Ethereum GPU mining?

[poofyhairguy]

Where is the value in Ethereum over any other crypto that has come and gone after the initial people cashed out.

It's all about smart contracts like the DAO.

 

[Madpacket]

Thanks for the info



If you can't give more than a "Its amazing!" as an answer to the question of "Why would I want to use Ethereum" and then telling the person to google it, why even both answering at all?

I wasn't asking "Why should I mine it". I was asking "Why should I use it." Where is the value in Ethereum over any other crypto that has come and gone after the initial people cashed out.

You're asking us to do your research. That's why I replied with a curt answer. But in the best interest to keep good karma I'll give you a headstart and help out.

- Ethereum is not a currency, ether is. Ether is a small but vital part of Ethereum.
- ether is not like Bitcoin (yet) where you can spend it at NewEgg, but given the 12-14 second block times it'll most likely be used as such in the future.
- Ethereum is a platform with all sorts of cool things being added to it like Distributed Anyonymous Organisations, smart contracts, ipfs, etc.
- Ethereum has real leadership backed by real money due to the initial investors, this means the main devs have many years of paid development working for a real company
- Big companies have adopted the technology because they believe in the security and reliability of it (Samsung, IBM, Microsoft, Philips, heck even the Department of Defense)
- Ethereum is Turing complete therefore you can run code (any code, with some limitations) on the Blockchain itself. No silly side chains necessary but still possible for large code that requires huge amounts of GAS.
- Ethereum is moving towards proof of stake which will speed it up 1000x and remove the need for using expensive traditional central cloud companies for hosting etc.


These are just a couple reasons why it has value. It has real utility. Yes all crypto is speculative just like the stock market, or traditional fiat currencies. But Ethereum, Ether, smart contracts, DAO's and a ton of interested developers is why you should care and not write it off as just another coin.

As for "why should you use it". The use of ether will come in the form of using DAPPS. Developers create distributed applications and set a price for the use of it. This will cost ether. I suspect DAPPS will be the main method of "spending" ether unless or until it replaces Bitcoin as a means of exchange for goods outside the Blockchain. Bitcoin still has its place in commerce so this may take a while.

Please read the white paper on Ethereum and The DAO for a better idea of the capabilities. Also read Vitaleks blog on Serenity (planned PoS release).

Here's another good resource:


https://www.reddit.com/r/ethereum/comments/3vxvlx/starter_guide_almost_all_the_links_youll_need_to/

Hope this helps.

 

[MrTeal]

Good to know. When I see 2x8 pin power adapters I get a little concerned. I purposely avoided 390's like this for a few reasons. Suspected increase in power usage and the fact you only get so many 8 pin adapeters per power supply. 6+8 is ideal. All you folks bumbed out you got reference cards should just optimise them as the volterra VRM's allow for awesome power savings when undervolted, they're likely better for mining than the Tri-X if you can handle the noise.

<rant>
EDIT: Amazon is a ***** company. They lowered the price of the Nano on me 30 minutes after I order so I cancel my order to reorder at the lowered price because they don't price adjust their own items! (this all happened within an hour) however after I cancel they jack the price up immediately to $50.00 more hah. I was so pissed I called in and they wouldn't help me at all. I ended up cancelling my Prime membership and won't be ordering from them ever again. I'll be cancelling my account as soon as I can xfer my GC to someone else. Sorry for the </rant>.

Guess I'll stick to NewEgg.

I much prefer 6 pin, but it doesn't have to be a limitation if you're a bit handy. The 8 pin connector has the same current handling capability of a 6 pin, so you can just use 6 pins if you jumper the other (sense) pin to ground.

 

[Madpacket]

Btw, I do not recommend Vapor-X 290s for mining! They are absolute power hogs. Something happens to them at clockspeeds above 990 MHz (default is higher than that) that causes them to pull anywhere from 25-40W more than what can be justified by their performance. Perf/watt is terrible. I haven't figured out how to deal with the inexplicable jump in power consumption at such speeds.

