Looking at possibly getting into mining

S

scgt1

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Jun 4, 2007
Messages
5,470
I'm surprised there isn't a sticky as there should be about this topic for newbs to read up on.
Looking at maybe mining since my game rig and daily desktop stay on all the time. I'm not running a dedicated gpu on the daily so don't know the the cpu even process's for mining or not as I don't know anything about the stuff.

Just looking to maybe build up some extra funds for the future when more places start taking coins etc:

Start off with what the systems have to weigh if there is even a point to it or not.
Daily: 3570K 16gigs ddr3 1600 on H80 EVGA Nex750 psu
Game rig 3770k 12gigs ddr3 1600 on custom cooling loop including the Formula V board on a 360 rad with push. Diamond 7970 on it's own separate loop through a 480 rad push/pull. Enermax Revo 1050 psu

Now the questions:
How much theoratically does mining suck up on juice over just using a computer normally and for the case of the game rig gaming?

I assume the only one that will really crunch is the game rig due to the dedicated gpu. Is it even feasible to mess with it? (Not looking to shut down the power grid or run it at max 24/7. Like I said just looking at building up some spare coin not trying to buy a Porsche 911 GT3R or something)

Obviously mining needs to be turned off to game I assume? For that matter to really use my daily when I want to also?

What is the best type of mining to do and where are the steps etc for what I need to setup and do? (As I said Newb here haven't done any reading on it. The reading I did do a year or so ago was way over my head and too damn much for my ADD ass to understand.)

Who cash's in with who? (Ideally payment via paypal or straight to bank account would be ideal.)

Am I nuts for thinking of jumping on the bandwagon?
 
Last edited:
1. Mining draws a lot of power compared to regular use / gaming.
2. You can still use your computer to browse and probably watch movies (depending on your mining intensity setup)
3. Yep if you only have 1 GPU you need to shutdown the mining program else if you have a spare gpu you can use that to play/mine at the same time since mining altcoins nowadays only use GPU and the CPU just idles around.
4. As of now mining altcoins is the best way to earn. You might want to look at scrypt altcoin derivatives and such.
5. If you're in the US the best way to cash in some coins is trade your altcoins to BTC then send it to Coinbase and sell BTC to USD.
6. Nope. If you have a spare time and money why not? Consider it as another hobby.
 
i personally consider it fun. I have spent over 20 hours of my own time setting my stuff up and creating an automation process. Now... when rigs lock up or stop mining... my monitor system takes care of auto rebooting the whole rig or cgminer process. Takes a lot of the baby sitting work out of the process.

Bottom line... do not expect earnings your first few days. Allow yourself time time to get used to the process and be ready to learn. I find this community the best to read and learn off of. The send best resource is the ypool IRC chat room (again... personal XP). If your in it to make ends meet... this is not for you though it easy enough to recover a months worth of electricity cost of pushing your rigs in a day or two.

Generally speaking... CPU mining is not worth it when compared to electricity costs.
 
If you already have the hardware, you won't hurt anything as long as you don't over clock, flash your bios, etc. You can mine with stock settings and still do decent. You'll, at the very least, make enough to pay the extra cost in electricity.

And like others have said, it's fun. I'm working on a noobie getting started post that I'll hopefully get up later tonight.
 
I could think of better things to spend hard earned cash on then just breaking even with my electric bill. (I live in TX for crying out loud) If I were doing this I would want it to be worth my while. If I would only make say $20 for 3 months of jacking up my electric bill then there is no use in bothering I suppose.

As stated above CPU mining isn't worth it. so then not using the daily computer while its just on and running isn't worth it but using the game rigs 7970 is?
 
http://www.coinwarz.com/cryptocurrency/

You can input a hash rate, power draw, cost of a kwh... then you figure up your startup costs, if you're buying hardware, and you can figure out if it's profitable.

Personally, if you're buying hardware, I think you're late to the party. The current prices (lower BTC/and altcoins, combined with high GPU/PSU costs) will make it a much riskier endeavor.

If you own AMD GPUs already, and can cool them sufficiently, then you'll make a profit. It might not be much, but you will, depending on the card you have.
 
Have no way to measure power draw. Won't be buying hardware as I'm not into supporting the power company in building up a farming rig and sucking that much juice. As my OP states I already have a 7970.
 
scgt1 said:
Have no way to measure power draw. Won't be buying hardware as I'm not into supporting the power company in building up a farming rig and sucking that much juice. As my OP states I already have a 7970.
Click to expand...

