SRBMiner-MULTI AMD GPU Miner Now With Support for Nvidia GPUs

8 Jan
2023

With its major release version 2 the popular AMD GPU miner SRBMiner-MULTI has introduced support for Nvidia GPUs as well, so now you can mine some of the latest algorithms getting introduced to the miner not only with AMD-based video cards but with Nvidia video cards as well. The miner supports setting GPU clock (--gpu-cclock) and memory clock (--gpu-mclock) on Nvidia GPUs as well as power limit (--gpu-plimit) via command line parameters. There is not yet support for GPU clock offset in order to fully optimize power usage for mining GPU-intensive crypto coins that can benefit from lower power mining, but hopefully that feature will also be introduced soon.

SRBMiner-MULTI also does support dual-mining for Ethash/Etchash or Autolykos2 memory intensive algorithms along with GPU-intensive algorithms such as Kaspa’s kHeavyHash algorithm… single mining for KAS is also supported of course. So, if you were not paying an attention to the miner as it was AMD-only, now you don’t have a reason to ignore it anymore if you do own Nvidia GPUs. Performance wise however KAS mining on Nvidia is lagging behind other better performing miners such as lolMiner or GMiner – around 520 MH/s on RTX 3070 for SRBMiner-MULTI compared to about 600 MH/s with lolMiner and GMiner with the same settings. Other algorithms might be able to perform better though, so you might want to check and confirm. We still haven’t had the chance to test and compare performance of the SRBMiner-MULTI on Nvidia GPUs on most algorithms and since support is brand new it might take a bit of time to be further optimized.

– To download and try the latest SRBMiner-MULTI GPU miner now with Nvidia support…

Goldshell KD BOX II Kadena (KDA) ASIC Miner Available Now

5 Jan
2023

The ASIC manufacturer Goldshell has started selling an updated version of their smaller KD BOX PRO home-oriented ASIC miner for Kadena (KDA) dubbed Goldshell KD BOX II capable of up 5 TH/s hashrate with 400 Watts of power usage with a price of $325 USD (without shipping and customs expenses), starting to ship in mid-January from Asia. The new device comes in a similar small-scale form factor with increased performance and two 6-pin PCI-E power connectors instead of just one due to the increased power usage as well (still a bit on the edge for 24/7 400W power usage though in our opinion). Interestingly enough there is no WiFi capability, just Ethernet port and the wireless connectivity especially for home miners is a really useful feature that the previous PRO model did come with. Interestingly enough even with the higher power usage the new KD BOX II is still rated at the same noise level as the PRO version, we kind of expected to be noisier, and it actually could still be.

Goldshell KD BOX II Specifications:
– Default Hashrate Mode: 5 TH/S (±5%)
– Default Hashrate Power: 400 (±5%)
– Low-Power Hashrate Mode: 3.5 TH/S (±5%)
– Low-Power Hashrate Power: 260 W (±5%)
– Dimensions: 178x150x84 (mm)
– Weight: 2KG
– Noise level: <35 dB
– Connection Port: Ethernet
– Operating Temperature: 0~35°C
– Relative humidity: ≤65%
– Input Voltage: 100-240V

So, the new Goldshell KD BOX II comes in the same compact size case, weights the same, however is capable of increased performance compared to the older PRO model. It consumes more power, yet it should remain with the same low noise level that is very acceptable for home use – great for a heater/miner choice, or so the official specs claim. There are apparently two modes of operation (a single miner replacing the regular and Pro models in the previous generation?) resulting in 5 TH/s mining hashrate for KDA with 400 Watts of power usage or 3.5 TH/s at 260 Watts of power usage.

As a comparison the KD BOX PRO is rated for 2.6 TH/s at 230 Watts of power usage… that is just about 0.0885 Watts per Gigahash of hashrate. As a comparison the new KD BOX II does manage to offer 0.0743 Watts per Gigahash in low power mode when running at 3.5 TH/s or 0.08 Watts per Gihagash in full power 5TH/s hashrate mode. These numbers actually show that there is just about 10% improvement in power efficiency in the high-power mode when the new miner runs at full 5 TH/s hashrate, the lower power mode is better though.

What is our verdict for the Goldshell KD BOX II then? Considering the not that much of power efficiency improvement in the full power mode that will most likely also come with significant increase in noise level (the less than 35 Decibels is probably the rating in low power 3.5 TH/s mode we suspect) and the lack of WiFi capability it might not actually be that much better choice than the KD BOX PPRO model. The only advantage is the lower price and the fact that the older models are no longer available for sale from Goldshell. We kind of expected to see something like the difference between the KD BOX and the KD BOX PRO models where improvement was much more significant than what we are getting there between the KD BOX PRO and KD BOX II.

– For more about the Goldshell KD BOX II Kadena (KDA) ASIC Miner…

Dual Mining Kaspa (KAS) + Zilliqa (ZIL) Now Possible With GMiner 3.21

2 Jan
2023

The latest update 3.21 of the GMiner mining software brings a new interesting feature for everyone that might be currently mining Kaspa (KAS) and that is the ability to dual-mine Kaspa (KAS) + Zilliqa (ZIL), though you can also use another supported coin by the miner instead of KAS should you wish to. Previously ZIL mining could be easily combined with Ethash or ETChash coins only or you could also triple mine with KAS as well. Now, with the latest GMiner you can choose to mine KAS or another coin with different algorithm along with ZIL, when the time comes to mine Zilliqa the miner will switch briefly and then get back to mining Kaspa or the coin you are mining. This way you will be getting some extra profit without losing almost nothing of your regular mining hashrate for KAS, or RVN etc.

Below you can find an example command line for running GMiner on Windows on Nvidia GPUs for dual mining KAS + ZIL:

miner.exe --algo kheavyhash --server pool.eu.woolypooly.com:3112 --user KAS_WALLET.WORKER_ID --zilserver eu1-zil.shardpool.io:3333 --ziluser ZIL_WALLET.WORKER_ID --lock_cclock 1710 --lock_mclock 810 --lock_voltage 800

Make sure you replace KAS_WALLET, ZIL_WALLET and WORKER_ID in the example with your wallet and worker IDs, the example above also sets core and memory clocks and tries to lock the GPU voltage for low power KAS mining on RTX 3070. Unfortunately, it seems that there are some trouble properly setting the GPU voltage and as a result the power usage will be higher compared to running the same low power mining settings on lolMiner. So, currently there is a bit of a trade-off with GMiner and dual-mining KAS + ZIL – you get higher power usage in order to get to mine ZIL. You might want to wait a bit for the issue with GPU voltage setting to be resolved in order to get the same performance and power usage as with lolMiner mining Kaspa with extra Zilliqa profit as well, though you might still want to try other coins that are not so energy efficient together with ZIL dual mining.

– To download the latest GMiner 3.21 AMD/Nvidia GPU mining software…

top