I wonder if the Tri-X on sale at NewEgg has the same power consumption issues. I can't see Sapphire making multiple PCB's or different VRM layouts but anything's possible.

Have you tried underclocking / undervolting? Does the card have a dual bios? You may just have a high default voltage that many of these "OC" editions come flashed as. A custom bios with a lower default VID may be of need if Afterburner doesn't do the trick. What is the ASIC rating of your card?

 

[reb0rn]

So why would I want to mine Eth? What benefit is there to it as a currency over bitcoin? I mean I realize that it has value now, but what is that value based on? Why spend the time, money on mining it when it could just lose all value right after I've mined it (like many have in the past ).

Good question!!
NONE reason to have so match value atm!!!
Bitcoin is USED for money transfer, also its mined and fairly decentralized
Ethereum is NONE of that, and on top of it its PRIMINED bu 90+ % which in crypto world is PURE SCAM!!!!!

Sure I mine it from the start, I love it!!!!!! I dump all and make profit from ethereum, and that IT IS!

I am not saying ethereum in future will not have some real usable usage, but with atm value NEVER. who is insane to pay insane $$ for GAS or Ethereum to use it for some lame project?????
You read TONS of projects on ethereum but IS THERE ONE USABE in which ppl will put lots of money???
No there is none, you read tons of papers of possibilities and project and at the end you don`t understand it at all, its the way ethereum group operates! for that thay had success to sell something ppl don not even understand!

 

[Feld]

Good question!!
NONE reason to have so match value atm!!!
Bitcoin is USED for money transfer, also its mined and fairly decentralized
Ethereum is NONE of that, and on top of it its PRIMINED bu 90+ % which in crypto world is PURE SCAM!!!!!

Sure I mine it from the start, I love it!!!!!! I dump all and make profit from ethereum, and that IT IS!

I am not saying ethereum in future will not have some real usable usage, but with atm value NEVER. who is insane to pay insane $$ for GAS or Ethereum to use it for some lame project?????
You read TONS of projects on ethereum but IS THERE ONE USABE in which ppl will put lots of money???
No there is none, you read tons of papers of possibilities and project and at the end you don`t understand it at all, its the way ethereum group operates! for that thay had success to sell something ppl don not even understand!

The DAO has raised over $155 million worth of ether in the last couple weeks and it's still increasing. Just because you don't understand it doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

 

[reb0rn]

The DAO has raised over $155 million worth of ether in the last couple weeks and it's still increasing. Just because you don't understand it doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

lol, pls ENLIGHT me!!!

The only reason for DAO is to delude and lower number of ethereum on maket so they can PUMP and DUMP on fools!!!!

I am in crypto for 4+ years, tracked 1000 alt coins, pls tell me the TRUTH!
make me believe

 

[DrMrLordX]

I wonder if the Tri-X on sale at NewEgg has the same power consumption issues. I can't see Sapphire making multiple PCB's or different VRM layouts but anything's possible.

It's possible. I suspect my problems with the Vapor-X stem from the 6-phase VRM that kicks in beyond a certain point (possibly what I'm seeing at 991+ MHz GPU clock).

Have you tried underclocking / undervolting? Does the card have a dual bios? You may just have a high default voltage that many of these "OC" editions come flashed as. A custom bios with a lower default VID may be of need if Afterburner doesn't do the trick. What is the ASIC rating of your card?

I've tried tweaking the hell out of the non-UEFI BIOS to get power consumption down. That's how I got my cards to 990 MHz (you can't downclock them with software controls, and base clockspeed is 1040 MHz). ASIC quality on both my Vapor-X cards is in the 68% range. Fairly low.

I have tried all manner of chicanery to get power consumption down, including limiting TDP/max power draw and current draw. I haven't messed with the UEFI, and maybe I should at some point.

