PCIe x1 GPUs

[gingerbaker]

So I got a tower that has 1PCIe x16 and 2 PCIe x1s. I already got a good NVIDA GTX 650 Ti BOOST card (yeah I know I should use AMD but apparently it wasn't compatible). That is giving me around 70MH/s.

I am wondering how const-effective it would be to get two PCIe 1s. Has anyone used a small GPU like this with any success? What kind of performance is possible out of a PCIe 1?

Thanks!

[iehoward]

ati is the way to go.

[Morning-Star]

unless you get free power and free vid cards it's ATI or nothing. It doesn't matter PCIe x1 or x2 or x4 etc as barely any bandwidth is used. There are people using PCI (the old type) to PCIe converters and still get the same hash rates.

[opnoskatt]

Unless you get very lucky (right coin at the right time) you aren't likely to be profitable at that hash rate.  Your power consumption + card price will be more than your altcoin yield.

[azurex]

Hi,

You should just get two PCI-e x16 cards and use http://www.amazon.com/Express-Adapter-Extender-Flexible-Extension/dp/B008BZBGPO/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1387281416&sr=1-1&keywords=1x+16x+riser.

I am assuming that you are going to mine scrypt-coins and not SHA-256 (the speed does not get affected for scrypt-coins; I am not sure about the effects on SHA-256).

[gingerbaker]

Well 1st of all, I'm in a pool so the luck factor isn't as applicable.

Also, someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I can't run an ATI card with my tower (I was told it was due to having an Intel i3Pentium Dual-Core Processor). These are the specs:
https://www.asus.com/Desktops/M11AD/#specifications

Glad to know that a converter won't lower the hashrate. I think I'll just use two 1x to 16x PCI-E risers then.

• So, was I misled about being able to run an ATI card in my comp?
• I have a 500watt power supply so if I added a card or two, would I need to upgrade the power supply (the current card already needs 500w)?
• What are some of the most cost-effective ATI cards these days? It seems that there is a point of diminishing returns with cost of the card/hashrate.

[Takara]

I've tried to look for PCIe x1 GPUs for quite awhile, just something basic that I could shove into an old server and give me a few more display choices (onboard of one server is a little trippy) and not had much luck.

As correctly stated earlier in this thread, there will be no difference in hashrates as the bandwidth of a PCIe x1 slot is more than enough, using PCIe x1 extenders to fit PCIe x16 GPUs works perfectly fine (tried and tested myself)

Cost effective wise, if you're going to use Nvidia cards then don't attempt to mine SHA-256 coins, or even Scrypt coins above a difficulty of like 30 as your hashrates to earnings are almost likely going to be negative if factoring in Electrical and Internet costs.
If, however, you're on a flat rate tariff, whereby you pay a single rate for your electric and it doesn't increase, then mining any GPU (As long as you break even) would be well worth it on any coin.

If you feel daring, or just want to test the water per say. Pickup some of these newer coins floating around, 'funcoin' or not just see how things play out for a bit and see if you want to continue mining seriously.

EDIT:

There's no reason why that motherboard/computer cannot support an ATI card. Such person who told you otherwise either doesn't know what they're talking about or are heavily biased to certain setups and manufacturers.

As long as you have the headroom and ability to power the graphics card from your PSU, you'll be fine.

[zhinkk]

I know you don't really care that your hashrate is low, but I just want to make sure you understand. 70Mh/s is VERY low. We aren't even talking 10 pennies a day at this point, I don't think.

[azurex]

• I have a 500watt power supply so if I added a card or two, would I need to upgrade the power supply (the current card already needs 500w)?
• What are some of the most cost-effective ATI cards these days? It seems that there is a point of diminishing returns with cost of the card/hashrate.

You can find the different devices used to mining here: https://litecoin.info/Mining_hardware_comparison.
HD5850 and HD7950 are really worth getting, when it comes to the reward/cost; but they do pull a lot of W. Therefore a bigger and effective PSU would be recommended, e.g. x2 7950 would need atleast 600W PSU.

I know you don't really care that your hashrate is low, but I just want to make sure you understand. 70Mh/s is VERY low. We aren't even talking 10 pennies a day at this point, I don't think.

I can second that, it might even be less than that.

