Use '-server'.

Sorry, forgot about that. You should install json-rpc. See at http://json-rpc.org/wiki/python-json-rpc

L29Ah, unfortunately there isn't Nvidia card here to test with it. I suppose you should try different drivers. It seems the problem is in nvidia OpenCL compiler.

This patch is maintained now at http://github.com/m0mchil/bitcoin-getwork

Win32 bitcoin with getwork, against SVN 161.

Slightly improved kernel (~10%). Fixed a problem with rotate() and Nvidia OpenCL. I won't upload anymore to the forum, please use the repo.

Added auto adjustment to keep desktop responsive. Also, doing hash rate calculation at user defined interval.

Sorry, just realized i broke it with latest changes, please update. (It won't submit to RPC properly)

There is information on wikipedia about the performance of various AMD/ATI and Nvidia chips.

4350 is cited at 92 GFLOPS. 5870 has 2720 GFLOPS. tcatm has 3x5870s. Due to it's superior architecture 5870 is capable of more than just the difference in GFLOPS. For example I get 6 Mhash/s on 4350 and 137 Mhash/s on 5770 (ratio of 1/22) even if the ratio of GFLOPS for the relevant cards is 92 to 1360 (1/14).

Due to popular demand bitcoin PyOpenCL miner is available now at http://github.com/m0mchil/poclbm

There are some minor fixes. Be sure to experiment with globalThreads to achieve better performance/dekstop lag ratio.

ATI HD3850 has no OpenCL support.

4xxx and 5xxx have.

davidonpda: you need

1. Some OpenCL capable hardware and driver.
2. python 2.6.6
3. PyOpenCL. This could be tricky, follow the official installation instructions.

oclbm.py -h or --help for some options, by default looks for bitcoin RPC at 127.0.0.1:8332

Hope this helps

nelisky: Integrating CUDA/OpenCL seems to have portability issues. Also, my goal is actually to convince satoshi to patch the mainline. The patch must be crystal clear for this to happen.

jgarzik: I tested this against vanilla client to be sure blocks are actually accepted. On ATI 4350 it makes ~5800 khash/s.


Forgot to mention that original client generation could be used in parallel.

Latest miner

poclbm_py2exe_20120920

mirror


Sources for poclbm are at http://github.com/m0mchil/poclbm


GUI

Created by Kiv, see http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3878.0


Guides

Windows - http://www.newslobster.com/random/how-to-get-started-using-your-gpu-to-mine-for-bitcoins-on-windows

Ubuntu - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2636

Mac - http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=12360


Known best settings
(please PM better/best settings for your platform)

AMD 5xxx and up
use '-v -w 128'


Frequently asked questions

Q: Does my video card / driver supports OpenCL?

AMD - 4xxx and up. Nvidia - 8xxx and up. On Windows you can use 'GPU Caps Viewer' or similar.


Q: I am seeing 'pyopencl.LogicError: clGetPlatformIDs failed', what is this?
Q: It says 'ImportError: DLL load failed: The specified module could not be found'?
Q: Or 'ImportError: DLL load failed: The specified procedure could not be found'?

You don't have proper OpenCL support. The reasons may vary. Be sure to remove any old drivers and SDK from different vendors you may have used. Use web search to see how to make it work for your combination of GPU and OS.


Q: When I try to run it with the following parameters: '--host=http://mining.bitcoin.cz:8332' miner errors out with  'nonnumeric port'

Remove 'http://', it's intended for browsers (becames '--host=mining.bitcoin.cz'). Use '--port' to specify port (default is 8332 so you don't need to specify it if the pool you use is at same port).


Q: Why it uses 100% CPU?

You probably selected the CPU as OpenCL device. Or you are using it on Linux with AMD Stream SDK 2.2. Use 2.1 instead.


Q: What does 'invalid or stale' means?

The block last submitted was either invalid or stale.


Q: How a block becomes stale?

You submited solution for a block which was just solved by someone else.


Q: Why a block is invalid?

Don't overclock too much. And switch crossfire off. Or may be I screwed the search again? It's good if you see more 'accepted's than 'invalid's.


When I try to run the miner a new CMD window flashes on my screen too rapidly to read anything, or even see if it says anything.

It's console application. You use that ugly black thing called 'Command Prompt' to run it.

This is a patch against SVN 159 that allows external RPC clients to ask for unsolved block data and eventually submit back a solution.

It opens the way for external bitcoin miners. If non-local RPC is used it also enables multiple-miners-to-client arrangement.

EDIT:

theymos is expressing some concerns regarding extraNonce here

There are actually many components of a block that change its hash. Let's assume the block contains only the initial (award) transaction. The hash will change if either:

     - transactions merkle hash - if you change txOUT publicKey, txIN difficulty or extraNonce
     - block time - 4 bytes that are updated every n seconds in the original client
     - block's nonce

Bitcoin is giving by default each mining thread it's unique extraNonce (to ensure different hash space). However if there are new transactions after at least 60 seconds merkle hash will change. This patch rebuilds merkle hash at each request for work because of the new extraNonce it assigns. If there are new transactions it should rebuild merkle hash anyway so I don't think this is much of a problem. Also, the external miner may change it's block time if needed - it will get back and processed/verified accordingly.

I made some tests with difficulty of 1 and generation rate was equal to the expected values.

You have downloaded all existing blocks already. At this moment there will be new block roughly every 10 minutes. It will validate all transactions made since last block.

With your hash rate of ~750 khash/s it would take on average 40 days YOU to find the next block. However, this is not guaranteed - it's more like a lottery.

Take a look at the FAQ.

That was what I first thought of too... a likely resolver for the wikipedia issue.

He meant 8 thousands of a dollar per BTC (0.008). That was slightly better than average BS (before /.) exchange rate.

Is this offer still open? Why not listed in the WIKI or the official trade section (bitcoin.org)?

Fastest possible stock build removes any advantage other 'special' builds would have. Which is good because generation will be more uniformly distributed. It's important for the official build to be always the fastest available. It should use any known optimization (including CUDA, OpenCL, ability to work on the Cell proc etc).

The one and only effect for now - another difficulty adjustment, still same chance to generate until more users/cores came in.

hmmmmm, that's strange... because I am experiencing the problem already fixed in http://bitcoin.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/bitcoin?view=revision&revision=102