Ethereum GPU mining?

[3DVagabond]

Wait... higher memory cards works better than the rest? or depends on the uARCH?

because if that so, Titan X and 980 Ti should do far better mining than the Fury X....

Nobody said that. It's just that 2GB cards seem to struggle.

 

[Neurodog]

Hello,

I've been mining Ether for a little over 1 month with the following:
3 x 380
1 x 380x
1 x 280x
1 x 290

Currently mining via nanopool for about a daily profit of $18-20 after electricity at current $10 ether price.

Curious as to what sites you guys are following for Ether news and what not?

 

[DrMrLordX]

Huh, looks like I'm getting stuck downloading blocks while syncing the node. I'm stuck on block 1,150,006 of 1,184,943. Win10's time/date is synced perfectly with the NIST time server. I got stuck several times already, but restarting the process got me past those problems . . . but not now.

edit: I see the problem now. I was using an old version of the wallet software . . . updating to .52 beta 10 worked.

ahahah my little Spectre is doing about 2.5 Mh/s with a 2 Gb framebuffer (1 Gb wouldn't load). Any command-line switches I should use to improve performance on a 2 Gb "card"?

 

[Hitman928]

Try:

--cl-global-work 8192
--cl-local-work 256

The local work should be good, the global you might want to play around with in powers of 2 but shouldn't need to go higher than 8192. I don't know how effective an apu will be at mining for profit unless you have really cheap electricity. Even if you get up to 3 MH/s, you're only looking at about $20 a month before electricity cost.

 

[beginner99]

Hmm. In the old days of BTC mining it was common for these pools to get DDOS'd occasionally. I used to have a failover pool setup in the event of a DDOS but I haven't investigated if this is possible with Etherium miners. Something we all should probably look into.

You can use ether-proxy. But pool must be compatible. You can always set it up to solo-mine in case pool does not work.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Changing local work doesn't seem to do much. Changing global work to any value above 2048 produces the odd effect of raising the highs up to 2.9 MH/s but bringing the lows much lower. With 4096, I get 2.9 MH/s about 66% of the time, but I get dips as low as 1.4 MH/s. With 8192, I get dips of 0 MH/s. So defaults seem to produce the best rates overall.

 

[beginner99]

Changing local work doesn't seem to do much. Changing global work to any value above 2048 produces the odd effect of raising the highs up to 2.9 MH/s but bringing the lows much lower. With 4096, I get 2.9 MH/s about 66% of the time, but I get dips as low as 1.4 MH/s. With 8192, I get dips of 0 MH/s. So defaults seem to produce the best rates overall.

Driver versions? I heard newest one does not work very well with mining.

 

[Crono]

Got an XFX R9 390 (actually, got 3, but 2 are going into rig for a friend). Ordered before the price went up from $305 to $320 before MIR. Getting 25 MH/s, default clocks and voltage. Added to my mining rig where it's happily hashing with it's smaller sibling R9 380s, for a total of ~65 MH/s for the rig.

I have room for 2 more cards on this motherboard, via PCI-E x1 powered risers, which use USB 3.0 cables. I had 2 already, but bought 3 more from user mintcell on ebay, and they are working fine if anyone is looking for somewhere to buy them from. Also bought a FSP 850W Hydro G (AnandTech recently reviewed the 750W model) to run the cards. May get another if I buy more 380s or 390s.

 

[Madpacket]

Got an XFX R9 390 (actually, got 3, but 2 are going into rig for a friend). Ordered before the price went up from $305 to $320. Getting 25 MH/s, default clocks and voltage. Added to my mining rig where it's happily hashing with it's smaller sibling R9 380s, for a total of ~65 MH/s for the rig.

I have room for 2 more cards on this motherboard, via PCI-E x1 powered risers, which use USB 3.0 cables. I had 2 already, but bought 3 more from user mintcell on ebay, and they are working fine if anyone is looking for somewhere to buy them from. Also bought a FSP 850W Hydro G (AnandTech recently reviewed the 750W model) to run the cards. May get another if I buy more 380s or 390s.

