How to mine Beam with an AMD graphics card?

Understanding Beam Mining Requirements

1. Beam utilizes the Gravity consensus algorithm, a variant of Equihash-BTG designed to resist ASIC dominance and maintain GPU accessibility.

2. AMD GPUs from the RX 400 series onward—including RX 570, RX 580, RX Vega 56/64, and RDNA-based cards like RX 5500 XT and RX 6700 XT—are compatible with Beam mining.

3. At least 4GB of VRAM is mandatory; cards with less than that fail to load the full Equihash-150,5 difficulty dataset.

4. Drivers must be updated to AMD Adrenalin 20.12 or newer to ensure OpenCL stability and memory timing optimizations critical for sustained hashing.

5. Linux users often report higher hashrates using ROCm-enabled kernels, especially on Vega and RDNA2 architectures, due to lower driver overhead.

Setting Up the Mining Environment

1. Download the official Beam wallet from beam.mw/downloads and synchronize the full node—this step is non-optional as miners require local block validation.

2. Install a compatible miner such as GMiner 2.75 or T-Rex 0.24.3, both supporting Equihash-150,5 via OpenCL on AMD hardware.

3. Configure the config.txt file with pool address (e.g., us.beam-pool.io:3333), wallet address, and worker name—no authentication tokens are required.

4. Disable Windows Fast Startup and adjust Power Options to “High Performance” to prevent GPU clock throttling during extended mining sessions.

5. Use GPU-Z to verify stable core clocks and memory bandwidth; fluctuations beyond ±3% indicate unstable memory timings or insufficient power delivery.

Optimizing AMD GPU Parameters

1. Apply memory overclocking first: increase VRAM frequency by +200 MHz in increments while monitoring for DAG verification errors in the miner log.

2. Reduce GPU core clock by −150 MHz to lower thermal output without sacrificing hashrate—Vega and Navi chips respond well to this undervolt-tune strategy.

3. Set GPU voltage to manual mode and lock at 950 mV for RX 580s or 1025 mV for RX 6700 XT units; avoid auto-voltage curves that cause micro-stutters.

4. Enable Compute Mode in Radeon Settings to bypass graphics compositing layers, reducing latency between kernel launches.

5. Monitor junction temperature using HWiNFO64; sustained readings above 105°C on RDNA2 chips trigger thermal throttling and measurable hashrate drops.

Troubleshooting Common Failures

1. “DAG build failed” errors usually stem from insufficient system RAM—not VRAM—since the host allocates ~3.2 GB for dataset generation before transfer.

2. Intermittent share rejections point to network jitter; switch from UDP to TCP in the miner config and disable UPnP on the router.

3. Miner crashes after 4–6 hours suggest driver timeout; add TCC_DRIVER_TIMEOUT=0 to Windows environment variables before launching.

4. Zero hashrate despite GPU utilization at 99% indicates OpenCL device enumeration failure—reinstall drivers using DDU in Safe Mode and select “Clean install” explicitly.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Does Beam mining work on integrated AMD APUs like Ryzen 5 5600G?A: No. Integrated Vega graphics lack sufficient VRAM bandwidth and dedicated compute units to sustain Equihash-150,5’s memory access patterns. Minimum discrete GPU requirement remains firm.

Q: Can I mine Beam alongside another coin using dual mining software?A: Not reliably. Beam’s Gravity algorithm requires exclusive GPU memory access for DAG integrity. Concurrent mining introduces silent share invalidations and node desync risks.

Q: Why does my RX 6900 XT show lower hashrate than published benchmarks?A: Factory BIOS locks memory straps at suboptimal timings. Flashing a custom BIOS with tighter tRFC and increased memory voltage unlocks consistent +12% performance on most units.

Q: Is it safe to run Beam mining 24/7 on an air-cooled RX 570?A: Yes—if case airflow delivers ≥60 CFM across the card and ambient temperature stays below 28°C. Thermal cycling above 92°C accelerates capacitor aging and increases artifact risk after 18 months.