Then start by taking a look at the Litecoin page - it'll be Litecoin you'll be working with (ship has sailed on Bitcoin - costs far too much for what you get out of mining it).

Then join a pool and start mining!
 
I'm planning on jumping into mining this weekend with my lowly 6870-equipped gaming rig. So no, scgt1 you're not crazy. I'm looking at it from the hobby perspective now, and like you, to just build up a little bit of the coin(s) in case things wind up trending like btc has. I've got the (older) hardware, might as well give it a shot and let it run overnight and while I'm at work.

However, if you have no way of calculating any potential profit/loss, then maybe best to leave it alone. From what I have read, you probably won't be pulling in $$/day anymore with any single card setup. If you are interested in just getting your hands on some of the coins as a speculative investment (so as not to "miss the boat") you could always just buy them straight up from an exchange.

Oh, and as far as power draw goes, my local library has loaned out power meters for a few years now (some green initiative or something). Maybe yours has something similar? Or hit up some of the online power draw calculators for at least a conservative estimate of what your rig might be pulling? You could always fudge the value up some percentage and see what the ballpark is.

One last thought. Say at the current altcoin prices mining isn't very profitable when factoring in your additional power consumption. What if you mine anyway since power is your only mining cost (no hardware investment) and you aren't using your computer overnight anyway and maybe the altcoins increase in price in 3 months or 6 months or 1 year? Again, you can weigh this vs. just buying some coins outright.
 
dderidex said:
Then start by taking a look at the Litecoin page - it'll be Litecoin you'll be working with (ship has sailed on Bitcoin - costs far too much for what you get out of mining it).

Then join a pool and start mining!
Click to expand...

Got Litecoin installed and downloaded the bootstrap file to save time from what the wiki said. Is it necessary to join a pool? It appears they get a percentage of what I mine myself. Isn't it ideal to earn your own and keep your own?

Right now is importing blocks from disk. a whole 1.4 gig file. There isn't any description as to what I do from this point when it's done though. The wiki was very vague. Guess I have to dig through the tutorials. Hopefully it's dubbed down. It's late and I don't have the concentration left in my head lol. I was looking at plopping this in and just letting it run over night and mess with it more in the morning or afternoon but it appears I may not get that far.

Oh and just FYI from what I just looked at that "pool" you linked to has one of the higher fees. 2%
 
Last edited:
scgt1 said:
Got Litecoin installed and downloaded the bootstrap file to save time from what the wiki said. Is it necessary to join a pool? It appears they get a percentage of what I mine myself. Isn't it ideal to earn your own and keep your own?

Right now is importing blocks from disk. a whole 1.4 gig file. There isn't any description as to what I do from this point when it's done though. The wiki was very vague. Guess I have to dig through the tutorials. Hopefully it's dubbed down. It's late and I don't have the concentration left in my head lol. I was looking at plopping this in and just letting it run over night and mess with it more in the morning or afternoon but it appears I may not get that far.

Oh and just FYI from what I just looked at that "pool" you linked to has one of the higher fees. 2%
Click to expand...

Not necessary to join a pool but given your video cards and what they will hash, you most likely will not find a litecoin block on your own for quite some time due to difficulty. Join a pool. Find one that is stable, low fees, and has been around for a while (honest). In the grand scheme of things, 1-2% is a small price to lower variance and won't cut into profits too deeply.
 
Ok so I just went to bed after my last post with 43 days left to build. Now I'm left with a program that isn't doing anything. Apparently I really need to do some reading as it looks I still need a program and need to connect up somewhere to actually crunch.
Aside from that it appears I need to find a pool to join also or I will never get anywhere.

Ok step 3 is a hanger:

3. VERY IMPORTANT!! Many people skip this 3rd step, and they end up having extremely bad results... So, here we go, with bold letters.
Download AMD Catalyst 13.1 Software Suite Vista/7 64-bit AMD AND AMD APP SDK v2.8

Is this updated? I just installed the newest beta drivers last night. Do I really need to drop back down or has this guide just not been updated?

Is PPLNS the better pool type to join just not a very large one?

Mining pool comparison

The following one seems to have the best just from glancing over the list:
WeMineLTC PPLNS 0 2013-04-06 Link EU, US, HK Yes No Yes Yes Yes ?
But then again it's part of a big unit which the wiki says to avoid.??????????????
 