So far I've bought 3 MSI, 1 Powercolor and 1 Asus 390 (five in total). Overall they're very similar in performance but the MSI's seem to undervolt better than either the Powercolor or the Asus cards. All of these cards are all hashing around 30Mh (+- Mh). I run them all at 1100Mhz core and 1600 memory with various levels of undervolting.

I'm curious about the Gigabyte 390 cards (as they seem to be the cheapest). Can you get them up to 1100Mhz / 1600 Mem while still undervolting?

Also these adapters you're talking about, can please you link to one? I'm curious what the USB 3.0 cables are used for?

 

[Madpacket]

Changing local work doesn't seem to do much. Changing global work to any value above 2048 produces the odd effect of raising the highs up to 2.9 MH/s but bringing the lows much lower. With 4096, I get 2.9 MH/s about 66% of the time, but I get dips as low as 1.4 MH/s. With 8192, I get dips of 0 MH/s. So defaults seem to produce the best rates overall.

I see the same behavior with my 390's and 380. You really have to just play with the values until you get to an optimal state. If you don't mind what software did you end up mining with? I'm surprised you're able to mine with only 2GB. Are you on Linux or Windows?

 

[Madpacket]

Driver versions? I heard newest one does not work very well with mining.

Yes, stay away from the latest (Windows anyway) drivers. You lose around 30% performance.

 

[wege12]

I'm surprised you're able to mine with only 2GB. Are you on Linux or Windows?

I have zero issues mining with my 2GB 270x on Windows 10.

 

[Madpacket]

You can use ether-proxy. But pool must be compatible. You can always set it up to solo-mine in case pool does not work.

Thanks. That looks like a viable solution until the difficulty rises up dramatically.

 

[Madpacket]

I have zero issues mining with my 2GB 270x on Windows 10.

Interesting, with Geth or with Ethminer? Are you using your 270X as your primary card or do you have another card to load Windows with?

 

[wege12]

Interesting, with Geth or with Ethminer? Are you using your 270X as your primary card or do you have another card to load Windows with?

I'm currently using Ethminer and my 270x is the primary card at the moment. When overclocked, it averages a 17.5 hashrate.

 

[Crono]

So far I've bought 3 MSI, 1 Powercolor and 1 Asus 390 (five in total). Overall they're very similar in performance but the MSI's seem to undervolt better than either the Powercolor or the Asus cards. All of these cards are all hashing around 30Mh (+- Mh). I run them all at 1100Mhz core and 1600 memory with various levels of undervolting.

I'm curious about the Gigabyte 390 cards (as they seem to be the cheapest). Can you get them up to 1100Mhz / 1600 Mem while still undervolting?

Also these adapters you're talking about, can please you link to one? I'm curious what the USB 3.0 cables are used for?

I think I'll get a Gigabyte card next, assuming the price stays at $300 and try overclocking and undervolting all the cards. I've been lazy about that because doing so seems to take a little more work on Linux... or at least it's easier for me on Windows, haven't really tried on Linux besides some quick searching to see if it was possible.

Here is the seller (you can probably get same type of riser off any reputable seller, just chose that one because feedback was decent). The USB 3.0 cables are used as a data cable to go from the riser to the PCI-E x1 slot. Power to the riser comes from a molex connector. I think USB 3.0 is used because they are reliable and durable high-speed cables versus the ribbon cables used for other types of risers.

 

[Madpacket]

Hello,

I've been mining Ether for a little over 1 month with the following:
3 x 380
1 x 380x
1 x 280x
1 x 290

Currently mining via nanopool for about a daily profit of $18-20 after electricity at current $10 ether price.

Curious as to what sites you guys are following for Ether news and what not?

So you must be around 135-140Mh? Not bad.

