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LegendaryActivity: 1092Merit: 1004 Ethereum GPU Mining Optimisations for Pools August 23, 2016, 07:27:11 AM

Last edit: March 31, 2017, 04:02:17 PM by thevictimofuktyranny #1



For these benchmarks  I will be using:



Claymore Dual Miner 6.2 Windows and Linux:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1433925.0



Modified Titan Nvidia Drivers, to be used for 1070s and 980s:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B69wv2iqszefQVRfOEhWS0FCdUE

These drivers are no longer recommended, as they can cause the PC to crash on restarts - switch to latest drivers



Latest AMD Drivers:

Crimson Edition 16.8.2 Hotfix



OS:

Windows 7 64Bit



-----------------------------Aimed to remove all causes of lost shares at pools------------------



Test settings and Hardware setups:



AMD RIG

1) Phenom 555 dual core processer, 1 core disabled and overclocked to 3.5Ghz.

2) Asus Crosshair Formula IV motherboard

3) Antec PSU 850watts

4) 8GB DDR3 running at 1066mhz (faulty memory controller on Phenom and can only run memory at the lower speed).





INTEL RIG

1) Sandybridge 2500K Quad, 2 cores disabled and set to 3.3Ghz

2) MSI Z77A-GD65

3) EVGA PSU 600watts

4) 8GB DDR3 running at 1600mhz (memory speed does not really matter with this processer)



Firstly, running the CPU at 3.5Ghz and 3.3Ghz does result in more shares (4% more then when power saving modes for Intel and AMD) accepted per hour, when dualmining or solo mining at a pool, but above 3.5Ghz there are no extra shares found per hour. By disabling 1 core and 2 cores in the motherboard bios, you can bring the electricity usage back down to an acceptable level.



Window 7 OS - Special settings:

1) Aero graphics disabled and put into High Contrast Black.

2) "Desktop Manager" disabled via "Services". It is debatable as to whether this good for long term OS stability, but helps in benchmarking.

3) Superfetch disabled via Services; "Superfetch" destroys SSDs performance figures over time.

4) AMD Hotfix patch for FX CPU installed for the Phenom CPU



AMD GPUs



1) earliest iteration of R9 290 (ASUS) - overclocked to 1100mhz and memory 1300mhz. Powerlimit 20% Sweet Spot for Mining ETH and SC.



*Powerlimit above or below 20% produce less shares accepted per hour.

*Can be overclocked to 1150mhz with 50mvolts, but produces less shares per hour, then when no extra voltage is added for solo mining.

*Dual mining can be overclocked 1130mhz with 50mvolts, but produces less shares per hour, then when no extra voltage is added for dual mining.



This GPU does not like extra volts and will hash lower when overvolted and when undervolted.



2) XFX Radeon R7 370 2GB Double Dissipation - overclocked too 1180mhz and memory overclocked too 1500mhz, Powerlimit 20% Sweet Spot for Mining ETH and SC.



No options on MSI Afterburner to change Powerlimit above 20% or add extra mvolts.





Nvidia GPUs



Go to Nvidia Panel - Scroll down to "Power Management Mode" and change to "Prefer Maximum Performance" and click "apply". The default "optimal" setting attempts to save a few watts, but causes rejected shares in dual mining mode. Updated 31.08.16.



A matched pair MSI GTX 1070 8GB Aero OC Edition Graphics Card.



1) Fans set to 90%.

2) It is recommended: you go into "Device Manager" and disable all Nvidia HDMI drivers





Currently, these MSI card shipped with Micron memory modules, however this is a lottery because manufacturers ship the same cards with either Micron or Samsung memory. Bios updates have been released for Micron Nvidia cards by Palit, Gainward and EVGA cards, but MSI is still working on bios update release.



More info here:

http://www.guru3d.com/news-story/manufacturers-roll-out-firmware-updates-for-geforce-gtx-1070-due-to-memory-issue.html



Interesting Discovery 1:



When the 1070s were put onto AMD RIG, they found more than 11% (can be as high as 20%) less ETH shares per hour then when they were on the INTEL RIG.



