It Is All About BTC, LTC, ETH, DOGE, KAS mining as well as other alternative crypto currencies
The latest release of the ccMiner 1.7 fork by tpruvot (source) has added some new interesting functionality among which is the ability to run a benchmark on all of the supported crypto algorithms by the software. There is no more need to go through all of the algorithms one by one and record the returned results, all you have to do is run ccminer.exe --benchmark
and the miner will go through all of the algorithms automatically and print out the hashrate you get with your particular Nvidia GPU. It can work with single and multiple GPUs in the system, but if you have more than one and you do not specify which one you want tested it will benchmark all of them and display individual hashrate. Thanks to the ease of use of this feature and the fact that it needs just about 5 minutes to run we might soon start seeing crypto hashrate benchmarks included in Nvidia GPU reviews on sites that do hardware reviews, but generally do not bother to test crypto mining performance.
Since the output in the console when you run ccMiner in benchmark mode is quite big, you might want to automate the run and have the results written to a text file by default that you can later open and view more easily than having to scroll in a console window. To do so and have the results written to benchmark.txt file just run the following command line: ccminer.exe --benchmark > benchmark.txt
Here is a sample benchmark run on a GTX 980 Ti GPU:
*** ccminer 1.7 for nVidia GPUs by tpruvot@github ***
Built with VC++ 2013 and nVidia CUDA SDK 6.5Originally based on Christian Buchner and Christian H. project
Include some of the work of djm34, sp, tsiv and klausT.BTC donation address: 1AJdfCpLWPNoAMDfHF1wD5y8VgKSSTHxPo (tpruvot)
[2015-11-07 14:08:41] Starting benchmark mode with blakecoin
[2015-11-07 14:08:41] NVAPI GPU monitoring enabled.
[2015-11-07 14:08:41] 1 miner thread started, using 'blakecoin' algorithm.
[2015-11-07 14:08:44] GPU #0: GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 1503.75 MH/s
[2015-11-07 14:08:47] GPU #0: GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 1485.03 MH/s
[2015-11-07 14:08:47] GPU #0: blakecoin hashrate = 1494.39 MH/s
[2015-11-07 14:08:47] Benchmark algo blake...
[2015-11-07 14:08:51] GPU #0: GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 997.23 MH/s
[2015-11-07 14:08:56] GPU #0: GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 990.02 MH/s
[2015-11-07 14:08:56] GPU #0: blake hashrate = 993.62 MH/s
[2015-11-07 14:08:56] Benchmark algo bmw...
[2015-11-07 14:08:58] GPU #0: GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 1384.80 MH/s
[2015-11-07 14:09:02] GPU #0: GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 1389.88 MH/s
[2015-11-07 14:09:02] GPU #0: bmw hashrate = 1387.34 MH/s
[2015-11-07 14:09:03] Benchmark algo deep...
[2015-11-07 14:09:12] GPU #0: GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 32.92 MH/s
[2015-11-07 14:09:21] GPU #0: GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 32.93 MH/s
[2015-11-07 14:09:22] GPU #0: deep hashrate = 32.93 MH/s
[2015-11-07 14:09:22] Benchmark algo fresh...
[2015-11-07 14:09:28] GPU #0: GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 12.02 MH/s
[2015-11-07 14:09:32] GPU #0: GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 12.03 MH/s
[2015-11-07 14:09:32] GPU #0: fresh hashrate = 12.03 MH/s
[2015-11-07 14:09:32] Benchmark algo fugue256...
[2015-11-07 14:09:34] GPU #0: GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 373.83 MH/s
[2015-11-07 14:09:42] GPU #0: GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 376.02 MH/s
[2015-11-07 14:09:42] GPU #0: fugue256 hashrate = 376.02 MH/s
[2015-11-07 14:09:42] Benchmark algo groestl...
[2015-11-07 14:09:45] GPU #0: GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 30.83 MH/s
[2015-11-07 14:09:55] GPU #0: GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 30.76 MH/s
[2015-11-07 14:09:55] GPU #0: groestl hashrate = 30.80 MH/s
[2015-11-07 14:09:56] Benchmark algo heavy...
[2015-11-07 14:10:02] GPU #0: GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 30.82 MH/s
[2015-11-07 14:10:05] GPU #0: GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 30.86 MH/s
[2015-11-07 14:10:05] GPU #0: heavy hashrate = 30.84 MH/s
[2015-11-07 14:10:05] Benchmark algo keccak...
[2015-11-07 14:10:10] GPU #0: GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 347.10 MH/s
[2015-11-07 14:10:15] GPU #0: GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 394.14 MH/s
[2015-11-07 14:10:15] GPU #0: keccak hashrate = 394.14 MH/s
[2015-11-07 14:10:15] Benchmark algo jackpot...