Last edited:
ltcrabbit was designed to pay you whether they find a block or not. It is a fantastic setup if you want to avoid luck completely and have steady paydays.

Right now I wouldn't suggest buying any new high end video cards for getting into mining. Stock up on things like the 270x's because its minimum investment and simply the easiest to get going at proper hash without any realy effort. 280x and up can be a real pain to get running properly. I'm at a point where I think I don't want to bother with high end cards anymore unless I already have one of that model and know exactly what to do. Variance of quality and things between manufacturers is horrible.

Since you basically have to reboot windows to use it as a desktop again I'd suggest always mining from a USB key.

Driver version varies by what cards you are using. I haven't spent much time on 14.1's but I'm only using those on my 290 rig. many of the old drivers are preferred by most for the previous gens of cards. 13.12 I think is the stable release I am using on most of my 270x's.

The 7970 is honestly one of the trickiest cards out there to get running properly. TC: 8192 with memory at 1500 and core at 1050 with intensity 13 is the best if your card can run it. I have a 280x tuning thread back there somewhere
 
scgt1 said:
Ok step 3 is a hanger:

3. VERY IMPORTANT!! Many people skip this 3rd step, and they end up having extremely bad results... So, here we go, with bold letters.
Download AMD Catalyst 13.1 Software Suite Vista/7 64-bit AMD AND AMD APP SDK v2.8
Click to expand...

This is from an old guide. I used 13.1 my first week of mining but since then I've updated to the latest amd drivers (which include the SDK now) and I use cgminer 3.7.2.
 
mkrohn said:
ltcrabbit was designed to pay you whether they find a block or not. It is a fantastic setup if you want to avoid luck completely and have steady paydays.

Right now I wouldn't suggest buying any new high end video cards for getting into mining. Stock up on things like the 270x's because its minimum investment and simply the easiest to get going at proper hash without any realy effort. 280x and up can be a real pain to get running properly. I'm at a point where I think I don't want to bother with high end cards anymore unless I already have one of that model and know exactly what to do. Variance of quality and things between manufacturers is horrible.

Since you basically have to reboot windows to use it as a desktop again I'd suggest always mining from a USB key.

Driver version varies by what cards you are using. I haven't spent much time on 14.1's but I'm only using those on my 290 rig. many of the old drivers are preferred by most for the previous gens of cards. 13.12 I think is the stable release I am using on most of my 270x's.

The 7970 is honestly one of the trickiest cards out there to get running properly. TC: 8192 with memory at 1500 and core at 1050 with intensity 13 is the best if your card can run it. I have a 280x tuning thread back there somewhere
Click to expand...

Yet they are again in one of the higher fee brackets.

Why would you need to reboot windows? It's just a program that runs. Stop the program and you have windows as normal again. Yes/no?

Won't be buying hardware as my OP states using the 7970 and nothing more.

Lost me with the TC number got the overclock on the gpu down. Haven't the slightest on this intensity although haven't gotten any further in the guides as I've been gone all morning so yea.
 
So apparently have a problem:
Error -61: clCreateBuffer (padbuffer8), decrease TC or increase LG
Failed to init GPU thread 0, disabling device 0
Restarting the GPU from the menu will not fix this.
Try restarting cgminer.
Press enter to continue
Network diff set to 188m
stratum from pool 0 detected new block
''
''
''
then it's just a blank space saying nothing else



Something isn't right or something.
 
Last edited:
scgt1 said:
So apparently have a problem:
Error -61: clCreateBuffer (padbuffer8), decrease TC or increase LG
Failed to init GPU thread 0, disabling device 0
Restarting the GPU from the menu will not fix this.
Try restarting cgminer.
Press enter to continue
Network diff set to 188m
stratum from pool 0 detected new block
''
''
''
then it's just a blank space saying nothing else



Something isn't right or something.
Click to expand...

Lower your thread-concurrency or increase the amount of ram in the computer. Being that your computers have enough memory, lower TC.
 
got it sorted out been hashing at average 468.7Kh/s for the last 3-4 hours (what CGMiner displays anyway) although LTCRabbit displays less and I peaked at 464 about an hour ago it has now dropped on the Hash chart.

Anyone got a clue what a 7970 uses wattage wise when mining on stock clocks?
 
scgt1 said:
got it sorted out been hashing at average 468.7Kh/s for the last 3-4 hours (what CGMiner displays anyway) although LTCRabbit displays less and I peaked at 464 about an hour ago it has now dropped on the Hash chart.

