AxeOS tuning: setting frequency & voltage correctly

The open firmware AxeOS lets you set your miner’s frequency and voltage yourself. Done right, you get better efficiency or a little more hashrate. Done wrong, the device becomes unstable and keeps rebooting. The key is patience: work in small steps and observe after each change. This guide shows how to tune safely.

The key metric: J/TH

The most important figure in tuning is efficiency in J/TH (joules per terahash), meaning how much energy your miner needs for a given amount of computing power. A lower J/TH means more hashrate per watt, so the miner runs more economically. Most of the time the aim of tuning is a good balance of hashrate, consumption and stability; the highest possible hashrate comes second.

How frequency and voltage relate

Put simply, a higher frequency increases hashrate but usually also needs more voltage, and more voltage means more heat and more power draw. Too little voltage at too high a frequency leads to computing errors (rejected shares) and crashes. Tuning means finding the stable point between the two.

1. Measure first, then change

Let the miner run on factory settings for a few hours and note hashrate, temperature and above all the J/TH. That is your baseline, and you measure every change against it. Without a baseline you are guessing.

2. Tune in small steps

• Change only one value at a time: frequency OR voltage, never both at once.
• Work in small steps and wait 15 to 30 minutes after each change.
• Watch the temperature and the rate of accepted shares.
• If rejected shares appear or the device reboots, step back.

3. Keep an eye on temperature

Heat shortens lifespan and costs stability. If the ASIC stays cool, you have more headroom upwards. If the temperature climbs into the critical range, the chip throttles and the hashrate drops. Good cooling is therefore the precondition for any serious tuning.

Good cooling is the basis for tuning: with an ICE Tower or the AXP60 Copper Pro you have much more headroom before temperature becomes the limit.

4. Efficiency beats raw hashrate

A device that runs stably 24/7 achieves more over time than one that reboots every few hours with 5 % more hashrate, because every reboot costs minutes of mining. Tuning for a low J/TH saves electricity and protects the hardware, which shows up directly in your electricity costs.

Automatic vs. manual

Some AxeOS versions include an auto-tuning function that searches for stable values on its own. It is a convenient starting point. If you want the last bit of efficiency, you will rarely get around manual fine-tuning, and that takes patience.

One last point: tuning is at your own risk. If you stay within reasonable ranges, the risk is low and the efficiency gain is noticeable. If your device misbehaves after tuning, our Bitaxe troubleshooting guide explains how to reset it.