First Look: MSI RX 470 4 GB

 

First Look: MSI RX 470 4 GB

Yesterday I received in two MSI AMD RX 470 4 GB cards from NewEgg to evaluate their performance in Ethash (Ethereum) mining. From what I read these cards are capable of 20-22 MH/s while only drawing 110 watts of power.

This is a nice improvement over the older model cards. The AMD R9 390 get about 30 MH/s, but they also consume around 270 watts each doing so, resulting in a 9 watt/MH rating. The RX470 series should lower this down to 5.5 watt/MH, thus increasing profitability over the long term.

The other plus is that these cards retail for lower prices than the older models. The MSRP for a 4 GB RX 470 is $179, and a 4 GB RX 480 is just $199. Due to the current high demand, these cards are selling for a slight premium, around $20 over MSRP. I paid $199 for the RX 470’s that I ordered, but availability is quite limited, so you have to pay market prices or end up waiting a bit longer.

I plan to do a full write up in the coming days, but initial findings confirm the RX 470’s will produce a solid 20.5 MH/s per card when mining while only drawing around 120 watts each. This works out to a ratio of 5.85 watt/MH, well inline with the expected 5.5 watt/MH I mentioned earlier.

These are out-of-the-box readings and I expect with further tweaking the lowered 5.5 watt/hash ratio will be easily achievable. Much more to come as I work on the full review and what these cards are capable of.

 

Look for the full review soon.