Anyone got a clue what a 7970 uses wattage wise when mining on stock clocks?
Click to expand...

That hash rate is low unless you've got an XFX (read: crappy card). Assuming cgminer usage, try intensity 13, tc 8192 or 8193, and 2 threads.
 
mkrohn said:
ltcrabbit was designed to pay you whether they find a block or not. It is a fantastic setup if you want to avoid luck completely and have steady paydays.

Right now I wouldn't suggest buying any new high end video cards for getting into mining. Stock up on things like the 270x's because its minimum investment and simply the easiest to get going at proper hash without any realy effort. 280x and up can be a real pain to get running properly. I'm at a point where I think I don't want to bother with high end cards anymore unless I already have one of that model and know exactly what to do. Variance of quality and things between manufacturers is horrible.

Since you basically have to reboot windows to use it as a desktop again I'd suggest always mining from a USB key.

Driver version varies by what cards you are using. I haven't spent much time on 14.1's but I'm only using those on my 290 rig. many of the old drivers are preferred by most for the previous gens of cards. 13.12 I think is the stable release I am using on most of my 270x's.

The 7970 is honestly one of the trickiest cards out there to get running properly. TC: 8192 with memory at 1500 and core at 1050 with intensity 13 is the best if your card can run it. I have a 280x tuning thread back there somewhere
Click to expand...

On the contrary, I found my 7970's and 280X's extremely simple to set up.

My 7950's were a moderate pain to configure.

You'll find that since the 7970's and 280X's are similar, you can use similar settings to start. In fact, that's what I did and just had to find the correct core clock speed and my 280X's were running fine.

Of course, your mileage may vary.
 
7970s hard to configure? Ha.

I can see why they may have developed that reputation though. Lots of people make the mistake of trying a -g 1 config on them. As most all seasoned miners know, 7970/280xs are literally the only cards that do better with a lower intensity (13) and -g 2 combo. The 7950s only have a couple hundred less shaders but are a completely different beast to configure, which i find relatively odd.
 
scgt1 said:
got it sorted out been hashing at average 468.7Kh/s for the last 3-4 hours (what CGMiner displays anyway) although LTCRabbit displays less and I peaked at 464 about an hour ago it has now dropped on the Hash chart.

Anyone got a clue what a 7970 uses wattage wise when mining on stock clocks?
Click to expand...

I haven't got the numbers for my 7970's handy, but just guessing they'd be between 250 to 280W while mining.
 
Carbon_Rod said:
I haven't got the numbers for my 7970's handy, but just guessing they'd be between 250 to 280W while mining.
Click to expand...

That is correct, roughly.

My Gigabyte 7970 non-GHz eds @ 1.17v 1075/1500 ate up 255w.

The same cards flashed to the GHz Ed. bios stock volts @ 1.25v 1075/1500 was 305w.
 
IEC said:
That hash rate is low unless you've got an XFX (read: crappy card). Assuming cgminer usage, try intensity 13, tc 8192 or 8193, and 2 threads.
Click to expand...

have exactly those settings. -w 256 -g 2 --lookup-gap 0 --auto-fan --thread-concurrency 8192 --intensity 13
Using a Diamond 7970PE53G stock out of the box clocks though. 41C while mining.

WU is 444.6/m

Looking at my Hashrate chart the last two hours it's leveled off at 465 on the chart yet shows 284KH/s

don't get how this crap monitors lol the mining program says one thing the statistic graph shows something else and the actual statistics show a completely different number that's just over half of what the actual program and graph show I'm hashing.

Maybe it's the newest beta drivers I'm running.
 
Last edited:
Just flashed the GHZ edition bios to my stock 7970. See what that does.
 
When i was using 7970s earlier this year, the 13.4s + 2.9 SDK were golden. They still are for all the current 7950s i run.

The latest drivers always tended to muck things up for my HD 7xxxs. That being said, the 290s and 270s will only run on the latest 13.11 betas or 13.12s.
 
scgt1 said:
have exactly those settings. -w 256 -g 2 --lookup-gap 0 --auto-fan --thread-concurrency 8192 --intensity 13
Using a Diamond 7970PE53G stock out of the box clocks though. 41C while mining.