[2015-11-07 14:10:20] GPU #0: GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 6292.92 kH/s
[2015-11-07 14:10:22] GPU #0: GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 6595.98 kH/s
[2015-11-07 14:10:22] GPU #0: jackpot hashrate = 6444.45 kH/s
[2015-11-07 14:10:23] Benchmark algo luffa...
[2015-11-07 14:10:23] GPU #0: GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 111.07 MH/s
[2015-11-07 14:10:23] GPU #0: GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 6572.03 MH/s
[2015-11-07 14:10:27] GPU #0: luffa hashrate = 6572.03 MH/s
[2015-11-07 14:10:27] Benchmark algo lyra2...
[2015-11-07 14:10:32] GPU #0: GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 1078.98 kH/s
[2015-11-07 14:10:33] GPU #0: GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 1119.20 kH/s
[2015-11-07 14:10:33] GPU #0: lyra2 hashrate = 1099.09 kH/s
[2015-11-07 14:10:34] Benchmark algo lyra2v2...
[2015-11-07 14:10:39] GPU #0: GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 9949.18 kH/s
[2015-11-07 14:10:42] GPU #0: GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 12.46 MH/s
[2015-11-07 14:10:42] GPU #0: lyra2v2 hashrate = 12.46 MH/s
[2015-11-07 14:10:43] Benchmark algo myr-gr...
[2015-11-07 14:10:53] GPU #0: GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 43.80 MH/s
[2015-11-07 14:11:03] GPU #0: GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 43.67 MH/s
[2015-11-07 14:11:03] GPU #0: myr-gr hashrate = 43.73 MH/s
[2015-11-07 14:11:03] Benchmark algo neoscrypt...
[2015-11-07 14:11:03] GPU #0: Using 8192 cuda threads
[2015-11-07 14:11:13] GPU #0: GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 660.65 kH/s
[2015-11-07 14:11:23] GPU #0: GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 661.27 kH/s
[2015-11-07 14:11:23] GPU #0: neoscrypt hashrate = 660.96 kH/s
[2015-11-07 14:11:23] Benchmark algo nist5...
[2015-11-07 14:11:31] GPU #0: GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 20.42 MH/s
[2015-11-07 14:11:33] GPU #0: GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 23.67 MH/s
[2015-11-07 14:11:33] GPU #0: nist5 hashrate = 22.04 MH/s
[2015-11-07 14:11:33] Benchmark algo penta...
[2015-11-07 14:11:41] GPU #0: GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 12.11 MH/s
[2015-11-07 14:11:42] GPU #0: GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 15.95 MH/s
[2015-11-07 14:11:42] GPU #0: penta hashrate = 14.03 MH/s
[2015-11-07 14:11:43] Benchmark algo quark...
[2015-11-07 14:11:47] GPU #0: GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 14.64 MH/s
[2015-11-07 14:11:49] GPU #0: GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 15.42 MH/s
[2015-11-07 14:11:49] GPU #0: quark hashrate = 15.03 MH/s
[2015-11-07 14:11:50] Benchmark algo qubit...
[2015-11-07 14:11:52] GPU #0: GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 15.95 MH/s
[2015-11-07 14:11:53] GPU #0: GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 15.82 MH/s
[2015-11-07 14:11:53] GPU #0: qubit hashrate = 15.82 MH/s
[2015-11-07 14:11:53] Benchmark algo skein...
[2015-11-07 14:11:58] GPU #0: GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 332.57 MH/s
[2015-11-07 14:12:01] GPU #0: GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 330.01 MH/s
[2015-11-07 14:12:01] GPU #0: skein hashrate = 331.29 MH/s
[2015-11-07 14:12:02] Benchmark algo skein2...
[2015-11-07 14:12:05] GPU #0: GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 85.98 MH/s
[2015-11-07 14:12:07] GPU #0: GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 219.13 MH/s
[2015-11-07 14:12:07] GPU #0: skein2 hashrate = 219.13 MH/s
[2015-11-07 14:12:07] Benchmark algo s3...
[2015-11-07 14:12:08] GPU #0: GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 28.61 MH/s
[2015-11-07 14:12:17] GPU #0: GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 29.49 MH/s
[2015-11-07 14:12:17] GPU #0: s3 hashrate = 29.49 MH/s
[2015-11-07 14:12:18] Benchmark algo x11...
[2015-11-07 14:12:24] GPU #0: GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 9270.83 kH/s
[2015-11-07 14:12:29] GPU #0: GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 9906.28 kH/s
[2015-11-07 14:12:29] GPU #0: x11 hashrate = 9906.28 kH/s
[2015-11-07 14:12:29] Benchmark algo x13...
