Ethereum GPU mining?

Page 233 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.

Hitman928

Diamond Member
Apr 15, 2012
5,182
7,633
136

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

I didn't watch the video, but if he was using NH, there's a chance they gave him malware by using a compromised PhoenixMiner. I'm assuming this is the case because actual Phoenix Miner hasn't been updated in over a month. All this stuff from NH seems to be a big screw up by them and not Phoenix. Nothing NH has said is really true except that PhoenixMiner is closed source which has always been true and is true of almost all of the mining software out there, so not exactly a bombshell thing to post and is proof of exactly nothing as far as PhoenixMiner being malware is concerned.
 

aleader

Senior member
Oct 28, 2013
502
150
116
There is a new post by the guy from PhoenixMiner (supposedly?) on the Bitcointalk Forum. He's either still alive, or his killer has control of his PC ;) :

The rumors of our demise (or our tuning into bad guys) are completely false. Here is what has happened:

1. Sometime yesterday MEGA decided to terminate our account, and the accounts of some other prominent crypto mining software authors (e.g. Clyamore) for "violation of our terms of service". We didn't receive any further information about this violation, so it is safe to assume that someone in high places has put pressure to MEGA to delete the most popular mining software from their site. It is partially our fault that we believed their statement that they are "censor-resistant" but we have learned our lesson and we are currently setting up several independent hosting solutions in case anything similar happens in the future.

And it goes on...

EDIT: Doh, I see you already posted it....can't delete in this stupid forum for some reason.
 
Last edited:

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,229
9,990
126
Hmm. Nearly all of the bigger "influencer" YT hardware-review channels do "sponsored videos", so does VoskCoin, and even HardwareUnboxed. I wouldn't be SO quick to label them as a "shill", just because they did a sponsored video.

You don't read NYT, and see ads on their pages, and go, "They are TOTAL SHILLS!", do you?

Linus gotta eat, and get GPUs, too, you know. :p

Edit: Seems to me that Anandtech (main site) has done "sponsored" articles too, in the past. Didn't they have an "AMD channel" at one point, and drop some sponsored articles for AMD in there in the past? Are Anandtech shills?

Besides, it's not as if NH is somehow inherently evil, any more or less so than other mining pools and software and exchanges.

The fact is, they've helped to get a lot of people into mining, which I see as a Good Thing. More gamers earning BTC, to pay off their expensive GPU investments, makes it easier for gamers to swallow the high prices of cards these days, which are NOT all just due to "mining", mostly due to component shortages on the supply side and shipping issues and tarriffs, and insane demand too (of which mining is a component of that demand).
 
  • Like
Reactions: Leeea and ozzy702

ozzy702

Golden Member
Nov 1, 2011
1,151
530
136
It looks like Linus sold out to NiceHash as well:


Just in case you had any doubts that he was a total corporate shill... this one proves us.

I don't see what the problem with this video is. He's upfront about it being sponsored (not sure what that matters in this case) and it's educational. Given how outspoken Linus was with the whole HWU/NVIDIA scandal, I don't see how anyone could claim he's a corporate shill. Yeah, he has to keep the lights on and pay his staff, and that means sponsorships, big deal.
 

ultimatebob

Lifer
Jul 1, 2001
25,135
2,445
126
I don't see what the problem with this video is. He's upfront about it being sponsored (not sure what that matters in this case) and it's educational. Given how outspoken Linus was with the whole HWU/NVIDIA scandal, I don't see how anyone could claim he's a corporate shill. Yeah, he has to keep the lights on and pay his staff, and that means sponsorships, big deal.


I love how he went from an "NVidia doesn't care about gamers!" Ethereum miner throttling rant to this in just three weeks. He really will say whatever his sponsors pay him to say.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Leeea

Shmee

Memory & Storage, Graphics Cards Mod Elite Member
Super Moderator
Sep 13, 2008
7,382
2,419
146
I never used nicehash before, but I guess this is one reason not to trust them. I would mine ETH directly.
 

ultimatebob

Lifer
Jul 1, 2001
25,135
2,445
126
I never used nicehash before, but I guess this is one reason not to trust them. I would mine ETH directly.

If Nicehash getting hacked in the past, and then sending out a false warning that one of their miners has malware in it to get you to upgrade to a newer miner that improves their profits wasn't enough, sure :)
 

Roger Wilco

Diamond Member
Mar 20, 2017
3,857
5,688
136
I've decided to join the dark side and mine with my 2060 super.

