Ethereum GPU mining?

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aleader

Senior member
Oct 28, 2013
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No clue on what the 3070s will need, but I have 480s still chugging away from 2016... and all I did was change the thermal paste a year ago. I've never messed with thermal pads.

That's good to know. I have a twinge of guilt every time I go downstairs and see my PCs chugging away mining ;) To lose a card right now would be very bad as you'd likely not be able to replace it until who knows when. This is the video I'm talking about. I have the Ultra version of this card, so I think mine does have a much better cooler/backplate. Still, I don't understand how he's melting these things in 3 months? He runs his fans at over 70%. I only run mine at 55% (44C):

 
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MrTeal

Diamond Member
Dec 7, 2003
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Thanks for the link. I saw it when I googled, but just went to the usual suspects instead. Have you ever had to replace these when mining?
Digikey is spectacular. Free shipping over CAD$100, $8 shipping otherwise, and generally at least to the office if I order before 6 I get it next afternoon. If I order by lunch, it's often here next morning.
 

MrTeal

Diamond Member
Dec 7, 2003
3,554
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So now that I have my 3080, I decided to play with HiveOS and toss my 3070 into there. The setup and interface had a bit of a learning curve with all the wallets and flight sheets, but I was pleasantly surprised by how well it worked with low resources. I just pulled an old 4GB Dell T3500 off the shelf but it wouldn't boot with a memory error, so I had to pull a stick and run it with 3GB system RAM. Even then, Hive had no problems running on an old Nehalem system with 3GB ram. I'm guessing there's probably not much that you could get for old systems off Craigslist that wouldn't run it.
 

aleader

Senior member
Oct 28, 2013
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Interesting. GTX 1660 Super gets increased hashrate with DECREASED memory clock freq. Some sort of strap issue, apparently.

Just tried it with my stubborn card, and WFM.

Yah, I was impressed with the 1660 Super in my son's PC (MSI Ventus 2X). What are your settings now? You're getting over 30MH/s by turning the memory down?

I set PL at 56% (the lowest it will go), memory at 1100, core -300. It gets 32.1MH/s, 69W in PM 5.5c. I'll have to dial back the memory and see if that bumps it even further, although I think 32.1 is almost the max for these cards?

I actually have another 1660 Super waiting for me at Memory Express (ASUS Dual), but I'm wondering now if I should just cancel it? The ROI keeps going up daily on WhattoMine, and it's now well over 4 months to pay for it. A few days ago it was under 3 months. Yah, I know it used to be over a year, but I don't know if I have the patience for that.

EDIT: I just did a test on his 1660 and the hashrate does improve from 27.2 MH/s (at 0) to 28.4 MH/s (at -502). Weird. It's still a far cry from 32.1 at +1100, but I like the idea of running it at -502 long-term for the health of the card. Bumping the memory to 1200 for a bit puts me close to 33 MH/s. For me, the difference in profit per month (32.1 vs 28.4) is about $11.50 CAD less.

If the relationship of hashrate to profit is linear (i.e. faster hashrate doesn't magically allow you to be 'luckier' finding shares), it may be a good tradeoff. I suppose if I had 10 cards on a rig I may think differently when you're losing $115/mth.
 
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aleader

Senior member
Oct 28, 2013
502
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So now that I have my 3080, I decided to play with HiveOS and toss my 3070 into there. The setup and interface had a bit of a learning curve with all the wallets and flight sheets, but I was pleasantly surprised by how well it worked with low resources. I just pulled an old 4GB Dell T3500 off the shelf but it wouldn't boot with a memory error, so I had to pull a stick and run it with 3GB system RAM. Even then, Hive had no problems running on an old Nehalem system with 3GB ram. I'm guessing there's probably not much that you could get for old systems off Craigslist that wouldn't run it.