[2015-11-07 14:12:38] GPU #0: GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 8304.47 kH/s
[2015-11-07 14:12:39] GPU #0: GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 8229.94 kH/s
[2015-11-07 14:12:39] GPU #0: x13 hashrate = 8267.20 kH/s
[2015-11-07 14:12:39] Benchmark algo x14...
[2015-11-07 14:12:48] GPU #0: GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 8275.62 kH/s
[2015-11-07 14:12:49] GPU #0: GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 8168.95 kH/s
[2015-11-07 14:12:49] GPU #0: x14 hashrate = 8222.28 kH/s
[2015-11-07 14:12:49] Benchmark algo x15...
[2015-11-07 14:12:58] GPU #0: GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 7292.03 kH/s
[2015-11-07 14:12:59] GPU #0: GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 7233.74 kH/s
[2015-11-07 14:12:59] GPU #0: x15 hashrate = 7262.88 kH/s
[2015-11-07 14:13:00] Benchmark algo x17...
[2015-11-07 14:13:06] GPU #0: GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 6703.77 kH/s
[2015-11-07 14:13:09] GPU #0: GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 6650.18 kH/s
[2015-11-07 14:13:10] GPU #0: x17 hashrate = 6676.98 kH/s
[2015-11-07 14:13:10] Benchmark algo whirlpool...
[2015-11-07 14:13:18] GPU #0: GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 17.52 MH/s
[2015-11-07 14:13:19] GPU #0: GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 17.41 MH/s
[2015-11-07 14:13:19] GPU #0: whirlpool hashrate = 17.47 MH/s
[2015-11-07 14:13:20] Benchmark algo whirlpoolx...
[2015-11-07 14:13:26] GPU #0: GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 250.26 MH/s
[2015-11-07 14:13:36] GPU #0: GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 251.12 MH/s
[2015-11-07 14:13:36] GPU #0: whirlpoolx hashrate = 250.69 MH/s
[2015-11-07 14:13:37] Benchmark algo zr5...
[2015-11-07 14:13:46] GPU #0: GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 1907.64 kH/s
[2015-11-07 14:13:55] GPU #0: GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 2107.89 kH/s
[2015-11-07 14:13:55] GPU #0: zr5 hashrate = 2007.77 kH/s
[2015-11-07 14:13:55] Benchmark results for GPU #0 - GeForce GTX 980 Ti:
[2015-11-07 14:13:55] blakecoin : 1459369.4 kH/s, 1 MB, 4194304 thr.
[2015-11-07 14:13:55] blake : 970336.8 kH/s, 1 MB, 4194304 thr.
[2015-11-07 14:13:55] bmw : 1354822.5 kH/s, 65 MB, 2097152 thr.
[2015-11-07 14:13:55] deep : 32154.5 kH/s, 33 MB, 524288 thr.
[2015-11-07 14:13:55] fresh : 11745.7 kH/s, 609 MB, 524288 thr.
[2015-11-07 14:13:55] fugue256 : 367203.5 kH/s, 129 MB, 4194304 thr.
[2015-11-07 14:13:55] groestl : 30076.7 kH/s, 1 MB, 524288 thr.
[2015-11-07 14:13:55] heavy : 30115.6 kH/s, 147 MB, 524032 thr.
[2015-11-07 14:13:55] keccak : 384901.8 kH/s, 129 MB, 2097152 thr.
[2015-11-07 14:13:55] jackpot : 6293.4 kH/s, 106 MB, 1048576 thr.
[2015-11-07 14:13:55] luffa : 6417996.4 kH/s, 129 MB, 2097152 thr.
[2015-11-07 14:13:55] lyra2 : 1073.3 kH/s, 515 MB, 65536 thr.
[2015-11-07 14:13:55] lyra2v2 : 12163.3 kH/s, 393 MB, 262144 thr.
[2015-11-07 14:13:55] myr-gr : 42708.4 kH/s, 9 MB, 131072 thr.
[2015-11-07 14:13:55] neoscrypt : 645.5 kH/s, 261 MB, 8192 thr.
[2015-11-07 14:13:55] nist5 : 21525.5 kH/s, 65 MB, 1048576 thr.
[2015-11-07 14:13:55] penta : 13701.2 kH/s, 33 MB, 524288 thr.
[2015-11-07 14:13:55] quark : 14678.7 kH/s, 86 MB, 1048576 thr.
[2015-11-07 14:13:55] qubit : 15453.1 kH/s, 609 MB, 524288 thr.
[2015-11-07 14:13:55] skein : 323525.3 kH/s, 1 MB, 1048576 thr.
[2015-11-07 14:13:55] skein2 : 213998.6 kH/s, 33 MB, 524288 thr.
[2015-11-07 14:13:55] s3 : 28802.4 kH/s, 609 MB, 524288 thr.