Here are the mining ROMs I generated with HawaiiBIOSReader:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/znj0pmjzu81doke/sapphire-290-vapor-x-mining.rom?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/rknm5v4gau278qt/sapphire2-290-vapor-x-mining.rom?dl=0

btw when dealing with 8-pin connectors, I have just stuck 6-pin connectors into the leftmost 6 pins (the ones physically matched by the 6-pin connector). All my 8-pin plugs from the PSU come in 6+2 configuration so it isn't hard to figure out where the 6-pin plugs go into the 8-pin connectors. Anyway it seems to work without complication if I only do it on the second 8-pin, no extra ground wires needed (I don't think?).

 

[deanx0r]

I wouldnt mind mining to finance my next video card purchase. What are you opinions on the GTX970 for mining? I also have a 7990 sitting around, but it would require build a Frankenstein computer to see it mining.

 

[Elfear]

I'm having issues trying to get 4 GPUs to play nice on my 1150 Maximus VI Hero board. I've got a 980Ti in the first PCI-E 3.0 slot (red), a 380 in the 2nd 3.0 slot (red), and then two 390's in the 1st and 2nd PCI-E x1 slots via USB riser cables.

The problem I run into is with all 4 GPUs mining, I get hitching and visible screen slow down. Hashrate also goes in the pits. If I run the three Radeon cards alone, they do fine. I previously had 2 380's and the 980Ti running together without issue. My thinking is that I've oversaturated the PCI-E lanes.

Ideas?

 

[techie81]

What are you guys using as an exchange? Kraken?

 

[metalliax]

What are you guys using as an exchange? Kraken?

i've mainly used Kraken, however Poloniex has the highest volume

 

[Hitman928]

Kraken has been my go to for Eth. I've had a couple little hiccups but their support people have taken care of them quickly so it's been a good experience so far.

 

[metalliax]

I find it great that this thread has grown so large. I stopped mining more than a month ago, once I hit 50 coins mined. My power costs are too high, and with a single Nano mining, it isn't worth it from an effort standpoint. More for you guys, I suppose. I find it very entertaining to follow ETH and have about 500 coins dumped into The DAO. We'll see what happens from here.

 

[DrMrLordX]

I wouldnt mind mining to finance my next video card purchase. What are you opinions on the GTX970 for mining? I also have a 7990 sitting around, but it would require build a Frankenstein computer to see it mining.

Hate to say it, but you will probably get better performance mining with the 7990.

I'm having issues trying to get 4 GPUs to play nice on my 1150 Maximus VI Hero board. I've got a 980Ti in the first PCI-E 3.0 slot (red), a 380 in the 2nd 3.0 slot (red), and then two 390's in the 1st and 2nd PCI-E x1 slots via USB riser cables.

The problem I run into is with all 4 GPUs mining, I get hitching and visible screen slow down. Hashrate also goes in the pits. If I run the three Radeon cards alone, they do fine. I previously had 2 380's and the 980Ti running together without issue. My thinking is that I've oversaturated the PCI-E lanes.

Ideas?

I doubt that you're saturating the PCIe lanes. You should be using up 8x on each 16x slot and then you're using 1x per 1x PCIe slot via the PCH which grants an extra 4 lanes. Have you tried relegating the first 390 to a riser plugged into the second 3.0 slot?

 

[Shmee]

I'm having issues trying to get 4 GPUs to play nice on my 1150 Maximus VI Hero board. I've got a 980Ti in the first PCI-E 3.0 slot (red), a 380 in the 2nd 3.0 slot (red), and then two 390's in the 1st and 2nd PCI-E x1 slots via USB riser cables.

The problem I run into is with all 4 GPUs mining, I get hitching and visible screen slow down. Hashrate also goes in the pits. If I run the three Radeon cards alone, they do fine. I previously had 2 380's and the 980Ti running together without issue. My thinking is that I've oversaturated the PCI-E lanes.

Ideas?

Do you have adequate PSU for all 4 cards mining? Just something to check. Mining shouldn't take much PCIE bandwidth.

 

[Elfear]

I doubt that you're saturating the PCIe lanes. You should be using up 8x on each 16x slot and then you're using 1x per 1x PCIe slot via the PCH which grants an extra 4 lanes. Have you tried relegating the first 390 to a riser plugged into the second 3.0 slot?

