Autotuning
Autotuning is picking frequency and voltage for each chip individually. Custom firmware does it on its own and pulls fewer watts per terahash out of the same boards.
What autotuning is
Chips on a board are not identical: silicon from the same fab still comes with spread. Stock firmware sets one frequency for all and levels down to the weakest chips. Autotuning measures every chip and gives the strong ones more and the weak ones less, so the whole board runs closer to its limit.
The procedure is not quick. The firmware raises frequency in steps, watches errors and temperature, rolls back the steps that fail. A full pass takes 2 to 6 hours, the result is saved to a profile, and from then on the miner starts with the settings ready.
The gain is counted in joules per terahash: the same terahashes at fewer watts, or more terahashes at the same watts. Against stock that is usually 5 to 15 percent of efficiency, and aging boards with a wide chip spread gain the most.
The profile is tied to the hardware in its current state. A swapped board, fresh paste after a cleaning, a different target mode: each of these is a reason to run the tuning again, the old settings no longer describe this board.
Quick reference table
| What gets picked | frequency and voltage per chip |
| How long it takes | 2 to 6 hours |
| What it gives | 5 to 15 percent of efficiency over stock |
| Where it is saved | to a profile, applied at every start |
| When to repeat | after a board swap, new paste, mode change |
How to use it without harm
Run the tuning on a clean ASIC with fresh paste. Settings taken off an overheated board will come out too low.
Let the process finish and do not power the miner off mid-pass: a half-built profile is worse than stock.
Pick the target mode by your power rate, not by the maximum. On expensive electricity an eco profile earns more than an overclock.
After a board swap or a move to a different climate, run the tuning again and compare the new profile with the old one in J/TH.
An example in figures
An ASIC at 100 TH/s and 3400 W is 34 J/TH. After autotuning in the same mode it holds 104 TH/s at 3300 W, which is about 31.7 J/TH. The gain looks modest, but it is free and works around the clock, and on an expensive rate percentages like these separate profit from zero.
Related terms
Where to go next on the site
Software
- Software firmware
- HashCore Toolkit firmware
Hardware
- ASIC Chip and Hashboard knowledge base
Numbers
Questions and answers
How autotuning differs from overclocking
Overclocking pushes the whole miner toward one figure, tuning adjusts every chip on its own. Overclocking without tuning runs into the weakest chip on the board.
Is it dangerous for the hardware
The search itself is safer than manual overclocking: the firmware rolls back steps on errors and keeps to the thermal limits. The risk comes not from the tuning but from an overambitious target mode with poor cooling.
Why firmware with autotuning takes a share of the hashrate
That is how the developer gets paid: a small share of hashrate goes to their pool. On the firmware we work with it is 2.8 percent, and the tuning gain covers that share.
How the terms connect
Every link in the chain is clickable. Orange marks where you are now.
Looking for an ASIC miner
The catalog holds 212 models. You can compare them by hashrate and by joules per terahash, then plug your own rate into the calculator and see what stays in your pocket.
Page written and checked by Denys Klimchuk. Updated .