ZCash/ZEC GPU mining

[[DHT]Osiris]

Nicehash, the way you're running it, basically rents out your computing resources to the people who provide the Nicehash client. Nicehash uses your hardware to do the work, and they give you a cut of the mining proceeds. Or at least that's my understanding of it. It is possible to get a version of the Nicehash client that mines only Zcash though I think there is still a dev fee to use it.

SilentArmy v5 is a dedicated Zcash mining client that mines only Zcash, and you keep all the profits. It has fairly good CUDA support.

Rgr, I thought that was how Nicehash worked. It makes sense to give a cut to someone else to manage the heavy lifting for me, but I may shift to silentarmy if it's something that 'just works' as well but lets me keep that remaining 5-10% or whatever it is of the profit. Having said that, if ZCash takes a shit profit-wise, that means I start chasing whatever the next trending currency is, right?

Yeah, in the settings I turned everything off except Zcash. I didn't want to go through the trouble of trying out different core and memory clock settings for the various different algorithms.

Aren't you potentially missing out on the benefit of Nicehash though, being that it switches between algorithms based on what's profitable at any given time? I feel like if you're restricting yourself to zcash, you may as well find a dedicated zcash miner instead and pocket the extra.

I set up the GF's computer to mine last night as well, she's got a gtx970 which benched at roughly half for most of the algos as my 1080, with a few exceptions. I left it turned off for her processor though, as she has an old iron i7, so it'd probably sap more electricity than it was worth running at full load. Nicehash's calc still predicted the 970 as pulling in a healthy profit over electricity costs in my area. This took me from a rough avg of probably .003BTC/day, to .004-.0045ish. Monthly projected went from around $55 to $83.

I have a GTX960 I yanked out of her computer to replace with the 970 when I got my 1080. Now I'm wondering if I should throw it in mine as a mini-miner/physx card. TDP's 120w I think, if it comes closeish to the 970's benchies (145w) it should still pull a profit.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Madpacket, I have to wonder why the Optiminer devs didn't think of that? Rumour also has it that someone paid for private updates of Optiminer (essentially buying out the dev) but that makes little sense. Properly paid mining fees on Optiminer 6.0 and better would far outweigh one-time payments like that.

Osiris, it's worth it to try out the different mining clients to see what works best for you. I'm not sure what would be the most profitable after ZCash. The best thing about NiceHash is that it can figure that out for you.

edit: On an unrelated note, it looks like the Optiminer devs are encouraging people not to distribute any version of their software. I've removed all links to Optiminer software in this thread. I'm going to leave up instructions for anyone that manages to get their hands on the software, and if you do, I highly encourage you to run it normally and pay the dev fees so the devs get what users initially agreed to give them.

 

[thilanliyan]

i have heard of mining farms paying devs to code miners, so I wouldn't be surprised if someone bought out the Optiminer dev.

 

[suklee]

PSA: Claymore 9.0

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1670733.0

 

[DrMrLordX]

Not bad. That kicked my Win10 machine's performance up a bit.

 

[thilanliyan]

^People reporting power spikes with v9.0. I'm gonna hold off updating until we get more info.

 

[dajeepster]

^People reporting power spikes with v9.0. I'm gonna hold off updating until we get more info.

i saw that in the forums also.. but i'm taking it with a grain of salt. They're reporting spikes but i don't think they are taking into account the drivers that they might have installed, such as vga drivers. claymore is just making an application that runs on your system. I would be more concerned about whether i have the latest drivers on your system that makes it stable at stock... a lot of these people oc their system to get the fastest times/speeds, but not necessarily the most stable times/speeds. and with newer systems you need the lastest stable driver.. i.e. you're not getting very far with a 480rx and 15.12 drivers.

just take these with a grain of salt.. i'm currently running v9 on all my systems with -i 6 except with cards that are 2 gb.. they get -i5 or less. -i 7 didn't give me a boost on most systems and it made other systems unstable. i'll take that 1% less for not having to babysit my systems.

The real test for me is going to be the next few days... loaded v9 on the systems last night, and they've been stable overnight. Now i'm going out of town for a week.. let's see how long they last running.

