Cryptocoin Mining?

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IEC

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Jun 10, 2004
14,600
6,084
136
I'm running 4x 290 and 1x 280X with pretty much the same settings as I run scrypt miners. My higher hash is mainly due to the cards being used, not the settings.
 

wand3r3r

Diamond Member
May 16, 2008
3,180
0
0
The use of bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies carries the risk of violating citizens’ property rights and cannot be used in Russia, the country’s Prosecutor General's Office concluded after meeting with the Central Bank, FSB, and Interior Ministry.

“The monitoring of the use of virtual currencies shows an increasing interest in them, including for the purpose of money laundering, profit obtained through illegal means,” ITAR-TASS quoted the Prosecutor General’s Office as saying.

“Russia’s official currency is the ruble. The introduction of other types of currencies and the issue of money surrogates are banned,”the statement says, meaning that cryptocurrencies - the most popular of which is bitcoin - cannot be used by Russian citizens or corporations.

Due to the anonymous nature of virtual currencies, the Central Bank warns that Russians, either knowingly or not, “may become involved, including unintentionally, in illegal activity such as the legalization (laundering) of criminal gains and financing terrorism,” the statement says.

http://rt.com/business/bitcoin-russia-use-ban-942/

I like how the central bank is so concerned about the citizens, not that it has anything to do with their own interests in controlling the monetary supply.
 

Virge_

Senior member
Aug 6, 2013
621
0
0
All of the sudden none of my BAMT machines will spin up. When doing a restart it specifically states "cgminer api failed..." and never starts hashing. Reboots do not fix the issue, nor does switching pools. Anyone else experiencing this?
 

geokilla

Platinum Member
Oct 14, 2006
2,012
3
81
Can anyone help me? I modded the vBIOS so that "stock" speeds at 975 core @ 1.09VDCC. However when it mines, CGminer is automatically raising it to 1.125VDCC even though there's no flag or commits in the configuration file telling CGMiner to overclock my GPU.
 
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thilanliyan

Lifer
Jun 21, 2005
12,059
2,272
126
On a side note, I found a scipt to restart cgminer at intervals in case it has crashed while you're away.

Put on the desktop or wherever you want in e.g.
StartMiners.Bat
(remove the extra space in the path, the forum wants to make a smiley face)
You can switch the path as needed, the first E: is to get CMD on the right HDD. If you use C: just remove the first line and switch the second like this.



I haven't tested it overnight but I assume it works.

Does that check if the miner is crashed or does it just kill it at a set time and restart it?
 

PhIlLy ChEeSe

Senior member
Apr 1, 2013
962
0
0
Hey all!
I have never mined but I have a few AMD cards sitting around, I want to get started and make some coin back on my cards.
Can anyone guide me, I have five 5770's plus a board that can run them all. I'm a total noob on this subject.............HELP!
 

Mark R

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
8,513
16
81
I've found that cgminer restart scripts don't work.

In my experience, if cgminer crashes, about 99% of the time, it's because the hardware has frozen, or the driver has gone nuts.

The script can kill cgminer, but it will fail to start or hang on restart. Even trying to soft restart the computer will fail, as the driver will hang at shutdown, and prevent the restart from taking place.

Only thing that worked for me, was a plug in timer, that cut power for 1 minute every 24 hours, although now that I've got rid of the defective cards, I find that cgminer can run for weeks at a time without a hitch.
 
Feb 19, 2009
10,457
10
76
For some insane reason I could never get any cgminer to work, ever, after countless troubleshooting. But guiminer derivatives work fine, eventhough its just a UI shell on top.

Also, Sochi effect is kicking in and Doge is flying high.
 

SimianR

Senior member
Mar 10, 2011
609
16
81
Can someone give me a link to the version of CGMiner they are using to mine maxcoin? I got one off 1gh.com and I'm not so sure about it. It keeps crashing and I've tried a bunch of different config settings with no luck.

Thanks :)
 

IEC

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Jun 10, 2004
14,600
6,084
136
That is the one I am using. I don't use intensity higher than 13.
 

Attic

Diamond Member
Jan 9, 2010
4,282
2
76
All of the sudden none of my BAMT machines will spin up. When doing a restart it specifically states "cgminer api failed..." and never starts hashing. Reboots do not fix the issue, nor does switching pools. Anyone else experiencing this?

I want to say I had that same issue, can't remember the exact lead up or related error message in the terminal window.

You can try taking the USB out and plugging into a windows box and running a disk check on it with scan for and fix any issues options selected.

