At current prices and hash-rates for each, Claymore would have to improve speeds on his ZEC miner byt what... 65-70%... just to get it back to even with XMR as far as mining profitability goes.  And I think we can all agree that is not going to happen.  The fact it, as ZEC prices continue to drop, people are switching away from it every day and going to ETH and or XMR.  Given this, I would expect to see Claymore re-route effort towards XMR 10, but who knows. His dev fee is actually higher for XMR btw.

Yup, I support this request 100%.  Would be great to see additional speed for 4xx series GPUs, as well as similar functionality to his ZEC & ETH miners (like speed & temps of individual GPUs displayed).

yup exactly!  newmz got quite lucky that his old cards were good for mining ZEC, now he wants those of us with newer cards to effectively be punished by Claymore not updating this miner?  Man, talk about sour grapes lol.  But all is not lost newmz... you can keep on mining ZEC until it falls to $5 if it makes you happy to see those blazing hashrates lol.

Actually, XMR is more profitable than ZEC at well under 700 h/s.  My 5x 470 rig is only hashing 580 per card but still about 60-70% more profitable than ZEC.  Granted, I was still only using CZM 8.0 but still... not really even close.

YEah I chimed in there as well... really does seem like he wrote that when the 390's were the latest and greatest. He doesn't even mention 470/480's anywhere in his readme file, so I would assume there should be quite a bit of room for increased hash-rate with them.

Out of curiosity, can someone recommend settings for 470s (or 480s) in Claymore?  I am only getting about 575 per 470, which seems quite low. They are over-clocked and under-volted but not strap-modded yet. Still I would expect them in this stat to be a lot closer to the 725 480's are getting, so any recommendations would be appreciated.

you're a good guy Phil so for your sake, I hope it goes up.  Personally, I dumped half of my 3 ZEC earlier today about about $42. Now mining ETH & XMR only so I won't accumulate any more ZEC. I may hold that final 1.5 ZEC just to see what happens, but i just got sick and tired of seeing it drop 5-10% almost every day.

another +1 from me... I switched rig#1 to ETH 3 days ago and rig #2 (5x RX 470's) to XMR 2 days ago.  As it is, XMR is more profitable than ZEC... by almost 2x for me... but it does seem that this GPU miner was written before the advent of the RX-400 series cards, so hoping there is room for some improvement for them. Personally, I would be willing to pay a higher fee for a newer version of this that optimized 470's better.

Also, can anyone recommend the best settings for 470's in this miner?  At default settings, I am only getting 2,880 for 5 GPUs (about 575/GPU).  maybe using -a 1 or -a 2 will increase their speed/efficiency?  what about the -h settings for 470s?  Any recommendations?

I am running 4 MSI 470 4GB and 1 Sapphire Nitro 470 8GB on this rig.  Is it fair to say that I could probably push that nitro a lot further using this algo since it has twice the memory?  Or, is that not a huge factor for this algo?

How is it possible that you show ZEC even even with ETH & XMR, much less slightly more profitable.  Given the current rates around $43/$8.10/$8.35, both ETH & XMR are considerably more profitable than ZEC... at least with RX 470's.  My understanding is that 480's get a bit more hashing power than 470s but consume more energy, so the profit ratio seems that it would be similar between the 2 cards, maybe a bit better for the 470s.  I could almost understand if you had something like 6x390x, given that those cards seem to be monsters on ZEC, but that doesn;t appear to be the case so Im a bit baffled.  I understand that everyone's rigs are different, but for me, the profitability isn't even close now with ZEC dropping under $43.  My profit from ETH is close to 2x ZEC and models indicate XMR could even be better, but I need more mining time with it to prove that out. My modelling indicated that if ETH & XMR stay in the $8-$9 range, ZEC would have to get back over $60 to rival their profitability.  Can't predict the future of course but seems much more likely ZEC will go lower than $30 before EOY than anywhere near $60, so I will likely be doing ETH/XMR for the foreseeable future.

Aside from the valuing issue, I am curious about something else.  I really like that auto-switching feature in theory but if values are quite close and switch often, wouldn't that many switched hurt productivity?  Meaning... my experience with both XMR and ZEC is that they take some time to ramp up to full speed.  I started mining XMR via Claymore GPU and it started low then continual increases, for several hours actually. Similar thing with ZEC although usually not as long.  ETH seem to get to max quickly but I would like that the ramp up time would hurt you with too many switches.

