AMD Mining Devices Making Millionaires Worldwide

Just FYI, GPU mining is done. The difficulty has increased to a point that dedicated mining ASICs are the only thing usable to generate sufficient returns.

GPU mining *used* to be pretty good. Now? It's worthless. On the other hand, all those guys who mined early years ago and saved their coins...they probably made a killing. ;)

For Bitcoins. But Litecoins, Namecoins, etc.? They don't even support ASIC.
 
I've got this old i5 750 rig that I'm considering turning into a mining station. Probably just gonna start out with a fairly cheap GPU. Thinking around 150$, probably a 7870 Ghz. I'm not sure whether that MB has one or two PCIE slots, I'll look when I get home.
 
I've got this old i5 750 rig that I'm considering turning into a mining station. Probably just gonna start out with a fairly cheap GPU. Thinking around 150$, probably a 7870 Ghz. I'm not sure whether that MB has one or two PCIE slots, I'll look when I get home.

The CPU is overkill for what you want it to do. I'd sell it and use the money toward your GPU budget. 7950 might be in range.
 
I just bought some cheap parts from the egg. Had a case and psu but bought a biostar mobo and a athlon 2 x3 with a asus 280x. I'm tired of using my gaming rig to mine. My power is very cheap as well. Also was looking at mining something in addition to litecoins. Tried out feather coins. They seem easy has hell to mine currently.
 
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The CPU is overkill for what you want it to do. I'd sell it and use the money toward your GPU budget. 7950 might be in range.

No, the 7950's are getting bought up like crazy... not really in range at all; seems like too much of a pain to acquire one. The reason I'm not going to a higher GPU isn't because I'm aching for money but because I'm just hesitant about investing in it. I think this CPU has plenty of life left in it and I could use it for other stuff. It's a powerful little thing.

In other words what I'm saying is that this isn't an "end goal" for that machine, just something for it to do since I have it sitting around.

That being said, what's the minimum CPU you'd use for this kind of stuff?
 
No, the 7950's are getting bought up like crazy... not really in range at all; seems like too much of a pain to acquire one. The reason I'm not going to a higher GPU isn't because I'm aching for money but because I'm just hesitant about investing in it. I think this CPU has plenty of life left in it and I could use it for other stuff. It's a powerful little thing.

In other words what I'm saying is that this isn't an "end goal" for that machine, just something for it to do since I have it sitting around.

That being said, what's the minimum CPU you'd use for this kind of stuff?

You really don't need much out of the CPU at all since it won't be doing any work. For mining I go with the cheapest, coolest, and least power hungry. Right now I am using a G1610 and have a G3220 on order for the next basket.

I must say getting cards right now is a PITA. Snagged 4 more 280x's yesterday before they sold out in 20 minutes. TBH I am still a tad worried they are going to wait another day and then tell me that they are sorry but they made a mistake and don't have them since they still haven't shipped and are just in "Packaging". If you are worried about the investment on the cards look at it this way. Right now ebay someone is selling my exact mining rig "used" for $900 more than I paid for mine with a day to go and 77 bids already.
 
TBH I am still a tad worried they are going to wait another day and then tell me that they are sorry but they made a mistake and don't have them since they still haven't shipped and are just in "Packaging".

Same, i ordered one earlier and am wondering.
 
If you have to use a "power hungry" cpu, just downclock it and turn off cores to reduce energy.
 
Does it matter which pool you join? I saw the site that lists the features of each, and of course they have different fees, but is the work the same difficulty on all of them?

Any tips on which to join? I just started and joined give-me-coins since it appeared to be one of the better ones. I like their site interface too.

Right now I'm mining with my GTX680 SLI setup until my two 290Xs arrive, and I'm getting horrible hash rates (~100kh/s) for a dual card setup. Anyone have any tips on good settings for 680 cards? It seems that most of the settings online are geared for AMD cards (understandably), but I'd like to at least be making some progress while I wait for my new cards.

TIA
 
Does it matter which pool you join? I saw the site that lists the features of each, and of course they have different fees, but is the work the same difficulty on all of them?

