mkxminer is a New Assembler-optimized Lyra2rev2 Miner for AMD GPUs

13 Nov
2017

There is a new closed source miner for the Lyra2rev2 algorithm available for AMD GPUs that is supposed to bring up the performance for owners of AMD-based mining rigs to a similar level of performance currently available to Nvidia mining rigs. The new miner is called mkxminer and is compatible with the more recent AMD GPUs such as Radeon series 200 or newer, including support for the latest VEGA GPUs as well (no asm kernels yet). There are assembler optimized kernels available for some of the supported GPUs for the best performance and the results in terms of hashrate are indeed very good.

It all seems pretty good so far, though there do seem to be some limitations such as the support for mining only on NiceHash at the moment (support for other pools may be added later on) and the lack of clear information how much is the developer fee. There is a dev fee included with this closed source miner, so you are mining for the developer form time to time, but nowhere is clearly stated what is the actual percentage of the fee. There is currently only a Windows version available, though a Linux one is also apparently being worked on as well and should be available soon.

– For more details check the official announcement thread of the mkxminer on Bitcointalk…

CoinCheckup – Cryptocoin Analysis and Investment Stats

12 Nov
2017

CoinCheckup is an interesting website that can help you get more insight into a crypto currency than just the basic info or ratings based on current market capitalization. Currently the website lists 430 crypto coins giving you an easy to follow coin market capitalization list, but you also get more insight thanks to fundamental analysis and investment analysis options that you also have available. The website even does some price predictions based on the markets growth patterns that may be useful when researching a crypto coin that you are not familiar with. All of the information is available to you in a clean and easy to use interface, so you might want to check out the CoinCheckup website.

– For more information about the CoinCheckup crypto coin analysis and investment website…

More on Gigabyte Windforce VGA Fans For GPU Mining Rigs

11 Nov
2017

We have recently talked about how you can Fix problematic fans of Gigabyte Windforce VGAs as the company tends to use cheaper sleeve bearing fans that are more prone to failure when used for GPU mining rigs. Interestingly enough Gigabyte does seem to use multiple suppliers for their Windforce fans and even though on the top the blades of the fans are the same, inside there could be interesting differences. So far most of the RX 400/500 series of GPUs from Gigabyte with Windforce fans that we’ve seen used 2x5x5.5mm metal bushings inside and as we have already mentioned these are easily replaced with readily available ball bearings and you can upgrade your fans to be more durable long term. It is a well known facts that sleeve bearings are much less resistant to higher temperatures and dust than ball bearing fans and as the operating conditions worsen their life span drops significantly.

It seems however that Gigabyte has Windforce fans with larger and not so standard metal bushings as well that cannot be directly replaced with ball bearings as their size is just not as standard. We have stumbled on some Everflow T129215SU fans used on Gigabyte Windforce fans that used 2x8x5mm metal bushings and there are simply no standard bearings that you can use with so small inside hole and so big outer diameter available. So fixing or upgrading these becomes a bit more trickier and you need to either do your own bushings with the right size to replace or use spacers so that you can fit 2×5 size ball bearings inside. We have actually done both of these already and have tried them, but not on Gigabyte Windforce. To our surprise Asus and their STRIX GPU fans turned out to be using crappy sleeve bearing fans instead of better quality and more durable ball bearing fans. The STRIX fans use the same size metal bushing as we’ve discovered in this particular Gigabyte Windforce fans, but we are going to get back with more details about that very soon…

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