Crypto Mining Blog

We have compiled ccMiner 1.7.4 tpruvot’s fork Windows binary in a version with the optimal settings for mining Vanillacoin (VNL) on more recent Nvidia-based GPUs as suggested by Alexis Provos and with his performance optimizations as implemented by tpruvot in the latest code. This Windows binary is a 32-bit one compiled with CUDa 6.5 and only with Compute 3.5 support as apparently this provides the optimal performance at least on Maxwell-based Nvidia GPUs (Faster than using Compute 5.2 on them). Below you can also see a comparison that we did with Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 from Gigabyte (WF3OC) and a reference design Gigabyte GTX 980 Ti to see the difference in performance with the regular version when using CUDA 7.5 and Compute 5.2 and with the optimized CUDA 6.5 and Compute 3.5 version available for download below. Do note that although this binary will work with other algorithms as well as the Blake 256 8-rounds used by VanillaCoin it may not provide the optimal performance for other algorithms as it is targeted to provide the best VNL mining hashrate.

GeForce GTX 970 – CUDA 7.5 Compute 5.2
Default – 2490 MHS @ 164 W
Intensity 25 – 2535 MHS
Intensity 26 – 2637 MHS
Intensity 27 – 2692 MHS
Intensity 28 – 2718 MHS
Intensity 29 – 2722 MHS
Intensity 30 – 2729 MHS
Intensity 31 – 2732 MHS

GTX 980 Ti – CUDA 7.5 Compute 5.2
Default – 3390 MHS @ 211 W
Intensity 25 – 3797 MHS
Intensity 26 – 3884 MHS
Intensity 27 – 3986 MHS
Intensity 28 – 4009 MHS
Intensity 29 – 4043 MHS
Intensity 30 – 4075 MHS
Intensity 31 – 4132 MHS

GeForce GTX 970 – CUDA 6.5 Compute 3.5
Intensity 31 – 2942 MHS @ 177 W

GeForce980 – CUDA 6.5 Compute 3.5
Intensity 31 – 4418 MHS @ 238 W

Do note that increasing the intensity over the default setting (no manual -i intensity option used) even on a regular release will provide some increase in performance as you can see in our comparison going up to the maximum supported intensity of 31. Have in mind that increasing intensity also makes the system a bit less responsive the higher you go and at 30/31 it will be lagging more, but the extra performance gain you will get with the optimal binary and higher Intensity setting is significant, so for a dedicated mining rig for VanillaCoin you should definitely go for it.

Update: This particular performance optimization is for VanillaCoin’s Blake256 8-rounds implementation, the CUDA 6.5 and Compute 3.5 compilation of the particular CUDA code for that algorithm give better performance than Compute 5.0 or 5.2. The CUDA code is different for other Blake 256 algorithms, including the one for Decred’s Blake-256 14-rounds implementation, so do not expect performance increase in others. In fact specifically for Decred, a 64-bit compilation with CUDA 7.5 and for Compute 5.x does seem to provide best performance with the publicly available ccMiner 1.7.4 fork from tpruvot.

– To download the ccMiner version 1.7.4 by tpruvot for VanillaCoin mining for Windows OS…