I have my miner split 50/50 between Hashcows and Middlecoin and after 5 days Hashcows has actually been outperforming Middlecoin. In fact Hashcows has paid out 29% more than Middlecoin. Of course, YMMV. It seems like when one pool does good the other does poorly. IMHO splitting between the pools evens things out and makes earnings more stable than just mining at one or the other pool. As far as I know, the only balance you can currently trust at Hashcows is the final payout at 10 PM Central Time.
You don't even have to split 50/50. You can have a script that sets more quota when hashcows is announcing a coin with high profit. For example: import time,os,sys,socket,json,urllib2
def SendCGCommand (command, param, silent=True):
api_ip = '127.0.0.1'
api_port = 4028
s = None
try:
s = socket.socket (socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
s.connect((api_ip,int(api_port)))
s.send (json.dumps({"command":command, "parameter":param}))
data = s.recv(4096).replace('\x00','')
if not silent:
response = json.loads (data)
print response
except:
pass
def DumpHashCows ():
usock = urllib2.urlopen('https://hashco.ws/contact/', timeout = 30)
data = usock.readlines()
usock.close()
profit = 1
for line in data:
if 'Profitability:' in line:
profit = float (line.split (':',1)[1].split('<')[0])
return profit
while True:
cows = DumpHashCows ()
quota = int (cows)
print 'Profit=%.3f' % cows
SendCGCommand ('poolquota', '2,%d' % quota)
time.sleep (60)
Put 2 middlecoin servers as pool 0 and 1 with quota 50 each (or whatever quota you want), and hashcows pool #2 on your miner config |
|
|
|
|
Sorry for the offtopic, I understand that this about the miner, but this ends up being the "go to" thread for who is interested in mining with Nvidia. There's a thread elsewhere that proves ATI cards are affected by vram latency and someone offers to optimize their bios. I wonder what kind of performance would one get if Nvidia cards had such firmware optimization. Is there any software that allows one to experiment with memory tweaking or allows bios modding currently? I remember about Nibitor from the 8800gt days...
|
|
|
|
I've got several Saphire OC 7870s ( http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00A2J4ROE/ref=oh_details_o00_s02_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 ) I'd like to undervolt them, while there's a bunch of info in undervolting 79xx, I haven't found much related to 78xx. My first concern is increasing the life of the cards, and second saving a little power. Unlike other cards, I haven't been able to find a BIOS switch, I'm pretty sure they don't have one. I'm little concerned about bricking them. Outside of general undervolting advice from tutorials like cryptobadgers, does anyone have any advice? Well, you can try VBE7 the same way. Correct me if i am wrong, but he has pitcairn series cards, and as far as i know VBE7 is for Tahiti and up. I actually used VBE7 for Pitcairn cards, namely a VTX3D 7870 and 2 Gigabyte R9-270 OC. Works the same. |
|
|
|
As it stands, it's over budget. I think we can get it lower (without compromising build quality, of course). The PSU's suggested are pretty pricey. Perhaps we can start there?
Oh, I see. The EVGA Supernova used to be affordable. The XFX 1050w PSU (rebadged Seasonic) is only $10 more (AR) than the 850w Seasonic. I'd spend the extra $10. I have had great luck with XFX rebadged Seasonic PSU's. Regarding the XFX being a rebadged Seasonic... not so fast. It is indeed a PSU based on Seasonic platform, that is for sure. What you should confirm is that is indeed made by Seasonic, not a Seasonic design with shitty components and made elsewhere. |
|
|
|
I've got several Saphire OC 7870s ( http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00A2J4ROE/ref=oh_details_o00_s02_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 ) I'd like to undervolt them, while there's a bunch of info in undervolting 79xx, I haven't found much related to 78xx. My first concern is increasing the life of the cards, and second saving a little power. Unlike other cards, I haven't been able to find a BIOS switch, I'm pretty sure they don't have one. I'm little concerned about bricking them. Outside of general undervolting advice from tutorials like cryptobadgers, does anyone have any advice? Well, you can try VBE7 the same way. |
|
|
|
For mining, you are repurposing a gaming card in a market where OC editions are sold for a premium, where more FPS gives advantage on online gaming, where enthusiasts overvolt to get benchmark records, the profit margins for the manufacturers can be low and where they source cheap components to cut cost. While gaming, there are pauses, stuttering (e.g. when loading texture from disk) and the load distribution of games alleviate the card somewhat from 100% or peak usage. When the card goes over capacity, the system will lock up, the card will throttle to lower fps, the drivers will restart, the game will crash to desktop, etc... and you are nearby and KNOW that something is wrong. You act immediately by powering off/restarting the system. Leaving card(s) unnatended, mining 24/7 at a stress and power usage perhaps equivalent to Furmark(?) is a different purpose and scenario for using this device. Very different. Here you want to optimize your hash rate, for profit. Having low hashrate, using too much power, killing your card or even setting the house on fire is surely detrimental to your purpose. Now to the point... How to OPTIMIZE your videocard for hash speed, low power and safety. If you have a 7870XT, 7950, 7970 or 280x videocard, go and post on this thread: https://litecointalk.org/index.php?topic=12369.0 Donate/pay upfront for the service (if you have a card, you already mined coins) and post your ORIGINAL bios. Wait patiently and grab your modded bios. For serie 7 videocards, R9-270 and