Even though Nanopool has been pretty good I'm thinking of switching to a pool that pays for orphaned blocks. Looks like the Ethpool guys are matching Dwarfpool now with their new "Ethermine" pool. Have to figure out this Stratum proxy mining instead of just using GET work.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ethereum/comments/4bc0zw/introducing_ethermineorg_the_fastest_way_to_mine/

As for where I get news, mostly from the Ethereum sub reddit pages (Ethereum, Ethtrader).

 

[Madpacket]

I'm currently using Ethminer and my 270x is the primary card at the moment. When overclocked, it averages a 17.5 hashrate.

Interesting, thanks. Perhaps it's simply the older non GCN 2GB cards that have the most issues. 2GB 58XX and 2GB 68/69XX cards seem to have real issues starting up.

I've been looking at used cards and have seen a few 2GB 270X's for sale but ignored them, guess I'll broaden my searching 🙂

I have a spare Asus 2GB 750 Ti as well, gotta be worth a few Mh and might be viable as it uses only like 60W. Surprisingly my ITX 970 has been earning me a good amount of Ethereum which is the first Nvidia card I've owned that may actually pay for itself 🙂

Fun times!

 

[Madpacket]

I think I'll get a Gigabyte card next, assuming the price stays at $300 and try overclocking and undervolting all the cards. I've been lazy about that because doing so seems to take a little more work on Linux... or at least it's easier for me on Windows, haven't really tried on Linux besides some quick searching to see if it was possible.

Here is the seller (you can probably get same type of riser off any reputable seller, just chose that one because feedback was decent). The USB 3.0 cables are used as a data cable to go from the riser to the PCI-E x1 slot [pic]. I think they are used because they are reliable and durable high-speed cables versus the ribbon cables used for other types of risers.

Hah, I'm an idiot. I have the same type of risers waiting for me in my mailbox when I get home. I ordered two of them last week from a local seller (but through eBay). My buddy got his on Friday and said they work perfectly. Not sure if I'll need to make a few dummy plugs though.

If you get a chance try to figure out how to undervolt as it's really worth it. Less stress on the cards, they run much cooler, the fans run at a lower RPM, much less energy usage etc.

Unfortunately in Canada our 390's are still a little pricey so you can't be too picky. Overall I like the MSI's (build quality is very good) but they're pretty thick. The triple fan cooler on the Asus is pretty decent and it's only a 2 slot cooler. The Powercolor is actually really well built (all metal frame, no plastic) but the pitch of the fans get annoying once they hit around 50% speeds.

 

[MrTeal]

Hah, I'm an idiot. I have the same type of risers waiting for me in my mailbox when I get home. I ordered two of them last week from a local seller (but through eBay). My buddy got his on Friday and said they work perfectly. Not sure if I'll need to make a few dummy plugs though.

If you get a chance try to figure out how to undervolt as it's really worth it. Less stress on the cards, they run much cooler, the fans run at a lower RPM, much less energy usage etc.

Unfortunately in Canada our 390's are still a little pricey so you can't be too picky. Overall I like the MSI's (build quality is very good) but they're pretty thick. The triple fan cooler on the Asus is pretty decent and it's only a 2 slot cooler. The Powercolor is actually really well built (all metal frame, no plastic) but the pitch of the fans get annoying once they hit around 50% speeds.

I put together a quick speadsheet today with some prices from ca.partpicker.com, and the 390 seems to lag behind a little.

Card	Shaders	Price	Shaders/Dollar
380	1792	260	6.892307692
380x	2048	314	6.522292994
280x	2048	377	5.432360743
390	2560	426	6.009389671
390x	2816	530	5.313207547
Fury	3584	707	5.069306931
Nano	4096	686	5.970845481

The 380 seems the obvious choice, though it's disadvantage in shaders does complicate it a little. Your expenses in MB/CPU/RAM are proportionally more expensive, as well as risers if you're spending CDN$20 per card on one. I'm still trying to determine which one will take the bigger hit to resale once Polaris launches.