When AMD GPUs were place into the INTEL RIG, they found 8.5% less shares ETH per hour than when they were in the AMD RIG.



Yelp, Nvidia Compute is being primarily coded for INTEL RIGS and AMD openCL is primarily being coded for AMD RIGS. Not having the right Chipset/CPU combination on the RIG for your GPUs is going to lose you a lot of ETH shares per hour at the pool.





---------------------------------Claymore Dual Miner Fees----------------------------------------------



3% better hash-rate then public releases.



Fees paid to Claymore:



1% for solo pool mining ETH.

2% for dual mining ETH and SC or ETH and DECRED.



Consequently, you wont actually notice the fees, when mining at a pool, because the Dualminer is 3% faster for solo mining ETH at the pools.



Special Setting for AMD GPUs  set all GPUs to slow mode or -etha 1 in the bat.



Benchmark Dual Mining ETH and SC versus Solo Mining for AMD GPUs 200 and 300 series.



Dual Mining ETH and SC sweet spot setting is: -dcri 22



Solo mining ETH is less efficient then dual mining ETH and SC, efficiency of shares found per hour is better by 2.5%.



Yes, you read that correctly everybody - dual mining ETH and SC gets you more ETH at the pool, than solo mining ETH by itself.



Why would this be the case: these GPUs were built for gaming loads - give the GPUs the correct load and you get more efficiency and more ETH at pool.



Above a setting of -dcri 22 for dual mining - you lose a lot of ETH at the pool.



Setting -dcri 40, reduction in ETH hashrate is 8%.



However, there is 14.6% drop in shares found per hour at the pool.



Net disadvantage of this higher SC setting is: -6.6% compared to the reduction in ETH hashrate.



Therefore, not really much reason not to Dual mine, plus there is an extra 2.5% Eth at pool each day.



Benchmark for 1070's for dual mining SC and ETH using Nvidia 369.05 drivers provided by Claymore's for his Dual Miner!



DO NOT SET A FAST OR SLOW SETTING (-etha 0 or 1) in the bat file.



It appears: the sweet spot is 50, this maximises the Ethereum shares found per hour for each 1070's hashpower.



Below 50, you lose a lot of shares (6.29%) accepted per hour on ETH and above 50 you lose a lost of shares accepted per hour on ETH.



For example: at SC setting of 70, you see a 6.29% drop in Ethereum shares accepted found, but hashpower has only been reduced by 1.9% in the dual mining mode.



Therefore, you end up being 4.39% worse off, in ETH mining efficiency.



Should people find the the sweet spot for dual mining ETH and Decred for AMD or NVIDIA GPUs, please post a reply.



I will be fine tuning the Dual Mining the 1070's settings in next week and will post and update.





----------------------------------------Turning to rumours of Bots intercepting you pool connection and stealing shares------------------------------------------------



I have no evidence that Bots exist - e.g. they intercept your pool connection and pinch your shares and reassign them to the Bot operator's account or wallet address!



It is alleged Bots steal up to 12% from the major (established) crypto pool shares from a mining rig.



It is alleged Bots steal up to 25% from the minor (under development) crypto pool shares from a mining rig.



Therefore, I feel it is something that needs addressing, even if what follows is an entirely hypothetical - since I am explaining how to stop Bots, when it is only a rumour



Firstly, with mining software, which is open source (no fee disconnections) the solution is pretty straightforward.



There are 2 types of pools: a) wallet address pools; b) sign in accounts.



a) Simply use a new wallet address each time you restart your miner - a Bot can only intercept old connections from the public list of pool wallet addresses. Where it to indiscriminately intercept all connections to a pool it would be discovered.



b) Set up a new worker, with the longest randomised password on each restart of your crypto rig. Delete of, all, the very oldest workers as you go along to help the account mining pool out.



Claymore Dual Miner - private miner with fees:



a) Using new wallet address will work, but each time you disconnect there is always the chance a bot operator will be able to intercept your re-established connection. However, they won't know the exact time of disconnections, therefore it will be hit and miss. The 2nd algo is always connected, so simply using a new wallet address each time you restart will keep the bot out.



b) Set up a new worker for both account mining pools, with the longest randomised password that the pool allows. Eventually, a bot operator (if you have one who is a hacker) will be able to crack the password on the ETH mining pool and intercept your shares. Therefore, you will need to set up new workers and passwords every 1-2 days to maintain your share averages and ETH payouts. Delete of, all, the very oldest workers as you go along to help the mining pool out.



