ZCash/ZEC GPU mining

[DrMrLordX]

ZEC is still profitable because difficulty seems to be doing down. I'm up to over 2 ZEC per month at current rates whereas I was barely making 1 per month a few days ago. The miner improvements have helped a lot on my Windows machine particularly.

Never mind that ZEC itself is now trading slightly above $180. How far can it fall?

 

[poofyhairguy]

I'm up to over 2 ZEC per month at current rates whereas I was barely making 1 per month a few days ago.

Aka when it was worth twice as much!

I see it falling all the way down, but it is obvious that miners dumping coins are the reason for the fall. Maybe people moving back to ETH will help the ZEC difficulty AND help slow the falling price.

What this whole event shows me is how many miners MUST BE hoarding ETH instead of selling it, or ETH wouldn't have the price consistency that it does have. That bodes well for its future that so many profit driven people are hoarding it hoping for a brighter future.

I am one of those people, I haven't sold a single ETH yet. I hit my original ETH hoarding goal earlier this month though, so everything I mine from here on out I plan to dump when POS speculation drives the price up next year. POS is too big of a risk for me to risk all this work and all these power bills on them pulling it off.

 

[RussianSensation]

You can clearly see that on whattomine, as its percentage based. ZEC is actually rising in profitability compared to ETH because so many people are going back to ETH.

Ya, I am not understanding how Eth is more profitable than Zec? Even with Zec dropping, it's still way more profitable for me:

Claymore 2.1 Beta + i7 6700K 4Ghz

https://www.cryptocompare.com/mining/calculator/zec

208 H/s, 870W => profit per day = $6.92, profit per month = $207.64

vs.

https://www.cryptocompare.com/mining/calculator/eth

80 H/s, 840W => profit per day = $2.72, profit per month = $81.60

 

[Madpacket]

You can clearly see that on whattomine, as its percentage based. ZEC is actually rising in profitability compared to ETH because so many people are going back to ETH.

I am working hard this week coming up with an optimal solution for myself in this inbetween time when either can be more profitable when you wake up the next day. I have almost reconfigured every mining machine I have, and I have consolidated the cards that mine ZEC better than ETH into two machines.

So going forward all my Polaris cards except my 460 will mine ETH, while my 390X, 270, 460, and two Tahiti's will mine ZEC for now. That way hopefully I can just leave it alone for a week (switching miners back and forth is quite a time drain) and have a little cushion no matter which is a better choice when I wake up tomorrow.

The best part about all of this is no matter what it seems the split of miners means that it is almost impossible to mine less value than I did last month, and as a bonus my CPUs (which were doing little) and my 270 2GB (which was about to get killed by a large ETH dag) have some way to get some sort of income until I stop mining altogether. Heck I was about to take the Tahiti's offline too as they have aged so poorly mining ETH (easily the worst out of any card). Mining ZEC they are doing basically double in relation to either the 480 or the 390x in regards ETH mining, which means even at if ZEC is 30% less profitable on those cards I am still ahead.

I thought the mining party would be done in February, but maybe now it will be worth doing until April or whenever POS speculation comes (aka when I plan to cash out).

That sounds like a reasonable approach. I'm a little more lazy and rely on the sites like whattomine before pointing my mini farm in the right direction. I agree with your about assessment on Ether. Most people are keeping it as they expect the value to rise given the utility of Ethereum. Ether IMHO is very undervalued and more people should be buying it up now. I think once the hard forks slow down you'll see the price start to climb. ZEC has very little future as it's built on a house of cards plus better alternatives like Monero already exist which will also incorporate functionality like zero proof. That being said I will keep mining ZEC and trading for ETH/BTC as long as it's more profitable.

 

[Madpacket]

Ya, I am not understanding how Eth is more profitable than Zec? Even with Zec dropping, it's still way more profitable for me:

Claymore 2.1 Beta + i7 6700K 4Ghz

https://www.cryptocompare.com/mining/calculator/zec

208 H/s, 870W => profit per day = $6.92, profit per month = $207.64

vs.

https://www.cryptocompare.com/mining/calculator/eth

80 H/s, 840W => profit per day = $2.72, profit per month = $81.60

Thanks for doing the math. I like the fact I'm using 800W - 1KW less in electricity, this saves quite a bit of money. Quick question, is it worth it to upgrade from Claymore 2.0 to 2.1?

 

[RussianSensation]

Thanks for doing the math. I like the fact I'm using 800W - 1KW less in electricity, this saves quite a bit of money.

Once mining is done, there will be almost no use outside of servers for 800W-1kW PSUs now that Tri-SLI and Tri-Fire is basically dead. EVGA, Corsair, SeaSonic are probably benefiting from the mining boom. After 4.5 years of going almost 24/7, my SeaSonic 1000W Platinum is finally starting to degrade. 12V rail drops to 11.52V at 900W load per Kill-A-Watt, but it's still keeping the system stable. I have a feeling next year it'll die on me but still within its 7 year warranty. This year I bought the EVGA 1000W P2 & 1200W P2 as well but the new SeaSonic Prime series look like a new class leader. Waiting to see how much the 1000W model will cost.

