Posts Tagged ‘4GB DAG mining’

PhoenixMiner 5.5c RC With Improvements, New Features and Fixes

24, Jan 2021

There is a new Release Candidate (RC) version of PhoenixMiner 5.5c available that brings some new features, improvements and fixes over the things introduced already in the last beta version PhoenixMiner 5.5b. Do note that if using the miner on AMD GPUs, although it comes with support for the latest AMD Windows driver 21.1.1 it is still not recommended to use them as there seem to still be some stability issues. If you already are using the previous 5.5b beta version you might want to give this new release candidate a go, otherwise you might want to stick with the previous stable 5.4c release for a bit more.

PhoenixMiner 5.5c RC Full Changelog:
– Added support for the latest AMD Windows driver 21.1.1 (still, we don’t recommend using the 21.1.1 driver yet – we had some instability issues with it even when just idling on the desktop!)
– Added new -mcdag parameter to reset the memory overclock on Nvidia cards during DAG generation. This may allow you to set higher memory overclock on your Nvidia cards without risking corrupt DAG buffer, which can lead to excessive number of incorrect shares. Use -mcdag 1 (by default the value is 0, which means turned off) to use this new feature.
– Under Linux -mcdag 1 will execute a shell script named daggen.sh (if present in the current directory) for each Nvidia GPU, passing the GPU index as the first argument, and PCIE bus ID as second argument. The miner will then wait for about 7 seconds before starting DAG generation to allow the script enough time to reset the memory overclock.
– The -tt parameter is now strictly for controlling the fan behavior. E.g. -tt 60 sets auto-fan speed with target temperature 60C; -tt -70 sets fixed fan speed 70%; and -tt 0 turns off the fan control. All these can be specified per GPU.
– There is a new -hwm parameter that allows controlling the frequency of the hardware monitoring, which was also done by -tt in the previous versions of PhoenixMiner
– Other small improvements and fixes

– To get more details and to download the latest PhoenixMiner 5.5c RC Ethash miner software…

PhoenixMiner 5.5b With Improved Performance and New Features

22, Jan 2021

The latest beta version of PhoenixMiner 5.5b might be of interest for those of you that are trying to mine with the newest AMD Radeon RX6800 and Radeon RX6900 GPUs as it adds support with native kernels giving you better performance. AMD’s Polaris, Vega and Navi GPUs should also perform a bit better and use a bit less power for Ethereum mining thanks to optimized kernels – just make sure to user drivers 20.5.1 or later under Windows 10, or 20.10.x or later under Linux. Nvidia’s dedicated mining GPUs P106, P104, etc. also get better support for tweaking under Windows

PhoenixMiner 5.5b Full Changelog:
– Added native kernels for AMD RX6800 and RX6900 GPUs. These are faster than the generic kernels and produce a lot less stale shares.
– Updated kernels for AMD Polaris, Vega and Navi GPUs that are slightly faster and use less power than before when mining ETH. To use these updated kernels, you need to use drivers 20.5.1 or later under Win10, or 20.10.x or later under Linux!
– The Nvidia mining cards (P106, P104, etc.) can now use straps and hardware control options (power limit, memory overclock, max temperature, etc.) under Windows.
– Added support for AMD Linux drivers 20.45-1164792 and 20.45-1188099. Use this driver only if you have RX6800 or RX6900 GPU. WARNING: Vega and Navi GPUs wont’ work with these drivers!
– Automatically set -ttli instead of -tmax when the later is not supported by the driver. This will throttle down the GPUs when they reach the specified temperature to avoid overheating.

Do note that the AMD’s Radeon drivers for Windows do not support compute mode for Hawaii cards (Radeon 290/390 series), so the hashrate will be quite low (14-15 MH/s with the current ETH DAG epoch). This problem is easily fixed mining ETH under Linux, where you can get the full 29-30 MH/s speed out of the Hawaii cards.

