Archive for the ‘Mining Software’ Category

Bminer 16.1.0 With Added Support for BFC and Cuckatoo32

2, Apr 2020

It has been a while since we have covered new Bminer releases, so we are going t mention that there is new Bmine 16.1.0 that comes with added support for BFC and Cuckatoo32, as well as fixes fidelity issues on Cuckaroo29m and improved stability of ETH mining. As for the reason we haven’t covered this particular miner, it is not because of lack of updates, it is because of a specific issue that is still not fixed under Windows. So half of the reason is because we want to mention how users that are having issues running Bminer on their Windows-based Nvidia GPU mining rigs can resolve it now and not have to wait for a new version that finally fixes this.

If you run Bminer and get an error saying “Failed to initialize the CUDA platform: CudaError: Could not initialize the NVML library” then there is nothing wrong with your mining hardware, the problem is in the Bminer. The reason is that newer Nvidia GPU drivers have moved the nvml.dll library that the miner uses into a new location and Bminer is looking for the NVML dynamic link library in a specific location, so even if you copy the DLL file in the same folder where the miner is it will still not work. If you are using newer Nvidia drivers you will have to copy the “nvml.dll” file from the “\Windows\System32\” folder to “\Program Files\NVIDIA Corporation\NVSMI\” and have in mind that you need to create the NVSMI folder there as it will not exist and then copy the DLL. Running Bminer after copying the library (do not move the file, or other programs might stop working properly, just copy it!) to the specified folder should eliminate the error message and the miner should start normally again.

We remind you that that Bminer is a closed source Nvidia GPU miner available for Linux and Windows in the form of pre-compiled binaries and that there is a 2% development fee for Grin, Beam, Bytom (BTM), Equihash and Zhash coins, 0.65% for Ethash and 1.3% for dual mining Ethash and Blake.

– To download and try the latest release of the Bminer 16.1.0 Nvidia GPU miner…

New GMiner 2.04 With Support for the New KAWPOW Algorithm

29, Mar 2020

It did not take long and now the latest GMiner 2.04 GPU miner had added support for the new KAWPOW mining algorithm that RavenCoin (RVN) might/could/should/would be forking to sometime in April. The KAWPOW algorithm is a derivative of ProgPOW with parameters specific for RavenCoin, so another miner with ProgPoW support will not work unless specific RVN support is added like in the case of GMiner that already had ProgPoW support, but needed an update for KAWPOW support. Do note that support for KAWPOW is currently only available for Nvidia GPUs and that goes for ProgPoW as well. You can already test KAWPOW support on the RavenCoin test network to get ready your miner, there miner RVNt testnet tokens do not have any value though.

Besides the new algorithm being added, the latest version of GMiner addresses an issue we have noted regarding high CPU usage in Qitmeer (PMEER) support. There is a new “--trim” parameter being introduced to control additional trim round count for Cuckoo24 (Qitmeer) algorithm that should help reduce CPU load, so you can give it a try and see if it helps if you have any GPU mining rigs with lower-end CPUs that have high CPU load issue.

The GMiner miner software was originally only an Nvidia GPU miner, although some algorithms are already supported on AMD GPUs as well. Do note that GMiner is a closed source miner for Nvidia and AMD GPUs with binaries available for both Windows and Linux, there is a 2% developer fee built-in the software.

– To download and try the latest release of the Gminer v2.04 Nvidia and AMD GPU miner…

RavenCoin (RVN) Forking to New KAWPOW Algorithm in April

28, Mar 2020

The RavenCoin (RVN) project is up for another fork sometime in April that will change once more the Proof of Work mining algorithm used in order to fend off FPGA and ASIC miners specifically and allow GPU miners to get back to mining the coin. The first fork to change the mining algorithm in October last year changed the initial algo to a new X16Rv2 and while that did drive off ASIC and FPGA miners for a while off the network, it did not help that much on the long run as apparently specialized mining hardware was quickly adapted to the new algorithm. This time the change in the algorithm is more drastic and should make sure that GPU mining on a level playing field for both AMD and Nvidia GPU miners is available for long…

The new algorithm that RVN will be adopting is called KAWPOW and is a derivative of ProgPOW with parameters specific for Ravencoin. The fork is planned for sometime in April, but a specific block time and expected date is not yet chosen. Meanwhile you are welcome to test the new dedicated miner called kawpowminer software that currently only supports mining the new algorithm and you can test it on the RavenCoin testnet using the MinerMore mining pool to make sure you are ready for the fork.

RavenCoin KAWPOW testnet pool:
kawpowminer -U -P stratum+tcp://WALLET.worker@rvnt.minermore.com:4505

The miner is currently available for both Windows and Linux operating systems, though apparently there is not yet official OpenCL binary for Windows, only CUDA. Since the binary releases do not include the required Nvidia CUDA 10.2 libraries you would also need to have the latest Nvidia CUDA Toolkit installed (or at least the runtime libraries from it). Other popular mining software would most likely add the required support for the new algorithm soon before or after the fork to the new algorithm occurs.

Expected performance on stock settings:
– GTX 1050Ti: ~5+ MH/s
– GTX 1060: ~9.5 MH/s
– GTX 1070: ~14 MH/s
– GTX 1070Ti: ~14 MH/s
– GTX 1080Ti: ~24.5 MH/s

We remind you that unlike with Ethash, PROGPOW does not favor lower-end AMD GPUs as it is not so much memory dependent, thus a lower-end AMD GPU will perform similarly to the same level of Nvidia GPU and a higher-end AMD GPU like a similar class Nvidia GPU when using the new KAWPOW algorithm!


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