Archive for the ‘Mining Software’ Category

PhoenixMiner 5.5c RC With Improvements, New Features and Fixes

24, Jan 2021

There is a new Release Candidate (RC) version of PhoenixMiner 5.5c available that brings some new features, improvements and fixes over the things introduced already in the last beta version PhoenixMiner 5.5b. Do note that if using the miner on AMD GPUs, although it comes with support for the latest AMD Windows driver 21.1.1 it is still not recommended to use them as there seem to still be some stability issues. If you already are using the previous 5.5b beta version you might want to give this new release candidate a go, otherwise you might want to stick with the previous stable 5.4c release for a bit more.

PhoenixMiner 5.5c RC Full Changelog:
– Added support for the latest AMD Windows driver 21.1.1 (still, we don’t recommend using the 21.1.1 driver yet – we had some instability issues with it even when just idling on the desktop!)
– Added new -mcdag parameter to reset the memory overclock on Nvidia cards during DAG generation. This may allow you to set higher memory overclock on your Nvidia cards without risking corrupt DAG buffer, which can lead to excessive number of incorrect shares. Use -mcdag 1 (by default the value is 0, which means turned off) to use this new feature.
– Under Linux -mcdag 1 will execute a shell script named daggen.sh (if present in the current directory) for each Nvidia GPU, passing the GPU index as the first argument, and PCIE bus ID as second argument. The miner will then wait for about 7 seconds before starting DAG generation to allow the script enough time to reset the memory overclock.
– The -tt parameter is now strictly for controlling the fan behavior. E.g. -tt 60 sets auto-fan speed with target temperature 60C; -tt -70 sets fixed fan speed 70%; and -tt 0 turns off the fan control. All these can be specified per GPU.
– There is a new -hwm parameter that allows controlling the frequency of the hardware monitoring, which was also done by -tt in the previous versions of PhoenixMiner
– Other small improvements and fixes

– To get more details and to download the latest PhoenixMiner 5.5c RC Ethash miner software…

PhoenixMiner 5.5b With Improved Performance and New Features

22, Jan 2021

The latest beta version of PhoenixMiner 5.5b might be of interest for those of you that are trying to mine with the newest AMD Radeon RX6800 and Radeon RX6900 GPUs as it adds support with native kernels giving you better performance. AMD’s Polaris, Vega and Navi GPUs should also perform a bit better and use a bit less power for Ethereum mining thanks to optimized kernels – just make sure to user drivers 20.5.1 or later under Windows 10, or 20.10.x or later under Linux. Nvidia’s dedicated mining GPUs P106, P104, etc. also get better support for tweaking under Windows

PhoenixMiner 5.5b Full Changelog:
– Added native kernels for AMD RX6800 and RX6900 GPUs. These are faster than the generic kernels and produce a lot less stale shares.
– Updated kernels for AMD Polaris, Vega and Navi GPUs that are slightly faster and use less power than before when mining ETH. To use these updated kernels, you need to use drivers 20.5.1 or later under Win10, or 20.10.x or later under Linux!
– The Nvidia mining cards (P106, P104, etc.) can now use straps and hardware control options (power limit, memory overclock, max temperature, etc.) under Windows.
– Added support for AMD Linux drivers 20.45-1164792 and 20.45-1188099. Use this driver only if you have RX6800 or RX6900 GPU. WARNING: Vega and Navi GPUs wont’ work with these drivers!
– Automatically set -ttli instead of -tmax when the later is not supported by the driver. This will throttle down the GPUs when they reach the specified temperature to avoid overheating.

Do note that the AMD’s Radeon drivers for Windows do not support compute mode for Hawaii cards (Radeon 290/390 series), so the hashrate will be quite low (14-15 MH/s with the current ETH DAG epoch). This problem is easily fixed mining ETH under Linux, where you can get the full 29-30 MH/s speed out of the Hawaii cards.

– To get more details and to download the latest PhoenixMiner 5.5b Ethash miner software…

How To Still Mine Ethereum With AMD Radeon RX 400/500 Series 4GB GPUs

21, Jan 2021

AMD’s Radeon RX 470/480 and RX 570/58 with 4GB of video memory can still be used to mine Ethereum (ETH), even though the DAG size is already a bit over 4GB which is more than the video memory available on these GPUs. The current Ethereum DAG epoch number is #389 and the size of the DAG file is 4.04 GB and it will continue to grow, however with the current profitability mining ETH makes it worth to continue using these 4GB video cards at least a bit more. They can still be used in the so called “Zombie Mode” with a mining software that supports it in order to continue mining Ethereum for a bit more, even though the hashrate is going to be lower and continue to go down a bit by bit with each new DAG epoch coming.

At the moment an optimized AMD Radeon RX 400/500 series GPU with 4GB video memory should be capable of doing 17-18 MHS for Ethash mining with optimized memory timings and downclocked GPU with about a 100W of power consumption at the wall. So, do not be in a hurry to dismiss these “old” and “obsolete” 4GB video cards yet, they still have some life in them for mining Ethereum, you just need to play a bit more to make them work.

The AMD crypto mining software that supports “Zombie Mode” for AMD Radeon 4GB GPUs includes TeamRedMiner, lolMiner and PhoenixMiner and they are available for both Windows and Linux OS, free with some development fee built-in. You will need to add the following command line parameters for each specific miner to enable the “Zombie Mode” and make mining Ethereum work. Have in mind that the number might need to be changed up/down in order to find what works on your mining hardware. Currently we are using 4074 on our test video cards (Gigabyte RX 580 4GB), but on different cards and with a change in the DAG number you may need to set a different number, so do try what works for you.

– For TeamRedMiner: --eth_4g_max_alloc=4074
– For lolMiner: --4g-alloc-size 4074
– For PhoenixMiner: -daglim 4074

If playing with the miners directly is not your thing you may also try the SimpleMining or HiveOS Linux Mining Operating Systems that make it much easier for management of multiple mining rigs. They do come with support for the three miners we have mentioned and thus Zombie Mode for mining Ethereum (ETH) on 4GB AMD GPUs, so you just need to prepare a USB flash drive with the OS on it, plug it in the mining rig and boot from it. Then you continue from a web-based management windows through your browser setting up and monitoring your GPUs. Both SMOS and HiveOS are free to try with a limited number of mining machines and then you need to pay a small monthly fee for additional mining rigs, to continue using the OS. For HiveOS you can use the promo code CMB10USDPROMO that will give you $10 USD in your account balance to play with.

– For more about Simple Mining (SMOS) Linux Mining OS…
– For more about HiveOS Linux Mining Operating System…


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