Cryptocoin Mining?

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geokilla

Platinum Member
Oct 14, 2006
2,012
3
81
I'm starting to mine LTC with my XFX 7950 Double D (TDKC) but I'm facing two problems. The GPU tops out at 95C at 90% fan speed with the case side door closed, and 88C with the side door open. That is way too hot and way too loud. Aside from BIOS flashing, is there anything else I can do to undervolt the card? Looking at Google, the answer is a solid no.

If I do flash it, is there a way to backup my BIOS first? Don't want to risk losing XFX's awesome warranty, which was the sole reason I bought this card.

I thought only 3.5 worked for LTC mining.

Also if i used GUI miner with the default 6950 i get a hash rate of 384, but if i use cgiminier and the following i get much less.

setx GPU_MAX_ALLOC_PERCENT 100
setx GPU_USE_SYNC_OBJECTS 1
setx DISPLAY ":0"
cgminer --scrypt -o stratum+tcp://global.wemineltc.com:3334 -u xxxx -p xxxx --
thread-concurrency 24000 --lookup-gap 0 --gpu-engine 1100 --gpu-memclock 1250 --gpu-
powertune 10 -w 256 -I 19 -g 1

Note for the screen below i ram at 50 max allocation as i was surfing the web too. however with 100 it isn't much higher

Try lowering the intensity. I read it may help. I'm just getting into this so good luck!

Edit: Looking into Feathercoin as well.. Anyone got a good pool to recommend?
 
Last edited:
Feb 19, 2009
10,457
10
76
Have the case open, XFX 7900 series cards are absolute trash, terrible small fans with low CFM and high RPM squealing, no VRM heatsinks. If you close the case, theres a good chance the DD would die hehe.

LTC seems to be more stable to mine than alt coins, which isnt saying much, but its profitability is good constantly.
 

Xpage

Senior member
Jun 22, 2005
459
15
81
www.riseofkingdoms.com
Do you the sapphire 6950 2gb? I have a few that were sitting in my closet and I think I'm going to do the flash. But 90% isn't even that great a success. What I want to do is undervolt it. Trixx seems to do it but under load it still uses the max voltage.

from

http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/vidcard/159

Test Results
(Last updated March 28th, 010

Manufacturer Cards tested Unlocks and works fine Unlocks but rendering errors Does not unlock
AMD 1 1 0 0
ASUS 40 39 1 0
Club3D 21 20 0 1
Diamond 8 7 1 0
Gigabyte 48 48 0 0
HIS 71 70 1 0
MSI 27 26 1 0
PowerColor 76 73 3 0
Sapphire 242 230 12 0
XFX 146 143 3 0
VTX3D 11 10 1 0
Visiontek 5 5 0 0



I picked my HIS due to this table. i just want to play around mining like i should have done years ago, maybe if i make a few $ it can pay for this old card and i can get something else to play games that doesn't squeal. Built this WC pc for quiet and a slight squeal even if gone with headphones is annoying to me
 
Last edited:

Xpage

Senior member
Jun 22, 2005
459
15
81
www.riseofkingdoms.com
I'm starting to mine LTC with my XFX 7950 Double D (TDKC) but I'm facing two problems. The GPU tops out at 95C at 90% fan speed with the case side door closed, and 88C with the side door open. That is way too hot and way too loud. Aside from BIOS flashing, is there anything else I can do to undervolt the card? Looking at Google, the answer is a solid no.

If I do flash it, is there a way to backup my BIOS first? Don't want to risk losing XFX's awesome warranty, which was the sole reason I bought this card.


I thought only 3.5 worked for LTC mining.


Try lowering the intensity. I read it may help. I'm just getting into this so good luck!

Edit: Looking into Feathercoin as well.. Anyone got a good pool to recommend?



thanks i am playing around with values to try to find something good. I just find it odd cgminer does so poorly yet guiminer does so much better
 

suklee

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
4,575
10
81
I thought only 3.5 worked for LTC mining.

From my research 3.7.2 was the last version that supported GPU mining. I'm using 3.7.2 to mine for LTC.

thanks i am playing around with values to try to find something good. I just find it odd cgminer does so poorly yet guiminer does so much better

Must have something to do with the settings, are you using (nearly) identical flags for both? guiminer is usually slower than cgminer.
 