Quick question, is it worth it to upgrade from Claymore 2.0 to 2.1?

Ya, it was worth it for me. At the same clocks, the hash rate with -i 2 went up from about 165 H/sec to 182-185 H/sec, but power usage went up another 40-50W. Even with Claymore 2.1 and -i 2, the system still uses less power than Ethereum mining.

What do you guys think is the best pool for ZEC? flypool, nanopool, nicehash?

 

[poofyhairguy]

What do you guys think is the best pool for ZEC? flypool, nanopool, nicehash?

I am using Flypool because I love ethermine.org. Once you get used to the pretty graphs and stats it's hard to go back.

 

[Accord99]

After 4.5 years of going almost 24/7, my SeaSonic 1000W Platinum is finally starting to degrade. 12V rail drops to 11.52V at 900W load per Kill-A-Watt, but it's still keeping the system stable.

Doesn't the Kill-A-Watt only measure the input 120/220V power?

 

[Madpacket]

Once mining is done, there will be almost no use outside of servers for 800W-1kW PSUs now that Tri-SLI and Tri-Fire is basically dead. EVGA, Corsair, SeaSonic are probably benefiting from the mining boom. After 4.5 years of going almost 24/7, my SeaSonic 1000W Platinum is finally starting to degrade. 12V rail drops to 11.52V at 900W load per Kill-A-Watt, but it's still keeping the system stable. I have a feeling next year it'll die on me but still within its 7 year warranty. This year I bought the EVGA 1000W P2 & 1200W P2 as well but the new SeaSonic Prime series look like a new class leader. Waiting to see how much the 1000W model will cost.



Ya, it was worth it for me. At the same clocks, the hash rate with -i 2 went up from about 165 H/sec to 182-185 H/sec, but power usage went up another 40-50W. Even with Claymore 2.1 and -i 2, the system still uses less power than Ethereum mining.

What do you guys think is the best pool for ZEC? flypool, nanopool, nicehash?

Thanks. I guess I'll upgrade to 2.1. ZEC just had a mini rally on Polo. Pump and dump! I use flypool for ZEC, seems pretty good so far.

Yeah I have a handful of 1KW+ gold and platinum power supplies. I love the EVGA Superflower power supplies. 10 year warranties and rock solid stability. That being said I still have a 5 or maybe 6 year old SeaSonic 850W Bronze that's been running non stop. But yes in a year or two a 1KW power supply will look silly if GPU mining is dead. All you really need these days is a quality 550 - 650W power supply for a gaming PC.

 

[suklee]

I am using Flypool because I love ethermine.org. Once you get used to the pretty graphs and stats it's hard to go back.

Same here, ethermine has been solid for me the past few months so I'm using flypool. Zero problems so far.

 

[DrMrLordX]

What this whole event shows me is how many miners MUST BE hoarding ETH instead of selling it, or ETH wouldn't have the price consistency that it does have. That bodes well for its future that so many profit driven people are hoarding it hoping for a brighter future.

I am one of those people, I haven't sold a single ETH yet. I hit my original ETH hoarding goal earlier this month though, so everything I mine from here on out I plan to dump when POS speculation drives the price up next year. POS is too big of a risk for me to risk all this work and all these power bills on them pulling it off.

People are holding ETH 'cuz they know it's gonna go up eventually.

Also there's no risk to PoS if you stake through a pool. Unless the pool manager rips you off, but that's why you don't stake with some Johnny-come-lately. I'm assuming the big miner pools will run stake pools and give payouts based on how much you contribute to the pool.

 

[poofyhairguy]

People are holding ETH 'cuz they know it's gonna go up eventually.

Also there's no risk to PoS if you stake through a pool. Unless the pool manager rips you off, but that's why you don't stake with some Johnny-come-lately. I'm assuming the big miner pools will run stake pools and give payouts based on how much you contribute to the pool.

I am less scared of losing money in the PoS system than I am of losing money on the path there. To get PoS working how they promise would be a moonshot in the world of cryptocurrency, but even if they pull it off Ethereum Classic shows that some might not follow down that path. If enough don't the whole thing is shot.

I will still keep most of what I mine through PoS, I just plan to liquidate around 40% in the run-up to make sure my months of tweaking on machines, and hundreds spent on GPUs and power wasn't a waste. Call it the "I don't want my wife to kill me" plan.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Not being killed by a spouse is often a good plan.

edit: Claymore has released v3.0 beta of his miner which claims even further gains over old versions. BUT! It is crashing for me on my Win10 box constantly, even when giving my cards +100mv to stabilize them.