 

[VeryCharBroiled]

re: power spikes.

i did notice my 390s that were stable under 8 would crash under 9.

i just reduced the undervolt a bit, from -75 to -50. clocks are 1100/1600

ver 9 just hits the card vrms harder i would imagine.

 

[suklee]

Read about those power spikes, but ok so far my rigs have been stable for 24 hours, all using Corsair RM1000 watt power supplies.

 

[VeryCharBroiled]

sounds like most of the problems people are complaining about with v9 are those with hardware wound too tight or too near the edge.

bumped up the voltage a touch and rock solid here.

 

[Mercennarius]

As a newbie to mining, what's currently more profitable for mining Ethereum or ZCash?

 

[poofyhairguy]

As a newbie to mining, what's currently more profitable for mining Ethereum or ZCash?

Go by this:

https://whattomine.com/

Currently Zcash.

 

[DrMrLordX]

So has anyone had a reduction in hashrate with Claymore's miner running 16.21.1? I just updated and it looks like I lost maybe 60 H/s. Though now I can run -i 6 instead of -i 4.

 

[VeryCharBroiled]

So has anyone had a reduction in hashrate with Claymore's miner running 16.21.1? I just updated and it looks like I lost maybe 60 H/s. Though now I can run -i 6 instead of -i 4.

this is the ReLive driver?

main things ive heard are it amounts to junk and to stay away.

if i were to try it i would make a full system image (in case i want to revert) before installing it.

might just do that as i have a 470 coming today and may toss it into the daily driver as i will game on this too.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Yeah it's the ReLive driver.

I have no problems with it otherwise, it just seems to slow down Claymore a bit. If I like the ReLive function enough (versus still using Plays.tv which I still have installed) then I'll stick with it. This isn't my main mining box anyway. Everything else is Linux + Optiminer 6.0.

 

[Accord99]

On my primary desktop; I have a GTX 1080 and 290X. With the ReLive driver, I found that I could no longer control the core clock of the 290X with either AfterBurner or Trixx, it would be stuck at 300 MHz. I ended up reverting to an older driver.

 

[vissarix]

Hello guys i recently bought a used rig with a 7870xt, is it worth it to mine with this gpu? I dont even know where to start...

My pc is on my room so if the gpu usage is 99% i dont think i would be able to sleep during the night due to the fan which is loud..

 

[DrMrLordX]

On my primary desktop; I have a GTX 1080 and 290X. With the ReLive driver, I found that I could no longer control the core clock of the 290X with either AfterBurner or Trixx, it would be stuck at 300 MHz. I ended up reverting to an older driver.

Weird. I am using TRIXX and it's just fine on both my 390 and 290 (with the ReLive driver). Maybe it's from having an Nvidia card in there at the same time?

 

[DrMrLordX]

It was definitely the AMD ReLive driver pushing down performance on my Win10 box. I had to roll back to a September driver for other reasons and I got my 60 H/s back, even when dropping back to -i 4.

 

[VeryCharBroiled]

Hello guys i recently bought a used rig with a 7870xt, is it worth it to mine with this gpu? I dont even know where to start...

My pc is on my room so if the gpu usage is 99% i dont think i would be able to sleep during the night due to the fan which is loud..

gpu will be at 99+% while mining. make sure you have good airflow through the case.

as for profit, depends on electricity costs.

if you are totally new to crypto mining its sorta a steep curve initially but not that long before you would get the hang of it. many of us find it fun not even counting profit.

 

[reb0rn]

Nicehash miner NV1070 1.0.3a , OC card 2000/2350 370sol/s

 

[Feld]

On my primary desktop; I have a GTX 1080 and 290X. With the ReLive driver, I found that I could no longer control the core clock of the 290X with either AfterBurner or Trixx, it would be stuck at 300 MHz. I ended up reverting to an older driver.

I just mentioned it in the Ethereum thread, but I had basically the same thing happen except for me it was locking the memory at 150 MHz, and my system doesn't have an Nvidia card. It seems the latest driver has some issues with certain Hawaii cards.

 

[SimianR]

Just started mining Zcash with an R9 290 @ 1000/1300. I'm getting 247 H/s - does that seem about right?

 

[Hitman928]

That's about right. You can probably significantly lower the memory speed without performance loss on the 290.

 

[DrMrLordX]

That speed is in line with what I get on my 290 using Claymore 9.0