WU is 444.6/m

Looking at my Hashrate chart the last two hours it's leveled off at 465 on the chart yet shows 284KH/s

don't get how this crap monitors lol the mining program says one thing the statistic graph shows something else and the actual statistics show a completely different number that's just over half of what the actual program and graph show I'm hashing.

Maybe it's the newest beta drivers I'm running.
Click to expand...

I had some strange hashrates on 14.1, reverted back to the 13.12 and they worked normally again. If you are indeed using 14.1 try 13.12
 
on 13.12 WHQL now as of late last night
Woke up with WU at 455 have since changed my tc from 8192 to 18944 now my average hash is 487.1Kh/s and WU is about 450/m

Was told the actual hash in CGminer is an estimate and to go off the WU number and you either divide the WU or multiply it by .92 and you get your actual hash. But I fucking forgot if it was * or /.

:-(
I still don't think it's mining to what it should and it would be nice to be able to calculate out an actual number or close to it so I could see if this shit is even feasible or not with the calculator. If I have to mine a year for $20 profit it's not worth my time.

Oh yea and flipped my bios switch to go back to stock 7970 non Tahiti Le as the numbers wouldn't hit what I was doing on stock bios.
 
did you ever try the stilts BIOS mods? thats the only way I was able to get my 7970's to do anything
 
Just found the thread in the DC forum and reported it to the mods: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1040576521#post1040576521

thats a good thread for you to start on.

by doing anything I mean hashing worth a damn. So many people on here get 270x's near 500K which is about what you're getting. With a flashed BIOS with properly tuned RAM timings you will get in the 750k range as long as your card can handle it. I caution you though heat will skyrocket because this sucker will truly be running at 100%
 
mkrohn said:
Just found the thread in the DC forum and reported it to the mods: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1040576521#post1040576521

thats a good thread for you to start on.

by doing anything I mean hashing worth a damn. So many people on here get 270x's near 500K which is about what you're getting. With a flashed BIOS with properly tuned RAM timings you will get in the 750k range as long as your card can handle it. I caution you though heat will skyrocket because this sucker will truly be running at 100%
Click to expand...

Not looking to push the card to the max and nuke it. I use the computer for gaming so not looking at shortening its life span or anything. lol
IE not trying to place my hash in the record books :D

Just trying to make some extra cash for future use of upgrades or something maybe pay part of the electric bill etc.

Just plopping this as a reference for myself for later when I have more time:

Reply 1960

How do you know what ram you have on the card?

To be honest though like I said Making the card strictly for mining isn't my goal as It is my game rig also. So I wouldn't want it running at it's max potential all the time so it burns itself out or for that matter doesn't play games for shit because it's running full on all the time artifactting and shit. I don't have $600 laying around for a replacement card and possibly a new waterblock if I were to get a different model card.

currently my wu is fluctuating from 440-460 and I was told to divide that by .92 to get my round about actual Hash as the numbers cgminer portrays and the site I'm mining through portray estimates.
 
Last edited:
so I have the ram that needs to be tweaked but the download is no longer on drop box and I don't see a reply to post button or anything and I'm logged in.

thread is locked out, all files removed, and he doesn't accept pms now. Someone started a thread about it. Sucks he already had my bios made.
 
Last edited:
I set up a litecoin wallet and had to wait around 6 hours for it to sync, damn.
That is as far as I have got so far.

I assume that when you mine your GPU is going to be running full bore, correct?
That would of course negate doing much of anything else besides maybe browsing the web.
 
ep0x73 said:
I set up a litecoin wallet and had to wait around 6 hours for it to sync, damn.
That is as far as I have got so far.
Click to expand...

You'll be a week or so of mining before you have sufficient balance to transfer from whatever pool you are working in to your wallet, so you can go ahead and start working on that while the wallet syncs.

ep0x73 said:
I assume that when you mine your GPU is going to be running full bore, correct?
That would of course negate doing much of anything else besides maybe browsing the web.
Click to expand...

Pretty much. HD videos are a definite no-go, as is 3d gaming. Windows doesn't seem to mind TOO much, though, and browsing the web works alright.
 
Sounds good, it's all in sync now. I did read that you should add the bootstrap.bat file to your folder to increase the speed from the wiki site.

Looks like litecoins are roughly $14 or so right now. As anything they add up eventually and the price could always go up [or down].

I suppose mining is the easy part but actually cashing in for cold hard cash is not so easy.

Still reading up about if you join a pool how you use your GPU power and say cudaminer to set up a worker to join the pool as a collective to compound hash rate.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top