Hello,
I am here today to give you all a few tips on increasing your mining hashrates while mining vertcoin.

As you likely know, vertcoin mining uses an algorithm that causes your hashrate to be about half that of other crypto currencies, such as litecoin. This algorithm is supposedly ASIC-proof, so gpu mining should remain a viable option for quite some time to come.

I will begin by stating the specifications of my computer.
-AMD 6600k @4.5 ghz
- 2x xfx 7970 graphics cards
- 8gb corsair vengeance ram
- corsair cx750m power supply
-500gb hdd
-64gb ssd- boot drive

This setup is reasonably powerful, and yields a hashrate of around 700-730 khash/sec, with each card producing between 350 and 365 respectively. This is with considerable tweaking, however. When I first build my rig and began mining, I was only producing about 250 khash per card. With the tweaks I am about to show you, I gained about a 40 percent gain from stock settings.


I am assuming that most of you will have built your rigs and have successfully begun mining with Vertminer, a modified version of cg-miner, made for vertcoin.


The variables that affect hashrates are as follows:
Intensity
Powertune
Core clock
Memory clock
Temperature

To access the command menu to change these settings, press "G" while inside vertminer, then "C" to access this menu.

Intensity, simply is the amount of strain the program will put on your hardware. On some graphics cards, such as the 7XXX series, 13 provides the best hashrate. This setting can be set up to 20, but most cards have a setting that they work best at, and going above this simply degrades performance and the life of your hardware. Play around with this setting, as it can really improve your results.

Powertune is a setting that allows your graphics card to use more or less electricity than it's rated usage. This can be set from -20 to 20. The higher you put this setting, the more heat your hardware will generate  however you can use this to stabilize an otherwise unstable system. Personally, I keep this setting variating between zero and five, as my temperatures are quite high above this setting.

Core clock is the speed that the graphics core in your graphics card runs at. Changing this setting will have the largest effect on your hashrate, tied with memory clock. The higher you go, usually the faster your hashrate is, however the higher your temperatures will be.

Memory clock is the speed that the memory on your graphics card runs at. As with core clock, the higher you go, you will typically get a higher hashrate and higher temperatures.

A noteworthy element of core and memory clock settings, are that if you find a "magic ratio" between these clocks, you will get higher performance than simply increasing clock speeds. For example, I get a higher hashrate with my clocks at 1085/1750, as opposed to 1100/1775.

Finally, temperatures. My two 7970's run at 83 and 87 degrees celcius respectively. The higher hashrate is on the first card, at 83c. A temperature to aim for would be 85 degrees, however if you can get lower temperatures more power to you. Understandably, the higher your temperatures, the more strain on your system, and the shorter it's expected life will be.

I hope this guide has been helpful to you all. Please let me know if you would like any more information, and the best of luck to you.