Xpage

Senior member
Jun 22, 2005
459
15
81
www.riseofkingdoms.com
From my research 3.7.2 was the last version that supported GPU mining. I'm using 3.7.2 to mine for LTC.



Must have something to do with the settings, are you using (nearly) identical flags for both? guiminer is usually slower than cgminer.



somehow cgiminer had intensity set to 8, bumping it to 18 jumped the rate, though i like to browse the interwebs and maybe mine at the same time so i will have to lower it to something acceptable.

This whole thing is much easier than i thought i just hated having to go back to console, did that enough back with windows 3.11 and i am slave to the gui now, i might as well buy a mac since i have lost my way using the pc....
 

geokilla

Platinum Member
Oct 14, 2006
2,012
3
81
Have the case open, XFX 7900 series cards are absolute trash, terrible small fans with low CFM and high RPM squealing, no VRM heatsinks. If you close the case, theres a good chance the DD would die hehe.

LTC seems to be more stable to mine than alt coins, which isnt saying much, but its profitability is good constantly.

Lol ya that's what I got atm. But it's SOOOO loud and the temperatures are still sky high. I regret purchasing this XFX 7950... Thought they were good.. Next time I'm going back to ASUS.

Well electricity is pretty expensive here so I definitely can't run this 24/7. WeMineLTC uses PPLNS which is a disadvantage for me if I don't run 24/7 apparently? I'd probably get around 2 LTC/month..

From my research 3.7.2 was the last version that supported GPU mining. I'm using 3.7.2 to mine for LTC.

Is it more effective and efficient? If only they had a changelog haha.
 

suklee

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
4,575
10
81
somehow cgiminer had intensity set to 8, bumping it to 18 jumped the rate, though i like to browse the interwebs and maybe mine at the same time so i will have to lower it to something acceptable.

I find intensity of 13 works best for my 7970s, anything higher or lower seems to negatively impact hash rates.

guiminer uses cgminer, so I can't imagine there is much difference outside of the underlying version used.

I remember reading threads on litecointalk & bitcointalk about guiminer's 'overhead'... but to be honest I'm currently using a GUI on top of cgminer anyway in CGWatcher. I'll give guiminer a try again tonight, when I first started out I must have downloaded the wrong version of cgminer (3.8+) and it was throwing errors.

Is it more effective and efficient? If only they had a changelog haha.

No clue, even with the changelog I wouldn't be able to tell if it's better or not
 
Feb 19, 2009
10,457
10
76
Lol ya that's what I got atm. But it's SOOOO loud and the temperatures are still sky high. I regret purchasing this XFX 7950... Thought they were good.. Next time I'm going back to ASUS.

Well electricity is pretty expensive here so I definitely can't run this 24/7. WeMineLTC uses PPLNS which is a disadvantage for me if I don't run 24/7 apparently? I'd probably get around 2 LTC/month..



Is it more effective and efficient? If only they had a changelog haha.

You think 12 cents a kWh is expensive?

LOL! You North Americans have it too good for far too long you don't appreciate what you got!

In Australia we're paying 30 cents a kWh now, with heaps in delivery charges on top of it. In EU where I was working, its even more ridiculous.
 

arkcom

Golden Member
Mar 25, 2003
1,816
0
76
The XFX 7950s are terrible. I returned mine right away back in May, and even mentioned it in this thread (as have many others).

edit: winter electricity in Arkansas is around $.05-$.06.
 

holden j caufield

Diamond Member
Dec 30, 1999
6,324
10
81
I have an original HIS. i did a major watercooling mod job but i rarely have used the card as I don't have much time for gaming, then when i did i found out it had capacitor squeal, liek a year after i bought it. So i doubt i can return it. However from my hour or so mining for fun, i heard no squeal.

So I might make this a full time heater for my room.