I'd like to try it with my 5700XT so I could monitor it remotely, but I've read that power usage is higher and hashrate lower than with Windows 10? Did you measure power difference at the wall?
 

aleader

Senior member
Oct 28, 2013
502
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Digikey is spectacular. Free shipping over CAD$100, $8 shipping otherwise, and generally at least to the office if I order before 6 I get it next afternoon. If I order by lunch, it's often here next morning.

So obviously you have had to replace pads when mining? The number of options in there are dizzying. I have no idea which type of pad to get for a GPU. What's the best, silicon elastomer, silicon, or graphite resin? Just get the one with the highest thermal conductivity?
 
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ultimatebob

Lifer
Jul 1, 2001
25,135
2,445
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I would love to see some pictures of the mining farms you guys have built. It sounds like some of you guys have "gone pro" with this, and probably have a whole room dedicated their mining rigs with upgraded power and cooling.
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,226
9,990
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So, it looks like EIP-1559 is a "GO" in July, along with the "Ice Age" (chain slows processing until it basically freezes up solid, every two weeks), and "Difficulty Bomb", which is part of that.

So, it looks like in six months, Ethereum 1.0 will be DOA(!)
 

ozzy702

Golden Member
Nov 1, 2011
1,151
530
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So, it looks like EIP-1559 is a "GO" in July, along with the "Ice Age" (chain slows processing until it basically freezes up solid, every two weeks), and "Difficulty Bomb", which is part of that.

So, it looks like in six months, Ethereum 1.0 will be DOA(!)


The Ice Age and Difficulty Bomb are currently in place and will be diffused under London and pushed back to go in hand with EIP-1559. ETH1.0 won't be dead until the merge with ETH2.0 and there's discussion that to ensure the transition goes smoothly miners would be allowed to continue to mine under ETH2.0 for a period of time similar to how we have concurrent mining and staking now.

People with older GPUs and high electricity cost may find that they can't mine profitably in another six months due to difficulty increasing so rapidly, but mining will still go on for at least the next year and likely another two years.
 

Hitman928

Diamond Member
Apr 15, 2012
5,177
7,628
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'Phoenix Miner' DOA and / or compromised?

NH advises IMMEDIATELY STOP USING.

Of course, coincidentally, they now offer their OWN "QuickMiner" that mines ETH as well. But that one IS open-source, whereas Phoenix was closed-source, and anonymous, NH QuickMiner is signed code.

Looking at other places, it seems like Nicehash may have included a version of Phoenix that was not from the original source and was compromised. In other words, Nicehash screwed up and downloaded a compromised version of Phoenix, not that the actual Phoenix source is compromised. I'm not sure of this, but this is what others are reporting as the checksums from the proper source match, unlike what Nicehash is claiming.
 

aleader

Senior member
Oct 28, 2013
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Ok, so what are we doing then? I already deleted Nicehash, but I haven't used it in months. Now look back on my very early thread where I was complaining about the 22+ 'false positives' Windows Defender was throwing up when I first installed it. I will also reinstall Windows on my gaming PC just to be safe. I stopped using PM on that one and switched to Trex, but is that maybe an overreaction at this point?

My other systems run PM 5.5c, but they are just mining 'rigs', so is there any reason to stop using PM on those? I checked that .zip file (checksum) when I first d/l it from Bitcointalk, and it matched. I just copied that same file to my other PCs. What exactly can this guy steal on a PC that has nothing on it and never has? I don't care about wallets as I use my Shakepay wallet now, and immediately cash it out.
 

aleader

Senior member
Oct 28, 2013
502
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I would love to see some pictures of the mining farms you guys have built. It sounds like some of you guys have "gone pro" with this, and probably have a whole room dedicated their mining rigs with upgraded power and cooling.

People aren't 'sharers' on this site I've found...they don't even want to share their card settings 😉
 

ultimatebob

Lifer
Jul 1, 2001
25,135
2,445
126
"Violating the GPL v3 is a CRIME"... LOL.