Soooo I don't know what to tell you there. Apparently some others are having instability problems with v3.0 .

edit edit: Hmm, try this from user benekiki:

Solution for crashing 290, 290x card ander v3.0:

for those on win 10.. copy the zecminer64 exe from ver 2.1 to the 3.0 folder overwriting the file. Then try it.. Seems the gains are had in the files associated with zecminer :0 plus no crash.

seems win 10 has some wierd issue with giving this version access. Not sure why it didnt do it on first load up but second or third time it gave me a error that it didnt have rights to the cards..

This solution is working for me right now, and the speed gains are there. Wow, huge gains on my machine. Kinda makes me wish I had some extra Win10 licenses lying around for my other machines.

 

[thilanliyan]

Claymore V3.1 is out, which I assume fixes the crashing.
Definite speed improvement. Getting about an extra 10Sol/s out of my 290s with the -i 2 flag. However, CPU usage goes up, which means my CPU mining isn't as fast. Overall I think it's worth the tradeoff in purely numbers.

 

[poofyhairguy]

I am seeing MASSIVE reported differences with 3.1. Can't wait to see what the 24 hour looks like.

 

[codyray10]

I am seeing MASSIVE reported differences with 3.1. Can't wait to see what the 24 hour looks like.

Seeing the same thing here on both of my rigs. Getting about another 10H/s per gpu with 3.1

 

[VeryCharBroiled]

Doesn't the Kill-A-Watt only measure the input 120/220V power?

yes. take into account the psu efficiency of say 90% so multiply the input to the psu by that. 900 watts * 90% = 810 actual power draw of the computer itself.

The best part about all of this is no matter what it seems the split of miners means that it is almost impossible to mine less value than I did last month, and as a bonus my CPUs (which were doing little) and my 270 2GB (which was about to get killed by a large ETH dag) have some way to get some sort of income until I stop mining altogether. Heck I was about to take the Tahiti's offline too as they have aged so poorly mining ETH (easily the worst out of any card). Mining ZEC they are doing basically double in relation to either the 480 or the 390x in regards ETH mining, which means even at if ZEC is 30% less profitable on those cards I am still ahead.

zec breathed new life into my daily drivers 380 2 gb card, it couldnt mine eth anymore due to its memory size. also its 3570k can be used on zec too. my basement rig with 2 390s can run eth or zec depending on which is more profitable (easy to switch with a .bat to either) and the daily driver stays on zec. too bad the basement rig only has a G1840.. more or less useless for zec.

 

[thilanliyan]

Claymore 4.0 is out...BIG speed bump for my 290s and one 480. Went from 72 to 90Sol/s on the 290s (1100/1250, stock BIOS) and from 52 to 70 Sol/s on the 480 (1105/2000, stock BIOS). I'm using the "-i 2" option on my 290s. On the 480 I'm getting the same speed using "-i 0".

I'm considering doing a BIOS mem strap mod on my 480. Would you guys say it's worth it? Is there the possibility of doing longterm damage by changing the straps?

 

[n0x1ous]

Getting 107 sol/s on stock Fury X with Claymore 4.0 FYI

 

[thilanliyan]

We've come a long way...I remember back in my day we were only getting 30 Sol/s on a 290!!! These days you can get that with Integrated GPUs!!

 

[DrMrLordX]

Sadly Claymore has decided he won't do any more Linux clients because he's having problems protecting his binaries from decompliation on that OS. Or so it is said. So I may have to look at other miners for Linux or move to Win7 or something. Alas.

edit: release 4.0 is real, and it's fast. Really fast. Whew.

 

[Madpacket]

Crazy. I just switched my miners to 4.0. My Fury's (Non X) are pushing 100 Sol/s at stock clocks. My 6x480 rig's are pushing 400 Sol/s.

 

[n0x1ous]

Crazy. I just switched my miners to 4.0. My Fury's (Non X) are pushing 100 Sol/s at stock clocks. My 6x480 rig's are pushing 400 Sol/s.

Sounds about right....I squeezed 110 Sol/s out of stock Fury X with -i 2

I can't mess with the intensity on my 6x 480 rigs as the CPU is too weak (haswell celeron)

 

[Madpacket]

Sounds about right....I squeezed 110 Sol/s out of stock Fury X with -i 2

I can't mess with the intensity on my 6x 480 rigs as the CPU is too weak (haswell celeron)

Yeah the haswell Celeron's are a little slow but I still run them with "-i 2". My i3-6100 rig is much faster / more consistent though.

 

[n0x1ous]

Yeah the haswell Celeron's are a little slow but I still run them with "-i 2". My i3-6100 rig is much faster / more consistent though.

are you seeing a couple Sol better per card with the 6 480's rigs even with that G18xx celeron?

I was concerned about desktop usability when i remote in if i left the intensity setting higher than default.