Back to mining...

[VacantPaper]

Hello everyone, nice to be back on the forums! I used to be an aggressive BTC miner, and a daily forums user. I had a problem at one point where I was in a public area with my laptop, and somehow I lost everything. It was kind of disappointing, so I closed all my accounts and quit for a while.

About five months later here I am; built a new computer and I'm back at it. Might as well jump right into my question,

When I start mining (I use GUIminer just because it's less of a headache) I get about 490-510Mh/s, which isn't too bad compared to my last mining rig. (I only got about 20 ) But I do remember there were some flags I added that significantly increased my hash/s rate, but I forgot what they all were and what they meant. If someone could refresh my memory that would be greatly appreciated.

Also, I want to know what the long term effects of mining on my *brand new* graphics card is going to do...how much can it handle/will it wear and tear/will it void my warranty if something happens to it, etc.

Thanks in advance.

[OdinHephaestus]

Hello everyone, nice to be back on the forums! I used to be an aggressive BTC miner, and a daily forums user. I had a problem at one point where I was in a public area with my laptop, and somehow I lost everything. It was kind of disappointing, so I closed all my accounts and quit for a while.

About five months later here I am; built a new computer and I'm back at it. Might as well jump right into my question,

When I start mining (I use GUIminer just because it's less of a headache) I get about 490-510Mh/s, which isn't too bad compared to my last mining rig. (I only got about 20 ) But I do remember there were some flags I added that significantly increased my hash/s rate, but I forgot what they all were and what they meant. If someone could refresh my memory that would be greatly appreciated.

Also, I want to know what the long term effects of mining on my *brand new* graphics card is going to do...how much can it handle/will it wear and tear/will it void my warranty if something happens to it, etc.

Thanks in advance.

You can find flags others have had luck with here:
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison

[VacantPaper]

You can find flags others have had luck with here:
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison

Thanks for the link mate, turns out "-w 64" works best for me, although it doesn't do much. A solid 510 Mh/s is good enough for now though.

However, would you happen to know if constantly mining with my GPU would have any *bad* effect on it in the near or otherwise future? Thanks again.

[OdinHephaestus]

The most common problem with GPU mining, is the chance of fragmenting your videos cards RAM. This will cause your card to lock up every time the bit that got fragmented is called.  There is a chance it will fragment every time load the ram; for the usual gamer, this isn't a problem, but for GPU miners, who keep their cards under severe loads all the time, the chance is higher.

Your cards lifespan will shorten the longer you mine, but there is no way to predict when/if/where it will happen.  It's just a risk that comes with mining.

[VacantPaper]

The most common problem with GPU mining, is the chance of fragmenting your videos cards RAM. This will cause your card to lock up every time the bit that got fragmented is called.  There is a chance it will fragment every time load the ram; for the usual gamer, this isn't a problem, but for GPU miners, who keep their cards under severe loads all the time, the chance is higher.

Your cards lifespan will shorten the longer you mine, but there is no way to predict when/if/where it will happen.  It's just a risk that comes with mining.

Ouch... for a $300 graphics card, I have to wonder if it's really worth the risk. Is it easy to fix though, if it happens?

[baracuda]

Yup. It's easy to fix. Just costs $300.

[VacantPaper]

Yup. It's easy to fix. Just costs $300.

Haha, I see what you mean. Thanks for the info!