Ethereum mining still profitable?

[Narosya]

Anybody know if you can run ethminer using old AMD drivers like 14.4 and 13.12? I want to use more than 4 GPUs but I am using Windows 7.

Etherminer does not work with 14.4 or below. The lowest version which can work is the 14.6. It works well with 15.7. If you just want to mine with 6 GPU, there is no need to mod.

I have the same problem. With Win 7 and AMD 15.12 drivers, the fifth card doesn't install properly. All I can find on the internet so far are mystical references.

Cant do 5 gpus with WIndows 7, upgrade to 8.1

You can certainly do 5+ GPUs on Win 7, it just takes a little work to get it going....

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=712228 - here's a thread for anyone wondering how to get it done. Hope it helps!

In general, it is possible to use up to 7 GPU in the Win7. Some motherboards do not support too many GPU.

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[adaseb]

+5 GPUs on Windows 7, wont with with the drivers you need to mine ETH.

There was a method with 13.12

[Eliovp]

Got 16 Rigs with 6 GPU's with windows 7. Works perfectly.

Works even better on Windows 10.

[Qumat]

+5 GPUs on Windows 7, wont with with the drivers you need to mine ETH.

There was a method with 13.12

Most motherboards will support 5 GPU without problem. Some boards share the PCIE lane, you cannot use all the slots.

[fricircled]

Got 16 Rigs with 6 GPU's with windows 7. Works perfectly.

Works even better on Windows 10.

Do you mean the miners hash faster on Windows 10. I heard somebody said Win 10 is not good for mining. Do you have AMD cards?

[adaseb]

Got 16 Rigs with 6 GPU's with windows 7. Works perfectly.

Works even better on Windows 10.

How did you manage that? What drivers?

[Auponef]

Got 16 Rigs with 6 GPU's with windows 7. Works perfectly.

Works even better on Windows 10.

How did you manage that? What drivers?

At least for the nVidia cards, the Windows 10 is worth than windows 7. You can find that in the Ethereum forum.

[fricircled]

Got 16 Rigs with 6 GPU's with windows 7. Works perfectly.

Works even better on Windows 10.

How did you manage that? What drivers?

I have the same question. There are many reports that Windows 10 is bad for mining Ethereum.

[Vaccomondus]

Got 16 Rigs with 6 GPU's with windows 7. Works perfectly.

Works even better on Windows 10.

How did you manage that? What drivers?

I have the same question. There are many reports that Windows 10 is bad for mining Ethereum.

not for nvidia apparently

[KodesCrew]

ether will be dump as soon as possible

[bluebox]

ether will be dump as soon as possible

As long as it's making higher lows as time goes by (as it has), who gives a crap? It seems apparent that there is a rising price floor under this thing for whatever reason, and it also seems a great deal of the flow on Kraken and Poloniex is BTC->ETH.

[bluebox]

Well, I need to update my numbers — just applied the nvidia-smi tweak mentioned at

http://cryptomining-blog.com/7341-how-to-squeeze-some-extra-performance-mining-ethereum-on-nvidia/

and the 970's are doing 21MH/s each (EVGA 3975-KR SSC's). That puts the watt/MH number at 4.2, besting an undervolted 280X handily while matching its hash rate. Now if they just weren't more expensive than old radeons, there'd be nothing left to complain about... 

But I suppose at .015BTC/ETH no-one's worrying about power these days. 

The dual 970's I have average 36+MH/s on 90W/card, stock clocks, generating ~1.2 ETH/day. Quite frankly, total system power should be the mark to judge by, mine takes 260W (gamer's i5 devil's canyon board).

By the numbers above:
R290X: 180W/31MH = 5.8W/MH (or 140/28 = 5W/MH undervolted, if correct, but what's the point?)
GTX970: 90/18 = 5W/MH stock clocks on factory super-clocked board

I'll say it again; watt-per-hash, the AMD and GTX cards are pretty much equal now thanks to dev's work on CUDA mining (Genoil!). Most GTX970's are still retailing for what they did over a year ago; used are getting 80% of retail give-take a few. If you can get 80% of current retail for a 290X later this year, good onya, to each their own. 

[Za1n]

Well, I need to update my numbers — just applied the nvidia-smi tweak mentioned at

http://cryptomining-blog.com/7341-how-to-squeeze-some-extra-performance-mining-ethereum-on-nvidia/

and the 970's are doing 21MH/s each (EVGA 3975-KR SSC's). That puts the watt/MH number at 4.2, besting an undervolted 280X handily while matching its hash rate. Now if they just weren't more expensive than old radeons, there'd be nothing left to complain about... 

But I suppose at .015BTC/ETH no-one's worrying about power these days. 

The dual 970's I have average 36+MH/s on 90W/card, stock clocks, generating ~1.2 ETH/day. Quite frankly, total system power should be the mark to judge by, mine takes 260W (gamer's i5 devil's canyon board).

By the numbers above:
R290X: 180W/31MH = 5.8W/MH (or 140/28 = 5W/MH undervolted, if correct, but what's the point?)
GTX970: 90/18 = 5W/MH stock clocks on factory super-clocked board

I'll say it again; watt-per-hash, the AMD and GTX cards are pretty much equal now thanks to dev's work on CUDA mining (Genoil!). Most GTX970's are still retailing for what they did over a year ago; used are getting 80% of retail give-take a few. If you can get 80% of current retail for a 290X later this year, good onya, to each their own. 