I'll give that a shot. Could it have anything to do with 4 cards trying to access the DAG file at once? Three cards work fine but adding the 4th kills the hashrate.

Do you have adequate PSU for all 4 cards mining? Just something to check. Mining shouldn't take much PCIE bandwidth.

I'm using a 1300W EVGA PSU. With the 980Ti and the two 380's, it was pulling 630W from the wall. Probably up around 950W if I could get all four cards to work at the same time.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Yeah that 1300W EVGA should be enough. Is it a G2? I have one of those. I have made it pull 980W+ from the wall without apparent issue.

As for multiple cards accessing the DAG at once, it depends on how your are mining and how many different logins you are using at the same time. If you use one instance of the miner (my experience is limited to ethminer) via the -t 4 option, then you are using only one copy of the DAG. If you run multiple instances of the miner via different users, each user will wind up with its own copy of the DAG in the Ethash directory.

In windows, it is . . . difficult-to-impossible to mine off the same DAG with multiple instances of the mining client, but in Linux it's fairly easy to do it if you mine as root (or with the authority of root via sudo). It will only produce errors when the miner must create a new copy of the DAG. If it must do so, then all but the last client initiated will bomb out with a bus error. you have to let one client mine until the DAG is created, and then you can fire up the others.

Now, as far as performance hits go, I have noticed big performance hits when trying to mine with the primary video adapter when using 1x PCIe risers under Linux. In Windows, mining with my iGPU (7700k) and two other cards plugged into 16x slots "normally" did not produce much slowdown, but on a Linux machine with 1x risers, it's a different ball game. What happens to me is that when I start mining with the card that is the primary graphics adapter, the system locks up and becomes unusable for maybe a few minutes, but then it starts mining and everything is fine. If I mine on everything but the primary video adapter, things go more smoothly. My guess is that it's my use of a 2gb Pitcairn as the primary video adapter and the slow 1x riser that's causing the issue. The slowdown comes when ethminer tries loading the DAG into VRAM as one chunk. My guess is that the slow link to the card becomes saturated, causing it to fail as an adapter for the duration of the loading sequence.

 

[VeryCharBroiled]

claymores dual miner doesnt put the dag on disc, it generates it and stores it in the gpu itself.

it can dual mine with another coin (dlc or something) but i just mine eth with it.

switched from ethminer mainly because cdm has active development, config files, failovers, central management. one percent fee, well worth it to me.

 

[reb0rn]

true claymore miner is 100% stable, other crash all the time on DAG change for most ppl

 

[poofyhairguy]

Now that I have tested for a while I can confirm the Claymore miner makes a 5% difference on my 280x, and an 8% difference on my 390x.

I have to admit, after looking at the leaked Polaris benchmarks I might not send back the reference 290s. Seems like Polaris might not be a huge compute boost over Hawaii, and that AMD isn't giving me a real upgrade over the 390X until Volta. I might put the 290s in a pure mining rig and hold off buying the first Polaris 10 card I see. When pricing 390s the best I can do is $250-ish after selling the game and getting the rebate, while the 290 on my desk was a straight $200 no rebate or ebay. Is the 390 worth 25% more plus the hassle? Not for the hash rate, so it comes down to if I can make back that $50 on the resale value. Decisions decisions.

Sigh, this whole GPU generation shift is kinda nerve wracking.

 

[Madpacket]

It's possible. I suspect my problems with the Vapor-X stem from the 6-phase VRM that kicks in beyond a certain point (possibly what I'm seeing at 991+ MHz GPU clock).



I've tried tweaking the hell out of the non-UEFI BIOS to get power consumption down. That's how I got my cards to 990 MHz (you can't downclock them with software controls, and base clockspeed is 1040 MHz). ASIC quality on both my Vapor-X cards is in the 68% range. Fairly low.

I have tried all manner of chicanery to get power consumption down, including limiting TDP/max power draw and current draw. I haven't messed with the UEFI, and maybe I should at some point.