Yeah, there seems to be a big problem with the defaults on that site.

They have ZEC set at 630 HR using 660W, which is reasonably close to the 710H/610W i get from my 4-GPU rig.  But their ETH default H/R for equivalent wattage is WAY off!  They have only 48 MH/s for 660W but my 4-card rig is getting 108 with almost exactly that wattage.

So, if I change both to what I am getting on my rig, and bump the electricity to 11 cents, it shows ETH net profit of $2.83/day (about 25% higher than my own calc), while ZEC comes in at $1.46/day (about 20% higher than my calc).  Granted, my net calcs are probably a bit conservative since I am using peak wattage and the average is probably going to be a bit less, but either way, ETH is almost twice as profitable as ZEC at this point, at least for me.

I just started mining XMR with my 5-GPU rig, so will report back on that later. Initial speeds reported only about 2.8 Kh/s (not even 600 Mh/s per GPU) but it was still warming up... and I haven't tweaked the settings in Claymore at all yet, so will see how that turns out.

Probably a lot of people have done this already, but I am jumping ship on freaking ZEC!  Further drops almost every single day... now headed towards a pathetic $43 or lower by end of day!  Frankly, I should have switched weeks ago but was hoping against hope there would be some kind of rally in price.  Alas, in reality, how can we expect a crypto coin that STILL does not have something as basic as a working Z-wallet (at least on Bittex) to appreciate in value?  yeah I know there still could be a pump but it is infuriating to sit here mining it, only to have the total value of the whopping ~3 ZEC i have mined drop in value almost every day, despite accumulating more each day.

So... yesterday I finally switched over rig#1 back to ETH.  My calcs show my profit from that to be about $2.20/day, as opposed to the pathetic $1.30 it was making from ZEC.  I was going to keep rig#2 on ZEC for a while longer but I doubt I will do that now.  The only thing holing me back at all on that is the fact that I haven't strap-modded the GPUs on rig #2 yet and certainly dont want to start mining ETH on that one until I do so.  Still, I may even give XMR a run on that and see what it does.  I am actually now running Claymore's CPU XMR miner on all 3 of my PCs now and actually projecting a modest net profit of about $25/month.  Have yet to run his GPU XMR miner on any of my rigs so may give it a shot tonight and see what the results are. 

Thanks to Citronick, I finally got the 5th GPU working on rig #2!  The "funny" thing is that I was trying it before I saw this post by you, and it would not work. Looked like it was writing to the registry but that error 43 still showed up.  Finally, I quit trying, came back and saw your post.  Even though I already knew to run that mod as Admin, I had somehow forgotten to do that on all my attempts.  So, I went back, ran the 6xGPU as admin and amazingly, it worked immediately after rebooting. Now have all 5 cards hashing about 175 S/s per, sucking about 727W at max.

Note that I have #5 plugged in the the last x1 PCIe slot.  I didn't wanna mess with trying the x16 slot on this attempt since i have a feeling that there is a different issue with that slot.  But, instead of taking a chance and buying another GPU outright, I plan to pull 1 off my other rig and test it in that x16 slot.  I am not really optimistic that this 6xGPU mod will have fixed the issue with the x16 slot not working, since I have never even been able to get this rig to boot with the riser plugged into this slot, but I suppose it's at least worth a shot.  Thanks again to Citronick for helping me get past the 4-GPU barrier!

This might be a stupid question, but if 1500-strapping improved both mining & gaming performance/efficiency, then why don't they come that way from the factory lol?  I mean, those 2 uses cover like 99% of uses for these high end GPUs, so why make customers jump through hoops to get the best performance?

so basically, towards the upper end of what Intel has had out in the market for 1-2 years already 

Citronick... can I ask your recommendation on when to run that 6xGPU mod app?  pre or post attempted install of GPU #5?  Meaning, should I run it now with only the 4 working GPUs plugged into my rig or, attempt to install the 5th again (getting the error 43) and THEN run this mod app?  Thanks 

Yeah, most of what I have read concurs that the best method is to use powered USB risers along with the extra molex power to the Mobo in order to distribute the power draw of the GPUs more evenly. My understanding is that using molex to the Mobo without the powered risers has indeed fried a few mobos as apparently it can result in way too much power being drawn directly through the Mobo. I am sure some have made it work with ribbon risers but I will stick solely with powered USB as that's how my first rig is built and it's been running well for 3+ months with no hint of a power distribution issue.