[2015-11-07 14:13:55] x11 : 9674.1 kH/s, 609 MB, 524288 thr.
[2015-11-07 14:13:55] x13 : 8073.4 kH/s, 609 MB, 524288 thr.
[2015-11-07 14:13:55] x14 : 8029.6 kH/s, 609 MB, 524288 thr.
[2015-11-07 14:13:55] x15 : 7092.7 kH/s, 609 MB, 524288 thr.
[2015-11-07 14:13:55] x17 : 6520.5 kH/s, 609 MB, 524288 thr.
[2015-11-07 14:13:55] whirlpool : 17056.7 kH/s, 33 MB, 524288 thr.
[2015-11-07 14:13:55] whirlpoolx : 244812.1 kH/s, 65 MB, 1048576 thr.
[2015-11-07 14:13:55] zr5 : 1960.7 kH/s, 84 MB, 262144 thr.
A few days ago we have posted a windows binary compiled from the latest source of ccMiner 1.7-git from tpruvot and now the official 1.7 release is available with a windows binary compiled by the author of the miner. The final version does come with some additional fixes and improvements as compared to the 1.7-git release from a few days ago, so if you are using the older windows binary you might want to update now. The ccMiner 1.7-tpruvot fork brings support for old Compute 2.0 (SM 2.1) devices for many of the crypto algorithms allowing users with older Nvidia GPUs to use them to mine. It also brings some performance improvements for newer Compute 5.0+ GPUs and adds new features such as automatic benchmark mode for all supported algorithms and some other interesting new features. The ccMiner 1.7-tpruvot fork supports Nvidia-based GPUs with Compute 2.0 or newer capabilities, so make sure that you are not trying to run the miner on too old hardware. The official x86 Windows binary release is for older SM 2.1+ devices while the x64-bit one is intended for newer SM 3.5+ devices.
– To download the latest official release of ccMiner 1.7 fork by tpruvot for Windows OS…
Bitwala is an interesting service that makes bank wire transfers on your behalf in exchange for Bitcoins, so that you can pay your bills with BTC for example. It is an European company that currently supports only SEPA bank transfers, so it is usable to send BTC to an European bank account only, though you can send Bitcoins from anywhere in the world. The primary operating currency is Euro (EUR) with only 0.5% fee on the BTC to Euro bank payments, but multiple other currencies are also supported with a higher fee. This makes the service an interesting and fast way to transfer Bitcoin to bank accounts in Europe and that goes not only to convert BTC to Euro in your bank, but also send payments.
Things just got even more interesting with the service just announcing the addition of support for sending Bitcoins to PayPal accounts as well with the same low 0.5% fee for Euro conversion. This makes it even more interesting for worldwide use and not only for European Bitcoin users like it was before thanks to the BTC to SEPA wire transfers. Since PayPal is the preferred method for payment when using eBay and making other online purchases thanks to the layer of protection that it adds over the use of a credit card directly the ability to quickly and easily convert Bitcoins to Euro and have them in your PayPal account seems like quite a useful feature.
As soon as you register you will have a monthly limit of 200 Euro, but as soon as you confirm your email address and enter your basic details such as name and address the limit will be increased to 500 Euro. For the next level of 2000 Euro limit you need to provide identity verification documents that are required in order to comply with EU law. For the third level with a monthly limit of 50000 Euro you would need to go through a quick Skype call with a representative from the service. For most people even the first level of verification will be enough to try out the service and see if it will work as well as you would expect it to and if it is something that you might find useful either for paying bills with Bitcoins or for sending BTC to your PayPal account.
The first test transaction to send Bitcoins using the service to PayPal that we did took us a little over 5 hours from the moment we have initiated the procedure and sent the BTC to the moment we’ve received confirmation that the money have been sent to our PayPal account. Out of those a bit over 5 hours roughly two were needed for the Bitcoin transaction to be confirmed on the network and another three for the PayPal transfer to be initiated. There is a bit of a problem here that we did not see clearly explained with the BTC to PayPal support that the service has introduced and that is the fact that eChecks are being used to fund your PayPal account and while we got a confirmation on the transfer received, the money sent are not immediately available for use like you would probably want them to be. According to PayPal: “This eCheck payment will post to your PayPal balance once the funds have cleared from the sender’s account, which usually takes 3-5 business days” and we have to wait for November 12th for the eCheck payment to be cleared and for us to actually be able to use the funds from within PayPal. Unfortunately this pretty much kills the usability of the service if you have to wait up to a week after you initiate the BTC to PayPal transfer as you probably would want to be able to use the funds withing a few hours, not within days. It will still be faster and more convenient to do a BTC to SEPA wire transfer to the bank account of a card linked to your PayPal account than to take advantage of the Bitcoin to PayPal service!
– For more information about Bitwala and to try out the service yourself…