[Takara]

I know you don't really care that your hashrate is low, but I just want to make sure you understand. 70Mh/s is VERY low. We aren't even talking 10 pennies a day at this point, I don't think.

Take into account that's "roughly" 70Khash too and if NO electrical OR internet fees were incurred;
He could get around: ~$0.40 worth of BTC/day or $0.50 worth of LTC/day

It's not ground shaking or earth moving, but it is something.

[erefere]

Anyone knows if my Nvidia GT 240M is good enough for mining?

[gingerbaker]

Cost effective wise, if you're going to use Nvidia cards then don't attempt to mine SHA-256 coins, or even Scrypt coins above a difficulty of like 30 as your hashrates to earnings are almost likely going to be negative if factoring in Electrical and Internet costs.
If, however, you're on a flat rate tariff, whereby you pay a single rate for your electric and it doesn't increase, then mining any GPU (As long as you break even) would be well worth it on any coin.

There's no reason why that motherboard/computer cannot support an ATI card. Such person who told you otherwise either doesn't know what they're talking about or are heavily biased to certain setups and manufacturers.

As long as you have the headroom and ability to power the graphics card from your PSU, you'll be fine.

Alright thanks for the responses.

Glad to hear I can run ATI cards without any issues. What do you mean about "headroom" though?

This is very helpful and I do appreciate the comments re: my hashrate. Also, like someone said, it is something. Keep in mind though, that this is just the beginning to my mining rig with my ButterfylLabs Jalepeno 5GH/s and a few 333Mh/s ASICs. This is just going to supplement those, really.

Electrical costs and internet costs aren't really a factor for me also, as an aside. That being said, how much electricity does a 800watt PSU cost per/day?

I'm currently mining bitcoins just because I don't have any knowledge about the others although I would definitely appreciate some links so I could read up on some viable options. One of my pools also does Litecoin mining, but it's my understanding that those aren't really currency. What are some other good coins to look into?

Thanks again for all the help!

[tanatos]

So I got.... NVIDA GTX 650 Ti BOOST card ... That is giving me around 70MH/s.

Are you using cudaminer?

[gingerbaker]

EDIT: I'm not using CUDA, but rather, I am in the process of looking into it since apparently it is a much more efficient way to deal with NVIDIAs

[gingerbaker]

Within a given model (ie. 6770) what is the better indicator of effective hashing; MHz or GB?

If a given card has a requirement of, say 450W, if I were to run those two in addition to my current card, what would my PSU need? I'm wondering if it's a linear relationship or not.

[azurex]

Normally when they recommend 450W, or really anything, they are overestimating the powerusage a lot.
It really depends on what card you are going to use, as well as the other components in the computer. But an estimation is that x4 r9 280x can be used at full effect, with a 1000W PSU.

A quick google search shows that HD6770 draws 108W at max. Just google the model + wattage, and you will most likely find a few topics about the usage.

[harbinger7x]

No personal experience, but you should be able to get a rough idea of hardware output on this site https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison#Card_Comparison_Spreadsheet. If you are mining altcoins which uses scrypt I reckon it might still help a little

[Takara]

Alright thanks for the responses.

Glad to hear I can run ATI cards without any issues. What do you mean about "headroom" though?

This is very helpful and I do appreciate the comments re: my hashrate. Also, like someone said, it is something. Keep in mind though, that this is just the beginning to my mining rig with my ButterfylLabs Jalepeno 5GH/s and a few 333Mh/s ASICs. This is just going to supplement those, really.

Electrical costs and internet costs aren't really a factor for me also, as an aside. That being said, how much electricity does a 800watt PSU cost per/day?

I'm currently mining bitcoins just because I don't have any knowledge about the others although I would definitely appreciate some links so I could read up on some viable options. One of my pools also does Litecoin mining, but it's my understanding that those aren't really currency. What are some other good coins to look into?

Thanks again for all the help!

Headroom: As in the sense of having enough available wattage/power on the PSU to power multiple GPUs or whichever GPU you pick.
I.e. you need roughly 300W load to mine a 7950/70.
So if you have a 500W PSU, subtract (generous figure, but I'm allowing for discrepancies and degradation in PSU) 10% (50W) leaving you with 450Ws of usable 'headroom'.
Take out 300W for GPU, leaving 150W
Which leaves 150W for your CPU/RAM/Fans/HDDs/etc.

