Ethereum mining speed issues with AMD HD6850

Ethereum mining has long been a popular and lucrative activity for those with the necessary hardware and know-how. However, recently many Ethereum miners have reported problems with their Radeon HD 6800 series graphics cards, including the HD 6850 model, despite the advertised mining speed of over 200,000 hashes per second (kH/s), some users experience slow performance when running miners such as CGMiner.

According to a comparison between different mining hardware at Litecoin.info/Mining_Hardware_Comparison, the HD 6800 series is indeed capable of producing high mining speeds. In fact, it’s possible that the problem lies with how the GPU manages its power and cooling, rather than the computing power itself.

CGMiner Output Analysis

A closer look at the output of your CGMiner setup reveals some discrepancies between what is advertised in the specs (17.28 kH/s) and the actual performance (14.39 kH/s). This suggests that there may be a power management issue or perhaps inadequate cooling for the GPU.

AMD HD6850 Specifications

To put things into perspective:

• AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT: 1406 MHz, 11.1 TFLOPS

• AMD Radeon RX 6750M: 1705 MHz, 10.3 TFLOPS

As you can see, the HD 6850 is significantly inferior in clock speed and performance compared to its high-end counterparts.

CGMiner Version

You also mentioned that your CGMiner version is 3.5.0, which suggests that you are using a relatively recent version. However, it should be noted that older versions may not be as optimized for high-performance mining as newer versions.

Possible Causes and Solutions

Based on the information available, here are a few potential causes of slow performance:

• Power Management: Make sure your power supply is capable of handling the increased power demands of the HD 6850.

• Cooling Issues: Make sure your GPU has adequate cooling to avoid overheating.

• Overclocking: Be careful not to overclock your CPU or GPU beyond the recommended specifications.

To resolve the issue, consider the following:

• Reduce Power Consumption: Try to reduce the power of your power supply or upgrade it if possible.

• Improved Cooling: Invest in a quality air cooler for your GPU.

• Overclocking Optimization: Be careful when overclocking and follow the appropriate guidelines.

In conclusion, while the HD 6850 may not be able to deliver the mining speeds advertised by its competitors, there are possible causes and solutions that can help alleviate performance issues. If you’re having performance issues, I recommend consulting with a more experienced miner or exploring options to improve your GPU’s cooling and power management.

Update: For more information on mining Ethereum with AMD GPUs, please visit websites such as [ethereum.org]( and [miningledger.org](

Long Isolated Margin