Archive for the ‘Mining Software’ Category

NiceHash has Released 100% LHR Unlock for ETH Mining on Nvidia GPUs

7, May 2022

The latest NiceHash QuickMiner (Excavator) is the first mining software to fully unlock Nvidia’s LHR video cards for mining Ethereum (ETH). Do note that currenly all Nvidia RTX 30 series GPUs with v1 and v2 LHR should be supported and being unlocked to full hjashrate when mining Ethereum, but LHR v3 GPUs, namely RTX 3050 and RTX 3080 12GB are still not supported by the unlock. You need to download and use the QuickMiner v0.5.4.0 RC (release candidate) or newer in order to be able to take advantage of the full LHR unlock. NiceHash reccomends to use either 472.xx or the latest NVIDIA GPU drivers along with the miner for best results, older video drivers might cause issues with the unlock or proper functioning of the miner. Also have in mind that NiceHash QuickMiner only works on Windows and you can only use it on the NiceHash mining platform!

– To download and try the latest NiceHash QuickMiner v0.5.4.0 RC with Full LHR unlock…

Z-Enemy 2.6.3 Beta Nvidia GPU Miner for KAWPOW Mining of Ravencoin (RVN)

21, Feb 2021

Last year Ravencoin (RVN) has successfully hardforked and switched to KAWPOW as a mining algorithm from the previously used X16Rv2 algo. The latest Z-Enemy 2.6.3 Beta version that was recently made available is an important update for everyone that has Nvidia GeForce RTX 30 Series of GPUs and uses them for crypto mining. This is a TEST BUILD of the software that adds support for Nvidia RTX 30×0 video cards with CUDA 11.1 and drivers ver. 456.81 or later. It is intended for RTX 3060 Ti, RTX 3070, RTX 3080 and RTX 3090 GPUs, if you have an older Nvidia GPU you should use the latest stable release Z-Enemy 2.6.2 instead. This official and not beta version works on CUDA 9.x and CUDA 10.x and it is recommended to make sure you’ve updated your NVIDIA video drivers to at least version 398 or a newer one.

The KAWPOW algorithm used by Ravencoin is a derivative of ProgPOW with parameters specific for RVN, so performance wise you can expect similar hashrate to what ProgPOW delivers. ProgPOW or Programmatic Proof-of-Work was designed in a way that it utilizes graphics processors to their maximum in order to provide an equal level performance without favoring a specific GPU manufacturer or being able to actually provide much faster hashrate if implemented on ASICs. The ProgPOW algorithm was made as a kind of evolution of the Ethash algorithm used by Ethereum and at some point ProgPOW was even considered as a replacement algorithm for Ethash for Ethereum. The idea here is that a cheaper GPU with better video memory will not perform better like in some cases for Ethereum, but instead the performance you get will be based on the overall GPU performance level – both of the GPU and the VRAM.

KAWPOW was based off ProgPOW as a means to drive away any FPGA and/or ASIC mining hardware that was starting to become available on the Ravencoin’s network and the fork was successful in doing so, but it took a bit of time for things to start moving again for RVN. The last few days we are finally seeing that things are moving with Ravencoin price seriously on the move and thus the interest in mining Ravencoin is peaking once again. Mining RVN has also become quite profitable due to the increase in the price of the coin, so people are considering switching some of their GPU mining power to mine RVN as profitability gets closer to that of Ethereum mining.

The KAWPOW mining algorithm uses both GPU and memory, so overclocking both can help you maximize performance, though you should start without overclock and see what your mining hardware can handle. This can however increase the power usage and operating temperatures for achieving optimal performance when mining RVN on the same hardware as opposed to mining ETH with optimal performance! Do note that KAWPOW and PROGPOW use DAGs like Ethash and currently the DAG size of Ravencoin (RVN) is at almost 3GB, so GPUs with 4GB as a minimum for mining will be required. Just as a reference, a single Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 with settings optimized for 120 MH/s Ethereum mining can do almost 50 MH/s hashrate for KOWPOW mining. Also be advised that the GDDR6X memory temperatures on RTX 3080 and RTX 3090 while mining RVN are much lower compared to when mining ETH, so this may be an advantage especially for people that have trouble with the memory chips running too hot while mining Ethereum.

– To Download the Z-ENEMY 2.6.3 Beta RTX 30 Series GPU Miner…
– To Download the Latest Stable Z-ENEMY 2.6.2 Nvidia GPU Miner…

Updated “Zombie Mode” for AMD Radeon RX 470/570 and RX 480/580 4GB GPUs for Ethereum Mining

8, Feb 2021

The “Zombie Mode” for mining Ethereum on 4GB AMD Radeon RX 470/480 and RX 570/580 GPUs had them brought back from the dead (hence the name) after the DAG size has reached the capacity of their video memory. Using it you can still not only mine ETH, but still make a nice profit doing so, even with the reduced hashrate you are getting. Even though the 4GB cards can still work their hashrate and profitability will continue to drop down with each new DAG epoch (current DAG is 393), the development of mining software and more specifically the “Zombie Mode” continues. Here comes the latest lolMiner 1.21 for Windows and especially LolMiner 1.22 for Linux that brings significant performance improvements for the “Zombie Mode” for mining Ethereum (ETH), currently doubling the hashrate and extending the mining life of 4GB Radeons for a couple more DAG epochs with higher hashrate. And if this all seems too good to be true, well, it kind of is as there is a catch…

Currently mining ETH with AMD Radeon RX 470/480 or RX 570/580 GPUs with 4GB VRAM should be giving you a hashrate of about 13-14 MHS for Ethash per GPU connected via a x1 PCI-E riser and using a mining software that supports “Zombie Mode” mining. Using the latest LolMiner 1.22 under a Linux especially you can get a significantly improved performance using the “Zombie Mode” on RX 400/500 GPUs for mining ETH… up to double what you are normally getting. It is even easier to try it with the help of Linux-based OSes such as HiveOS and SMOS that have already updated with support for the latest LolMiner. If you are trying HiveOS for a first time you can use the promo code CMB10USDPROMO to register that will give you $10 USD in your account balance.

We already mentioned that there is a catch. In order to get the extra performance gain you must use a high interconnect bandwidth to connect the VGA to the motherboard, so something like at least 4x, x8 or x16 PCI-E extender or the GPU connected directly to the motherboard. The extra performance gain will NOT WORK for video cards that are connected through low-bandwidth x1 PCI-E extenders as is the case in 99% of mining rigs unfortunately, so these will remain running with the same mining performance as with earlier versions of LolMiner using the “Zombie Mode”.

Trying the new LolMiner with MSI Radeon RX 470 VGA with 4GB video memory that is directly connected to the motherboard on a x16 PCI-E slot we got 27.27 MH/s hashrate. The same video card connected with x1 PCI-E riser does just 13.xx MHS, we get about than double the current hashrate and very close to what these 4GB GPUs were capable of delivering before the DAG size moved past 4GB. Do note however that this new performance boost will not continue forever, in fact it is going to be available just a few more DAG epochs and upgrading existing mining rigs with the GPUs connected to high bandwidth slots is another issue just making things much harder. And the extra performance boost will be available for just about a month and a half before you get back to the same level of performance you are currently getting with “Zombie Mode” on x1 PCI-E extenders.

New Zombie Mod Performance:
– DAG Epoch 393: 27 MH/s
– DAG Epoch 400: 21-22 MH/s
– DAG Epoch 405: 14 MH/s

– To Download the latest lolMiner 1.21/1.22 for Windows/Linux with Updated “Zombie Mode”…


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