I have had this solve various issues with bamt before I've succumbed to rage killing my USB stick.
 

geokilla

Platinum Member
Oct 14, 2006
2,012
3
81
Can anyone help me? I modded the vBIOS so that "stock" speeds at 975 core @ 1.09VDCC. However when it mines, CGminer is automatically raising it to 1.125VDCC even though there's no flag or commits in the configuration file telling CGMiner to overclock my GPU.
Bump.
 

SimianR

Senior member
Mar 10, 2011
609
16
81
That is the one I am using. I don't use intensity higher than 13.

Yeah, I've tried 12, 13 and 14. It always crashes within like 30 minutes and then CGWatcher started relentlessly trying to restart it over and over. Would you mind posting your config for one of your 290s?

This is my general config:

"keccak" : true,
"intensity" : "13",
"vectors" : "1",
"worksize" : "512",
"lookup-gap" : "2",
"thread-concurrency" : "32765",
"gpu-engine" : "950",
"gpu-memclock" : "1250",
"temp-cutoff" : "99",
"temp-overheat" : "95",
"temp-target" : "75",
"gpu-dyninterval" : "7",
"gpu-fan" : "45-65",
"auto-fan" : true,
"gpu-powertune" : "0",
 

geokilla

Platinum Member
Oct 14, 2006
2,012
3
81
In vbe7 there are typically two fields I have to modify to my desired voltage. A boost and non boost state I believe, but two fields associated with the highest clocks.

What's the OS and card?
Yep those two fields are less than what CGMiner is setting them at.

State 1 - Performance. #3, core is 850 @ 1000VDCC. #4, core is 975 @ 1081 VDCC.

XFX 7950 TDKC and Windows 7. Everything was fine before so I don't know why it decided to break now.
 

Attic

Diamond Member
Jan 9, 2010
4,282
2
76
Yep those two fields are less than what CGMiner is setting them at.

State 1 - Performance. #3, core is 850 @ 1000VDCC. #4, core is 975 @ 1081 VDCC.

XFX 7950 TDKC and Windows 7. Everything was fine before so I don't know why it decided to break now.

I'd try verifying volts being used from two different angles, preferably software and a multimeter or at least two different software types.

Beyond that,

Thoughts are that an OC tool like MSI AB or other may be interfering.

BIOS switch on card might have been inadvertently flipped.

Can try editing volts to same value for states 3 and 4.

And try new cgminer install/folder or delete all .bin files in current cgminer folder.
 

geokilla

Platinum Member
Oct 14, 2006
2,012
3
81
Sold 200k DOGE at 190 satoshi... Now it's at 220 satoshi. I'm a sad panda.

I'd try verifying volts being used from two different angles, preferably software and a multimeter or at least two different software types.

Beyond that,

Thoughts are that an OC tool like MSI AB or other may be interfering.

BIOS switch on card might have been inadvertently flipped.

Can try editing volts to same value for states 3 and 4.

And try new cgminer install/folder or delete all .bin files in current cgminer folder.
There's no BIOS switch. No software voltage control. Everything is through a single vBIOS. That's why it's so puzzling. Yes I've verified it with GPU-Z, the only software that can read the VDCC aside from CGMiner.

Downloaded a new miner (SGMiner) but same problem. Configuration file is the same as before, which does not specify any GPU core, memory, powertune, or VDCC settings.
 
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Red Hawk

Diamond Member
Jan 1, 2011
3,266
169
106
I've been meaning to get into mining eventually, and "eventually" has finally arrived. I figure that the time that I could have made decent money with a simple GPU is long gone, but I might as well make an extra penny or two.

First off, I followed the quick guide on this page:

http://techcrunch.com/2013/04/08/how-to-mine-bitcoins/

joined slush's group and am using GUIMiner. Anything else I might need to know about setup?

I have GUIMiner running right now, and I started up MSI Afterburner to see just what it was doing to my system, and...holy f-bombs. It rockets my GPU temp up to 74 degrees celsius after just a couple of minutes. Overclocked to 1110 MHz, it goes up to 77 degrees. Is this normal, or is my cooling less than optimal? And is it wise to overclock when mining?

GUIMiner says I'm getting around 400 MHashes per second. How decent is that number? What can I expect to get with that, a half a buck or so every couple days?
 

slashbinslashbash

Golden Member
Feb 29, 2004
1,945
8
81
I've been meaning to get into mining eventually, and "eventually" has finally arrived. I figure that the time that I could have made decent money with a simple GPU is long gone, but I might as well make an extra penny or two.

First off, I followed the quick guide on this page:

http://techcrunch.com/2013/04/08/how-to-mine-bitcoins/

joined slush's group and am using GUIMiner. Anything else I might need to know about setup?