Point of clarification on running the 6xGPU mod... should i go ahead and run it on my rig now... with only the 4 working GPUs hooked up and then try to install the 5th GPU?  Or, should i attempt another install of the 5th GPU FIRST and THEN run the mod?

I admit there is an appeal to go super compact and riser-less.  Depending on how things go with this rig, I may consider something like that if and when I build a 3rd rig.  But, I am not jumping into that unless I start to see some market confidence and price rises in ZEC, ETH and/or XMR.  I just have a hard time getting past the fixed base cost of each new rig... meaning for instance that two 6-GPU rigs would be much cheaper than building three 4-cards rigs. But, at a certain point, if the 6-card rigs encounter too many problems and down-time, that advantage shrinks.

Finally, thanks for the tip on ETH.  I actually had my first rig mining ETH for a couple of months until ZEC came out and i pointed it to that.  I have all 4 of the GPU's on that system modded BIOS using the 1500-strapped method so actually, running that rig on ETH only pulls moderately more power than running ZEC.  Granted, that's only a 4-card rig with only 1000W PSU, but even running full bore ETH i was around 650W so plenty of headroom.  I am highly considering pointing that rig back to ETH shortly.  As for the 2nd rig, I suspect it could easily 5 GPUs on ETH and most likely 6... ASSUMING i can get the GPU strap-modded the same way.  I already tried it on my first GPU and for some reason it didn't work so I had to flash it back to the factory specs.  But, since it seems that that strap-mod benefits ETH mining a lot more than ZEC mining, I haven't prioritized getting back to that yet, at least until I can get my 5th/6th card issue fixed.

Thanks again for the help and please let me know what you recommend on running that 6xGPU mod before or after I try to install the 5th GPU again.

Thanks Citronik for the thoughtful and helpful information... i really appreciate it! I will respond to all your points as some i have done and some yet to do:

1- I do have the additional molex plug powering the mobo. I knew I would need to do this going in so after getting that message I think after installing GPU #2, I plugged that additional molex into the mobo.

2- I am using all powered USB risers at this point, in x1 slots 1, 2, 3 & 5. I got most of them from the same Amazon seller and didn't have any problems with 3 of them on rig #1 and the first 4 on this rig.  However, I do have 1-2 extra ones lying around, along with 3-4 additional USB-3 cables, so I imagine it's a good idea to try all of those before proceeding with further trouble-shooting.

3- My PSU is a Rosewill 1200W Quark Series Platinum.  With 4 GPUs running on Claymore ZEC miner V8, I am hitting total system wattage peaks in the 600-610W range. This includes the CPU/Fans/etc, which use about 60-70 watts, so even adding 2 more 470's would put me at just under 900W max... so, less than 75% of its total capacity.  Based on this, I don't believe it is a total power issue causing my problems (unless I am really missing something).

4- I'm already on W7 and would prefer to avoid W10 if possible, so I am considering that registry hack you mentioned.  I actually read about it over on the ZEC mining forum... at least I assume it is the one you are talking about.  Would you mind checking to see if this is the same one?

https://lbr.id.lv/6xgpu_mod/

Since this involved messing with the registry I don't want to take any chances, but if this is the same version you are talking about and you say it's relatively straight forward to implement, I will give it a shot.

Hoping/assuming this mod will solve the error 43 issue in slot #6, I still have that pesky issue with the lone x16 slot on this board.  Have you ever experienced anything like that?  (not being able to get past post with anything plugged into it via USB riser, including setting PCIe to Gen1 (from auto) in the BIOS).  Note that I tried to use this slot several times before getting my rig up to 4 GPUs, so I don't believe it's the number of GPU limit issue causing this problem.

I also read that some people have had success by turning off the on-board video in the BIOS. Not sure that was meant to fix this exact issue, but maybe it's worth a try?  Not sure exactly how to do that... will probably take me at least an hour to find as does most anything I try to find in the BIOS lol.

Thanks again for the tips... hoping to get this rig up to 5 GPUs soon, ideally in the x16 slot, so I feel comfortable enough that it will take 6 GPUs to buy the 6th.