What mining software do you guys use? Currently, I'm just using Nicehash because it was easy to set up last night.

I hope this doesn't destroy my GPU fans anytime soon...I've heard replacing fans on Turing reference cards is a nightmare.
 

thilanliyan

Lifer
Jun 21, 2005
11,848
2,051
126
I've decided to join the dark side and mine with my 2060 super.

What mining software do you guys use? Currently, I'm just using Nicehash because it was easy to set up last night.

I hope this doesn't destroy my GPU fans anytime soon...I've heard replacing fans on Turing reference cards is a nightmare.
If you are able to, remove the stock fans and strap some 120/140mm fans onto it.

You can probably remove the whole shroud which might be easier than removing individual fans.
 

Aikouka

Lifer
Nov 27, 2001
30,383
912
126
It looks like Linus sold out to NiceHash as well:


Just in case you had any doubts that he was a total corporate shill... this one proves us.

I wasn't really bothered by the video. I used NiceHash a long time ago, and it was interesting to see how it has changed since then.

The video definitely seemed to be aimed at the novice with its draw likely to be the "crypto-curious crowd" that might be willing to give it a shot. Anyone that wants to do any serious mining isn't going to give up a portion of their proceeds to NiceHash when that isn't really necessary. Although, one could try to propose a slippery slope argument that people that dabble in crypto sometimes don't stop at the first card. It's not like the bite of the crypto bug is an unheard of phenomena; I had friends that bought about half a dozen cards during the last crypto boom just to try to make a quick buck. That's not a lot, but that's still not likely something that LTT wants to endorse.

I love how he want from an "NVidia doesn't care about gamers!" Ethereum miner throttling rant to this in just three weeks. He really will say whatever his sponsors pay him to say.

I thought his remarks on Nvidia were mostly based on how Nvidia announced the CMP-based products alongside the GPU Ethereum mining nerf?

I've decided to join the dark side and mine with my 2060 super.

What mining software do you guys use? Currently, I'm just using Nicehash because it was easy to set up last night.

I hope this doesn't destroy my GPU fans anytime soon...I've heard replacing fans on Turing reference cards is a nightmare.

Back when I used to mine, I was using Mining Pool Hub, which is really just a mining hub (i.e. bunch of people working together to mine) for multiple crypto coins. It isn't as simple as NiceHash, but it isn't terribly hard to get going. One nifty thing about MPH is that you can have them auto-convert mined coins into other coins. So, if you wanted to get a little of various alt-coins to try to ride their potential wave, you can do so.

Also, as a side recommendation, have you considered signing up at a place like Coinbase and using their Rewards section to get a bit of free crypto? I've gotten each one so far, and I don't think a single one has gone down below what I originally received for free. In fact, one of them (The Graph) went from $3 to ~$18, and a couple others have seen gains around 2x. (Keep in mind that all I did was take a super simple quiz to earn the crypto.) I bring this up because I've been tempted to spend a tiny bit and maybe buy something like $10 of a coin whenever I earn it for free. (I've also thought about just buying as much as I received.)
 
  • Like
Reactions: Roger Wilco

gorobei

Diamond Member
Jan 7, 2007
3,654
980
136
I love how he want from an "NVidia doesn't care about gamers!" Ethereum miner throttling rant to this in just three weeks. He really will say whatever his sponsors pay him to say.

I thought his remarks on Nvidia were mostly based on how Nvidia announced the CMP-based products alongside the GPU Ethereum mining nerf?

Linus' position has been pretty consistent and pro-consumer.
  • nv making cmp mining card is bad, because all it does is make more ewaste since there is no resale market for the cards.
  • nv marketing saying cmp is 'for gamers sake' is BS. it is market segmentation for nv profit.
  • the nv driver eth nerf is also BS. given the markup/scalping of current cards, gamers should be allowed to mine whatever they want to try to offset the higher prices.

the how to mine/nicehash video is just him being not a hypocrite since he has admitted in prior vids and podcasts that LTT-LMG mines on their office pcs in off hours. part of the vid is him making sure gamers understand that now is the only time that 6gb vram cards can mine eth until the dag goes above 6, and before PoS hits.
 

moonbogg

Lifer
Jan 8, 2011
10,635
3,095
136
If you have 1000 cards you can make 1.5 million in a year mining after reselling the GPUs if each GPU makes $4.00 per day. This isn't going away.
 

