Error «cannot allocate big buffer for dag» and Nvidia video cards when mining on Ethash algorithm. Whalesburg Follow Apr 10, 2018 · 3 min read

Today we are going to discuss the root cause of this error and ways to solve it.

Users who do 3D rendering were the first to experience this issue with memory reservation by Windows 10. You can see an example here:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-hardware/windows-10-does-not-let-cuda-applications-to-use/cffb3fcd-5a21-46cf-8123-aa53bb8bafd6

This happens because Windows 10 reserves about 800 Mb of memory out of total 3 Gb for OS needs. And that applies to every video card installed in your rig.

Whalesburg is always trying to improve your user experience and prevent any issues, therefore we will provide you with our observations on when this error occurred and what might happen next:

DAG epoch 177 — error first occurred. It was solved by inputting “-eres 0” command in Claymore Dual Miner or by switching to ethminer 0.12.0

DAG epoch 179 — around April 8. Switch to Claymore Dual Miner 11.6 with “-eres 0” command or to ethminer 0.12.0.

DAG epoch 180 — around April 12. The option of switching to ethminer 0.12.0- stopped working as a fix to this problem. The remaining option is Claymore Dual Miner 11.6 with “-eres 0” command and installation of Nvidia 382.33 drivers.

DAG epoch 186, around April 18. The above temporary solutions might stop working. You may try one of the options below.

Proposed solutions:

Installation of Claymore Dual Miner 11.6: developers have optimized utilization of video memory, installation of Nvidia 382.33 video card drivers, and input of “-eres 0” command in miners settings. In this case, the error should not occur until DAG epoch 186. In this version developers have disabled “dev fee” for video cards with memory capacity of 3 Gb and less as a bonus.

Installation of Windows 7 — this version uses a different algorithm for memory reservation for OS needs so the error doesn’t occur. But you should notice that “device driver error code 43” may occur if your rig has more than 4 video cards. This could be solved on an individual basis depending on the equipment you use.

Installation of Linux: this is the best way to solve the issue and stabilize the performance of your rig however the overall installation and configuration process for starting mining using Linux is more complicated than Windows. That being said installing a distributive already set up for mining simplifies the process considerably. Another advantage of switching to Linux is energy savings. The consensus among experts is that a mining system running on Linux uses 10–20% less energy than Windows.

Of course you can always change your video cards with 3 Gb to ones with more memory. Doing so would eliminate the issue with Windows 10 for the foreseeable future.

If you are interested in the current situation with the size of the DAG file for different coins, you might wanna check this out: https://investoon.com/tools/dag_size

Please don’t hesitate to ask any questions related to our pool in our Telegram channel: https://t.me/whalesburg

Best regards, the Whalesburg team.