So, I checked and I actually got both my BTC R2 mobos from NewEgg back in early Nov, not Amazon as I had previously stated.  I also got a notice from someone posting in the ASRock technical support forum that I should open an actual service ticket for these issues, so I just did that  couple hours ago. Fingers crossed but based on things I've seen in a few places, this really seems to be an issue with the R2 version since there are hundreds if not thousands of the original version of this mobo running 6 GPUs.

Out of curiosity, what kind of risers are you using on your rig(s)?  Aside from the x16 slot problem, I am now wondering of trying to hook up the 5th GPU via a ribbon riser instead of a powered USB riser.  I also thought about trying to plug #5 directly into x1 slot #6.  Not sure but I think there might be room since it is at the end of the mobo. not sure where my head was on that lol. obviously cannot plug into mobo since this is an x1 slot lol

I will post more info on these tests after trying them, as well as if i hear anything back from ASRock tech support.

Hmmm that's disheartening to hear.The thing I don't get is that there are probably 1000's of these boards running 6 GPUs worldwide and never seen anyone mention these issues on the youtube videos.  I mean, these boards are designed for mining and miners natural expect all 6 PCI slots to work fine, but seems like more and more problems popping up... could it be only with the R2.0 versions?  Anyway, I posted a thread to tech support in the ASRock forum querrying about the same 2 issues so I will pass along any info i get there if it works.  I also have a 2nd one that I havent even cracked the box on yet since I got 2 from Amazon when they first came back in stock about 5 weeks ago. Beginning to wonder if that was a mistake.

Well, it seems I am jinxed in my efforts to get a 6-GPU system up and running lol.  Granted, my first attempt was on an unproven X99 Mobo, so I am willing to take that as a learning experience but now I am having trouble getting past 4 GPUs on a ASRock BTC Pro mobo that I know for a fact there are probably 1,000's out there running 6 GPUs smoothly.

Anyway, here's the latest.  I was running stable with 4 GPUs in PCIe slots 1, 3, 4 & 5.  Although Phil sent me a x16 ribbon riser, I can't fit it in with my current rig config, so I tried what someone else recommended on this thread... changing PCIe to Gen1 in the BIOS.  After about 45 minutes of searching through the BIOS, I finally found this and set to Gen1. Rebooted once, then powered off and plugged in GPU #5 to the x16 slot via USB Powered Riser.  Powered on and once again, system wont even get past post. 

However, since I haven't bought my 6th GPU yet, i decided to give up temporarily on that x16 slot and plug GPU #5 into the 5th x1 slot.  Hooked everything up exactly the way the other 4 GPUs are, booted up and it seemed to be having problems.  It seemed to stutter or restart a couple of times rather than just 1 as with my other GPU installs.  Finally got to windows startup screen and I logged in.  But here's where the problem shows up...

The pop-up about installing the driver for device pops up but instead of saying driver installation complete in a few seconds, it hangs up for a bit then returns a message saying that device driver could not be installed correctly.  I rebooted a few times, including once where I completely unplugged and replugged the GPU, but got the exact same problem.

When I go into Device Manager, this 5th GPU shows up with the dreaded exclamation point in yellow triangle. When I click on properties is says that windows disabled this device due to error code 43.  I googled this error and employed the recommended fix as follows:

- right click on bad GPU
- select properties
- go to driver tab
- uninstall driver

- right click on Display Devices
- choose Search for new hardware
- this finds the 5th GPU
- but, when I attempt to install the driver again it doesn't work. it tries and for a brief moment, the 5th GPU shows up in device manager without the error triangle, but a screen flicker later, it is back to appearing with the error 43 and will of course not even be recognized by Claymore.

So, has anyone experienced this issue with GPU?  Would be very happy to hear some suggestions on what to try to fix it. Thanks!

Hey John, thanks for this tips.  Lone's tip did indeed fix my current speed issue, but what you mention about changing the x16 slot to Gen1 in the BIOS might actually solve the other issue I am having.  I don't currently have anything plugged into the x16 slot because I cannot get past post with a USB powered riser plugged in there.  Phil kindly sent me a x16 to x16 ribbon riser, but it isn't long/twistable enough to make work in my current configuration.  So... maybe setting this slot to Gen1 in the BIOS will fix this issue.  Can you provide and tips on how to do this?  Seems that every time i go into BIOS it takes me forever to find things.