Here are the mining ROMs I generated with HawaiiBIOSReader:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/znj0pmjzu81doke/sapphire-290-vapor-x-mining.rom?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/rknm5v4gau278qt/sapphire2-290-vapor-x-mining.rom?dl=0

btw when dealing with 8-pin connectors, I have just stuck 6-pin connectors into the leftmost 6 pins (the ones physically matched by the 6-pin connector). All my 8-pin plugs from the PSU come in 6+2 configuration so it isn't hard to figure out where the 6-pin plugs go into the 8-pin connectors. Anyway it seems to work without complication if I only do it on the second 8-pin, no extra ground wires needed (I don't think?).

OK good to know. You went the extra mile so I would just make the most of what you have. I'm staying away from these Sapphire cards, seems to be tons of refurbs on Newegg but without proper voltage controls not really worth it. If the reference blower type come back in stock I'll pick a bunch of them up instead. Milk Crate Miner 3 and maybe 4 on the way. Switched from AMD FX99 platform to Z170 for power savings and should be easier to resell once done. Going to try my first board this week (Core i3-6100 + AsRock Z170 Pro4s). Only five PCIe slots, well technically six if you use the m.2 adapter but I usually only put 4 cards in each milk crate miner anyway. Purchased a new EVGA Superflower Leaded 1200W Platinum to replace my 1KW Platinum as I'm pulling 1030W from the wall now since switching mining to Claymore.

Speaking of claymore. I can confirm my hashing rates seem a little more stable so far but I'm sure if the extra power consumption is worth the hashes. Will run for a week to get a better idea across 6 miners.

Looking like Polaris is going to suck at mining if the rumours are true, so good idea to keep eyes out for cheap 390's or cheap Fury Nano's. Used 290's still the best deal if you can find ones with voltage controls.

 

[Madpacket]

Now that I have tested for a while I can confirm the Claymore miner makes a 5% difference on my 280x, and an 8% difference on my 390x.

I have to admit, after looking at the leaked Polaris benchmarks I might not send back the reference 290s. Seems like Polaris might not be a huge compute boost over Hawaii, and that AMD isn't giving me a real upgrade over the 390X until Volta. I might put the 290s in a pure mining rig and hold off buying the first Polaris 10 card I see. When pricing 390s the best I can do is $250-ish after selling the game and getting the rebate, while the 290 on my desk was a straight $200 no rebate or ebay. Is the 390 worth 25% more plus the hassle? Not for the hash rate, so it comes down to if I can make back that $50 on the resale value. Decisions decisions.

Sigh, this whole GPU generation shift is kinda nerve wracking.

It'll depend on power costs ultimately. If you currently get cheap power forget about Polaris and stick with existing cards.

 

[Madpacket]

Good question!!
NONE reason to have so match value atm!!!
Bitcoin is USED for money transfer, also its mined and fairly decentralized
Ethereum is NONE of that, and on top of it its PRIMINED bu 90+ % which in crypto world is PURE SCAM!!!!!

Sure I mine it from the start, I love it!!!!!! I dump all and make profit from ethereum, and that IT IS!

I am not saying ethereum in future will not have some real usable usage, but with atm value NEVER. who is insane to pay insane $$ for GAS or Ethereum to use it for some lame project?????
You read TONS of projects on ethereum but IS THERE ONE USABE in which ppl will put lots of money???
No there is none, you read tons of papers of possibilities and project and at the end you don`t understand it at all, its the way ethereum group operates! for that thay had success to sell something ppl don not even understand!

You remind me of one those bipolar day traders on r/ethtrader, someone who's always trying to manipulate the masses to get the market to move the way you gambled it would. Good luck trying to manipulate Ethereum, you'll need it

 

[reb0rn]

ZERO facts for you claims ethereum is future, why??
I would never invest in something which is 90% premined, at same time there is ZERO distribution when someone control almost whole primine, Vitalik is smart he managed to hide this fact as not important

here is some info about what is ethereum:
http://www.vox.com/2016/5/24/11718436/ethereum-the-dao-bitcoin

Don`t get me wrong I still don`t see any value to 1 billion cap!, also as text say DAO is controled buy ppl who has premine, don`t forget that