Any tips on which to join? I just started and joined give-me-coins since it appeared to be one of the better ones. I like their site interface too.

Right now I'm mining with my GTX680 SLI setup until my two 290Xs arrive, and I'm getting horrible hash rates (~100kh/s) for a dual card setup. Anyone have any tips on good settings for 680 cards? It seems that most of the settings online are geared for AMD cards (understandably), but I'd like to at least be making some progress while I wait for my new cards.

TIA

Pool mining - theoretically, every pool should pay out similarly over time as pool luck averages out. If you like feast/famine, join a smaller pool. If you like steady blocks, join a larger pool.

Tips on 680 - I wouldn't even try mining with them as it will cost you more in electricity than what you'd make at 100kh/s.
 
Pool mining - theoretically, every pool should pay out similarly over time as pool luck averages out. If you like feast/famine, join a smaller pool. If you like steady blocks, join a larger pool.

Tips on 680 - I wouldn't even try mining with them as it will cost you more in electricity than what you'd make at 100kh/s.

Thanks for the tips. I read on one site that 680s should be able to get as high as 300-350KH/s, but I guess I have a lot of research to do with the settings. I'm also using cgminer as opposed to cudaminer, so probably not optimal at all. Maybe I'll just stop until I get the better cards.

Also, I'm pretty concerned about the market tanking. Is it easy to just sell coins as you go? Can that be done through the pools?
 
Buy gift cards @ gyft.com - pretty much as good as cash if you buy Amazon ones... Instant (<60 seconds) transfer to my account. I've bought about $1k in the last week, zero issues. Great for xmas gifts too, lol.
 

Wrong. As big and bad as the US government is, and as much as they think they have control... they won't be able to control something like this.

The reason governments don't like ideas like this is because it takes their power away.

The idea of being able to send something 100% digital that holds value, anywhere in the world, to anyone, without having to jump through 10 legal hoops, and having each person take their cut along the way.... it's archaic.

When is the last time the government has really done anything right in this country? Everything they touch costs 100X more than it should, and they are never cash positive. When the US government spends 750 milllion on a website that should cost 10 million (and it still doesnt work), that tells me everything I need to know about their level of competency with anything technical.

Very exciting times I think -- I just wish I had a chunk of money to plunk down and get in the game in a big way. Small time mining LTC off 6 GPUs just as a hobby.
 
I wish I would have gave this a go a lot sooner. I get the feeling those of us that are just getting into it are late to the game. I just hope there is enough time left to make a little.
 
Thanks for the tips. I read on one site that 680s should be able to get as high as 300-350KH/s, but I guess I have a lot of research to do with the settings. I'm also using cgminer as opposed to cudaminer, so probably not optimal at all. Maybe I'll just stop until I get the better cards.

Also, I'm pretty concerned about the market tanking. Is it easy to just sell coins as you go? Can that be done through the pools?

You'll have to sign up at an exchange and convert to bitcoin. Then use coinbase to get your money out.
 
I've signed up for Cryptsy and Coinbase, but I'm struggling to find the LTC payment address to get my LTCs from my pool to Cryptsy. I've scoured that site over, and can't find it anywhere. Tips?
 
I've signed up for Cryptsy and Coinbase, but I'm struggling to find the LTC payment address to get my LTCs from my pool to Cryptsy. I've scoured that site over, and can't find it anywhere. Tips?

On Cryptsy, click on balances at the top, then scroll down to LTC and click on the "LTC Actions" button on the right. Click on Deposit/Autosell options and it will give you a deposit address to move LTC into Cryptsy from pool.
 
On Cryptsy, click on balances at the top, then scroll down to LTC and click on the "LTC Actions" button on the right. Click on Deposit/Autosell options and it will give you a deposit address to move LTC into Cryptsy from pool.