Future major improvements: to the Claymore Miner would be not to disconnect from the main ETH mining pool, but merely to stop doing work for up to 72 seconds when doing Claymore's fee on his mining connection.



Therefore, some hypothetical solutions to deal with rumours of Bots on the POW algos. Many GPUs rig owners have been reporting getting 10%-25% less shares or payouts for mining Dagger (Ethereum) at the pools, when compared to the mining calculators. I decided more than 2 weeks ago to research this topic for the benefit of the GPU rig owners' community.For these benchmarks  I will be using:Claymore Dual Miner 6.2 Windows and Linux:Modified Titan Nvidia Drivers, to be used for 1070s and 980s:, as they can cause the PC to crash on restarts - switch to latest driversLatest AMD Drivers:Crimson Edition 16.8.2 HotfixOS:Windows 7 64Bit-----------------------------Aimed to remove all causes of lost shares at pools------------------Test settings and Hardware setups:1) Phenom 555 dual core processer, 1 core disabled and overclocked to 3.5Ghz.2) Asus Crosshair Formula IV motherboard3) Antec PSU 850watts4) 8GB DDR3 running at 1066mhz (faulty memory controller on Phenom and can only run memory at the lower speed).1) Sandybridge 2500K Quad, 2 cores disabled and set to 3.3Ghz2) MSI Z77A-GD653) EVGA PSU 600watts4) 8GB DDR3 running at 1600mhz (memory speed does not really matter with this processer)Firstly, running the CPU at 3.5Ghz and 3.3Ghz does result in more shares (4% more then when power saving modes for Intel and AMD) accepted per hour, when dualmining or solo mining at a pool, but above 3.5Ghz there are no extra shares found per hour. By disabling 1 core and 2 cores in the motherboard bios, you can bring the electricity usage back down to an acceptable level.1) Aero graphics disabled and put into High Contrast Black.2) "Desktop Manager" disabled via "Services". It is debatable as to whether this good for long term OS stability, but helps in benchmarking.3) Superfetch disabled via Services; "Superfetch" destroys SSDs performance figures over time.4) AMD Hotfix patch for FX CPU installed for the Phenom CPU1) earliest iteration of R9 290 (ASUS) - overclocked to 1100mhz and memory 1300mhz. Powerlimit 20% Sweet Spot for Mining ETH and SC.*Powerlimit above or below 20% produce less shares accepted per hour.*Can be overclocked to 1150mhz with 50mvolts, but produces less shares per hour, then when no extra voltage is added for solo mining.*Dual mining can be overclocked 1130mhz with 50mvolts, but produces less shares per hour, then when no extra voltage is added for dual mining.This GPU does not like extra volts and will hash lower when overvolted and when undervolted.2) XFX Radeon R7 370 2GB Double Dissipation - overclocked too 1180mhz and memory overclocked too 1500mhz, Powerlimit 20% Sweet Spot for Mining ETH and SC.No options on MSI Afterburner to change Powerlimit above 20% or add extra mvolts.Go to- Scroll down to "" and change to "" and click "apply". The default "optimal" setting attempts to save a few watts, but causes rejected shares in dual mining mode.A matched pair MSI GTX 1070 8GB Aero OC Edition Graphics Card.1) Fans set to 90%.2) It is recommended: you go into "Device Manager" andCurrently, these MSI card shipped with Micron memory modules, however this is a lottery because manufacturers ship the same cards with either Micron or Samsung memory. Bios updates have been released for Micron Nvidia cards by Palit, Gainward and EVGA cards, but MSI is still working on bios update release.More info here:When the 1070s were put onto AMD RIG, they found more than 11% (can be as high as 20%) less ETH shares per hour then when they were on the INTEL RIG.When AMD GPUs were place into the INTEL RIG, they found 8.5% less shares ETH per hour than when they were in the AMD RIG.Yelp, Nvidia Compute is being primarily coded for INTEL RIGS and AMD openCL is primarily being coded for AMD RIGS. Not having the right Chipset/CPU combination on the RIG for your GPUs is going to lose you a lot of ETH shares per hour at the pool.