 

[DrMrLordX]

I see the same behavior with my 390's and 380. You really have to just play with the values until you get to an optimal state. If you don't mind what software did you end up mining with? I'm surprised you're able to mine with only 2GB. Are you on Linux or Windows?

Right now, Win10 (fast ring 14291). I might actually get off my lazy butt and fix my bootloader to get Linux up and running to see if it'll go faster there.

I'm using ethminer .9.41

Bear in mind I'm just dicking around . . . I need a new PSU anyway, so I might snag one and a 380 or two if I'm feeling ballsy to try some more serious mining. It's just a matter of working up the courage to pull the trigger. Not sure if the 380X would be worth it over the 380, since there's one on sale for about $20 more than the cheapest 4 Gb 380 I can find . . .

 

[Madpacket]

I put together a quick speadsheet today with some prices from ca.partpicker.com, and the 390 seems to lag behind a little.

Card	Shaders	Price	Shaders/Dollar
380	1792	260	6.892307692
380x	2048	314	6.522292994
280x	2048	377	5.432360743
390	2560	426	6.009389671
390x	2816	530	5.313207547
Fury	3584	707	5.069306931
Nano	4096	686	5.970845481

The 380 seems the obvious choice, though it's disadvantage in shaders does complicate it a little. Your expenses in MB/CPU/RAM are proportionally more expensive, as well as risers if you're spending CDN$20 per card on one. I'm still trying to determine which one will take the bigger hit to resale once Polaris launches.

Unfortunately you can't really go by shaders per dollar. For example the 390 is only a few Mh behind the Fury X even though theoretically, the FuryX should be around 50% faster. This is likely just an optimization problem but that's how it stands.

The 4GB 380 was the best value card up until last week but prices prices crept up enough where the 380x is probably now the ideal card if you want to get your feet wet. I still think if you're going to spend the money the 390's make the most sense to buy. Sure they'll take a little longer to get your ROI, but after that it'll earn at a 40% faster rate and hold better resale value. Fewer cards to manage as well.

It'll take six 380's to match the speed of four 390's. The added expense for connectors etc is not really worth it if you're trying to scale to higher speeds.

I'm at 225Mh now but stopping here unless I can figure out a way to get cheaper power. My cards should all provide a ROI well before Polaris hits. Luckily I had enough other equipment where I only had to buy a few connectors and cards. If you have to buy everything it gets expensive fast.

 

[Madpacket]

Right now, Win10 (fast ring 14291). I might actually get off my lazy butt and fix my bootloader to get Linux up and running to see if it'll go faster there.

I'm using ethminer .9.41

Bear in mind I'm just dicking around . . . I need a new PSU anyway, so I might snag one and a 380 or two if I'm feeling ballsy to try some more serious mining. It's just a matter of working up the courage to pull the trigger. Not sure if the 380X would be worth it over the 380, since there's one on sale for about $20 more than the cheapest 4 Gb 380 I can find . . .

Thanks for the added details. If you can I would really look for a used 7950. It'll mine pretty close to 380 speeds and should cost around half the price. This way you can keep costs low to get a quality power supply. If you like what you see then go nuts 😉

 

[DrMrLordX]

7950s are inflated right now, though I may be able to find one for under $200. Maybe! wege is trying to snap up all the HD 7950s, 280s/280xs, and other miscellaneous GCN cards in FS/T ha ha.

Got a PSU on the way regardless since I have been flogging this HX520 since 2008 or so. It was about time. It's an EVGA 750 p2 . . . should last me awhile. NCIX has them for $100 after $20 MiR.

On a side note, are 2 Gb cards going to be completely SoL once the DAG file exceeds 2 Gb in size?

 

[Madpacket]

Nice powersupply. It could handle 2 390's pretty easily. Yes stay away from the 2GB cards unless you can find like a 270x for under 100. Too risky with DAG growing.