result.
The article does state that an RX Vega 56 with its memory increased reached 36.48 MH/s. HotHardware also reported power measurements for the entire test system, not the graphics card alone:
| HotHardware configuration (2017) | Reported power | Measurement boundary |
|---|---|---|
| RX Vega 56, stock | 288 W | Total system |
| RX Vega 56, memory at 1900 MHz | 290 W | Total system |
| RX Vega 64, stock | 360 W | Total system |
| RX Vega 64, memory at 2 GHz | 361 W | Total system |
These figures describe HotHardware’s test setup and should not be read as board-only power or as a prediction of what another system would draw. HotHardware’s August 15, 2017 test also reproduced AMD’s beta-driver warning: “This driver is provided as a beta level support driver which should be considered ‘as is’ and will not be supported with further updates, upgrades or bug fixes.”
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Why other Vega benchmarks show different results
Independent tests from the same period help illustrate how much results depended on settings and measurement methods. ComputerBase reported an RX Vega 56 at listed stock settings reaching 31.4 MH/s at 216 W of card power, or 6.9 W per MH/s. Its tuned Vega 56 result was 36.6 MH/s at 312 W of card power. For a tuned RX Vega 64, it reported 37.7 MH/s at 244 W of card power.
| ComputerBase result | Hashrate | Power | Test context |
|---|---|---|---|
| RX Vega 56, listed stock settings | 31.4 MH/s | 216 W card power | Blockchain driver, 2017 |
| RX Vega 56, tuned | 36.6 MH/s | 312 W card power | Blockchain driver, 2017 |
| RX Vega 64, tuned | 37.7 MH/s | 244 W card power | Blockchain driver, 2017 |
Those ComputerBase measurements are not directly interchangeable with HotHardware’s total-system power figures: one reports card power, the other whole-system draw, and the test settings differ. The results also show why a single hashrate does not establish which card was “better” overall. A useful comparison must account for the driver and operating system, memory and GPU clocks, power target and undervolting, miner and algorithm, efficiency, thermals and stability.
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Nor did the blockchain driver remain universally faster in every later test. In a February 1, 2018 ComputerBase comparison, an RX Vega 64 produced 36.1 MH/s on Adrenalin 18.1.1 and 35.7 MH/s on the blockchain driver for Ethereum. In that same comparison’s Monero and Zcash results, the blockchain driver performed better. The advantage depended on workload and driver version, not just the GPU. ComputerBase’s 2017 Vega test and its February 2018 multi-algorithm comparison provide the separate benchmark contexts.
The Linux large-page driver was a separate development
AMD later added large-page support for blockchain compute workloads in AMDGPU-Pro 17.40, a Linux driver release dated December 15, 2017. Its release notes list Radeon RX Vega compatibility. This was distinct from the Windows beta driver tested in HotHardware’s headline; the Linux driver’s tunable memory-fragment setting should not be attributed to that Windows test. AMD’s AMDGPU-Pro 17.40 Linux release notes describe the driver addition.
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Phoronix’s later Linux benchmark used Ubuntu 16.04.3 LTS, Linux 4.10 and AMDGPU-PRO 17.40, with bundled ROCm OpenCL packages installed manually. It set amdgpu.vm_fragment_size=9 to use 2 MB fragments and tested RX Vega 56 and RX Vega 64 among other GPUs. These details describe a separate Linux large-page path, not a reproduction of HotHardware’s original Windows comparison. Phoronix’s October 27, 2017 OpenCL test documents that setup.
Can you mine Ethereum with a GPU now?
No—not on Ethereum mainnet. The network switched to proof of stake in September 2022, ending mining there. The Ethereum Foundation stated that “At that point, mining will no longer be possible on the network,” and current Ethereum documentation says mining has been switched off. The 2017 Vega figures are therefore historical benchmark results, not a guide to mining Ethereum today. See the Ethereum Foundation’s Mainnet Merge announcement and Ethereum.org’s current mining documentation.
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