Posts Tagged ‘Nvidia’

TechPowerUp GPU-Z 2.37.0 With Nvidia GDDR6X Memory Temperature Monitoring

9, Mar 2021

It seems that the HWiNFO tool is no longer the only software that allows you to check the GDDR6X video memory temperature on Nvidia RTX 3080 and RTX 3090 GPUs. The latest TechPowerUp GPU-Z 2.37.0 apparently also supports the display of the temperature of the hot GDDR6X memory chips and not only that, but also features support and reports the GPU Hot Spot temperature as well. It is interesting to note however that these two features apparently were left unannounced as getting added in the changelog of the latest version that has been released about two weeks ago. Frankly it was by luck that we found out that the GDDR6X Memory Operating Temperature and Hot Spot monitoring support has been introduced in the latest GPU-Z software.

GPU-Z v2.37.0 Changelog:
– Added memory vendor detection on Navi 1x and Navi 2x
– Added workaround for NVIDIA Ampere PCIe hardware bug
– Added filter to avoid misreadings on EVGA iCX
– Fixed fake detection for some GT218 variants
– Improved Russian translation
– Added preliminary support for Radeon RX 6700 and RX 6600 Series
– Added support for NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060, RTX 3080 Mobile, RTX 3070 Mobile, RTX 3060 Mobile, RTX A6000, A40, A100-SXM4-40GB, Drive PX2, P106M, Quadro K510M, modded Quadro K6000
– Added support for additional variants of NVIDIA GTX 1650 Max-Q, Quadro P1000, GTX 650, GT 430
– Added support for AMD Cezanne, Radeon Pro V520, R9 290X ES, Barco MXRT 2600
– Added support for Intel Comet Lake Graphics (Celeron 5205U and i7-10810U)
– Added vendor detection for Yeston

The comparison between the values reported by the two useful tools is inevitable and they report the values for GPU Temperature, GPU Hot Spot and Memory Temperature very close to each other. So, using either of the two programs will be fine in order to get you the needed information. Going for either GPU-Z or HWiNFO will provide you with the data you need to know how hot your GPU and video memory is on GeForce RTX 3080 and RTX 3090 video cards when used for mining. Ethereum mining on these particular GPUs is very popular due to the high mining hashrate they provide, but it also comes at the cost of high operating temperature for the memory chips especially. Keeping an eye on the GDDR6X memory temperatures and the GPU Hot Spots can be useful in detecting possible issues you might have with proper cooling of your mining video cards.

– To download and try the latest TechPowerUp GPU-Z 2.37.0 software…

Mining Performance of Asus ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3060 OC Edition

26, Feb 2021

The new Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 video cards are here and we managed to buy one quickly while there was some stock left to do some mining benchmarks and tests. We already know that mining performance for the RTX 3060 is limited for Ethereum, but what else can you mine with the full performance is something that we also wanted to find out for sure. As we have predicted availability and pricing of the RTX 3060 is off the charts as people expected these GPUs to be the sweet spot for mining Ethereum – high hashrate and low price. Neither of these did turn out to be true however and stock availability is low, so buying even just one of these new GPUs was pretty hard and we had to pre-order it and buy it bundled with a motherboard just to get our hands on it for testing.

Specifications wise – nothing unexpected. We already knew what to expect from the RTX 3060 GPUs in terms of hardware and GPU and VRAM specs. We also though we knew what to expect from them in terms of performance, but then Nvidia suddenly surprised us with their plans a couple of days ago. And although they are saying that they want to have the RTX 3060 available for gamers, what they are meaning is that they want to sell their new Nvidia CMP HX Dedicated Crypto Mining GPUs to miners instead of RTX 3060. In the end they will probably not succeed very well with either for a number of reasons…

When we run Phoenixminer on the ASUS RTX 3060 GPU with 70% TDP and +1000 MHz video memory in MSI Afterburner we are getting almost 46 MH/s hashrate for Ethereum, however the protective mechanism quickly kicks in and drops that to about 23-24 MH/s. Mining Ehtereum with 46 MH/s at just about 120W of power usage is probably some miner’s wet dream for a mining GPU, but unfortunately that is not going to happen at least for the moment. And it is not only affecting Ethereum mining, Ethereum Classic also gets the half hashrate reduction (it is very similar in terms of algorithm), even Vertcoin’s VertHash algorithm is affected and possibly other memory-intensive algorithms as well.

Affected Algorithms Performance:
– Ethereum – Ethash algorithm – 45 -> 23 MH/s
– VertCoin – Verthash algorithm – 850 -> 370 KH/s
– Ethereum Classic – Etchash algorithm – 47 -> 25 MH/s

All is not lost however as there are some profitable crypto algorithms that are not affected by the forced half hashrate for mining from Nvidia, so the RTX 3060 is still usable and performing quite well in some other popular algorithms…

Unaffected Algorithms Performance:
– Ravencoin – KAWPOW algorithm – 22 MH/s
– Veil – ProgPoW algorithm – 20.8 MH/s
– BitCash – X25X algorithm – 4.2 MH/s
– Conflux – Octopus algorithm – 42 MH/s
– Beam – BeamHashIII algorithm – 22.5 MH/s
– Aeternity – CuckooCycle algorithm – 6.6 G/s
– Grin – Cuckatoo32 algorithm – 0.39 G/s
– ZEL – Zelhash algorithm – 33.6 Sol/s
– Firo (XZC) – MTP algorithm – 2.4 MH/s

So, while the RTX 3060 may not be the best option for Ethereum mining, it can still perform quite well in some other mining algorithms, so not a total waste of money as far as crypto mining is concerned. If you are only focusing on Ethereum mining however, then you might want to think twice and leave the RTX 3060 to other miners or gamers instead.