That sounds like some paranoid rambling BS to me. As a "real" IT guy, I can tell you that reinstalling Windows isn't going to really protect you unless you format your drive completely and completely reinstall your drivers and applications from scratch. Ain't nobody has time to do that shiznit. :)

Just uninstall Nicehash, remove the Antivirus exclusions you put in for it, and possibly install a second antivirus program and do a full scan of your system. Changing any banking passwords that you had saved might not be a bad idea, either.
 

aleader

Senior member
Oct 28, 2013
502
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116
That sounds like some paranoid rambling BS to me. As a "real" IT guy, I can tell you that reinstalling Windows isn't going to really protect you unless you format your drive completely and completely reinstall your drivers and applications from scratch. Ain't nobody has time to do that shiznit. :)

Just uninstall Nicehash, remove the Antivirus exclusions you put in for it, and possibly install a second antivirus program and do a full scan of your system. Changing any banking passwords that you had saved might not be a bad idea, either.

Would it not protect you from keylogging hacks though? I don't mind reinstalling Windows these days as it isn't the massive PITA that it used to be with CDs. Having said that, I just uninstalled everything including Phoenix Miner and searched the registry for all traces of Phoenix and Nicehash and deleted everything.

I imagine though that a smart hacker isn't naming the registry entry 'Phoenix'? I don't use my PC for banking, I use my work laptop for that as our security is so tight I can't install anything without admin privileges. I *may* have used my PC in the past however, although I never save passwords in Windows. I should be safe, no?
 

ultimatebob

Lifer
Jul 1, 2001
25,135
2,445
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Would it not protect you from keylogging hacks though? I don't mind reinstalling Windows these days as it isn't the massive PITA that it used to be with CDs. Having said that, I just uninstalled everything including Phoenix Miner and searched the registry for all traces of Phoenix and Nicehash and deleted everything.

I imagine though that a smart hacker isn't naming the registry entry 'Phoenix'? I don't use my PC for banking, I use my work laptop for that as our security is so tight I can't install anything without admin privileges. I *may* have used my PC in the past however, although I never save passwords in Windows. I should be safe, no?

Smart hackers can embed malware into an application or driver that could survive a reinstalling of Windows. They've gotten really good at writing polymorphic malware that doesn't show up on a traditional antivirus scanner.

If you really want to do it right, you gotta format the drive and start from a bare metal restore.
 

ultimatebob

Lifer
Jul 1, 2001
25,135
2,445
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So you think it's warranted? I'm on the fence, but think I'm playing Russian Roulette.

I haven't seen any proof that the miner installed any malware on anyone's systems. I wouldn't bother doing a wipe and reinstall unless they did.

I used the Nicehash "easy" client that uses the DaggerHashimoto miner, so I'm not really worried about it.
 

killster1

Banned
Mar 15, 2007
6,208
475
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really wish my electricity rate of 41 cents a kwh was less. i think ill make 22 cents a day mining (but at least if i ran it at night would make some heat for the house)
 

aleader

Senior member
Oct 28, 2013
502
150
116
Smart hackers can embed malware into an application or driver that could survive a reinstalling of Windows. They've gotten really good at writing polymorphic malware that doesn't show up on a traditional antivirus scanner.

If you really want to do it right, you gotta format the drive and start from a bare metal restore.

Does a quick format do the trick, or does it have to be the full format? I don't think I've ever done a full format of an NVME drive. I tend to think this guy has disappeared to avoid taxes or something. If he's 'disappeared', who is getting the dev fee?
 

ultimatebob

Lifer
Jul 1, 2001
25,135
2,445
126
Does a quick format do the trick, or does it have to be the full format? I don't think I've ever done a full format of an NVME drive. I tend to think this guy has disappeared to avoid taxes or something. If he's 'disappeared', who is getting the dev fee?

A quick format would probably do the trick.
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,226
9,990
126

[BrandonCoin][YT] talks about "wierdness" with one of his mining PCs after PhoenixMiner got updated on his PC.