Capt Caveman

Lifer
Jan 30, 2005
34,547
651
126
Decided to try mining today. Installed NiceHash and surprised how easy it was to get things running. Had both my 5900X and my 3090 running but my system kept rebooting so I disabled the 5900X and been running fine. To lower temps and power, I did lower the power target to 75% and gpu clock by -250 on the 3090 and have everything running under 70c with fans running 60%.

Thinking of building another PC with my 3900X and 1080ti which are just laying around and mine with those. Though I'd probably be better off just selling the 3900X and getting a cheap Intel i3 or something.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Leeea

ozzy702

Golden Member
Nov 1, 2011
1,151
530
136
If you have 1000 cards you can make 1.5 million in a year mining after reselling the GPUs if each GPU makes $4.00 per day. This isn't going away.

It won't even after EIP-1559, but PoS will be the nail in PoW's coffin. PoW will die a gruesome death after Ethereum mining is over and it looks like they are prioritizing the merge due to miner stupidity and shortsightedness. Nobody knows quite exactly how the merge will go though, and it sounds like they are considering a gracious period of free PoW mining for miners after the merge to give them incentive not to try to derail things with the move to PoS. That may mean another year or so of ETH mining, albeit with much slimmer margins due to EIP-1559 and exploding difficulty.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Leeea

moonbogg

Lifer
Jan 8, 2011
10,635
3,095
136
It won't even after EIP-1559, but PoS will be the nail in PoW's coffin. PoW will die a gruesome death after Ethereum mining is over and it looks like they are prioritizing the merge due to miner stupidity and shortsightedness. Nobody knows quite exactly how the merge will go though, and it sounds like they are considering a gracious period of free PoW mining for miners after the merge to give them incentive not to try to derail things with the move to PoS. That may mean another year or so of ETH mining, albeit with much slimmer margins due to EIP-1559 and exploding difficulty.

They sell their own children for GPU money.
 

Leeea

Diamond Member
Apr 3, 2020
3,599
5,340
106
PoW will die a gruesome death after Ethereum mining is over and it looks like they are prioritizing the merge due to miner stupidity and shortsightedness.

I do not agree.

I think alt coins will move to fill the gap. Octopus, etc. The problem is early in a coins lifetime, PoW is a proven way to make sure a network works fairly. Proof of Stake requires faith in the networks stakeholders, and when a network is young, that usually is very few people.

PoW will sadly haunt us for years to come, with alt coins, and other schemes looking to duplicate the success of their priors.
 

aleader

Senior member
Oct 28, 2013
502
150
116
Decided to try mining today. Installed NiceHash and surprised how easy it was to get things running. Had both my 5900X and my 3090 running but my system kept rebooting so I disabled the 5900X and been running fine. To lower temps and power, I did lower the power target to 75% and gpu clock by -250 on the 3090 and have everything running under 70c with fans running 60%.

Thinking of building another PC with my 3900X and 1080ti which are just laying around and mine with those. Though I'd probably be better off just selling the 3900X and getting a cheap Intel i3 or something.

My 2 cents as a fairly new miner, but it's easier actually to use Phoenix Miner with that card. Obviously make sure to get 5.5c, and not the bogus one. Your hashrates, profits, correct shares, power draw and stability will all be better. Memory temp is very important to monitor with a 3080/90. You could use T-Rex too. I use it on the 3070 for variety I guess😉 I am currently running PM 5.5c, lolminer 1.20, and the latest Trex with a 3070, 3060ti, 5700XT, and 1660 Super. I've tried different miners on all of them and I started with NH.

As for CPU, don't waste cash on a fancy one, it makes no difference. 2 of mine are running on old H81/Z97 MB's with i5 4670k/4670s. The most power efficient setup by far is the Asrock H81M/1660 super/4670 that only draws 109W at the wall, even with my old OCZ 600W power supply. I get 32.2 MH/s with HiveOn/PM 5.5c/USB on that one.
 

Roger Wilco

Diamond Member
Mar 20, 2017
3,857
5,688
136
As for CPU, don't waste cash on a fancy one, it makes no difference. 2 of mine are running on old H81/Z97 MB's with i5 4670k/4670s. The most power efficient setup by far is the Asrock H81M/1660 super/4670 that only draws 109W at the wall, even with my old OCZ 600W power supply. I get 32.2 MH/s with HiveOn/PM 5.5c/USB on that one.

I didn't think CPU mining was profitable. What are you mining?