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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 There is a newer version of the ccMiner fork from SP already available that fixes the NIST5 support, though there is not much difference in the performance in the Lyra2 algorithm on the GTX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.
We have received some questions about a pool available for testing the new Lyra2RE-capable GPU miners before the actual VertCoin (VTC) hardfork to the new algorithm happens from the currently used Scrypt-N. Hashlink has setup a working pool for testing your settings and miners using Lyra2RE algorithm, so you can get ready for the hardfork when it happens in a few days. Do note that this is a testnet pool and it is currently intended only for testing, you will no be mining any real VertCoin at the moment! Also as a reminder, make sure you have updated your VertCoin wallet to the latest version 0.9.0.1 prior to the hardfork.
Using sgminer for AMD with Lyra2RE support:
sgminer -k Lyra2RE -o stratum+tcp://stratum-eu1.hashlink.eu:10031 -u yourworker.1 -p password
Using ccMiner for Nvidia with Lyra2RE support:
ccminer -a lyra2 -o stratum+tcp://stratum-eu1.hashlink.eu:10031 -u yourworker.1 -p password
– For more information about the VertCoin Lyra2RE test pool by Hashlink…
VertCoin hasn’t been doing so good lately due to the coin relying on the kind of outdated Scrypt-N algorithm, though profitability wise it wasn’t so bad to mine and sell immediately at times. This however is hopefully going to change later this month or to be more precise around December 16th when a HardFork of the VTC is expected to happen to a new algorithm – Lyra2RE. The fork will happen at block 208301 and you will have to upgrade your wallet before that to continue using it after the fork. The people behind the development of the VertCoin have published a whitepaper with more information about the Lyra2RE algorithm. Lyra2RE is a chained algorithm consisting of five different hash functions: Keccak, Skein, Groestl, Blake and Lyra2 and working forks of ccMiner and sgminer with support for it should soon be available for GPU miners with both AMD and Nvidia mining rigs. Hopefully this hardfork to a new algorithm will help revive the interest and bring up the price to similar levels it has been at before, hopefully it can successfully follow the footsteps of the FTC fork to NeoScrypt, but we’ll have to wait and see later this month what will actually happen.
– For more details about the hardfork of VertCoin (VTC) to the new Lyra2RE algorithm…