Also if i used GUI miner with the default 6950 i get a hash rate of 384, but if i use cgiminier and the following i get much less.

setx GPU_MAX_ALLOC_PERCENT 100
setx GPU_USE_SYNC_OBJECTS 1
setx DISPLAY ":0"
cgminer --scrypt -o stratum+tcp://global.wemineltc.com:3334 -u xxxx -p xxxx --
thread-concurrency 24000 --lookup-gap 0 --gpu-engine 1100 --gpu-memclock 1250 --gpu-
powertune 10 -w 256 -I 19 -g 1

Note for the screen below i ram at 50 max allocation as i was surfing the web too. however with 100 it isn't much higher


I think your thread concurrency and core speed might be too high.

I get about 490 khash with the 6950. Have you tried other drivers. 12.8 is recommended I think but 13.9 in win7x64 works fast for me. Right now I have it in a spare pc in the guest room. It's a guest pc so it's running win 7 x64 and guiminer scrypt , trixx set at 874 core (maybe 810 core can't remember, I've found sometimes lower core gives me great results) 1350 memory (no exactly sure but I think those are the settings).

In the flags box use -g 1
thread concurrenty 8192
intensitivity 18 - 20
stratum yes

good luck

Also I got the same khash in windows 7 and linux. I will put the other spare 6950 s I have laying around in my mom's and dad's PC.
 
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Imouto

Golden Member
Jul 6, 2011
1,241
2
81
I've been playing with this a bit more and found that CGWatcher doesn't get along with MSI Afterburner giving crappy hash rates unless I'm missing something.
 

SPBHM

Diamond Member
Sep 12, 2012
5,066
418
126
tested this again with my 5850, on windows xp (2011 drivers), cgi mine was like 20-30MH/s higher, on 8 (latest beta driver, sdk 2.8 with erros while installing) cgiminer does not work, and guiminer looks the same as on XP, but the thing is, it completely kill the usability of the PC (i 13-14 is ok, but only 250, while 18 was giving me something like 310-320 at 755/1100MHz), unlike BTC mining, and it generates a lot more heat because of the high memory clock needed... also with BTC I was using like 180w at 800/300MHz, I think the higher memory clock is going to push maybe another 50w (need to measure)
 

Imouto

Golden Member
Jul 6, 2011
1,241
2
81
@SPBHM

Run it with CGWatcher as you can tell it to raise the intensity when the computer is idleing and return to default when active.
 

lavaheadache

Diamond Member
Jan 28, 2005
6,893
14
81
I think i need a veteran miner to help me. Here's the deal. I mined for 2.5 days with a 7970 at netcodepool and netted .37 ltc. Terrible. I was getting 580kh with less than .5% stales. Apparently the pool was just not finding blocks. I added another 7970 and ober the next 1.5 days i got another .3 ltc. Again.... Terrible. Joined we mine coins last night and over 12 hours mined .2 coin. Much better but still terrible since my mining rate is 1.2 mh with a good net connection and low stale rates. I've tried 13-20 intensity with minimal impact on outcome. 20 intensity seems to net me the most kh.

Im using guiminer 3.5

Can somebody hold my hand and show me the money?
 

geokilla

Platinum Member
Oct 14, 2006
2,012
3
81
You think 12 cents a kWh is expensive?

LOL! You North Americans have it too good for far too long you don't appreciate what you got!

In Australia we're paying 30 cents a kWh now, with heaps in delivery charges on top of it. In EU where I was working, its even more ridiculous.
Everything is expensive in Aussie. Ontario has the highest electricity rates in Canada. It's only going to get higher because of the recent provincial government scandals costing us tax payers like $1 billion. Going up by 200% in next 3 years apparently.
 

UNhooked

Golden Member
Jan 21, 2004
1,538
3
81
So I finally managed to run my 2 290s avg about 1.450 Mh/s combined.

Temps around 80C and Fan is about 80% Power is around 720Watt. I think I am happy with this.

I know 900Kh/s per card is possible but in my case I can't sustain it and then it drops to about 550 kh/s
 

Imouto

Golden Member
Jul 6, 2011
1,241
2
81
I can only guess that you're on some overkill intensity. Check it with a lower figure, it should improve hash rates and temps.
 

thilanliyan

Lifer
Jun 21, 2005
12,033
2,246
126
I think quark is cpu only.

I think a GPU miner has been released, but is only for solo mining and the author of the program takes a 10% cut of everything you make. Still, hash rates are very good, especially on VLIW4 cards (before 79XX series).
 
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