Thanks for the tip! Looks like I got in hours before the bubble pops! (kidding)
 
I've signed up for Cryptsy and Coinbase, but I'm struggling to find the LTC payment address to get my LTCs from my pool to Cryptsy. I've scoured that site over, and can't find it anywhere. Tips?

finding it on cryptsy or the pool? hit balances --> LTC actions --> deposit --> generate address
 
finding it on cryptsy or the pool? hit balances --> LTC actions --> deposit --> generate address

On Cryptsy was what I meant. Thanks for the help too. Anyone know what the projections are on work difficulty going up?
 
Are the 290x or 290 better then 7970 cards for mining?

7970/7950, if you can find them at MSRP, are the sweetspot for hash/watt.
R9 290 is a good substitute, though slightly worse hash/watt depending on the individual card.

R9 290x isn't worth it for the 40% extra cost over R9 290 for the, maybe, 10% increase in performance.

7970/7950 is also preferred because you can get 4 of them on a 1.2kw PSU, compared to only 3 oc'ed 290s on a 1.2kw.
 
7970/7950, if you can find them at MSRP, are the sweetspot for hash/watt.
R9 290 is a good substitute, though slightly worse hash/watt depending on the individual card.

R9 290x isn't worth it for the 40% extra cost over R9 290 for the, maybe, 10% increase in performance.

7970/7950 is also preferred because you can get 4 of them on a 1.2kw PSU, compared to only 3 oc'ed 290s on a 1.2kw.

The R9 290 and 290x actually get more hash/watt than the 7950/7970. I believe it is around 2.6 or 2.72 hash/watt for the 290x while it's 2.05 hash/watt for the 7970.
 
The R9 290 and 290x actually get more hash/watt than the 7950/7970. I believe it is around 2.6 or 2.72 hash/watt for the 290x while it's 2.05 hash/watt for the 7970.

Well realworld results 290 is getting ~870-880khash/s at ~1ghz and pulling around 330w.
I thought 7970/280x was doing 740-750khash/s ~1025/1050mhz and pulling ~265w.
 
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http://www.anandtech.com/show/7481/the-amd-radeon-r9-290-review/15

Going by the Furmark figures, it's only a 40 watt difference for over 100 kH/s. But my main point was why buy a 7950/7970 for $400 when you can get an R9 290 for that price? I don't get why anyone paid so much, especially 2-3 weeks ago when 290s were still in stock.

the reasoning is because variety is MASSIVE in cards. Take my various 280x's here. I have 1 model that I plug in and BOOM straight to over 700. Most of my models though you plug them in and UNDER 500. ALL of the cards I've bought are stock 1ghz or above. After tuning for a while I've been able to get every 280x to 650 or so but that 700+ is not a guarantee. for every claim of 900+k on a 290x you will have 10+ people getting UNDER 700 out of them.

What I like are the 7870's and 7850's. Not much investment and not that much hassle to get them going as expected. I'd rather build more systems and spend roughly the same than to spend entire days trying to get my expected value out of cards. Immediately after dropping $500 on a pair of 7970's they were hashing the same speed as my 6950's. Hours of testing later and they both ended up at 700 but why bother? When I find a model that I like I will be every single one I can get my hands on but I think I'm done rolling the dice on various models.
 
And wee it just dropped over $400 in a day!
 
Price is crashing! Get out while you still can!

On a side note...

I will be buying all 7950/7970 cards for $100 each. Just pst.
 
Its a volatile market, and just an effect to the ban of bitcoins by the Chinese Gov. It needs more time to iron out the kinks, so it will stabilize eventually.
 
yup -- woke up today to see the huge dip, but it's recovering a bit.

I'm less concerned with bitcoin's value directly, and more interested in LiteCoin, it's where I have my money. (all 22 coins) lol

We have seen bitcoin rise and fall, and one thing always seems to happen, no matter how low it goes, it always comes back MUCH bigger in the future.

I made the decision to mine and hold any LTC and FTC I generate in the coming months. They have already exploded in price relative to 6 months ago, even if they shrink back down... odds are at some point they will blow up again in value and that's when I get a wad of cash. It's essentially free money anyway in my view, I have to heat my house in the winter, even though it's Texas and not near as bad as other places... it was 21F when I woke up for work this morning, gotta keep the place warm, might as well use electricity that's going to net me a gain in the long run.
 
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