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Archive for the ‘Tests and Reviews’ Category
We have gotten an ASUS GeForce GTX 960 STRIX to test GPU mining with it and also checked the power usage with the various algorithms supported by the latest ccMiner fork from SP that is optimized for Nvidia Maxwell GPUs. The ASUS STRIX is one of the GTX 960 video cards out there with the highest factory overclock, so it is supposed to provide higher performance as compared to the more reference Palit GTX 960 OC card that we have tested recently. Do note that the Nvidia rated TDP of the GTX 960 GPUs is 120 Watts and it seems that the reference cards that are not factory overclocked are more like in the 100W of power usage and the higher clocked models such as the ASUS STRIX GTX 960 do manage to go up to the 120 Watts power consumption mark.
We have used the ccMiner 1.5.31-git Fork by SP for Maxwell, the same version that we used a few days ago, so that we can compare performance with the GTX 750 Ti and the GTX 960 OC card from Palit to the results that the ASUS STRIX card offers. There is a newer version of the ccMiner fork from SP already available that fixes the NIST5 support, though there is not much difference in the performance in the Lyra2 algorithm on the GTX 960 as compared to GTX 750 Ti. Also the Blake, Blakecoin and Penta algorithms that rely a lot on the CPU and do not use much of GPU resources do not seem to provide much better results on the more overclocked ASUS cards. Other than that the ASUS STRIX card does provide some extra hashrate over the Palit GTX 960 and thanks to the higher clocks factory preset for the ASUS its performance gets closer to 2x the hashrate provided from a reference GTX 750 Ti GPU that is not factory overclocked.
The New Nvidia GeForce GTX 960 Mining Performance
22, Jan 2015
Today Nvidia has introduced a new mid-range GPU based on their latest Maxwell architecture – the GeForce GTX 960. Specifications wise the new GTX 960 is kind of half the parameters of the GTX 980 at about half the price, but it is actually more interesting as an alternative to GTX 750 Ti in our opinion. The Nvidia GeForce GTX 960 GPUs should provide roughly 1.5x to 2x the performance of a GTX 750 Ti being slightly more expensive and with 120W TDP according to the official specifications. We have managed to get our hands on one GeForce GTX 960 from Palit, their reference-like design though it is still slightly overclocked version, but the lowest and cheapest version that they currently offer and have decided to compare it to the performance of a reference GTX 750 Ti card with no factory overclocking to see the difference in performance.
We have used the latest ccMiner 1.5.31-git Fork by SP for Maxwell to test on both GPUs and you can see the results in the table above. As expected the performance result from the GTX 960 we are seeing are in the range 1.5x-2x the ones that GTX 750 Ti provides. With a more serious factory overclocked GTX 960 results more to the 2x can be observed as compared to a reference non overclocked GTX 750 Ti GPU. There were however a few weird things that we have noticed and also the reason why there are no results from all of the supported algorithms listed in the table. Lyra2 for example performs worse on GTX 960 than on GTX 750 Ti, it probably needs some optimizations to show the maximum potential that the GTX 960 can offer. NIST5 seems to be broken in the latest ccMiner fork as it did not properly work on any of the Maxwell cards, the Blake, Blakecoin and Penta algorithms provided too weird results and very significant difference between the two cards. So we have decided not to include them until further investigation on why the results are so strange and different for the two GPUs. Anyway, it seems that the GTX 960 could be an alternative solution for GPU mining instead of the GTX 750 Ti for mining rigs that use multiple video cards. That is if you consider investing in GPU mining rigs for mining crypto coins with the idea not to mine for profit at the moment, but to keep the mined coins expecting better times to trade them as currently GPU mining is not very profitable with the low exchange rates at the moment.
- Published in: Tests and Reviews
- Related tags: GeForce GTX 960, GTX 750 Ti, GTX 750 Ti ccMiner, GTX 750 Ti hashrate, GTX 960, GTX 960 ccminer, GTX 960 crypto mining, GTX 960 hashrate, GTX 960 mining performance, Nvidia GeFroce GTX 960
Cloud Mining Services Actual Profit Comparison
26, Nov 2014
Today we did some calculations to see what is the actual profit that we are getting from various Bitcoin and Litecoin cloud mining services based on the earnings from yesterday. We’ve used 1000 GHS or 1 THS as a base for Bitcoin cloud mining and 1 MHS as a base for Litecoin cloud mining so that we can compare the different services listed below. The list does not contain all of the cloud mining services we are using as some of them are not even worth mentioning as there is no much point in investing in them with their current prices for hashrate. Also some other services are not listed as we are having trouble to accurately figure out how much we have earned exactly for the last 24 hours. Do note that the numbers listed below at the actual coins mined for 24 hours with maintenance fees already deducted, so this is what you are actually be getting per day (based on yesterday’s payments). Do note that the list below is based only on the actually profit that the services provide, it does not take into account the price of the hashrate that each of the services currently has.
BTC Earnings for 25.11.2014 per 1000 GHS:
– Bitcoin Cloud Services BTC – 0.01248 BTC per THS Daily (1 THS price – 1.5 BTC)
– Genesis Mining BTC – 0.00964 BTC per THS Daily (2.114 BTC – $779 USD)
– PBMining BTC – 0.01117 BTC per THS Daily (1 THS price – 1.4 BTC)
– Hashie BTC – 0.00739 BTC per THS Daily (1 THS price – 1.2 BTC AMHash / 1.30403 BTC Gen1)
– ZeusHash BTC – 0.00642 BTC per THS Daily (1 THS price – 1.5315 BTC)
– Hashnest BTC – 0.00548 BTC per THS Daily (1 THS price – 1.125 BTC)
– CEX BTC – 0.00317 BTC per THS Daily (1 THS price – 1.6914 BTC)
LTC Earnings for 25.11.2014 per 1 MHS:
– Genesis Mining LTC – 0.01143 LTC per MHS Daily (1 MHS price – 5.02 LTC / $17.99 USD)
– ZeusHash LTC – 0.00423 LTC per MHS Daily (1 MHS price – 4.47 LTC / 15.99 USD)
We are not including GAW’s Hashlets as we have actually sold ours a few days ago and are currently waiting to see what new things we are going to be getting announced in the next days – PayBase, HashStaker and PayCoin. It is also interesting to note that Hashnest has apparently introduced a market for users to trad the UMISOO Bitcoin cloud hashrate that they have purchased, so you get an interesting opportunity to sell some of your hashrate at a good price or maybe buy more cheaper to possibly reach ROI faster, though the service does not currently perform so great based on actual earnings and only CEX is performing worse in our list. ZeusHash is currently not doing very well for both BTC and LTC, even though they try to attract users with various incentives and promotions all of the time, their main problem is the higher maintenance fees. Genesis Mining remains as one of the best and choices in terms of profitability, especially for people that might have some concerns about services such as PBMining or BTCCS. Also note that the numbers for some of the services might be slightly higher that what we are actually getting, for example Hashie with AMHash contracts only would get slightly better results as we have mixed hashrate with their Gen1 and AMHash hashrate, CEX also supports merged mining and the number we have above is only for the BTC earnings and does not include the merged coins.