I was looking into buying a GTX970, is the 90W figure for power draw something you actually measured (i.e with a Kill-a-watt) or just the stated power draw from the manufacturer?

[bluebox]

I was looking into buying a GTX970, is the 90W figure for power draw something you actually measured (i.e with a Kill-a-watt) or just the stated power draw from the manufacturer?

Earlier in this thread I mentioned using a UPS that has wattage readout. You can get individual card power draw with software like afterburner, precision X, etc.

Using afterburner I oc'd the pair of 970's gpu ~1440MHz, mem ~3700MHz, wattage is ~115 each, gpu temps 65-70C, total system @UPS is 330W, getting 43MH/s. These are EVGA 3975-KR SSC AC2+

Factory o/c settings they run 90W each @ 1440gpu/3000mem, total system @270W, get 38MH/s. Not sure the extra o/c is worth it...

[Vaccomondus]

i think you're wrong, because my 970 power is 200w with oc, impossible to be 115w or even 90w lol that's too low, something is surely wrong on your end

maybe mining eth is less demanding than minign decred?

[madwica]

i think you're wrong, because my 970 power is 200w with oc, impossible to be 115w or even 90w lol that's too low, something is surely wrong on your end

maybe mining eth is less demanding than minign decred?

Did you measure your power with a power meter? He did it with a power meter. What is the brand of your card?

[antantti]

It is possible to break 200w barrier with 970 but you need 8+6 or 8+8 pin model for that. 6+6 pin and 8-pin models are limited lower. Gigabyte G1 is one example of a card that is normally never power limited.

I still think bluebox has a little bit overoptimistic UPS. It is possible to gain nice power savings without losing too much performance with these cards but those number are too low. I might be wrong though.

Bluebox, try mem speed of 4000MHz or even higher, you should be really close to 22MH.

[Mastsetad]

I was looking into buying a GTX970, is the 90W figure for power draw something you actually measured (i.e with a Kill-a-watt) or just the stated power draw from the manufacturer?

Earlier in this thread I mentioned using a UPS that has wattage readout. You can get individual card power draw with software like afterburner, precision X, etc.

Using afterburner I oc'd the pair of 970's gpu ~1440MHz, mem ~3700MHz, wattage is ~115 each, gpu temps 65-70C, total system @UPS is 330W, getting 43MH/s. These are EVGA 3975-KR SSC AC2+

Factory o/c settings they run 90W each @ 1440gpu/3000mem, total system @270W, get 38MH/s. Not sure the extra o/c is worth it...

According to your figure, it is more efficient to run at 38MH/s per 270W. But for the current Etherum price, you can get more with the 43MH setting.

[Vaccomondus]

i think you're wrong, because my 970 power is 200w with oc, impossible to be 115w or even 90w lol that's too low, something is surely wrong on your end

maybe mining eth is less demanding than minign decred?

Did you measure your power with a power meter? He did it with a power meter. What is the brand of your card?

yea in idle is 50w the whole system, my psu is a bit ancient (ax 750 gold) and in when i mine it say 250w, so i must assume that the gpu is consuming 200, gigabyte g1

It is possible to break 200w barrier with 970 but you need 8+6 or 8+8 pin model for that. 6+6 pin and 8-pin models are limited lower. Gigabyte G1 is one example of a card that is normally never power limited.

I still think bluebox has a little bit overoptimistic UPS. It is possible to gain nice power savings without losing too much performance with these cards but those number are too low. I might be wrong though.

Bluebox, try mem speed of 4000MHz or even higher, you should be really close to 22MH.

yeah i have the g1 8+6 pin, you think that for mining is better to have a limited gpu with 8 pin only? what you recommend in this case?

edit..i was confusing the card i don't have the g1, i have the other gigabyte still 8+6 pin and oc by default

[bluebox]

It is possible to break 200w barrier with 970 but you need 8+6 or 8+8 pin model for that. 6+6 pin and 8-pin models are limited lower. Gigabyte G1 is one example of a card that is normally never power limited.

I still think bluebox has a little bit overoptimistic UPS. It is possible to gain nice power savings without losing too much performance with these cards but those number are too low. I might be wrong though.

Bluebox, try mem speed of 4000MHz or even higher, you should be really close to 22MH.

970's of any brand aren't spec'd to pull more than 145W max (as are mine), likely with with clocks and fans maxed, so I don't see how you could "break 200W"
http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gtx-970/specifications

Number of pins/connectors used doesn't change the amount of power it requires in operation, it's only how power is drawn from the ps.

I don't have an "overly optimistic UPS" (APC backups 1500), it reads watts, volts and amperage on a continuous basis better than a "kill-o-watt" meter. Sheesh — I'm an electrical engineer and operate a 1700-core HPC cluster in my day job... Like I said, the mobo, ps, drives etc. draw about 70W during operation, and the cards each can be monitored for %TDP in software (afterburner, precisionX, etc). The numbers add up to what the UPS is reading out, I have no doubt it's correct particularly when modifying clocks and observing power changes.

4000MHz is too unstable, the miner reports bad nonce values from the GPU. Backing down to 3700 solved all issues.