R9-280 you should lower the voltage of the bios to 1075 mV or below with: http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/vbe7-vbios-editor-for-radeon-hd-7000-series-cards.189089/. Visit this thread for some comments on bios flashing and hash speed/low power usage tips and optimization: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=395004.msg4500529#msg4500529Running on default voltage will KILL or seriously reduce the lifespan your card, so you MUST lower the voltage. Mining 24/7 can destroy the voltage controller, capacitors or the rest of the power block, even more if they are cheap sourced and don't have proper cooling. Some people had their cards throw sparks, put out smoke and even catch fire. You must make sure you have information about "VRM temperature" on your card. See screenshot below. If not, you're mining "blind", praying, and in this case you MUST lower the voltage even more. You also MUST run the fan at decent speed, at least ~70%, even if sgminer shows low core temperature, to cool the rams and power block. Note that the GDDR5 rams are hammered at scrypt mining with unusual access patterns, considering that cards are game accelerating devices. rams tipically have no cooling, no heatsinks. The effect of scrypt mining on rams is unknown for me atm, but artifacts are to be expected if you want to play games later or sell the card to a gamer, despite error correction. Don't push the card fans too much though, because they can degrade quickly too at max rotation. You should provide extra cooling for your cards, pointing an household large fan to your rig. Then go to the link mentioned above, pick sgminer and those .bin files on the top comment: http://www.reddit.com/r/litecoinmining/comments/1va8g2/ann_sgminer_400_release/Copy those bins to the sgminer folder and either use on your config: "thread-concurrency" : "24000", "gpu-threads" : "1", "intensity": "20" or "thread-concurrency" : "8192", "gpu-threads" : "2", "intensity": "13" Use also: "gpu-memclock" : "1500",or "gpu-memclock" : "1600", if it's stable and faster. For "gpu-engine", start at ~950 and raise it 10 Mhz at a time until you max out the hash rate and while the card is stable, of course. Somewhere from 1000 to 1100. GPU0 is my cheap brand 7970 card pulling now 790 Kh/s at the edge of stability, for a screenshot. It's usually at 770 Kh/s and for shits I already pushed it to ~820 Khs but I was not happy about the required voltage and power consumption. Before, I was at ~680 Kh/s with 710 very hard to reach.  Note the acceptable values of "GPU temperature", "VDDC", "VDDC current In" and "VRM temperature". If your card VRM does not report those values, you have a subpar card for mining. Undervolt more and be content with decent speed at low power usage. Feel free to correct and add further tips. Note also that this is about videocards only. Nothing here discusses the remaining good practices, the REQUIRED high quality PCI-e risers, motherboards and GOOD Power Supply Units |
|
|
|
Hold on? Are NVidia cards becoming viable on price/performance vs ATI?  Can one install Nvidia and ATI on the same Windows rig? Anyone experimented NVidia cards on PCI-e risers? |
|
|
|
@Wipeout2097 : Wow, that's a real usefull link ; I can just applause; I'll try to get more from my GPUs too. Please donate upfront to TheStilt for the service. Don't burden him/his thread with what is unnecessary either. I now remember him from old days (some online articles and forums), he is a fantastic human being and hardware expert. IMHO we're very lucky he joined the coin mining community. |
|
|
|
This is going on for too long, and you risk killing your card with unnapropriate BIOSes, not to speak about the peace of mind you're losing. People posting random stuff for the sake of a bounty doesn't help either. I'm going to say this for the last time: go and post on this thread: https://litecointalk.org/index.php?topic=12369.0 Donate him your 1000 Doge and post your ORIGINAL bios. Wait and grab your modded bios, edit the voltage to, say, 1081 mV with: http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/vbe7-vbios-editor-for-radeon-hd-7000-series-cards.189089/. Or better yet, look into drakoin's undervolting/power saving thread. Donate him some doge too. Then go to the link mentioned above, pick sgminer and those .bin files on the top comment: http://www.reddit.com/r/litecoinmining/comments/1va8g2/ann_sgminer_400_release/Copy those bins to the sgminer folder and either use on your config: "thread-concurrency" : "24000",
"gpu-threads" : "1",
"intensity": "20"or "thread-concurrency" : "8192",
"gpu-threads" : "2",
"intensity": "13"you sir have saved me!!! thanks to The Stilt I now have a modded bios and Im getting 749kh/s!!! I doubt I would have found that post without your help! if you want some dogecoin sent your way send me your address  Nice. Now, did you set a low voltage on the bios with VBE7, e.g. 1081 mV or even 1050? Did you download the optimized .bin files? |
|
|
|
How do you measure your Watts? I have a device similar to a Kill-A-Watt and notice the difference between a mining rig with just one card and also with the one I want to measure If I want to measure the core, to figure out voltage vs power use, that's with Gpu-z |
|
|
|
Cool thread but my XFX 7970 DD GHZ Edition just can't not suck ass.  Stock voltage/bios best I could get was 540khash/s at 85oCw100%fan 1025/1500. After many many many bios tweaks I have settled on a variation of the economy mod...440khash/s@72oCwith45%fan 852/799/0.95V. Still utter crap but at least its quiet, cooler and less expensive crap...  |
|
|
|
|
Regarding PSUs, I suggest a Seasonic X 850W and an EVGA Supernova 1300w. Corsair seems to be dumping too many defective units, Thermaltake I have no idea but I've never seen this brand offering products with top performance.