– To get more details and to download the latest PhoenixMiner 5.5b Ethash miner software…

PhoenixMiner 5.0b Update Addressing Support for AMD Cards With 4GB VRAM

27, May 2020

As Ethereum Classic (ETC) is just about to hit DAG epoch 350 and Ethereum (ETH) about to follow it in a month or so later miners that are still using AMD Radeon GPUs with 4GB of video memory may start experiencing problems. So we are seeing some updated to mining software for Ethash addressing potential issues with the DAG size growing near the limit of the 4GB VRAM and trying to extend the usability of these video cards to the latest possible time. Miners with 4GB VRAM GPUS may already stared having issues with the main card if not using a built-in GPU due to the increased memory usage for the primary card by Windows, so the built-in Intel GPU for main card might help, alternatively switching to Linux operating system if you are currently running Windows may also help to gain a few more DAG epochs. You can also consider replacing the main video card with a one that has more video memory available in order to compensate for the increased VRAM usage cause by the Windows operating system, and be able to make money online, although there are also other options like doing some gambling, using options like the w88 site online.

The latest PhoenixMiner 5.0b update has added support for mining with 4GB AMD cards beyond the DAG epoch 350 (ETC is at #349 a the moment, ETH is a #338). Depending on the OS and driver versions you are using with this update you should be able to use 4GB AMD GPUs until epoch #372-#373 under Windows, and #380 under Linux. PhoenixMiner is fast (arguably the fastest) Ethash (ETH, ETC, Muiscoin, EXP, UBQ, etc.) miner that supports both AMD and Nvidia cards (including in mixed mining rigs). It runs under Windows x64 and Linux x64 and has a developer fee of just 0.65%. PhoenixMiner also supports Ubqhash for mining UBQ, ProgPOW for mining BCI, and dual mining Ethash/Ubqhash with Blake2s. According to the miner developers the speed of PhoenixMiner is generally faster than Claymore’s Ethereum miner in ETH only mode (about 0.4-1.3% speed improvement, though your results may be slightly lower or higher depending on the GPUs). To achieve highest possible speed on AMD cards it may be needed to manually adjust the GPU tune factor (a number from 8 to about 400, which can be changed interactively with the + and – keys while the miner is running). If you have used Claymore’s Dual Ethereum miner, you can switch to PhoenixMiner with minimal hassle as most of Claymore’s command-line options and configuration files are supported.

Some important tips for longest possible use of 4GB AMD cards with PhoenixMiner by the devs:
– If your rig is using Intel CPU, use the integrated graphics as primary display adapter. To do this, go to motherboard’s BIOS setup and change the “Primary display adapter” to iGPU (or integrated GPU). Also, if you are using actual monitor or HDMI plug, put it in the motherboard video output.
– If you can’t use integrated GPU, replace the primary GPU with one with 6GB or 8GB VRAM.
– Do not upgrade to a new AMD driver unless it is explicitly supported by PhoenixMiner. With 4GB AMD cards, this will not only lower your hashrate, but may also make it impossible to mine when the DAG epoch is above #350.
– After the DAG epoch moves past #350, the optimal -gt value for the 4GB AMD cards may change, so try to run auto-tune again after DAG epoch #350 to find the best GT values for the cards for mining, although if you want other ways of doing money like gambling the use of sites like capsa online are one of the best options for this.

What AMD drivers to use for mining under Windows:
– Good drivers: these are versions from 18.12.1.1 to 19.7.5 (inclusive), and from 19.12.2 to 20.4.2 (inclusive). These will allow you to mine until DAG epoch #372-#373 and won’t need restart of PhoenixMiner on each DAG epoch change.
– Not so good drivers: these are versions 18.1.1 to 18.10.1 (inclusive), and from 19.8.1 to 19.12.1 (inclusive). This will allow you to mine until DAG epoch #365-#366 and will require restart of PhoenixMiner on each DAG epoch change (for these drivers this will be preformed automatically unless you have added -dagrestart 0 command-line option to explicitly disable the auto-restart).
– Drivers older than 18.1.1 were not tested for 4GB DAG operation.

What AMD drivers to use for mining under Linux:
– Under Linux all relatively recent drivers (i.e. last 24-36 months) allow mining until epoch #378-#380, but there are much more driver bugs, so if you are happy with your current driver version, do not change it.

– To get more details and to download the latest PhoenixMiner 5.0b Ethash miner software…


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