I have GUIMiner running right now, and I started up MSI Afterburner to see just what it was doing to my system, and...holy f-bombs. It rockets my GPU temp up to 74 degrees celsius after just a couple of minutes. Overclocked to 1110 MHz, it goes up to 77 degrees. Is this normal, or is my cooling less than optimal? And is it wise to overclock when mining?

GUIMiner says I'm getting around 400 MHashes per second. How decent is that number? What can I expect to get with that, a half a buck or so every couple days?

Your 7870 is a good card for mining alternative coins that use the scrypt algorithm. Bitcoin uses the SHA-256 algorithm which is dominated by purpose-built ASIC chips. Your GPU probably can't earn more than the energy it consumes mining SHA-256 coins. GPU's are still good for mining scrypt coins such as Litecoin, Dogecoin, Catcoin, etc. (tons of them, they are easy to create, many are pump-and-dump/scams/what have you). Dogecoin and Litecoin are pretty good and stable, good to learn with and then maybe you start playing the altcoin trading game.

The process is pretty much the same as what you already have running, but to convert the mined coins into USD, you usually have to use bitcoin as an intermediary; so trade your DOGE/LTC/whatever into BTC at an exchange, and then cash out the BTC for dollars. This is much more profitable than mining BTC directly with a GPU. However, even GPU mining is now not as profitable as it once was. New coins are coming out with alternative algorithms (such as the recent Maxcoin which uses an SHA-3 based hash) which was not at all suited for SHA-256 optimized ASICs, and not particularly well suited for the GPU's typically used to mine scrypt coins, although they ended up being not so bad after all.
 

Red Hawk

Diamond Member
Jan 1, 2011
3,266
169
106
I'm seeing dogecoin talked up a bit on this page, so I'll try that. Any tips or good resources for that?
 

Shmee

Memory & Storage, Graphics Cards Mod Elite Member
Super Moderator
Sep 13, 2008
8,216
3,130
146
Dogecoin is a wise choice I would say, very profit, wow!

I am curious if any 290/290x users have any tips for getting higher kh/s.

I am currently using a powercolor 290 under water unlocked to the powercolor 290x bios. Temps are no problem. Using Elpida memory. Trouble is, I can't seem to get higher than about 830 kh/s. Using GUIminer and MSI afterburner.
+20 powertune, +100mV VDDC, 868 MHz core, 1250 MHz mem, intensity 20, worksize 256, tc 32765, --lookupgap 2

I find if I increase core or memory more than this, hashrate goes down. My memory really doesn't like to be touched either.

For comparison, I could get similar hashrates as a 290 at stock settings, about 975/1250 with same settings.
 

wand3r3r

Diamond Member
May 16, 2008
3,180
0
0
I'm seeing dogecoin talked up a bit on this page, so I'll try that. Any tips or good resources for that?

You either need GUIMiner, or CGMiner v. 2.7.2. I use cgminer but some people prefer GUIMiner.

The only thing you should set at first is the bare minimum and once you get it working you can adjust the core and memory clocks, as well as the Intensity and Thread Count.

e.g. cgminer.exe -scrypt -o stratum-url:port -u poolusername -p poolpw -I 13 (off the top of my head, check the exact commands)

Dogecoin has been consistently on the high end of the alt-coins. It's a good one for getting started. The reward is going to halve in a couple days so start it immediately for the last easier rewards.
 

wand3r3r

Diamond Member
May 16, 2008
3,180
0
0
Dogecoin is a wise choice I would say, very profit, wow!

I am curious if any 290/290x users have any tips for getting higher kh/s.

I am currently using a powercolor 290 under water unlocked to the powercolor 290x bios. Temps are no problem. Using Elpida memory. Trouble is, I can't seem to get higher than about 830 kh/s. Using GUIminer and MSI afterburner.
+20 powertune, +100mV VDDC, 868 MHz core, 1250 MHz mem, intensity 20, worksize 256, tc 32765, --lookupgap 2

I find if I increase core or memory more than this, hashrate goes down. My memory really doesn't like to be touched either.

For comparison, I could get similar hashrates as a 290 at stock settings, about 975/1250 with same settings.

Try setting 1500 MHz ram while cgminer is mining (or GUIMiner). I've found my elpida 290x can handle 1500MHz fine, but sometimes it prefers to be in use (under load) when switching it from 1250. The memory timings are best around 1250 and 1500 for mine, 1505 will drop dramatically as it will between the 1250-1500 gap.

My elpida card also likes the core at 900 while the memory is at 1500, I'm not 100% sure if this is a core:memory ratio, or due to the poor timings on the elpida card. I'm waiting to see what The Stilts BIOS does to it.