– What performance other Nvidia RTX 30 Series GPU deliver for Ethereum…

Should You Be Gaming or Crypto Mining with Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 GPUs

25, Feb 2021

Today, February 25th, marks the day that the newest mid-range GeForce gaming GPU from Nvidia is supposed to be released on the market and both crypto miners and gamers are eagerly anticipating this release. The release of the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 GPU with 12GB of GDDR6 video memory is definitely an interesting event, but should gamers and miners be so enthusiastic about the new model? Well, neither gamers, nor miners will most likely be so happy after what they will see today - you can expect to see high prices and limited availability and the main reason for that is Ethereum mining of course.

Up until very recently crypto miners were expecting the new GeForce RTX 3060 GPU to be the next big thing in mining and more specifically in Ethereum (ETH) mining as the latest crypto mining craze is focused there. The GeForce RTX 3060 was supposed to be delivering around 40 MH/s mining hashrate at stock settings and up to about 45 MH/s hashrate after some tweaking… and it does manage to deliver that, but there is also a catch. Nvidia has decided to enforce hashrate limitation for the RTX 3060 via their video drivers in order to drive away miners and have the GPU available to gamers. So, instead of 40–45 MH/s hashrate for Ethereum mining users will be getting just around half of that at 20–22 MH/s and that is definitely not as attractive for such a high-priced video card.

What Nvidia did wrong here is announcing this software-enforced hashrate reduction in half just a few days before they release the new GeForce RTX 3060 GPU and that did not have a positive effect for sure. Most crypto miners still may not be aware of the reduced hashrate for Ethereum and a lot of them have already ordered the new GPU for building mining rigs with it. And because of the high interest from miners the prices are high and availability still a problem, so gamers are once more not too happy that they cannot get their hands on the new video cards or if they can the price is artificially inflated because of the miners’ interest in it.

Nvidia should have announced their plans much earlier than they did, so that miners will be well aware of that by the release on the market and will not bother buying these GPUs and thus the price and availability could’ve been much better for gamers. Now, crypto miners will be buying RTX 3060 GPUs in bulk at high price just to find out that their actual performance for Ethereum mining really sucks and is only half of what they expected and they will feel cheated. As a result, these GPUs will most likely be finding their way back to distributors and retailers and these companies will have hard time selling them to gamers due to the high initial price they got their stock at expecting miners to buy it.

It is not all lost for miners that got their hands on the new GeForce RTX 3060 GPU expecting high Ethereum mining hahsrate. No, you will not be able to get 40–45 MH/s mining Ethereum with these for now, unless a workaround is quickly discovered, if possible at all. Furthermore, the limitation extends not only to the most popular for mining Ethereum, it covers the whole Ethash algorithm that ETH among other crypto coins also use. Not to mention that the artificial limitation for the half performance of the actual one is not bound to a specific coin or algorithm such as Ethereum or Ethash. In fact, may if not all memory-intensive algorithms that have a way of working similar to that of Ethash used by Ethereum could also be affected as Nvidia uses an algorithm to detect a specific behaviour for the GPU to know if it is mining or not.

It is already known that VertCoin (VTC) and its VertHash crypto algorithm is also affected and you will be getting similar drop in performance with the RTX 3060 GPU. It is not all lost however as RavenCoin (RVN) for instance does work normally for mining on the RTX 3060 and manages to deliver a good performance with over 20 MH/s hashrate with power optimized settings and with a bit of overclocking even around 22 MH/s with just 120W of power usage. Mining other crypto coins that use GPU-intensive Proof of Work mining algorithms will also most likely be problem free as far as getting the actual performance the RTX 3060 is capable of instead of the artificially reduced hashrate to half of what it is supposed to be.

There are some other currently profitable crypto coins available for mining that might be doing quite well on the new RTX 3060 GPU, besides Ravencoin and its KAWPOW algorithm of course. You should check out crypto coins that use algorithms like MTP, CuckooCycle, Cucatoo31, Cucatoo32, Cucatoo29s, Zhash, ProgPow, ZelHash, EquihashZero, ProgPowZ, BeamHashIII, X25X and others. That of course would need some testing first, but there is a good potential to still maximizing the performance that the GeForce RTX 3060 has for crypto mining even when you take out Ethereum from the picture. A lot of people however will probably not even bother trying out something different than mining Ethereum, especially people new to crypto mining that know only of Ethereum mining as a profitable thing to do.

You can never say that crypto and crypto mining is a boring thing to do, especially if you are not one of those people that just want the easiest way around in making money mining and are not really interested in cryptocurrencies… If you are reading this now, then you most likely aren’t one of these people anyway.

– More on the Limited Mining Hashrate of the GeForce RTX 3060…


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