Cards: ASUS usually does not compromise on quality, so I guess DirectCU II 270x or 280x could be a good choice.
|
|
|
|
This is going on for too long, and you risk killing your card with unnapropriate BIOSes, not to speak about the peace of mind you're losing. People posting random stuff for the sake of a bounty doesn't help either. I'm going to say this for the last time: go and post on this thread: https://litecointalk.org/index.php?topic=12369.0 Donate him your 1000 Doge and post your ORIGINAL bios. Wait and grab your modded bios, edit the voltage to, say, 1081 mV with: http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/vbe7-vbios-editor-for-radeon-hd-7000-series-cards.189089/. Or better yet, look into drakoin's undervolting/power saving thread. Donate him some doge too. Then go to the link mentioned above, pick sgminer and those .bin files on the top comment: http://www.reddit.com/r/litecoinmining/comments/1va8g2/ann_sgminer_400_release/Copy those bins to the sgminer folder and either use on your config: "thread-concurrency" : "24000",
"gpu-threads" : "1",
"intensity": "20"or "thread-concurrency" : "8192",
"gpu-threads" : "2",
"intensity": "13" |
|
|
|
What about a pool like Hashbros, Hashcows or Middlecoin with an added option for leaving your profits in their wallet which they use a trading bot to make even more profit for miners as-well as the pool owners.
I personally would point all of my hashing power at it !!!!!!!!!!
Anyone else think this would be a good idea?
In theory, it is a good idea, yes. |
|
|
|
|
I have a 7870 LE hashing at 510 Kh/s, 2 R9-270's @ 470 Kh/s and a shitty defective 7870 that can't go above 400.
Hashing speed depends on memory latency, as suspected by some and proven by TheStilt, a member of litecointalk forum and top overclocker/tweaker.
|
|
|
|
Look, I'm not sure if this post adds anything to the discussion, but imho the core issue is not Bitcoin vs alts. It's rather the old issue of ASICs that put mining out of reach of the majority. People that flock to alts don't necessarily do so because they love alts. They do it because they love money (like Bitcoin miners do) and because they have access to video cards. I say this from experience. In late summer of 2013 during a heated round of Unreal Tournament 3  I finally killed my venerable Nvidia 8800 card and so started looking on the internet for reviews. Somewhere I came across with Bitcoin GPU mining and therefore choose to buy an ATI videocard, namely a 7870 Tahiti LE. I went: wait, my ATI will pay for itself doing this Bitcoin mining !? Nope, it did not and it would never, thanks to Bitcoin ASICs. With a mix of frustration and enthusiasm, I searched more and almost pre-ordered a Japaleno. Throwing money into a pit, didn't look wise though. Searching more, I found out about litecoin. Fast forward, I'm pointing 2.7 Mh/s at middlecoin.com and looking into more, to get BTC. I don't hold alts. I don't "mine" alts. I want the mining hardware to shit out BTC. Before you ask why didn't I buy BTC ASICs during all this time? Well, because they aren't for sale at any store in Portugal. I go to the store and bring a videocard in hand. If a videocard malfunctions I go back and the money is returned. I don't have to throw money to the internet and pray that the hardware is delivered on the date and working condition advertised. Even more, I was scammed here at the forum on some "cloud" Bitcoin mining garbage. I'm not going to insult people's intelligence and claim I can generalize from my anedoctal episode. But how many people are into alts just to get BTC? |
|
|
|
Take a look at the voltages expected and effective: http://imgur.com/BWcy7yK,lcmRu0j#1+3.3V : 1.14V +12V: 9.98V -12V: -1.5V -5V: 1.58V Could be that speedfan wasn't really successful at detecting the chipset or gets crap from the SMBus, but if those readings are correct, there are serious issues on the motherboard or PSU. |
|
|
|
|
Show Posts