And costs if we assume, substitute in your own values if you know them,
Electrical cost per KW unit: $0.20
800W PSU (If we assume it to be 100% efficient at 100% load (which is basically impossible)) 800W = 0.8KWh (Kilawatt Hour)
Hours in a day: 24 Hours
Do some simple multiplication
$0.20 * (0.8 * 24) = $3.84
Price per unit multiplied by (KWH of device multiplied by 24 hours in a day)

[gingerbaker]

Thanks for clearing that up, I thought thats what you meant.
As far as power, the tower came with a 300 watt power supply but I can't believe it would use that much. Also, as far as ATI cards go, I'm starting to see just how expensive the PSUs are above 750w.

• Is there any way to calculate the usage of the CPU, fan, etc? I know the power usage of the GPUs obviously.
• If I already have this NVIDIA card that runs at 500watt, should I just return it and get an ATI? Is there any doubt it wouldn't be compatible?
• I've been looking at the chart(s) but is there a general rule of thumb regarding model numbers (eg. 7750 vs 6750 vs 5850) when it comes to MH/s per watt?
• I can't seem to find much about what the card identifiers actually mean. I'm wondering if the first number is a _____ then that means it's ______.

[Takara]

Thanks for clearing that up, I thought thats what you meant.
As far as power, the tower came with a 300 watt power supply but I can't believe it would use that much. Also, as far as ATI cards go, I'm starting to see just how expensive the PSUs are above 750w.

• Is there any way to calculate the usage of the CPU, fan, etc? I know the power usage of the GPUs obviously.
• If I already have this NVIDIA card that runs at 500watt, should I just return it and get an ATI? Is there any doubt it wouldn't be compatible?
• I've been looking at the chart(s) but is there a general rule of thumb regarding model numbers (eg. 7750 vs 6750 vs 5850) when it comes to MH/s per watt?
• I can't seem to find much about what the card identifiers actually mean. I'm wondering if the first number is a _____ then that means it's ______.

1; There are various statistics and information out there for every computer component, if you want to check the entire usage of your own computer, yourself and to a precise value you can get yourself one of these; Kill A Watt / Amazon
Otherwise, a quick google search or trawl of a reputable forum such as http://overclock.net will reveal the right range of Wattages for your components.

2; I doubt that Nvidia card runs at 500W, that's just the recommended minimum power supply Wattage for the card. From what I can see and attain, the NVIDA GTX 650 Ti BOOST runs a maximum load wattage of around 240-250W.
The minimum recommended is usually a good guideline of the overall sort of powersupply your computer should have. The 500W is to allow for CPU/HDDs/Fans/etc on top of the GPU load Wattage.

In terms of compatibility, you needn't worry. If your Motherboard has a PCIe x16 slot (Which it clearly has for your 650 Ti) then ANY PCIe device (GPU/RAID card/Sound card/etc) will work.
The restriction is on the software and drivers to the Operating System, not the Hardware itself. And given how ALL modern GPUs have support in Windows, I doubt you'll ever expect an issue.
Just remember to download and install the correct software package/drivers for whichever GPUs you use;
ATI/AMD: http://support.amd.com/en-us/download
Nvidia: http://www.nvidia.co.uk/Download/index.aspx

3; There's no real rule of thumb, higher shader count and faster clock speeds are usually your best bet. But try to buy cards in newer generations, as they're more optimized each time. A HD 79XX card is the most advised 'mining' card, or some of these newer 280X / 290X GPUs are equally as good if not better. Just check the Litecoin Hardware Comparison sheet and (as a rough guide) change KH to MH when doing SHA-256 (Bitcoin) instead of Scrypt (Litecoin/Most Altcoins)
SHA-256 seems to benefit from higher core speeds whereas Scrypt benefits more from higher memory speeds.
https://litecoin.info/Mining_hardware_comparison

4; The Identifiers are usually easily looked up from the Manufacturers site, or using general shopping sites;
I.e. A 11196-00-20G is a Sapphire 7950 3GB as Google reveals;
http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/product/?cid=1&gid=3&sgid=1157&pid=1439&psn=000101
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sapphire-11196-00-20G-HD7950-GDDR5-Graphics/dp/B0091MER16


Hope this helps ^_^

[manofcolombia]

google cudaminer and you should get a decently better hash rate with the new update 12/18 verison