---------------------------------Claymore Dual Miner Fees----------------------------------------------3% better hash-rate then public releases.Fees paid to Claymore:1% for solo pool mining ETH.2% for dual mining ETH and SC or ETH and DECRED.Consequently, you wont actually notice the fees, when mining at a pool, because the Dualminer is 3% faster for solo mining ETH at the pools. set all GPUs to slow mode or -etha 1 in the bat.Dual Mining ETH and SC sweet spot setting is: -dcri 22Solo mining ETH is less efficient then dual mining ETH and SC, efficiency of shares found per hour is better by 2.5%.Yes, you read that correctly everybody - dual mining ETH and SC gets you more ETH at the pool, than solo mining ETH by itself.Why would this be the case: these GPUs were built for gaming loads - give the GPUs the correct load and you get more efficiency and more ETH at pool.Above a setting of -dcri 22 for dual mining - you lose a lot of ETH at the pool.Setting -dcri 40, reduction in ETH hashrate is 8%.However, there is 14.6% drop in shares found per hour at the pool.Net disadvantage of this higher SC setting is: -6.6% compared to the reduction in ETH hashrate.Therefore, not really much reason not to Dual mine, plus there is an extra 2.5% Eth at pool each day.DO NOT SET A FAST OR SLOW SETTING (-etha 0 or 1) in the bat file.It appears: the sweet spot is 50, this maximises the Ethereum shares found per hour for each 1070's hashpower.Below 50, you lose a lot of shares (6.29%) accepted per hour on ETH and above 50 you lose a lost of shares accepted per hour on ETH.For example: at SC setting of 70, you see a 6.29% drop in Ethereum shares accepted found, but hashpower has only been reduced by 1.9% in the dual mining mode.Therefore, you end up being 4.39% worse off, in ETH mining efficiency.I will be fine tuning the Dual Mining the 1070's settings in next week and will post and update.----------------------------------------Turning to rumours of Bots intercepting you pool connection and stealing shares------------------------------------------------I have no evidence that Bots exist - e.g. they intercept your pool connection and pinch your shares and reassign them to the Bot operator's account or wallet address!It is alleged Bots steal up to 12% from the major (established) crypto pool shares from a mining rig.It is alleged Bots steal up to 25% from the minor (under development) crypto pool shares from a mining rig.Therefore, I feel it is something that needs addressing, even if what follows is an entirely hypothetical - since I am explaining how to stop Bots, when it is only a rumourFirstly, with mining software, which is open source (no fee disconnections) the solution is pretty straightforward.There are 2 types of pools: a) wallet address pools; b) sign in accounts.a) Simply use a new wallet address each time you restart your miner - a Bot can only intercept old connections from the public list of pool wallet addresses. Where it to indiscriminately intercept all connections to a pool it would be discovered.b) Set up a new worker, with the longest randomised password on each restart of your crypto rig. Delete of, all, the very oldest workers as you go along to help the account mining pool out.Claymore Dual Miner - private miner with fees:a) Using new wallet address will work, but each time you disconnect there is always the chance a bot operator will be able to intercept your re-established connection. However, they won't know the exact time of disconnections, therefore it will be hit and miss. The 2nd algo is always connected, so simply using a new wallet address each time you restart will keep the bot out.b) Set up a new worker for both account mining pools, with the longest randomised password that the pool allows. Eventually, a bot operator (if you have one who is a hacker) will be able to crack the password on the ETH mining pool and intercept your shares. Therefore, you will need to set up new workers and passwords every 1-2 days to maintain your share averages and ETH payouts. Delete of, all, the very oldest workers as you go along to help the mining pool out.to the Claymore Miner would befrom the main ETH mining pool, but merely to stop doing work for up to 72 seconds when doing Claymore's fee on his mining connection.Therefore, some hypothetical solutions to deal with rumours of Bots on the POW algos.